York Lo: Po Yuen Iron Works (寶源鐵工廠) Advertisement of Po Yuen Iron Works in 1947 (區少軒等編《香港華僑團體總覽》,香港:國際新聞社,1947 年) Fok Wai-man (first from the left) and fellow Kowloon Chamber of Commerce leaders on vacation in Mui Wo (WKYP, 1962-7-22) Aside from garment factories and tobacco factory, Mongkok was also once home to a metal factory by the name of Po Yuen Iron […]
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Louis Heermann was an assistant in the shop of Charles Weiss from the year 1854. After the shop was closed upon the death of Henry Vaucher, Mr. Heermann opened his own shop on Queen’s Road in February 1858 (Friend of China 1 Feb 1858)… Not long after opening his own store, Mr. Heermann left Hong Kong. (Adapted from source 1) Thanks […]
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York Lo: Wader Film Studio (華達製片廠) Left: Wader boss William CK Hu (aka CK Woo); Right: Aerial view of the Wader studio Wader Studio was a major film studio in HK in the 1950s and 1960s, at one time being the largest and most advanced in the industry. Between 1953 and 1973, 1287 films were shot in the studio on […]
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James Chan: This advert from the Hongkong Government Gazette of 9th January 1886 caught my eye. Further investigation brought up the announcement shown below the advert, published in Australia and New Zealand, warning readers that Norman Electric was an “unmitigated fraud and swindle” and exposing one Emil Bassett of New York who was operating under the alias Marsh Bassett. I […]
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HF: Oasis Hong Kong Airlines was founded by Rev. Raymond C. Lee, and his wife Priscilla K. Lee in February 2005. The chief executive, Steve Miller, was founder and first chief executive of another Hong Kong based airline, Dragonair. Its inaugural route to London commenced on 26th October 2006. The first flight, flight 08 700, took off from Hong […]
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Tymon Mellor: In 1928 the Geographical Section General Staff (GSGS), a department in the British War Office, published a new map of Hong Kong reference GSGS 3868. The map contained 24 sheets at a scale of 1:20,000 and set a new standard for mapping. It had been produced from aerial photographs and unusually for the time, adopted the metric measurement […]
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York Lo: Sanda Shoes (山打皮鞋) and Manning Shirt (萬寧恤) c Neon sign of Sanda Shoe/Manning Shirt on 630-632 Nathan Road in Mongkok in the 1960s (next to Yips Shirt at 636 Nathan Road, see our Indhhk article) Sanda Shoes is one of the brands from the 1950s through 1970s which is permanently etched in the memories of most HK residents. […]
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Tymon Mellor: As a key trading port for Southern China, Hong Kong harbour has always been full of boats stocking up for the next long journey. One question has always puzzled me, where did they get their fresh water? A look at the original maps of Kowloon provides an answer. The first map of Kowloon and the New Territories was […]
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Tymon Mellor: Under a clear blue sky on the 3rd November, 1924 HMS Pegasus, an aircraft carrier, steamed into Victoria Harbour. On board were nine seaplanes fitted with state-of-the-art camera equipment for aerial photography, along with a band of enthusiastic pilots. Large scale aerial photography was in its infancy and this was one of the most ambitious applications of aerial […]
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York Lo: Moving Mountains: the Life and Mines of Ko Ming-fan (高銘勳,1906-2012), proprietor of Flat Hill Quarry (平山石礦) and HK Clays & Kaolin Co Ko Ming-fan visiting mainland China in the 1980s (Courtesy: Bonnie Sellars) The post war construction boom created significant demand for construction materials and unprecedented opportunities for the HK mining industry. One of the handful of tenacious […]
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