Hing Loong Ginger Factory
Hing Loong Ginger Factory about 1905
HF: Here’s another in our series of Ginger Factories from the late 19th century and early 20th. I cannot find out much more about this company and would like to know when it was established. Also about Wong Chi Chau mentioned in this article. And the company of which he was the compradore of, Messrs. Alvares & Co. The article says it was responsible for “exporting the produce of the factory”.
The article begins: “There are many ginger factories in the Colony, and one of the largest and best known is the Hing Loong factory, occupying Nos. 322 to 324 Des Voeux Road West.
The ginger required by the factory comes from the Canton district, and the care exercised in the selection of the raw product has given the firm an excellent reputation in the markets of Europe, America and Australia. For the export trade only the finest qualities of stem ginger are used…
Many thanks to IDJ for sending in this information. (1)
Source:
- Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China (1908) ed. Arnold Wright
This article was first posted on 28th December 2013.
Related Indhhk articles:
- Messrs. L.M. Alvares & Co, Ginger + Feathers c1908
- Choy Fung Ginger Factory
- Man Loong Ginger Factory
- Hong Kong’s Preserved Ginger Industry – Dan Waters discovers and recollects
- Preserved Ginger shipped through HK 1913
- The Wong Brothers of Yuen Kee Hong – from Preserved Ginger to Metals and Frozen Meats
- Nam Wah preserved ginger manufacturer – Sham Shui Po
This is most interesting to me – I’ll try to find out if my Maternal Great Grandfather, Wong Oi-chau, who was said to own Man Loong Ginger, could be identical to Wong Chi-chau of Hing Loong Ginger. It was common to use aliases in those days.
I enjoyed stem ginger with mixed fruits in syrup in Chinese restaurants
when I was a boy in New York City.in the 1960s.
I believe it included stem ginger, plum, kumquat, perhaps cucumber
and maybe melon.(something green and translucent), It was not very common,
and I can no longer buy it now. I see Hing Loong was a producer from this web site.
In the 1980’s I found the identical product imported from Hong Kong in small rough green
clay pots. I believe these were labeled “chow chow in syrup”. There were similar
pickled ginger and mixed fruit products but I was not fond of these.
Does anyone have an exact ingredient list or recipe for the sweet ginger and fruit in syrup product?
I want to make it myself. Also what was the mysterious green ingredient which was sort of shaped
like a “club” playing card symbol.