BOOK CLUB

Trading Places

Hong Kong photographer Nicholas Kitto takes us on a journey through China’s former treaty ports in his new book

Shanghai Club interior

What inspired you to create Trading Places?

My grandfather worked in China from 1912 to 1939 and my father was born in Tianjin, so I’d always been interested to visit. In the mid-1990s I was travelling frequently to the mainland for my accountancy career. During a visit to Tianjin, I located the house in which my family had lived. From that moment, I wanted to learn more about the treaty port cities in China where foreigners had lived and worked and soon decided to create a book.

How long did the project take?

I started purposefully visiting and photographing treaty ports in 2008. After nine years, I had accumulated over 4,000 photographs and covered all essential locations. I spent much of 2017 and 2018 editing and captioning photographs, the book was printed in February 2020.

How were your visits to the port cities received?

We felt incredibly welcome everywhere we went. We frequently received polite enquiries as to what we were doing and offers of help. Quite often the driver we hired to visit a far away location would become interested once he understood what we were looking for. One driver, whom we hired for two days, even turned up on the second day with his own camera!

I carried a stepcounter on every visit ... in total, the project took twelve years and 2,748,010 steps.

How have the former treaty ports changed since you began photographing them?

The most impressive change is that restorations of these old buildings continue to this day in many different cities on the mainland. Of course, some of the early restorations have weathered since I first saw them. For example, the Custom House in Guangzhou which I first photographed in October 2008 and chose for the cover of Trading Places.

Do you have a photo ‘bucket list’?

I still have much to explore in China’s former treaty ports. Even in cities such as Tianjin, Qingdao, Hankou and Shanghai which in each case I have visited at least five times, I have lengthy ‘to do’ lists. Perhaps I have discovered and photographed the essential buildings, but the great beauty of the past is that there is always more to uncover.

What do you hope readers will take away?

The knowledge that many of these buildings have been retained and, in most cases, restored to a very high standard. There are some exceptional resulting landscapes of these buildings too, the most notable being the famous Bund in Shanghai. Once we are all able to travel more freely, I hope readers will use Trading Places to locate buildings of interest through maps in the book and a downloadable link. Whilst travel remains restricted, readers can still visit and learn about the history of these places from the comfort of their armchair.

What’s next?

In 2009, I began photographing every one of Hong Kong’s Declared Monuments. I have made good progress, and I’ve also undertaken some pro-bono heritage photography both for the HKSAR Government and Tung Wah Group of Hospitals. Since up to four new monuments are declared every year, I fear I may never catch-up. But of course, I have to draw the line somewhere.

Trading Places - A journey through China’s former treaty ports is priced at $580 and available from Blacksmith books, HK Book Centre, Kelly & Walsh and Bookazine. www.treatyports.photos