HF: With thanks to moddsey for pointing out a couple of sources. The banking industry began in Hong Kong in 1845 with the opening of a branch of the Oriental Banking Corporation, which had its headquarters in India. This Bank was also the first bank in Hong Kong to issue banknotes when in 1847 “it put in circulation $56,000 worth of […]
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Many thanks to IDJ for sending in this article. As he says, a company ahead of its time! HF: The article was pretty legible but I thought I would retype it anyway. Any further information about, or image of the company would be very useful. There has recently been started in Hong Kong an industry which should prove of enormous […]
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York Lo: Howah, Blue Heaven and BG: three key players in the post-war HK lighting industry With the housing and hotel/restaurant boom in the 1960s and 1970s, lighting products such as lamps and chandeliers became a huge business in Hong Kong and like the wallpaper industry covered earlier in another article, majority of the products were imported from the US […]
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York Lo: Chan Chart-man (陳策文) – Developer and King of Pawnshops In March 2013, Oi Wah Pawnshop Credit Holdings became the first operator of pawnshops to go public in HK. Its founder Chan Chart-man had been involved in property development since the 1960s and although a relative newcomer in the centuries-old pawnshop industry, he and his family built the largest […]
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York Lo: Richard C.K. Chan (陳卓堅): timber baron, shipping tycoon and stamp collector Left: Richard C.K. Chan (standing) delivering a speech to the press as head of the Timber Guild in 1962. To his left were Wong Shui-leung of Kwong Chan Timber, Kan Chi-nam of Wing Tai Cheung and Leung Kam-tong of Hip Shing Timber (WKYP, 1962-12-18); right: cover of […]
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HF: While on holiday recently in Aberystwyth, Wales, UK, I came across this memorial photograph of Able Seaman, C Williams. The ‘Hongkong Dockyard’ could refer to either of the two large shipyards in 1910, Taikoo, or HK and Whampoa. However the latter was more usually known as Kowloon Docks so I am guessing AB Williams died at Taikoo on HK […]
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York Lo: Ha Lung Hong (合隆行) and the New Zealand Deer Velvet Trade Left to right: Bill Bong’s mother C.Y. Loh, fellow Shanghainese businessman C.L. Hsu, Leo Lee, Bill Bong, Tung Wah chairman Charles Lui, Mrs. Lui, Bill Bong’s wife Ling Yuk-chun(KSDN, 1973-9-25) Chinese medicine is one of the oldest industries in Hong Kongand in the 1960s,Ha Lung Hong Medicine […]
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Thanks to IDJ for sending in this article thereby enlarging our knowledge about the collection of nightsoil in Hong Kong and hopefully making us appreciate the modern collection and treatment of sewage. Thanks also to SCT for proofreading the retyped article. New nightsoil removal methods in Hongkong Combating the Cholera Menace in the Colony Drastic changes in the present method […]
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York Lo: Luen Fook Hong (聯福行) Two views of Luen Fook Hong at David House on Des Voeux Road in Central. The color picture on the left was likely taken during the Christmas season in the 1950s while the black and white picture on the right was taken by Harrison Forman in 1941.(Gwulo) From the 1930s to the 1960s, Luen […]
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Philip Edward Kenny: These days it’s the location of an MTR station which gets tourists to nearby Disneyland on Lantau Island, but in 1983 it was the location used for a scene in the film Project A, when Sammo Hung leads the gangsters to his cache of hidden guns only to find that Jackie Chan has beaten him to it – […]
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