China Rose - George C. Scott (1983) - Star Ferry Pier, Central

When Scott realises something is up he races off to the Canton ferry to convince MacGraw to stay and help. In reality the Canton ferry is a Star ferry and it is leaving from the old Star ferry pier in front of Edinburgh Place. Sadly demolished in 2006 to make way for reclamation, it still feels like one of the worst development decisions made by the HK Govt.

Speaking of redevelopment, in the top screen grab at the back is the general Post office, itself now about to be knocked down and redeveloped (although I am not sure of the timetable for it). On the left is the Edinburgh Place car park.

Running through the old pier towards the boat and the ferry entrance/gangplank at the bottom.

China Rose - George C. Scott (1983) - General Post Office, Central

Further to my suspicion that the film company couldn't film at the HK-Macau ferry terminal (for whatever reason), the scene where Scott and MacGraw are supposedly disembarking from the ferry was actually filmed next to the Post Office on Connaught Place. Of course, it could be that at the time this was the point for disembarking due to construction of Shun Tak? I hope someone in the know can relieve me of my ignorance.

Spider-Man: The Dragon's Challenge - Nicholas Hammond (1979) - Jardine House, Central

The finale of the film takes place on what would have been the territory's highest structure at the time, the Connaught Centre, now renamed Jardine House. We get some great views from the top looking down onto the neighbouring roads, as well as a rather impressive shot or two of some intrepid (and sadly anonymous) stuntman crawling up the side of the building.

But first some establishing shots showing the area around the building including the various piers we saw in earlier posts.

Vehicular ferry pier bottom left

Blake Pier

Blake Pier and the later version of the General Post Office. Star Ferry at the back

The GPO and Jardine House next door.

Can you see the small dot on the side of the building? It's our intrepid stuntman, attached by wires to a cradle at the top of the building. We get a close up as well which reveals the concrete finish on the building before it was clad with aluminium tiles.

Definitely not Nichloas Hammond!

Once at the top, Spidey uses his radio transceiver to try and locate his buddy. Cue some rather spectacular views from the top of Jardine House.

Spider-Man: The Dragon's Challenge - Nicholas Hammond (1979) - Central Waterfront, Hong Kong

The following screen grabs show a decent swathe of the Central Waterfront prior to the reclamation that saw the Connaught Road ousted from its long-standing position next to the harbour (of course the road didn't move, the waterfront did). We'll start off with a couple of nice harbour shots showing some very small boats bobbing up and down in the harbour. In all honesty, I'm not sure if any of these smaller boats are brave enough to risk going into the harbour these days with all the big boats passing through, but I rarely go there these days despite it being just a few kilometres away. Note Jardine House (formerly the Connaught Centre) centre screen in the top picture followed by a closer view of the General Post Office (with Jardine House being) in the lower picture.

The next few pictures though show the various piers that used to sit along the waterfront. Starting with the outer-island piers (top picture) and moving over past the vehicular ferry pier (left side of picture 2/right side of picture 3) to rest upon the dogleg shape of the final version of Blake Pier and one of the Star Ferry piers. Of course reclamation has long since removed these from their original locations, but the Star Ferry did manage to survive here until 2006.

Roaring Fire - Hiroyuki Sananda (1982) - Victoria Harbour

On his way to the gangster's hideout, Joji (Sanada) grabs a boat and goes speeding through the harbour. This was in the early 80's before much of the reclamation that is evident today and so we have a fairly unfettered view of Connaught Road, or at least the buildings that line its southern side.

These days there are several hundred metres worth of reclamation blocking the view.

This first screen capture above shows the white General Post Office in the background - at a time when its northern side still fronted the harbour. Behind it just peeking out is the circular windowed Jardine House (previously Connaught Centre). At the far right is a row of buildings ending in the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce. Most of these buildings are still around including the art-deco C.G.C.C.

As the camera pulls out we get a wide angled view of the same area. The low-rise cream-coloured building behind the ship's mast is the old fire station. This was demolished and replaced the the Hang Seng HQ.

For those with a keen eye, you might also notice the Marine Office with its small tower. We got a closer view of this place at the beginning of the film - another great looking building that has fallen victim to redevelopment. Now the site of Infinity Plaza.

Noble House (Mini series) - Pierce Brosnan (1988) - Edinburgh Place, Central

Edinburgh Place has featured quite a few times on this blog now, and here we see it once again with its recognisable (and still standing...for the time being) car park. You can see Jardine House and the main post office at the back and on the far right of the second picture is the roof extension/cover for the Star Ferry entrance, now all gone along with the pier itself.

I'm sure at some point this car park will be considered a design classic - it has certainly outlasted a lot more of its slightly more architecturally-aesthetic neighbours (Queen's Pier, Star Ferry, Hong Kong club etc). From certain angle it's almost as if the place hasn't changed at all - see the Streetview below.