The China General Chamber of Commerce Building, 24-25 Connaught Road, Hong Kong

The China General Chamber of Commerce building at 24-25 Connaught Road in Central (which got a clean in 2022 I believe)…

Midnight in Peking Walking Tour – Legation Entrances…

the old legation entrances of Great Britain, Japan and France – the first two on Zhengyi Lu (formerly Canal Street) and the French on Dongjiaomin Xiang (Legation Street).

Mao Dun’s House, #13 Yuanensi Hutong, Beijing

The Mao Dun Home in Beijing is the former residence of Mao Dun… some pictures from when I visited in October 2025…

Chinese Junk Flag, c.1839 – More Looted Goods on Sale

I posted some months back about a Chinese screen being sold at auction in the UK despite being suspected looted goods (from the Boxer Uprising and the subsequent violent suppression of Peking). Now the following has appeared for auction at Trevanion Auctioneers and Valuers in Whitchurch, on the Shropshire and Cheshire borders. The description for the item (up for sale 26/11/25) is as follows:

“A large and rare Chinese silk painted green-ground ceremonial ‘Dragon’ banner, Qing Dynasty, 19th century, of triangular form with orange-ground flame cut edges, painted to both sides in gold coloured pigment to depict a scaly four-clawed dragon, chasing a flaming pearl, amidst clouds, 274cm x 243cm

Footnote; The family, by repute, always thought that this had been removed from the Summer Palace, Beijing, in 1860 under the leadership of the 8th Earl of Elgin.”

The description makes sense as does the origin of the flag, taken during the Second Opium War. Banners of the Lord of Suiyuan (a deity worshipped in Hunan Province) – sometimes known as “Junk Flags” (a common name for imperial Chinese dragon flag or a Chinese junk boat flags – were not official items of the Qing imperial army but rather had ritual and ceremonial purposes. It is possible that it came the Old Summer Palace (Yuanmingyuan) and the family/auctioneer have the Yuanmingyuan and the Yiheyuan (Summer Palace) confused. The Yuanmingyuan was indeed looted and burnt by a combined Anglo-French expeditionary force in October 1860. The exact total number of items looted from the Old Summer Palace in 1860 is unknown, but over a million objects are estimated to have been looted

A couple of similar flags are part of the collection of the Royal Museum at Greenwich – here and here….

As with the Chinese screen I noted back in September this flag should of course be returned to China and not sold on for profit by the descendants of the looter and the auction house.

RIP Anthony Grey, 1938-2025

Sorry to hear of the death of Anthony Grey, the Reuters journalist jailed in China for 27 months from 1967 to 1969 while covering the Cultural Revolution. I read his autobiography Hostage in Peking (1970) at uni.

Rua do Dr. Lourenco Pereira Marques Warehouse, Macao

The road runs along the inner harbour of Macao is named after Philippines national hero José Rizal’s close friend, the prominent Portuguese Dr. Lourenço Pereira Marques, who was a prison medical officer in Hong Kong for a time. Among the many warehouses along this stretch of road is the one you can see below which appears to be empty at present though in fairly good condition and with many original features intact…. Not sure if there are any plans for it as such but it doesn appear to be at least basically maintained….

Beijing Hutong Drum Stones

Alternatively a Drum stone or Baogu Shi. The round, or drum, shape with a floral motif usually indicates the original occupants were army (this one is from a hutong cluster formerly controlled by the Manchu Bordered Yellow Banner). They usually come in pairs on either side of the entrance…

Macau Closer July-August 2025 – The Scavengers (1959)

My most recent column for Macau Closer magazine…. this issue an extraordinary Filipino movie noir centred on Macao’s post-war underworld….