HF: Our recently posted article, The Kowloon Wharf and Godown Company, newspaper article 1937, made me wonder about the origin of the term Godown which is used frequently in India and Hong Kong. A quick online search came up with this definition: (in India and other countries in Asia) a warehouse or other storage place. I thought I could do […]
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Graham Wood has kindly sent the following newspaper article, published in March 1946. HF: I have retyped the article to enhance clarity and aid searches. As the article is fairly lengthy and covers several subjects of interest to readers of this website namely: power stations, the KCR and Kai Tak airfield, and Ping Shan airfield which was proposed to replace […]
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York Lo: In 2013, the Ford Motor Company released a 1924 letter which Sun Yat-sen sent to Henry Ford inviting him to open up a plant in south China – the bearer of the letter was a Chinese American merchant named Ng Jim Kai (a.k.a. Ng Tung Kai 吳東啟, 1859-1935). [1] A major financial backer of Sun Yat-sen for over […]
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New information in red regarding Hong Kong lighthouse ladies. IDJ: The script below comes from one of my aviation books related to the 1930s China Coast. It’s an interesting aside about the wives of lighthouse keepers:- “Chinese keepers of the lights had invariably been pirated so often for their large supplies of specially refined kerosene, the lighthouse service found it […]
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Graham Wood has kindly sent a copy of the souvenir brochure issued at the official opening of the Hok Un power station in 1921. HF: I have retyped the original PDF version of the brochure sent by Graham and as it is a fairly lengthy document this is the fourth in a series of articles. I will include all the […]
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Peter H.T. Woo – Father of the Hong Kong Electronics Industry – by York Lo Several years ago, I was invited by the editors of the Dictionary of Hong Kong Biography (HKU Press, 2011) to write biographical entries for the book. In total I wrote 37 entries which covered many of the important figures in HK business history. However, there […]
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IDJ: When Hong Kong was liberated after the surrender of the Japanese, one of the first groups to arrive was “Shield Force.” This mainly comprised 3,000 Royal Air Force personnel who had been diverted from their expected task of building Pacific island aerodromes to assist the Allied advance towards Japan. Not all RAF personnel in the war were involved in flying […]
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Stephen Davies: Credit must be given for the information below to a presentation given by Ma Koon You on Hong Kong dockyards at the HK Heritage Discovery Centre a couple of years back, and since supplemented by me. Capt George Underhill Sands (1824-1881) bought the old MacDonald Shipyard in Sai Wan (Western District, HK Island) after a complex history that […]
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IDJ has sent the following newspaper article about the Kowloon Wharf and Godown Company. HF: The Hong Kong and Kowloon Wharf and Godown Company was founded in 1886 by Paul Chater. Its present name is The Wharf (Holdings) Limited. The company owns the Star Ferry amongst other holdings HF: I have retyped the article for the sake of clarity and to […]
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York Lo: For decades after the War, the plastic industry and two closely related industries – toy and artificial flower manufacturing had played an important role in the industrial growth of Hong Kong and thanks to the efforts of pioneering entrepreneurs and the hard work of an industrious labor force, Hong Kong had emerged from nothing to become a top player […]
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