HF: Sam Kwong Weaving Factory was founded in 1928. The factory was located at 374 Castle Peak Road in Cheung Sha Wan, and was of a moderately large scale with a gross floor area of some 16,000 sq. ft. (1) Elizabeth Ride has sent the following brief extract from BAAG report KWIZ#77 15.12.44. Mak Ho Yin has kindly attempted to translate the […]
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Kwong Chi Man has kindly translated the Japanese names of the piers shown in columns at the bottom of this map of Hong Kong harbour which was drawn during the occupation, WW2. Elizabeth Ride has kindly transcribed the faint handwritten English ‘translation’ alongside the Japanese. Many thanks to both contributors. KCM: This map of the Japanese Harbour Authority (under the […]
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HF: The SCMP of 7th September 2015 contained an article titled, ‘Isolated pier harbours problems for city icon‘. This referred to a 20% drop in passenger numbers at the Wanchai Pier experienced by the Star Ferry Company since the pier was moved to a more isolated location in August 2014. Operations manager Samson Leung Shui-kin, pictured below right, with Star […]
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HF: Fung Keong Rubber Manufactory Co. was founded in 1925 by a Nanyang Chinese Mr. Fung Keong to manufacture and sell rubber shoes and rubber products. I believe it was the oldest such factory in Hong Kong. This extract provides an insight into life as a female outworker with the company in the 1930s: Cheng Kwai Ying, female, spinster, age 22, outworker, […]
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HF: Shewan, Tomes & Co. was one of the leading trading companies in Hong Kong and China during the late 19th and early 20th century. When Russell & Co., then one of the largest mercantile firms in the Far East, went out of business in 1891, former employees Scotsman Robert Shewan and Englishman Charles Alexander Tomes took over the remains of the operation and changed […]
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HF: The China Daily, HK Edition, of 1st September 2015 contained the first of a planned series of articles about what is seen as an “explosion of interest of material related to the city’s industrial past”. The article by Chitralekha Basu starts with mention of The Industrial History of Hong Kong website, “floated by a long-time HK-resident English gentleman”. Probably […]
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Joe MacDonald was Ian Brown’s father’s cousin. Ian has sent both information about and photos of Mr MacDonald who worked for Asiatic Petroleum in China and in all probability Hong Kong during the late 1930s. He appears to have travelled quite a bit during his time in the former and may well have lived and worked in Shanghai. This undated photo […]
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Hugh Farmer: New information in red This brief history of the Lin Ma Hang Lead Mine does not attempt to cover the geology or mineralogy of the area or mine, nor details of the mine workings. For a very full account, which includes this information plus photographs, and further references, try The Story of Lin Ma Hang Mine as shown in Source 1 […]
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HF: Victor Sit Fung Sheun wrote his BA dissertation in 1969 on a subject of great interest. Namely the enormous changes that were taking place in a number of villages in the valley between Castle Peak (ie Tuen Mun) and Yuen Long. The area had been agricultural but by the end of the 60s a large number of factories had […]
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HF: I learnt about this company through the personal effects of Harry Kin Hong Long who briefly worked for Kung Lee from March to July 1923. Harry worked on two ships, the Kwong Mo and the Tin Ming as can be seen in his appointment letter below. Julia Bradshaw has kindly given permission to quote from her book, Golden Prospects…which finds […]
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