Feature: Panorama of old, new Hong Kong captured at fingertips

by Xinhua writer Wang Xinyi
HONG KONG, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) — Holding still his mobile phone screen across a ferry pier near the Lei Yue Mun channel in Hong Kong, Stephen Law Kwok Hing, managing director of Gateway Cuisine, a well-known seafood restaurant, was feeling nostalgic.
Scenes of the old-age stone quarry and time-honored brands brought back memories of the then fishing village and his late father, said Law. “I feel reunited with him in another way.”
Law was observing and reminiscing through a special app, called “City in Time,” a cultural and creative tourism project launched in 2021 by the Tourism Commission of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government.
The project is the world’s first tourism project to fully apply augmented reality (AR) in an urban environment, seeking to enrich the experience of residents and visitors in Hong Kong with the combination of art and technology.
In Pedder Street, a major thoroughfare in the core of Hong Kong’s Central District, Xinhua reporter Wong scanned the QR code of the “AR clock” and instantly got a 360-degree panoramic image contrasting the old Hong Kong with today’s surroundings and pieced together from historical photographs or paintings created by local artists based on historical data.
Everything seems brought to life in just a few seconds, impressing her with what has been “changed and unchanged.” She can literally imagine traveling across time to the 20th century, with antique “Ding Ding” trams passing by through retro-looking streets, creating a sentiment of nostalgia. But with a swipe, she was magically sent back to modern-day Hong Kong.
Developed and produced by the School of Creative Media of the City University of Hong Kong on the commission of the Tourism Commission, the project was launched at 28 designated locations in Hong Kong. With just a mobile phone installed with the designated app, one can literally travel across time to see and feel a kaleidoscopic Hong Kong.
Restoring the memories behind is by no means an easy job. Many streets are no longer in existence, so the team collected pictures, videos, sounds and other materials through various channels, consulted historians to create virtual 3D models, and even invited local young artists to draw different angles of the buildings and character illustrations, said Jeffrey Shaw, artistic director of the “City In Time” project and chair professor with the Academy of Visual Art of Hong Kong Baptist University.
Seafood business was once the busiest here, recalled Law, a resident who has been living in Lei Yue Mun for nearly 70 years. As a witness to the local changes, Law said he was quite impressed by the “AR clock” on the app, which vividly restored animated scenes of bustling seafood business and local restaurant waiters busy inviting and serving customers, “Technologies can have that human touch, surprisingly.”
Besides visual arts, the team also invited a professional film sound editing company to create authentic sound effects and retell the old stories.
“City In Time” emerges and thrives from a budding need for immersive tourism that blends culture, technologies with creativity, and is boosting tourism by enriching travelers’ experience.
Tourists can now get a bigger, clearer picture of how fishing village Lei Yue Mun evolved into a seafood paradise featuring food, cultural and artistic activities and historic buildings. By focusing on the daily life of fishermen, the app creates an attractive, lively vibe through multidimensional lenses.
Strolling through Lei Yue Mun, one can scan the AR clock to travel back to the old days of the fishing village, learn about the century-old stone quarry, and admire the mesmerizing island sceneries.
Is that all? Definitely not. “City in Time” has been upgrading. The app now features filters and short film recorders in its selfie function as well as 3D animation.
Huang Wei, a Hong Kong drama fan who was recently here in the city for her summer vacation, told Xinhua that she could not wait to visit the film scenes in classic Hong Kong films such as C’est la vie, mon chéri and Internal Affairs, and was heading to Temple Street, Yau Ma Tei, Kowloon to relive the classic Hong Kong film clips and recapture the filming moments.
There is just so much more about Hong Kong to tap into and bring to life, said Richard Allen, chair professor of the School of Creative Media at the City University of Hong Kong and project director of the team, adding that the team is ready to expand it further to cover every corner of the city, including Tai Hang and Kowloon City. ■