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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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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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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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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York Lo: From Curios and Jewelry to Soy Milk and Cinemas – the 150 year old saga of the Shiu Lock Hing family Several articles on the website have covered Chinese family businesses in Hong Kong which have existed for not only a century but close to or over 150 years – these include Kwong Fat Yuen Hong in the […]
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IDJ has sent the following article about F. Blackhead & Company written about 1908: In the early days, before the establishment of Hongkong as a British Colony, Whampoa was the farthest point to which the Chinese permitted foreign ships to proceed up the West River. Many difficulties were experienced at this port by vessels in obtaining stores, and it was […]
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York Lo:The Wong Brothers of Yuen Kee Hong – from Preserved Ginger to Metals and Frozen Meats In the article about aluminum industry pioneers Wah Chong and Ting Tai, we have mentioned about Yuen Fung Metal Works, one of the four firms which partnered up with Wah Chong and Ting Tai to form the sales consortium known as Aluminium Manufactures […]
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HF: Ma On Shan Iron Mine 1906-1976 – biggest mine in HK is one of the most read articles on the website. This is a sister piece about the company that is supposed to have supplied and/or operated an underground railway(s) at the mine. I said when I posted this article in May 2014 I could find nothing out about Kuhn […]
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York Lo: Five Stars (五星牌) and Three Rings (三元牌) – Aluminum Pioneers Wah Chong (華錩) and Ting Tai (鼎大) Production of aluminum (or aluminium based on the British spelling) sheets and products in Hong Kong began in 1949 with two firms – Wah Chong, the maker of the “Five Stars” brand of aluminum ware which opened its branch factory in […]
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