HF: In January 1904 Alfred Dickinson and Company, the consulting engineers for Hong Kong Tramways Ltd wrote to the under-secretary of state at the Colonial Office. The letter states that the company had discussed with Sir Paul Chater the possibility of constructing a tramway system on the Kowloon Peninsula and of extending this as far as Shum Chun in China. […]
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York Lo: Live Long and Prosper: Longevity Condensed Milk (壽星公煉奶), Black and White Evaporated Milk (黑白淡奶) and Friesland Ice Cream (菲仕蘭雪糕) Left: Longevity milk from 1980 HK TV commercial (YouTube); Right: Friesland Ice cream factory on Hennessy Road in 1953 (Gwulo) Since the 1930s and 1940s, Longevity sweetened condensed milk and Black & White evaporated milk have become staples […]
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HF: Tymon Mellor has sent a report by Sir David J Owen dated 24th February 1941 on Future Control and Development of the Port of Hong Kong. Let’s start with the scope of the report: The Report contains a wealth of information both about the history of the port since early colonial days, the contemporary situation in 1941 and possible […]
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York Lo: China Leather Shoe Co (中國皮鞋公司) China Leather Shoe Co’s Wanchai branch on the left (red sign) in 1962 Earlier in the group, we have covered several popular shoe brands and chain of shoe stores in the 1950s and 1960s such as Crane, Po Shing, Sanda, Yau Sun and Fung Keong. China Leather Shoe Co was another popular chain […]
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York Lo: Crowning Achievement: Crown Motors (皇冠汽車) and 50 years of Toyota in HK Article about the opening of Crown Motors in 1966 with picture of one of its Toyotas (KSDN, 1966-12-21) Earlier on the website we covered three auto dealers which primarily focused on British cars that are part of the Inchcape group – Metro, Dodwell and Gilman. The […]
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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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York Lo: From Dodwell Motors and Gilman Motors to Metro-Dodwell and MD Motors As a result of a series of acquisitions by the Inchcape group in the late 1960s, Metro Cars, the distributor of Austin automobiles covered earlier merged with Dodwell Motors and Gilman Motors to form Metro-Dodwell, the largest auto dealer in Hong Kong in the early 1970s. Below […]
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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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York Lo: Metro Cars (新英華汽車) and Austin automobiles in HK (1953-1970) Left: Metro Cars building in Tsuen Wan in the 1960s; Right: ad for Austin’s A40 model in 1959 (WKYP, 1959-4-14) Before the onslaught of Japanese automobiles in the 1970s, British cars dominated the roads of Hong Kong and Austin was a particularly popular brand in the 1950s and 1960s, represented […]
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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 […]
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