Hands On in Hong Kong

New Street, Sheung Wan, 1 December 2009

© Kees Metselaar

20 Years No Wall

On the 9th of November it is 20 years ago that the Wall in Berlin stopped blocking the East Germans from visiting West Berlin and the rest of Germany. Less than a year later both Germanies were reunified.
Here the Berlin Wall in its deadly glory in 1983.

© Kees Metselaar 1983

Hong Kong Walkway

On the way to the Star Ferry.

© Kees Metselaar Sept. 2009

Hands Off The Press

Yesterday about 700 protesters, including journalists, politicians and residents, marched on the Hong Kong office of the Chinese government carrying placards saying "reporting the news is not a crime".
They were reacting to Chinese police treatment in Urumqi of three Hong Kong reporters who said they were punched, kicked and tied up.
Journalists led the march in Hong Kong demanding an apology and investigation.

© Kees Metselaar 2009

Shenzhen Rain

© Kees Metselaar 2009

With the NPA in 1988

Visiting the New Peoples Army guerillas in the mountains of North Luzon in 1988 was a strange mixture of farce and revolutionary tourism. See the photographs and story (in Dutch) in Toentertijd on the Photoq website.

© Kees Metselaar 1988

Gay Parade Amsterdam

City Council Boat at the Amsterdam Gay Parade last Saturday.

© Kees Metselaar 2009

Rainy Season

In Hong Kong is always good for wild views from the Peak.

© Kees Metselaar 2009

Hong Kong Bicycle Man

There are not many left anymore but now and then you will still see the fearless bicycle delivery man in Central Hong Kong.

© Kees Metselaar 2009

Free Liu Xiao Bo

Banners with that text were carried during the 1st July Democracy March in Hong Kong.
Liu Xiao Bo was taken from home by the police in China last December and arrested officially on June 23, 2009 on suspicion of "inciting subversion of state power". He is a leading member of the Charter 08.
This is a manifesto signed by more than 300 intellectuals promoting political reform in the country.

© Kees Metselaar 2009

Shark Fins Drying in the Street

Many species of open ocean shark are under serious threat says an assessment by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Many are caught and killed for their fins and Hong Kong is a paradise for lovers of shark fin soup.
Around Wing Lok Street, Ko Shing Street and Des Voeux Road West you will find many shops selling shark fin.

© Kees Metselaar 2009

Tiananmen 20 Years

A record 150,000 candle-bearing people came to Victoria Park in Hong Kong last night to commemorate those killed in the 1989 Tiananmen massacre in Beijing.

© Kees Metselaar 2009

Hubert van Es

Our best friend, and great photographer, just died in Hong Kong.
Here at his 65th birthday party at the Foreign Correspondents' Club with his loving wife Annie.

© Kees Metselaar 2006

Aceh 1990

Aceh, at the far north of Sumatra Island, was a dangerous place in 1990. A brutal war was waged against Acehnese separatists by the Indonesian army and not much was known about it in the rest of the world. I went there for the now dead magazine Asiaweek and the story about how I did that is published on the Dutch photography website PhotoQ.

See also my other pictures from Aceh in 1999 and 2005.

© Kees Metselaar 1990

Midwoud

Spring Green in West Friesland.

The landscape I grew up with.

© Kees Metselaar 2009

Sondhi Shot

Sondhi Limthongkul, the leader of the Thai "yellow shirt" protest movement was shot this morning in Bangkok. He survived with minor injuries.
This picture was taken during his campaign to bring down then-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
Last week the red-shirted supporters of Thaksin paralysed Bangkok with demonstrations and fights with the security forces.

© Kees Metselaar 2005

Dancing Cranes

Gigantic building site in the centre of Hong Kong where the HMS Tamar of the British armed forces used to be. This new Central Harbourfront will house the Central Government Complex.
In the back the International Commerce Centre in Kowloon. This 118 story (484 m) skyscraper will become the tallest building in Hong Kong upon completion in 2010.

© Kees Metselaar 2009

Murder in Mindanao

Killings by death squads is on the rise again in Mindanao in the south of the Philippines according to Human Rights Watch. Their report "You Can Die Any Time" details the involvement of the police and local authorities in the killings of alleged drug dealers, petty criminals, street children and others.
In the 1980's Davao, the biggest city of Mindanao was already famous for its death squads. For some days in 1988 I followed the activities of the Tadtad (chop chop). They liked to kill their victims, labour activists, students, communists, with their manchetes.
The picture is of some of their victims laid out on the lawn of the police headquarters in Davao.
The story with more pictures can be read (in Dutch) on the photoq website.

© Kees Metselaar 1988

Spaghetti Junction

In Jervois Street, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong.

© Kees Metselaar 2009

Tai Ping Shan Street Fortress

Home castle on my favourite street in Sheung Wan on Hong Kong Island.

© Kees Metselaar 2009

Ships In The Mist

The financial tsunami has not stopped containerships ploughing through the Lamma Channel in Hong Kong on their way to China and Japan. The difference with before is that more often than not the containers are empty.

© Kees Metselaar 2009

Hong Kong Population 7 Million

The population of Hong Kong rose to 7,008,900 at the end of 2008, topping 7 million for the first time, according to statistics released Monday by the government.
Here Central Hong Kong during rush hour.

© Kees Metselaar 2006

Hebron 1987

Israeli settler in Hebron West Bank during the first intifada in 1987.
More photos and adventures of my first visit to Israel in photoq.

© Kees Metselaar 1987

Wing Woo Closed

The Wing Woo Ho store has finally closed last Friday. It has been doing business in Central for more than 80 years.
Mr. Kwan Moon-chui here in the front of his traditional grocery and preserved-food store on Wellington Street in Central Hong Kong.
His shop and the very popular outside market in neighbouring Graham Street are set for a controversial urban renewal plan.
Old houses and shops will disappear and new high-rises will be built in the area.
See my earlier posts on the same subject: Urban Destruction and Under Threat in Hong Kong.

© Kees Metselaar 2007

Chinese Tourists

Tourists from mainland China at Repulse Bay Beach in Hong Kong.

© Kees Metselaar Dec. 2008

Lamma View

Through the shrubs you can just see the three chimneys of the coal-fired power plant on Lamma Island.

© Kees Metselaar 2009

Time Warp

Hong Kong Victoria Harbour last Wednesday afternoon.
Did the Flying Dutchman finally come ashore?

© Kees Metselaar Jan. 14, 2009

Sudan 1985

Famine and drought in the Sudan in 1985 was my first big story abroad. See the pictures and publications in Photoq, the Dutch website on photography.

© Kees Metselaar 1985

Falun Gong Parade

New Year's Day parade of the Falun Gong (Dafa) in Hong Kong. Staunch opponents of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and since 1999 forbidden on the mainland.

© Kees Metselaar 1/1/2009

Orange Vacuum Cleaner

The Hong Kong Business of Design Week this year had the Netherlands as important partner. More than 100 important designers and companies contribute under the "Dutch Design - An Open Mind" banner.
Philips with an orange car vacuum cleaner.

© Kees Metselaar 11 Dec. 2008

Erwin Olaf in Hong Kong

Opening of the photographic exhibition "Fall" from the Dutch artist/photographer Erwin Olaf in the Art Statements Gallery in the centre of Hong Kong.

© Kees Metselaar 27/11/08

Crisis, What Crisis?

This Starbucks under a JF Investment Centre in Jardine House in Hong Kong looks closed or not been opened yet. The coffee chain is not doing well during this financial crisis. Its share price more than halved and profits melted away.

McDonald's is still doing fine. They opened up their 1,000th outlet in China last week and its shares hardly moved down this year.
Maybe it is in their slogan "i'm lovin' it" here next to "love our homeland" on a street garbage can in Shenzhen, China.
Or maybe it is because for the price of one latte at Starbucks you get a whole meal at McDonald's.

© Kees Metselaar November 2008

Philippines 22 Years Ago

Troops of President Ferdinand Marcos defending the presidential palace in Manila in February 1986.
Posted again because of the publication of "The Last Day of Marcos" written by me in Photoq, the Dutch website with info, news and columns on photography in the Netherlands.

Main Street Fish Dry

Fish drying on Des Voeux Road West, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong.

© Kees Metselaar 2008

Photojournalism 1991

See my story in Photoq:

http://www.photoq.nl/articles/columns/toentertijd/

How to cover a big news story in the pre-digital and pre-internet era.

© Kees Metselaar 1991

Stock Market Slaughter

The Hang Seng Index in the Hong Kong stock market went down today with 7.2 %.
Worldwide markets are tumbling down. No end in sight yet.

© Kees Metselaar 10/10/08

Fortis Foil

Fortis is the largest European bank to be bailed out because of the credit market turmoil. The Belgian, Dutch and Luxembourg governments bought nearly half of its banking subsidiaries.
The pictures were made last november during a Fortis sponsored "Holland Village" right in the centre of Hong Kong's financial district.

© Kees Metselaar 2007

Run On The Bank

Thousand of nervous customers of the Bank of East Asia in Hong Kong were queueing up yesterday and last night to withdraw their deposits. Apparently a rumour was spread the day before that the 90 year old and Hong Kong's fifth-largest bank was in trouble. The trouble was supposedly connected with the US subprime mortgage crisis.
The Hong Kong Monetary authority and the Hong Kong government gave assurances yesterday that the bank was sound and that the rumours were unfounded.
Here the run on a BEA branche on des Voeux Road West.

© Kees Metselaar 24/9/2008

From The Train 2

With the Eurostar from Brussels to London. Here in the French Belgium border zone.
Unfortunately the service has stopped yesterday (September 11, 2008). A fire broke out in the Channel Tunnel.

© Kees Metselaar August 14, 2008

From The Train 1

West Friesland, close to the city of Hoorn, from the Amsterdam-Enkhuizen train.

© Kees Metselaar, August 13, 2008.

Confused Tram Stop

Des Voeux Road West crossing Sutherland Street on Hong Kong Island.

© Kees Metselaar June 2008

Noodles from Aberdeen Street

Traditional style noodleshop in central Hong Kong at the corner of Staunton and Aberdeen Street in SoHo.

© Kees Metselaar 2008

Shot Blasting Venture Spirit

Wah Kwong's Very Large Crude Carrier 'Venture Spirit' in the Yiu Lian Shipyard in Shekou in Southern China.
After five years at sea the huge ship is subjected to a thourough inspection and maintenance of the underwater parts.
The hull is shot blasted before a new coat of paint is sprayed on.
More pictures on the Wah Kwong Maritime Transport website.

© Kees Metselaar 2008

Orange Pipes

Blue tipped orange pipes at a shipyard in Shekou,
Shenzhen in China.

© Kees Metselaar 2008

Falling Debris

Intramuros, Manila, Philippines, March 5, 2008

© Kees Metselaar

Malate Pensionne

The Malate Pensionne is still kicking and alive on Adriatico Street in Malate, Manilla.
The only change is the Starbucks in the front.
My favourite home away from home in the 1980's. Covered the fall of dictator Marcos from there.
See also earlier posts:
philippines-20-years-ago.html
guns-and-girls.html

© Kees Metselaar 2008

So Very Manila

Intramuros, built by the Spaniards in the 16th century and the oldest district of the city of Manila, capital of the Philippines.

© Kees Metselaar March 5, 2008

Arthur C. Clarke Dies

Here in his home office in Colombo, Sri Lanka, ten years ago.

© Kees Metselaar 1997

HK Street Furniture

Hollywood Road, opposite Man Mo Temple.

© Kees Metselaar 2007

Calvin Klein rather Big

Calvin Klein male underwear ad covers the whole 25 floors of the now dead Ritz Carlton Hotel in Central Hong Kong.

© Kees Metselaar 2008

Ching Cheong Thanks the Press

Hong Kong-based journalist Ching Cheong, freed on parole earlier this month, thanks the press and his supporters at the Foreign Correspondents' Club in Hong Kong.
Ching was detained during a visit to Guangzhou in China in April 2005 and was sentenced to five years in jail in August 2006 on charges of spying for Taiwan.
"I've never done anything that endangered national security or harmed my country's interests," said Ching.

Year of the Rat

February 7 is the first day of Chinese New Year and this year is the Year of the Rat.
Kumquat trees are popular decorations for the New Year and for sale here in Hong Kong Central next to the temple at Wo On lane.

© Kees Metselaar 2008

No Jellyfish

Early morning plastic harvest at Seminyak in Bali.

© Kees Metselaar 2008

Bali Surf

Sunset shoot with public.

© Kees Metselaar 2008

Give Way to 2008

Windy Kennedy Town on Hong Kong Island in the last days of 2007.

© Kees Metselaar

Antique Little Red Book

Hong Kong's International Antiquarian Bookfair last weekend drew dealers and book lovers from around the world.
Unique copies of Mao's Red Book for sale for 15000 Euro.
See Vaudine England in the IHT from today.

© Kees Metselaar for the International Herald Tribune.

Bangladesh Flood Again

More than three thousand people died last week when Cyclone Sidr rampaged over Bangladesh.
Still, many lives were saved by cyclone shelters, as the one in the picture.
Most were built after the 1991 cyclone which killed more than one hundred thousand people.

© Kees Metselaar 1991

One God In Kowloon

© Kees Metselaar Hong Kong 2007

Mrs Yao in Graham Street Market

My exhibition "Off Central" opens today at the Foreign Correspondents' Club here in Hong Kong. All recent images from the old neighbourhood of Hong Kong Central. Now under threat from redevelopment. See for the campaign to save the area: http://www.savethestreetmarket.com/

© Kees Metselaar 2007

NPA in 1988

Sison was ordered released last week from the Dutch jail due to lack of evidence after more than two weeks of detention on charges that he ordered the murders of former comrades Romulo Kintanar and Arturo Tabara in the Philippines.
Sison is the founding chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the New People’s Army.
Above an image from 1988 from a guerilla from the NPA training at a base high in the mountains in North Luzon, not far from the famous Banaue rice terraces.

© Kees Metselaar 1988

Joma In Dutch Jail

Self-exiled communist leader Jose Maria "Joma" Sison will remain in prison in the Netherlands for two more weeks in connection with the murders in the Philippines of his former associates Kintanar and Tabara.
Sison founded the Communist Party of the Philippines in 1968.
He was arrested by former dictator Marcos and released in 1986 by the government of Cory Aquino. He fled to the Netherlands in 1987.
Top photo in Manila just after his release in 1986.
Lower photo in Utrecht, Netherlands, 2004.

© Kees Metselaar

Dark Side of Toys

Entrance of one of the closed Lee Der toy factories in Foshan, Guangdong Province in China. The owner, 52 year old Zhang Shuhong, committed suicide after Mattel, the world's largest toy company,recalled one million toys made by his company, coated in toxic lead paint. Today in the New York Times by David Barboza.

© Kees Metselaar

Equestrian Hong Kong

Dark clouds over Sha Tin.
The first morning of the Good Luck Beijing 2007 Equestrian Event.
A test of the Hong Kong venues where next year the olympic equestrian events will be held.

© Kees Metselaar August 11, 2007

Glorious Sunrise Over Hong Kong Island

© Kees Metselaar July 25, 2007

Last Night of Queen's Pier

Activists and hunger-strikers spending their last night at the doomed Queen's Pier in Hong Kong.
The next day they were evicted.

© Kees Metselaar 2007

No Smoking On The Beach

Shek O Beach Hong Kong Island

© Kees Metselaar 2007

Relax

Safety first at Mala Restaurant in Peel Street Hong Kong.

© Kees Metselaar 2007

Summer in the City

Summer has arrived in Hong Kong.
© Kees Metselaar 2007

Deng Finally In Hong Kong Shopping Mall

China's former leader Deng Xiaoping finally makes it to Hong Kong. His wax statue was unveiled in a shopping mall at Olympian City 2. The real Deng died some months before the handover of Hong Kong, now nearly 10 years ago.

© Kees Metselaar 2007

Pre-Handover Hong Kong

Next week it is 10 years since the Hong Kong handover.
This image of Open Day at Tamar, the former location of the British naval headquarters in Hong Kong was taken 5 years before that.

© Kees Metselaar 1992

Under Threat in Hong Kong

Hong Kong’s Gage Street is the starting point of a busy market area, and has little in common with the skyscrapers of nearby Central District. Shops teem with fresh produce. Some seem to have almost been here forever.A lot of this is under threat from redevelopment.
Read Patrick Smith in the International Herald Tribune: At risk in Hong Kong: A slice of hawkers' magic.
Also look at my slide show on the BBC website.
The full story in the Correspondent Magazine of the Foreign Correspondents' Club here in Hong Kong.

© Kees Metselaar 2007

Ting Kau Bridge Hong Kong

In the bus to Tuen Mun.

© Kees Metselaar 2007

HK in the Clear

A southern breeze from the South China Sea gives clear skies over Hong Kong for some days now.
Here the Hong Kong Island skyline seen from the Kowloon side.

© Kees Metselaar 3/6/07

Christie's in HK

Asian Contemporary Art sold for more than HK$1 billion at Christie's auction in Hong Kong this Sunday, with 20th Century Chinese Art going for record prices.
Portrait of a Lady by Xu Beihong, went for nearly HK$30 million, including fees.

© Kees Metselaar May 27, 2007

Guns and Girls.

Remember Del Pilar Street in Manila's bar district 20 years ago. Most of the girlie bars in the centre had to close in the early nineties thanks to over-eager Mayor Lim.

© Kees Metselaar 1985

Classic Lamma Sunset 2

In 1990 , from the pavillion above Hung Shing Yeh Beach with a view on the coal-fired powerplant with only two chimneys.

© Kees Metselaar

Clear from the Peak

Yesterday, April 18, was the clearest day in Hong Kong this year.
The low humidity and strong wind kept the haze and pollution to a minimum.
Tourists on top of the Peak Tower were enjoying the view.

© Kees Metselaar 2007

First McDonald's in Beijing

Next week it is exactly 15 years ago when the first McDonald's restaurant opened in Beijing.
Now there are more than 800 in the country with apparently 300 more planned for the coming three years.

© Kees Metselaar 1992

Xanana Out, Ramos Horta Maybe In

East Timor is having its first presidential election since independence in 2002.
Incumbent President Xanana Gusmao is stepping down and the present Prime Minister Jose Ramos-Horta is the front runner.
Here Both of them in 1999, Ramos Horta, lower photo, in Hong Kong and Xanana just before his release from prison in Jakarta.

© Kees Metselaar

Timeless Cochrane Street

Linva Fashion in Central Hong Kong, specializes in custom-made
Chinese clothing, like cheongsams, since 1965.

© Kees Metselaar 2007

Jewellery Meets Red Meat

Gallery Cécile Yau and Butcher Hop Cheong cozying up on Aberdeen Street, Central Hong Kong, just off Hollywood Road.

© Kees Metselaar 2007

Do not forget Aung San Suu Kyi.

Here with the press during her first release from house arrest in her lake-side home in Rangoon in 1995.
Nothing much has changed. She is still or again under house arrest and the ruling junta tries to ignore and dismiss her.
Despite that Aung San Suu Kyi remains a relevant and uniting political force in the country.

© Kees Metselaar 1995

Inkjetting Street Photographer

Street photographer in Guangzhou, China, working with a portable HP inkjet printer.

© Kees Metselaar 2007

Girl and Donkey

Girl with water carrying donkey in the northeast of Syria.

© Kees Metselaar 1989

Eukanuba Cat Food Ad in China

Does Corbis know...

© Kees Metselaar 2007

Ralf Schumacher in Macau

The Formula One Grand Prix season 2007-2008 has begun in Melbourne last weekend.
Here a very young Ralf Schumacher in the Macau Grand Prix 1994.
A year later he won that race.

© Kees Metselaar 1994

Starbucks in Shamian

The latest Starbucks coffee shop in Guangzhou is occupying a beautifully restored colonial building on Shamian Island.
Originally built early 1900's and used by the British trading company The Shewan Tomes & Co.

© Kees Metselaar 2007

Clouds Over Hong Kong

© Kees Metselaar 2007

No Smoking Hong Kong Style

Victoria Peak Gardens March 16, 2007

© Kees Metselaar

Pearl River View

Shamian Island, Guangzhou, China on Saturday March 10, 2007.

© Kees Metselaar

Man In Blue

Chinese airforce colonel posing with other guests on the flight deck of the USS Ronald Reagan, the newest nuclear-powered aircraft carrier of the US navy.
A few hundred guests were invited in for a reception on this first day of a 5 day visit to Hong Kong.

© Kees Metselaar 2007

South of Turkey

Something quite different. On the way to North Cyprus on a Turkish boat in 1987.

© Kees Metselaar

Classic Lamma Sunset

We were on Lamma Island yesterday and the sunset was nearly like this one in 1990.

© Kees Metselaar 1990

Urban Destruction

Mr. Kwan Moon-chui in his traditional grocery and preserved-food store on Wellington Street in Central Hong Kong.
His shop and the very popular outside market in neighbouring Graham Street are set for so-called urban renewal.
Old houses and shops will disappear and new high-rises will be built in the area.

© Kees Metselaar 2007

Queen Mary 2 in Kwai Chung.

The Queen Mary 2 berthed at a container terminal in Hong Kong.
As one of the biggest ocean liners in the world, she was too large to berth at the regular cruise ship terminal.
The Queen Mary 2 is on its maiden voyage - an 80 day around the world trip.

© Kees Metselaar 2007

Macau Mood

Just a bit of old-world Macau atmosphere.
Rua da Palmeira during Chinese New Year in 1990.

© Kees Metselaar

Classic Hong Kong Harbour

Victoria Harbour and Stonecutters Island before the massive reclamations of the last 15 years.
The former Victoria Hotel with the Macau Ferry Terminal at the foreground.

© Kees Metselaar 1990

No Bicycling Here

Tung Chung, Lantau Island, Hong Kong.
Close to the Chek Lap Kok International Airport.

© Kees Metselaar 2007

Hong Kong Cockatoos

The Yellow-crested Cockatoo is very common in Hong Kong. They are noisy and all over the place.
This group sitting on the TV aerials from my neighbours is part of a feral population developed from caged birds which were released years ago. Worldwide this cockatoo is critically endangered. The current population is estimated at less than 10,000

© Kees Metselaar 2007

Pizzeria Limoncello

The best pizza in Bangkok.
Off Soi 11, Sukhumvit.

© Kees Metselaar 2006