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.

42 Did Japanese company Mitsui Bussan Kaishu Ltd take over control of Taikoo Docks in October 1942?

Queries + Answers

James Chan: Mitsui & Company Ltd. (三井物産 Mitsui Bussan) is one of the largest sogo shosha (general trading companies) in Japan, and also part of the Mitsui Group. Its business area covers energy, machinery, chemicals, food, textile, logistics, finance, and more. The company was first established in 1876 with 16 members including the founder, Takashi Masuda. As Japan’s international trading was dominated by foreigners […]

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A Kung Ngam quarry

Articles, Industrial Buildings + Demolitions, Mines, Quarries + Dredging
A Kung Ngam Temple Of Emperor Of Jade Image

A Kung Ngam, or “Kung-Lam’ is located on the south side of the eastern entrance of Vctoria Harbour. In the 19th century, Hakkan masons from Changle county in Guandong started quarrying. The Hakkan brought the gods from their hometown with them, and developed the only “Temple of Emperor of Jade” in Hong Kong. A Kung village still exists. All the […]

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Lloyd International Airways Ltd – link to Hong Kong

Articles, Non-Hong Kong Companies, Transport
Lloyd International Douglas C54 Skymaster At Kai Tak October 1961 IDJ Image 3

“Lloyd International Airways Ltd was a private, British independent airline formed in 1961 to operate worldwide charter flights  It commenced operations with a single Douglas DC-4 piston airliner from Cambridge Marshall Airport.  Lloyd International concentrated on passenger and cargo charters with four-engined, long-range aircraft. It also had links in Hong Kong since its inception and flew to the Far East regularly. During the mid-1960s, the airline began re-equipping its […]

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A Study of the Hongkong Printing Press, Part 2

Articles, Hong Kong Companies, Manufacturing, Non-Hong Kong Companies, People
The Hongkong Printing Press Part 2 Image 1

Roy Eric Xavier, Director, Portuguese and Macanese Studies Project at the University of California, Berkeley, USA has kindly granted permission to reproduce the second part of the following article. He stresses that this is still a draft and subject to revision. Roy runs the absorbing website Far Eastern Currents which covers a wide range of research into the Macanese Diaspora especially in Macau and Hong […]

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Ronghua – the ancient, dying craft of making velvet flowers, dating back to the Tang dynasty

Articles, Mines, Quarries + Dredging, Non-Hong Kong Companies, People, Traditional Industries
Velvet Flowers Ronghua Detail SCMP 23.12.17 Courtesy Handout

“Born and raised in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province, at the heart of eastern China’s silk-producing Yangtze River Delta region, Zhao began his more than 40-year career as a ronghua creator as a 19 year old at a state-owned factory. The art of making ronghua – literally “velvet flower” – dates back to the Tang dynasty (618-907) and refers to the creation of not […]

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Hong Kong Industrial Adverts from the 1950s – part two

Articles, Hong Kong Companies, Manufacturing

IDJ has sent some wonderfully evocative and picturesque advertising posters from 1955. They were published by the Hong Kong Government’s Department of Commerce and Industry in a 180 page government handout, typical at that time, to prospective overseas buyers outlining what Hong Kong could sell you or manufacture for you. IDJ continues, “I’ve had my copy for several years and originally acquired […]

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Hong Kong Industrial Adverts from the 1950s – part one

Articles, Hong Kong Companies, Manufacturing

IDJ has sent some wonderfully evocative and picturesque advertising posters from 1955. They were published by the Hong Kong Government’s Department of Commerce and Industry in a 180 page government handout, typical at that time, to prospective overseas buyers outlining what Hong Kong could sell you or manufacture for you. IDJ continues, “I’ve had my copy for several years and […]

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Ancient Stone Trails, Stone bridges and Waymarkers in HK

Articles, Traditional Industries

Thomas Ngan: Before Shek Pik Reservoir and the South Lantau Road were built, villagers travelled either by boat, or by ancient footpaths between major villages on Lantau. You might have heard a few months ago that some villagers of a few villages in the Tung Chung area blocked the footpath going through their villages. It was around the same month of […]

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Tai Lam Chung Reservoir – first built post-WW2 – construction images added

Articles, Industrial Districts + Locations, Utilities

HF: The Tai Lam Chung Reservoir was the first reservoir built in Hong Kong after the Second World War. Construction work commenced in 1952, was completed in 1957 and  officially opened by the Governor, Sir Alexander Grantham on 7th December of that year. The reservoir, with a storage capacity of 20 million cubic metres, was formed by a main dam across the […]

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