Early Photos of China and Hong Kong From 1868-1872

In the second half of the nineteenth century, Scottish photographer and travel writer John Thomson took four journeys across China. His photographs capture scenes and people from all walks of life—ministers, high officials, wealthy traders, street vendors, brides, boat women, monks, and soldiers—providing a lasting record of nineteenth-century China’s landscapes, architecture, communities, and customs.

A Foreign Settlement, (Shantou, Guangdong 1871)

A Cantonese Schoolboy, (Guangzhou, Guangdong, 1869–70)

A Manchu Bride, (Beijing 1871–72)

A Boatwoman, (Guangzhou, Guangdong 1869–70)

Sedan Chair, (Hong Kong 1868–71)

The Veranda of a Chinese Teahouse, (Hong Kong, 1868–71)

A Cantonese Family of Kowloon, (Hong Kong 1869)

Praya or Des Voeux Road, Hong Kong (Looking ESE towards the house/office of Augustine Heard & Co (later the French Mission, now the Court of Final Appeal) and St John’s Cathedral. (Hong Kong, 1869-71)

Cochrane Street with Lyndhurst Terrace slices across the background, Wellington Street crosses the middle and a pawn shop on the Northeast corner, Central (Hong Kong, 1869-71)

Queen’s Road East, close to where the old Wanchai Market is (Hong Kong, 1869-71)

Regatta at Victoria Harbour (Hong Kong, 1871)

Kellett’s Island, looking west or WSW across Wanchai towards Central and the Peak, with HMS Princess Charlotte (1858-1875)

Pedder Street, looking north from the intersection with Des Voeux Road (Hong Kong, 1869-71)

A Chinese Portrait Artist, (Hong Kong 1869)

Cemetery in Happy Valley, with the gable end of the roof of the Chapel of Ease appears behind the bamboos on the left edge (Hong Kong, 1869-71)

Racecourse, Happy Valley, from the south side of Morrison Hill looking ESE over the race course to Jardine’s Lookout (Hong Kong, 1869-71)

City Hall with two posed Chinese males at the base of the building’s near corner (Hong Kong, 1869-71)

A photograph taken on Lyndhurst Street in the Central District during H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh’s brief visit in 1869 (Hong Kong, 1869)

Fishtail Rock (To Kwa Wan Island or Hoi Sham Island) off To Kwa Wan, Kowloon (Hong Kong 1869-71)

An old woman on street (Guangzhou, Guangdong, 1868-70)

A Cantonese beauty holds an open painted fan and stands before a folding screen (Guangzhou, Guangdong, 1869-71)

A Cantonese Woman, (Guangzhou, Guangdong, 1869–70)