By looking at the Lion Rock and the outline of the Kowloon mountains from Shatin, still the Lion's head should be facing the west with very steep roll-off and this picture did the opposite.
OK let's not be bothered about the flip.... the view is quite nice.
By the way the name Amah Rock was a poor translation. The legend was from a story about a young mom ( absolutely not the Amah) with her baby on her back standing on top of this hill, before every sunset, trying to welcome her husband's homecoming and the husband never show up. One day the young mom with a child was so sorrow that the two turned into a stone figure. So rock was called as Longing ( My) Husband Rock and almost seened as a Shrine to some folks.
I agree with Tung. Three Chinese characters are used to call this geological / folklore setting - Mong Fu Shek which translate to Hope (wait for return of) Husband Rock. When I grew up in Kowloon, we used Amah with the same English pronounciation and pitch to call grandma or elderly female or servant. I called my mother Mah-mah with a higher pitch on the second mah.
What we miss today is to be able to look at Amah Rock from this same vantage point.. As Mr. Cussans stated, we could wander all over HK and access the country side still wide open then. The lack of tall buildings enabled Mr. Cussans to take panoramic photos and this view of Amah Rock is part of the cherished memories. This reminds me of the steep descend on that hillside towards Shatin.
^~-- This is a B/W photo taken by Ng Bar Ling possibly in 1950’s, so may be few years before Cussans’. Apparently, this was taken from a different position and angle. There have been at least two of Ng’s photos posted on gwulo before, as seen. From public information, he was one co-founder of the first local hiking group called 庸社行友 in Hong Kong, back in 1930s.
To supplement a bit on previous reader’s, Mr Ng 吳灞陵 (1904-1976) is in fact a well-known journalist, seasoned hiker, writer. He was Local News Editor of ‘Wah Kiu Yat Po’ (Chinese Sojourners Daily Newspaper), c. 1936-196?. Many old stories of Hong Kong may have been collected during this period probably, as published on ‘Wah Kiu’ with pen name 鰲洋客. [a catalogue]
Just to name a few Ng’s hiking related books (also published by ‘Wah Kiu’) : Traveler’s Handbook for Hong Kong, Kowloon and New Territories (1951), Today’s Lantau Island (1963), Today’s Lamma (1965) etc. Some of them may be collected on ‘antique’ level now.
There have been well over 1600 hiking photos of Ng digitised in above collection already. Other than natural scenery, there are many on old buildings and houses of HK rural areas, which are annotated. As it is said on internet, they may be part of the voluminous collections donated by his wife to HKUL. Possibly this.
Comments
This picture has a left-right flip.
By looking at the Lion Rock and the outline of the Kowloon mountains from Shatin, still the Lion's head should be facing the west with very steep roll-off and this picture did the opposite.
OK let's not be bothered about the flip.... the view is quite nice.
By the way the name Amah Rock was a poor translation. The legend was from a story about a young mom ( absolutely not the Amah) with her baby on her back standing on top of this hill, before every sunset, trying to welcome her husband's homecoming and the husband never show up. One day the young mom with a child was so sorrow that the two turned into a stone figure. So rock was called as Longing ( My) Husband Rock and almost seened as a Shrine to some folks.
funny or not so.
Tung
Thanks Tung, I've flipped it
Thanks Tung, I've flipped it back.
Regards, David
Amah Rock - View from Shatin
I agree with Tung. Three Chinese characters are used to call this geological / folklore setting - Mong Fu Shek which translate to Hope (wait for return of) Husband Rock. When I grew up in Kowloon, we used Amah with the same English pronounciation and pitch to call grandma or elderly female or servant. I called my mother Mah-mah with a higher pitch on the second mah.
What we miss today is to be able to look at Amah Rock from this same vantage point.. As Mr. Cussans stated, we could wander all over HK and access the country side still wide open then. The lack of tall buildings enabled Mr. Cussans to take panoramic photos and this view of Amah Rock is part of the cherished memories. This reminds me of the steep descend on that hillside towards Shatin.
Amah Rock and Lion Rock on same photo
Shatin hiking photo
^~-- This is a B/W photo taken by Ng Bar Ling possibly in 1950’s, so may be few years before Cussans’. Apparently, this was taken from a different position and angle. There have been at least two of Ng’s photos posted on gwulo before, as seen. From public information, he was one co-founder of the first local hiking group called 庸社行友 in Hong Kong, back in 1930s.
To supplement a bit on previous reader’s, Mr Ng 吳灞陵 (1904-1976) is in fact a well-known journalist, seasoned hiker, writer. He was Local News Editor of ‘Wah Kiu Yat Po’ (Chinese Sojourners Daily Newspaper), c. 1936-196?. Many old stories of Hong Kong may have been collected during this period probably, as published on ‘Wah Kiu’ with pen name 鰲洋客. [a catalogue]
Just to name a few Ng’s hiking related books (also published by ‘Wah Kiu’) : Traveler’s Handbook for Hong Kong, Kowloon and New Territories (1951), Today’s Lantau Island (1963), Today’s Lamma (1965) etc. Some of them may be collected on ‘antique’ level now.
There have been well over 1600 hiking photos of Ng digitised in above collection already. Other than natural scenery, there are many on old buildings and houses of HK rural areas, which are annotated. As it is said on internet, they may be part of the voluminous collections donated by his wife to HKUL. Possibly this.