Author: Hugh Farmer
Hugh Farmer has lived in Hong Kong since 1989. He founded the Industrial History of Hong Kong Group in November 2012 to preserve and share information about the city's fast disappearing industrial heritage. This website was started in October 2013.
The Tien Chu (HK) Company Ltd – founded by Wu Yunchu aka P. N. Woo – “Father of Monosodium Glutamate” – initial notes
HF: The Tien Chu (H.K.) Company Ltd. was founded by Wu Yunchu (1891-1953). Wu was a chemist and industrialist and known as the “Father of Monosodium Glutamate”. He was involved in the chemical and condiment industries in China especially I believe in Shanghai in the 1930s. York Lo says Wu Yunchu actually went by the name of “P. N. Woo” (probably due […]
» Read moreEarly ship building in Hong Kong
HF: From 1757 up to the outbreak of the Opium War, Guangzhou was China’s only trading port. After 1841, Hong Kong’s first dockyard was located in East Point, Causeway Bay. In 1857, the Scottish entrepreneur John Lamont built the Lamont Dock in Aberdeen. Source: Hong Kong Memory Project This article was first posted on 10th February 2026. Related Indhhk articles: […]
» Read moreChina Motor Bus Company – Chai Wan Depot
HF: How many cities have multi-storey depots for double decker buses? Hong Kong does. Here’s one at 391 Chai Wan Road/Sheung On Street, the former head office of Hong Kong’s first bus company China Motor Bus. A five storey concrete parking facility it was the company’s largest depot but now appears empty and unused. In February 1998, the government announced the […]
» Read moreearly shipping
Robert Fan Wenzhao, architect, involved in Hong Kong industrial locations
Maureen Fan left a comment below Carles Brasó Broggi’s article Shanghai Spinners: Pioneers of Hong Kong’s Industrialisation. This reads in part: Thank you for your informative article. My grandfather Robert Fan Wenzhao (1893-1979) was the architect who designed the HK Spinners factory at Cheung Sha Wan, including the workers dormitories, a dining hall, a recreation area, basketball and volleyball courts and […]
» Read moreearly shipping in Hong Kong
HF: From 1757 up to the outbreak of the Opium War, Guangzhou was China’s only trading port. After 1841, Hong Kong’s first dockyard was located in East Point, Causeway Bay. In 1857, the Scottish entrepreneur John Lamont built the Lamont Dock in Aberdeen.
» Read moreLeung Man Kwong (梁文廣) – clearance of HK harbour post WW2 and founder of Universal Dockyards
Stephen Davies: The founder of Universal Dockyards (now within the UDL Group) was Mr Leung Man Kwong (梁文廣, b. unknown-d.1966), who I’ve been trying to track down for ages and have at last managed to via this website. Mr Leung was the boss of 80 divers, shipwrights, blacksmiths and other salvage workers, who were on hand in late 1945/early 1946 (they’d […]
» Read morePlanned helicopter service HK to Macau 1962, Stanley Ho
Many thanks to IDJ for sending the article below. It announces that following Stanley Ho being awarded the Macau gambling franchise which took effect from 1st January 1962 he planned to introduce a helicopter service between Hong Kong and Macau. There are no further details about these proposals regarding locations, timetables, costs, helicopters etc. IDJ says the helicopter plan was […]
» Read moreThe Rope Making Industry in Hong Kong, 1957 Trade Bulletin article
Rope-Making Twine, halliards, cables – if what you need can be classified under the general heading of ‘rope’, it is almost certainly made in Hong Kong. One of the Colony’s earliest industries was ship-building from which a natural offshoot was rope-making. In 1883 Hong Kong’s first rope-making was opened with a capital of HK$150,000.[HF: this was The Hongkong Rope Manufacturing […]
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