Nearly a century before the first high-rise made its mark on Hong Kong’s skyline, a Scottish photographer took these amazing photos of the Far East city. John Thomson, from Edinburgh, was one of the first Western photographers to travel to the region, documenting the people, landscapes, and artifacts of eastern cultures in the 1860s.
An album of his incredible pictures of Hong Kong in the 1860s sold at auction today for nearly £50,000. The album was given by Thomson to William Thomas Mercer, Hong Kong’s Colonial Secretary. It remained within Mercer’s family until it went under the hammer today at Christie’s in London, where it was snapped up by an anonymous bidder for £47,500.