Tradition and high-tech roll hand in hand in Hong Kong. Even as Hong Kong Tramways launched its first air-conditioned tram last week, we take a moment to tip our hats to the oldest one on its fleet. A 1920s model red and white antique contraption, available to hire by the hour, this streetcar from the UK is still going strong, doing the Shau Kei Wan-Kennedy Town circuit.

China Daily photographer Parker Zheng captured this timeless beauty in familiar spots of downtown Hong Kong. A symbol of old-world elegance and quiet dignity, tram No 68 is the very anti-thesis of the frenetic pace and competitive spirit Hong Kong is commonly associated with. In Zheng's images, however, the vintage carrier seems to inspire a willful slowing down in its surroundings, not too different from the slackened pace of life in the archival photos taken in these very same locations decades ago by Alan Cheung, vice-president of Hong Kong Collectors Society. As they say, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

(HK Edition 06/06/2016 page9)