Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - Garden Road, Central

There is a much longer garden Road sequence later in the show when the two main characters are being followed in their car by the bad guys. The first part of the sequence takes us past the former Murray Barracks building. This is its original location at the lower end of Garden Road before being packed away and semi-reassembled over in Stanley (no, it wasn't rebuilt brick by brick. A concrete core was poured and the external verandahs were reattached to make it appear it was rebuilt - typical Govt 'heritage' smoke screen). This spot is now occupied by the I.M Pei Bank of China Tower. 

There is then a shot of cars driving up what could be Garden Road, but actually, I can't confirm, so instead I'll end on this shot of the section where Garden Road turns abruptly up the hill and becomes magazine Gap Road. There was a very similar angle used previously in this show, but on subsequent examination you can see the angle is not the same as the previous post.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - U.S Consulate, Central

Here is another view of the USA Consulate on Garden Road before it was all sealed up behind the great big concrete walls that now surround it. As you can see here (and in previous films featured here including: Golgo 13: Assignment Kowloon, Die Sieben Masken des Judoka and China Rose) it was once a rather open building with balconies. Even before I had first visited in 1995 though the exterior of the building had been renovated to remove the balconies and the massive security wall had been constructed. This was long before 9/11 so I imagine some other perceived threat had arisen to give the US Govt cause for concern.

In the episode, Blind Bargain, Glen visits his friends at the consulate to find out whether or not the female reporter he has spotted (and knows to be trouble) has registered there for an assignment. It turns out she hasn't because she is up to no good. The building in the background of the top image is the old Govt Offices East Wing.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - Central Police Station Compound, Central

I'm sticking with the Central Police Station (now Tai Kwun) for the next episode, Blind Bargain. This is the episode adapted from the un-aired pilot that co-starred Alex Davion in the original Chief Inspector role.

Various descriptions on the web say that the pilot was a cut down version of this episode, however, the way the characters interact and the way the story plays out in this episode, it looks to me more likely that this episode was constructed from the pilot footage with extra pick up shots inserted to pad the episode out to its 50 minute length (the original pilot was only 30 mins). An example would be the friendliness between Taylor's and Davion's characters that implies a close friendship despite the fact that for this episode, Davion is supposed to be a quick replacement brought in to fill in for Lloyd Bochner's usual 'Neil Campbell' character whilst the latter is away in the UK giving evidence in a trial.

So that I don't repeat myself too much, I've already updated the Pilot locations with a tag that also identifies them as locations for this episode, so the locations I'll include here are the ones that weren't in the pilot. In this case it is footage of Rod Taylor driving his car up the access ramp into the Police Station compound from Hollywood Road and then circling the central car park.

This exact same sequence was reused for the very last episode, The Runaway, a well.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - Central Police Station Compound, Central

A final shot from Jumping Dragon and a revisit to the Central Police Station. I have no doubt that all the shots of this place throughout the whole series were most likely filmed on a single day.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - 17 Magazine Gap Road, Mid-levels

More from 17 Magazine Gap Road in the Jumping Dragon episode. This time the original property podium level is quite obvious. In fact, if you pass the current occupant of 17 Magazine Gap Road today, Magazine Heights, and look up, you can see this original podium level is visible from the road. The current property sits on a new version that is a little higher up, but the original retaining wall to this podium was left in-situ and can be seen from roadside. It was one of the features that helped me determine this was the correct location from 1960 aerial photographs.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - Central Waterfront, Hong Kong

Jumping Dragon's aircraft themed plot means we are treated to a rather nice aerial sequence that takes in the waterfront from Central to Sheung Wan. It was a bit reminiscent of the opening credits of Love is a Many-Splendored Thing but viewed from the opposite direction. For a modern orientation you can look at the first image and spot the two-tone building centre screen. This was the Marine Dept HQ and stood on the site now occupied by Infinitus Plaza (previously known as Vicwood Plaza). The lower image gives a good view of the old Macau Ferry piers. I'm sure there is someone out there who can recognize which ferries were docked at the time, so if you know, please feel free to leave a comment.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - Theatre Lane , Central

Episode 4 didn't really have too many recognisable locations, so I'm moving on to episode 5, Jumping Dragon. This one is about a trans national gold smuggling operation using a flight crew flying in and ou of Hong Kong. The ending is a bit grim for a prime time TV show (don't forget you can watch most of the episodes on line via this rather excellent Rod Taylor fan site).

One of the Jumping Dragon episode's establishing shots is a quick look down Theatre Lane in Central. There is also a great colour shot over on Gwulo.com that shows more or less the same view. So in this shot we are looking north up Theatre Lane from the Queen's Road Central. Queen's Theatre would have been on the left side of the camera. Jimmy's Kitchen stayed at this location for another 15 years or so.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - Kai Tak Airport, Kowloon

Throughout this whole series there are several scenes that are supposedly shot at Kai Tak airport that include an obvious studio set of the old terminal building plus some footage of a plane taking off from some random airstrip. It appears that later in the show's run, proper footage of Kai Tak was filmed and used for the later airport scenes. Despite the amount of cloud in the background (making it difficult for 100% identification) I am fairly certain this was footage of a landing at the real Kai Tak because the last image has various buildings in the background that look like the old tenement blocks along Mok Cheong Street in Ma Tau Kok.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - Aberdeen, Hong Kong

Episode 5 of the Hong Kong series is called Jade Empress. It's about a precious statuette that is being coveted by various people of dubious backgrounds and poor old Glenn Evans is led a right merry dance as the one charged with looking after it before a deal can be made.

Anyway, Aberdeen features extensively in this episode, both in the opening credits with a quick establishing shot of the harbour with Brick Hill in the background (top image) and then later during a long sequence when Evans visit the Sea Palace floating restaurant to help with the transaction.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - Central Police Station Compound, Central

One of the most commonly occurring locations for this show was the Central Police Compound off Hollywood Road in Central. This is because the secondary character throughout the whole series was Lloyd Bochner's rather well-spoken English Gent Police Chief Inspector, Neil Campbell, whose office was located here.