York Lo: Y.C. Liang and HK Macao Hydrofoil Left: a scene from the 1974 James Bond movie The Man with the Golden Gun in front of the HK Macau Hydrofoil ticketing booth; Right: a HKMH ticket from 1983 In the history of transportation between Hong Kong and Macau, the legendary Yuen-Cheong Liang CBE (梁潤昌, but better known as Liang Cheong […]
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“Getz Bros. & Co.- America’s largest non-commodity international marketing and services company – traces its beginnings to 1860 and a place called Lower Lake, California, a frontier area one hundred miles north of San Francisco. Joseph Getz, a Prussian immigrant, opened a general store there that served farmers in the area, selling dry goods and groceries. By the early 1880s […]
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York Lo: Shum Choy-wah (岑載華) – HK Industrial Leader from the 1940s to the 1960s Left: Portrait of Shum Choy-wah wearing his medal of honor (Kung Sheung Daily News, 1969-12-26); Right: Shum Choy-wah and fellow CMA leaders posing with the Governor at the Amoy Canning booth at the 7th Chinese Products Expo in 1949. From left to right: Wong Tok-sau, Governor […]
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HF: Desalination (or “Desalting” as it appeared to be called at that time) was a source of water in Hong Kong between 1975 and 1981. A large desalination plant was commissioned at Lok On Pai, near Tuen Mun, in 1975, but was decommissioned in 1981 because its operation was more expensive than importing water from Dongjiang in China. A Water Supplies […]
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York Lo: Founding Fathers of the HK Fur Industry: Stephen Fong of Siberian Fur and Michael Sun of Hong Kong Fur For a city with a sub-tropical climate, Hong Kong seems an unlikely place to emerge as the world’s biggest exporter of fine fur garments and accessories with export sales of over HK$2.5 billion and local sales of HK$125 mil […]
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“Kenneth Alfred Wolfe Barry (c1879-1936) Second son of John Wolfe Barry Partner in business with his father, along with A.G. Lyster, Past President of the Institution of Civil Engineers, and G. E. W Crutwell, M. Inst. C.E. J. S. 1936 Obituary: Kenneth Alfred Wolfe Barry , O.B.E., was the senior partner in the firm of Sir John Wolfe Barry and Partners. […]
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York Lo: “The Prince of Garments”: Wong Mee of Sweetmart and Carlo Wong’s Factory Building in Tsuen Wan; Right: HK garment pioneer Wong Mee In October 2017, the 23 story Wong’s Factory Building (王子工業大廈) at 368-370 Sha Tsui Road in Tsuen Wan was sold for HK$1.23 billion. (Building was valued by HSBC at $80-90 million in 2005 according to court […]
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HF: Alfred Herbert Rennie, came to Hong Kong from Canada as the sales representative of the American Company, Portland Flouring Mills. He started the Hongkong Milling Company in what was then called Junk Bay. However, despite backing from several prominent local businessmen his company quickly became mired in multiple problems and Rennie committed suicide while travelling by boat to his […]
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York Lo: Maui-Kong Ve-Pein (妙供味本廠) – Pioneer of the HK Gourmet Powder Industry Left: the pai portal of Maui-Kong Ve-Pein on Victoria Road in Mt. Davis today. Right: Maui Kong founder Chang Shun-yen in the early 1950s Near 406 Victoria Road in Mount Davis by the west coast of Hong Kong island is a Chinese pai portal obscured by trees […]
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York Lo: Faithful Trading and Polytek Engineering Industrial trading and engineering firms such as China Engineers, Reiss Bradley and Andersen Meyer covered earlier in other articles played an important role in the industrial development of Hong Kong and the broader region as they facilitated the necessary technology transfer from the West by acting as importers and installers of state of the […]
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