Hugh Farmer: A very merry Christmas to all our readers, contributors, administrators, translators, typists and all those who have helped the Group over the last year… March 1965: The value of Christmas decorations exported in 1964 was over HK$7 million. Electric light sets comprised the bulk of exports but plastic Christmas trees, candles, tinsel, paper lanterns and decorations were also […]
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IDJ has sent this aerial photo of North Point taken in 1948. He says, “It shows a large oil tanker unloading at what is presumably “Oil Street” which still exists, and the large oil storage tanks further over about where the Fortress Hill MTR Station is. Also a reservior can be seen at the top of the slope above North […]
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The Commercial Press is the longest standing modern publishing house in China. Guided consistently by the principle of fostering cultural enhancement and intellectual enlightenment, its impact on the history of cultural and educational publishing in modern China has been profound and far reaching. The Commercial Press (HK) Ltd is devoted to promoting cultural and educational enterprises in this new age […]
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HF: Tang Fun Kee was incorporated on 23rd May 1951 and appears to be still in operation. “…Tang Fun Kee occupied a five-storey building in Larch Street [Tai Kok Tsui – note the advert below has the company at 32-40 Fuk Tsun Street], producing headlight cases, square torches and watches. Electroplating was on the first floor; the production of torches […]
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Edward Schneider, Carl Ingenohl’s great-grandson, has sent these photos taken inside the Orient Tobacco Manufactory Company’s factory which occupied a large site between Yau Ma Tei and Mongkok on Nathan Road. A couple of the images are fairly self-explanatory. If you can elaborate on what is happening in the others it would be good to hear from you. We have […]
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Born in 1918, Lo Koon-chiu first learned the art of traditional Chinese painting in his high school days and later graduated from the Guangzhou Municipal School of Fine Arts in 1938 with a major in Western painting. After moving to Hong Kong in 1947 Lo founded the full colour children’s comic book Children’s Paradise in 1953 in the capacity […]
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HF and Thomas Ngan: According to the linked 1987 report below Nui Po Shan (Turret Hill) Quarry was originally used as a borrow area in the mid 1960s [another source suggests the quarry began in “mid-1960”] and 70s. A borrow pit is a term used to describe an area where material has been dug for use at another location in […]
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HF with thanks to IDJ for the two adverts. The cable used in the Aerial Ropeway constructed to link Takoo Sugar Refinery and its Sanitarium was made by Bullivant & Co. which began as a UK company. William Munton Bullivant was an early innovator in the stranded wire cordage field, invented in the mid-19th century by German mining engineers in the […]
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HF: Jan Hendrik Marsman, was born in 1892 in the Netherlands and died in 1956, I think in the Philippines. He was known as Hank to his friends. He started his working life as an engineer and later developed extensive business interests in the Philippines. Marsman is of interest to us because he became involved, through his company Marsman Hong […]
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IDJ writes – This excerpt comes from a very useful book published by the Hong Kong government’s Department of Commerce and Industry dated 1955. It is a typical 180 page government handout to prospective overseas buyers outlining where Hong Kong is in the world and what the colony can sell or make for you. Essentially a commercial buyer’s guide […]
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