Stephen Davies: The interesting thing about Cosmopolitan Dock – unique in HK and quite uncommon elsewhere – is that it was designed from the outset as two docks in one; an inner and an outer. The dock had a fat, slightly shorter outer part (212 x 100 feet) and a slightly narrower, slightly longer inner part (234 x 83 feet – […]
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Martyn Cornell has kindly given permission for extracts from his article, A Short History of Beer in Hong Kong, to be posted on our website. The article was published in the Journal of the Brewery History Society, Brewery History, Issue 156, 2012 Martyn has his own blog, Zythophile – Beer now and then, linked below. Despite its title the article is […]
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York Lo: Kwoon Kwen Metal Ware (冠群金屬製品廠) Left: Kwoon Kwen ad in 1955 (HK Pun U District Association); Right: Kwoon Kwen founder Li Yan (HK Pun U District Association, 1959) Kwoon Kwen Metal Ware, a leading manufacturer of luggage locks and other metal products, was founded in 1948 (although as a firm it was not incorporated until 1965) by Li […]
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HF: An SCMP article from September 2006 said “The city’s four dominant asphalt manufacturers are Pioneer Asphalts (Hong Kong), Anderson Asphalt, Asphalt Surfaces (International) and Tarmac Asphalt Hong Kong, and they produce about 1 million tonnes of asphalt a year… The four companies comprise the Asphalt and Macadam Association of Hong Kong.” Anderson Asphalt Ltd Anderson Asphalt Limited, a wholly owned […]
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York Lo: Tak Chuen Distillery (德泉酒庄) and “Double Happiness” Wines Left: Ko Ho-ning; Center: Close-up of Tak Chuen’s display at the 1954 (KSEN, 1954-1-13); Right: Yau Chi-ho, manager of Tak Chuen (HK Pun U District Association) While the family of Ko Ho-ning (高可寧, 1878-1955) might be best known for their pawn shops, many properties, movie star daughters in law (Grace […]
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The Gutta Percha Company by Bill Burns The following paragraphs are extracted from Bill’s article, with his permission, which can be found on his large and absorbing website. The article can be read in full via the link below, along with an extract from the book “London by day and night:or, Men and things in the great metropolis” by David W. Bartlett, […]
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York Lo: Lin’s (Kwong Ming) Enterprises (連氏光明) and Kwong Ming Knitting Factory Picture and obituary of family patriarch Lin Yan-yee (WKYP, 1978-6-19); Right: Lin Siu-man (WKYP, 1982-9-1) The Lin family came from Chaoyang in Chiuchow and has been a notable player in the knitwear, garment, handbag and shoe industry in HK for over half a century through their Lin’s (Kwong […]
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HF: Many thanks to IDJ for sending this newspaper article about the preserved ginger industry in Hong Kong in 1947. The article was published in the Hong Kong Sunday Herald of 7th June 1947. I’m not sure if ginger was HK’s oldest industry with both the manufacturing of salt from sea water and quarrying of rock being very old. However, […]
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IDJ has kindly sent this article about the Hong Kong Rubber Manufactory Company extracted from the Hong Kong Sunday Herald 26th July 1936. HF: Even when enlarged the original article was not always easy to read, indicated by [] in the retyped version, and I would be grateful to have any errors pointed out in my attempt to retype the […]
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York Lo: From Saigon to HK and Rice to Corduroys: the Wong family of Wong Cheong Fung, King’s Dyeing, Corona Textile, and Perfecta Wong Min-ching (third from left) with his sons and grandchildren in the mid-1960s. (Courtesy of John Huynh) Natives of Chiuchow, the Wong family immigrated to Vietnam where they built one of the first and largest textile mills […]
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