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Adam Nebbs
Adam Nebbs

Travellers' ChecksMemories of Hong Kong hotels long forgotten in old flight timetables for Hong Kong Airways, equally long forgotten

Plus, new Japan-based website connects people who like to travel light with those willing to lend them everything from ski and diving gear to clothing

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Ads from a Hong Kong Airways timetable from 1959. Picture: timetableimages.com
Adam Nebbs
Lurking among the thousands of colourful old airline timetables on display at timetableimages.com is a selection issued by Hong Kong Airways – a small flag carrier that operated regional flights from 1947 until it was taken over by Cathay Pacific in 1959.

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The timetables from 1958 and 1959 are particularly notable for containing articles and advertising, making them curious time capsules of Hong Kong’s early tourism trade. Hotels advertised include the Miramar, Peninsula and Astor, in Tsim Sha Tsui, as well as such long-forgotten places as the Carlton Hotel, out on Tai Po Road, in northern Kowloon, and the New Ritz Hotel and adjoining New Ritz Swimming Pool, in North Point. Among the more familiar advertisers are Lane Crawford, Jimmy’s Kitchen and Dairy Farm, which in those days provided in-flight catering to Hong Kong Airways and, it says, “all other major airlines”.
The Carlton Hotel on remote Tai Po Road had 37 air-conditioned rooms, a spacious lounge and dance floor and open-air restaurant. Photo: Golden Studio Photo
The Carlton Hotel on remote Tai Po Road had 37 air-conditioned rooms, a spacious lounge and dance floor and open-air restaurant. Photo: Golden Studio Photo

Brief illustrated articles feature the opening of the Hong Kong Tourist Association’s first office in the arcade of the Peninsula hotel, and visits by noteworthy passengers, including three Japanese fashion models and a female “mathematical wizard” from India.

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Company staff are also profiled. Mezzo-soprano and student of the Royal Irish Academy of Music Bessie Pei Hsien Yang, readers learn, gave up a career in music to be a “flight stewardess”. A column is also contributed, apparently for one issue only, by pilot Captain David Lampard, who, like most of his colleagues at the airline, saw active service with the Royal Air Force during the second world war.

A Hong Kong Airways timetable from 1955. Picture: timetableimages.com
A Hong Kong Airways timetable from 1955. Picture: timetableimages.com

Now you can travel light thanks to a new Japanese rental website

Locarry.com is a new Japan-based website that aims to connect people who like to travel light with locals who are willing to lend or rent them various requisites.
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