York Lo: Pacific Union Trading (聯泰有限公司) Ad for Pacific Union Trading in 1948 (Tung Wah Monthly Magazine, October 1948) According to the 1948 ad above, the firm’s auto division was the exclusive agent of Hudson Motors. Meanwhile, its electric division was the sole agent in Southern China for China Electric Co Ltd, the subsidiary of International Telephone & Telegraph Corporation […]
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Nicholas Kitto has a family connection to the Asiatic Petroleum Company. His grandfather, John ‘Jack’ Kitto, was recruited directly from school by Royal Dutch Shell in 1910. After training in their London office he travelled to Shanghai on the Trans-Siberian Railway and commenced work with The Asiatic Petroleum Company (North China) Limited on 16 September 1912. He remained with APC […]
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HF: IDJ has sent in this report about the first private submarine built in Hong Kong. As he says this shows how versatile the students of the Far East Flying Training School (FEFTS) could be in their endeavours. As you will see Mr Yuen constructed another submarine. I am presuming this was also made in Hong Kong though this is […]
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‘Maverick’ has kindly sent this film of the Wo Hop Shek Spur Line. It has moments of great charm and nostalgia for those old enough to remember single line branches – children running at the station along side the train as it pulls in, the safety system of passing a token (what was the particular system with a large loop […]
» Read moreYork Lo: New Asiatic Chemical Works (新亞藥廠): Pharmaceutical Star Left: Trademark for New Asiatic Chemical Works Hong Kong (HK Government Report, 1939); Right: Advertisement of New Asiatic Chemical Works’ tuberculosis drug Tibilon in Hong Kong from the 1950s Founded in Shanghai in 1926 by K.C. Hsu and two others, New Asiatic Chemical Works was one of the largest pharmaceutical […]
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IDJ has sent this SCMP article about 99 year old Mak Sing-ying. Mr Mak has for 81 years been making pans, cans, boxes and buckets out of tin from his workshop in Sai Kung. The article was published on 9th November 2014 See: SCMP article Sai Kung’s ‘tin man’ 9th November 2014 This article was first posted on 18th December 2019.
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IDJ has sent the following article about F. Blackhead & Company written about 1908: In the early days, before the establishment of Hongkong as a British Colony, Whampoa was the farthest point to which the Chinese permitted foreign ships to proceed up the West River. Many difficulties were experienced at this port by vessels in obtaining stores, and it was […]
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HF: Ma On Shan Iron Mine 1906-1976 – biggest mine in HK is one of the most read articles on the website. This is a sister piece about the company that is supposed to have supplied and/or operated an underground railway(s) at the mine. I said when I posted this article in May 2014 I could find nothing out about Kuhn […]
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IDJ: In Hong Kong until around the mid 1990s, curious observers and old men with nothing better to do were a familiar sight gathered at gaps in construction sites fences where amongst the usual activities they could observe a practise possibly unique to Hong Kong. Husband and wife teams constructing large diameter, hand dug piles, known as caissons were common […]
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Fung Chi Ming: The type of man-powered transport known in English as “sedan chair” has different regional names, including jiao (轎) in China and kago (駕籠) in Japan. In Hong Kong, where it is no longer used as a means of passenger transport, it is known in local Cantonese dialect as san-dau (山兜, “mountain cabin”), kin–yue (肩舆, “shoulder carriage”) and […]
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