Page:Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China.djvu/237

Rh  firm, which commenced business in 1883, has been responsible for the construction of many of the principal buildings in Hongkong and the coast ports, amongst them being the Government Buildings at Taipo, the new Harbour Offices, Central Market, Tramway and Power Station, Royal Dutch Petroleum Works, Hok-ün Cement Works, Tytam Reservoir, Taikoo Sugar Refinery Reservoirs, and nearly all the buildings at Quarry Bay belonging to Messrs. Butterfield &amp; Swire, the godowns and retort house of the Gas Company, the German Consulate at Canton, and many large private residences. The firm laid the foundations of Jardine's Cotton Factory at Causeway Bay, and is now engaged in the erection of the new Law Courts. It has quarries of its own at Ly-ee-mùn Pass, and supplied dock stones for the Naval Yard extension as well as for the Praya Reclamation. Employment is afforded to some thousands of men. The founder, Mr. Chan A Tong, died in 1904, aged sixty years. His eldest son, Mr. Peter Chan A Tong, is the head of the concern, and he and his younger brother, Mr. Joseph Chan A Tong, are the only partners in the business. They are the sole proprietors of the business of Messrs. C. L. King &amp; Co., Florida water manufacturers, whose registered trade-mark "Double Dragon" brand is known throughout the East. Mr. Peter Chan A Tong is a director of the Weldon House, Ltd., Hongkong. Both brothers are partners in the foreign-import and export firm of Messrs. Fernandez &amp; Co., carrying on business at the above address. The firm has a brick factory at Whampoa worked by English machiherymachinery [sic] of the latest design. Messrs. Chan A Tong are large property owners, most of the European houses on both sides of the streets at Morrison Hill Road belonging to them, and they are owners, also, of several graphite, molybdenum, and silver-lead mines in Kwangsi Province. There is a branch of the firm at Canton.



 contracting firm of A. Tan has been established in the Colony for about half a century. The founder, a native of the neighbouring province of Kwangtung, started business in a small way in Hongkong, and in a comparatively short space of time built up a large and remunerative connection. The firm are contractors to the Government, and have been entrusted with several very important undertakings for the War Department, included among which are alterations to numerous forts and barracks in the Colony, and the construction of the Gun Club Hill Barracks, Kennedy Road Married Quarters, and the Jubilee Hospital at the Peak. The firm also built the Foo Moon Forts at Canton, and carried out a great deal of work in the north under the direction of the late Li Hung Chang, with whom Mr. A. Tan made a tour. In recognition of the excellent way in which the contracts for the Chinese Government were carried through, a title was conferred on Mr. A. Tan by the Viceroy of Canton. The business is now conducted by the sons of the former proprietor, for Mr. A. Tan died some two years ago. The offices are at Nos. 63 and 65, Queen's Road East, and are under the control of Chan Sui Wai, Young A. Tan, and Chan How. The brothers have all been taught English at Queen's College, and are well qualified to maintain the firm's reputation in the Colony.





establishment of this firm in the Colony dates back forty-five years, and during the whole of that time it has occupied a leading position amongst the Chinese hongs of the Colony. Its founder was Mr. Ko Mah Wah, a native of Swatow, where the family house is still maintained. The present proprietors of the business are his sons, Messrs. Ko Soon Kum, Ko Yick Kum, Ko Fai Seck, and Ko Wan Kum. The first-named lives at Hongkong, whilst his brothers visit from time to time the various places in which the firm has interests. The firm is chiefly concerned in the rice trade, both import and export, and in the handling of general cargo. It owns five rice mills at Bangkok, and a large part of the product of these mills is brought to the Colony. The Yuen Fat Hong acts as agent for the Norddeutscher Lloyd's Bangkok-Hongkong line of steamers, and has a branch office in the Siamese port. The Hongkong offices are situated at No. 10, Bonham Strand West. Mr. Ko Soon Kum, the local manager, is a large property owner in the Colony, and is one of the recognised leaders of the Swatow community. He is a Chinese scholar, having passed a high degree in his own language, and he is careful to see that his nineteen children receive an excellent education. He has a son in Siam and another in Singapore. In addition to his other interests, he is chairman of the Man On Insurance Company, whilst as a former member of the Tung Wah Hospital Committee he has been actively associated with practical philanthropy. 

 , head of the well-known firm of Kwong Hee Ying, and compradore to the Pacific Mail, Occidental and Oriental, Toyo Kisen Kaisha, and the Portland and Asiatic Steamship Companies, is one of the most enterprising and up-to-date Chinese commercial men in the Colony. He received his training in Western business methods in America, in which country he resided for many years. He was the proprietor, among other concerns, of a boot and shoe factory equipped with all the latest machinery and employing some 350 Chinese and 70 Europeans. So well did he succeed that he sent for his brother and his nephew to join him, and embarked upon a general import and export trade between China and America. Deciding to return to China, Mr. Quan Kai secured several valuable agencies in San Francisco, and for some years supplied these houses with goods from Hongkong. At the present time he is agent for one of the largest American flour-milling companies, the Portland Flour Mills Company, of Portland, Oregon, U.S.A. The fourteen mills operated by this firm are capable of turning out some 15,000 barrels of flour a day; for years they have been doing a very extensive business in Hongkong, and the whole of their trade in China, the Straits Settlements, and the Philippine Islands is entrusted to Mr. Quan Kai. Besides having all these important interests, he is the proprietor of a large silk store in Canton, and carries on an extensive general import and export trade. The Hongkong office of Kwong Hee Ying is No. 264, Des Voeux Road Central. At Canton the business is carried on under the style of Quan Kai &amp; Bros., the partners being Mr. Quan Kai, his brother, Mr. Quan Sam, and his nephew, Mr. Quan Jow. Their branches and agencies include San For &amp; Co., Retalulen; How Sang Chong, Son Sonate;