[Leica] Hong Kong panos and stories

[Douglas Barry]

Really excellent panos Howard, and a suitable paen of praise to Modernist 
architecture. I've never been there but HK seems a lot different to what my 
father described. He turned down a commission in the HK police many, many 
moons ago. On David Tang, I enjoy his amusing weekly column on etiquette and 
modern manners in the FT Weekend which you may be familiar with.

My only experience of the experience that HK gives the returning ex-pats who 
lived there, was the bling factor. Just a few doors down the road from my 
parent's home lived Lilian with her husband Sean Mackey who was very 
involved with the HK Jockey Club. Lilian was a fan of bling. When you went 
into the house the individual risers on the staircase were each embellished 
with a different colour glass. Astonishingly to me, who had wended his way 
to manhood through the muted murky palette of the Irish landscape, at the 
flick of a switch, all the panels lit up, and one was transported to a 
strange meld of Busby Berkeley and Suzie Wong.

On skyscrapers, Sean Mackey was also a professor of Engineering in Hong Kong 
and did major research on wind effects on tall buildings, and was involved 
with the new airport there  Stretching connections, on the film theme, 
Lilian & Sean's grandson inadvertantly gave current Oscar nominee Lenny 
Abrahamson (Room) a leg up in his career through What Richard Did.

Douglas

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "H&ECummer" <cummer at netvigator.com>
To: <lug at leica-users.org>
Sent: Sunday, February 07, 2016 3:09 PM
Subject: [Leica] Hong Kong panos and stories


> Hi Luggers,
> While in Hong Kong we were hosted by our son’s investment banker friends 
> to drinks and dinner at the China Club, owned by Sir David Tang,
> and housed in the 13 - 15th floors of the old Bank of China building. 
> There is a terrace on the 15th floor and we sat out for drinks and I made
> the following three vertical panos of the views to the north, south and 
> east from the Bank of China.
>
> First some information on the China Club:
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Club
>
> And here are the panos:
>
> <http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/Hong+Kong+2016/Lippo3panW.jpg.html>
>
> This one is looking East from the 15 floor balcony of the China Club 
> located in the old Bank of China building. The new Bank of China building, 
> designed by Chinese American I.M. Pei,
> is to the right of the picture and the Lippo Centre - left centre of the 
> picture used to be called the Bond Centre after the Australian 
> entrepreneur who built it. Alan Bond
> went to jail for financial skulduggery which resulted in his bankruptcy. 
> Released from prison he died after open heart surgery.
>
> <http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/Hong+Kong+2016/3PanVertIFCW.jpg.html>
>
> This is the view to the North - with the IFC (International Finance 
> Centre) on the left side and across Hong Kong Harbour the ICC 
> (International Commerce Centre)
> in Kowloon. Both buildings were built by Sun Hung Kai Property - owned by 
> the Kwok family. The two Kwok brothers have been quarrelling over the 
> control of the company since their
> father died in 1990 and they are ruled by their matriarch mother. The 
> youngest son, Thomas, is serving 5 years in jail for bribery to the former 
> Hong Kong Chief Secretary - who is also in jail for accepting the bribe.
>
> <http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/Hong+Kong+2016/3PanMidlevelW.jpg.html>
>
> And this is the view to the south - looking up toward the Mid levels - 
> where we used to live. In the far left corner is the cupola of the Court 
> of Final Appeal - which started out as the French Mission
> Building in the early 1900’s and in the lower centre of the picture is St. 
> John’s Cathedral - which has the distinction of sitting on the only 
> freehold land in all of Hong Kong. All other land is long term leasehold - 
> following old UK practice.
>
> The panos were taken with the Fuji XT1 and the 35mm f1.4 lens, hand held 
> and assembled in CS6.
>
> Please view large - C&C always welcome.
>
> Howard
>
>
>
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