Hi everyone! A few questions. How would someone travel from Canton to Hong Kong in the late 50s-early 60s? Which ports in Canton and HK would have been used? My grandma moved to HK in 1961 aged 20. She worked as an accountant at a factory that made leather gloves - any ideas of where abouts this factory would have been?
Also, does anyone have any pictures/experience of living in an apartment at that time, and what were they like? I know most people here are probably white middle class, but I am interested in seeing apartments that the Chinese would have lived in. <Read more ...>
Jan Wesselingh was an employee of Netherlands Harbour Works Co. from Amsterdam, working in Guangzhou (Canton) before WWII and in Hong Kong after WWII. I was brought in contact with two of his sons by Theodor A.R. Strauss, 1988-1993 secretary of Nederlandse Reünisten Vereniging China (NRCV, Dutch Reunists Association China), of which Jan Wesselingh was a member.
Can you please help to find out more about the meaning of the figurines?
Jan Wesselingh was an employee of Netherlands Harbour Works Co. from Amsterdam, working in Guangzhou (Canton) before WWII and in Hong Kong after WWII. I was brought in contact with two of his sons by Theodor A.R. Strauss, 1988-1993 secretary of Nederlandse Reünisten Vereniging China (NRCV, Dutch Reunists Association China), of which Jan Wesselingh was a member.
Charles Gesner van der Voort had started his career in Rotterdam, at Holland-China Trading Company (HCHC). In 1938, he went to Shanghai for the firm. The Japanese interned him, and most other Dutch nationals, from 1943-45. In camp, he met his wife Nancy and they married after the war. After a leave in The Netherlands, they returned to the Orient, where Charles continued to work for HCHC in Hong Kong.
Twenty years before Charles started, in 1918, a photo album was made of the Hong Kong office and office staff. The Guangzhou office was also photographed. <Read more ...>
Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos):
Charles Gesner van der Voort had started his career in Rotterdam, at Holland-China Trading Company (HCHC). In 1938, he went to Shanghai for the firm. The Japanese interned him, and most other Dutch nationals, from 1943-45. In camp, he met his wife Nancy and they married after the war. After a leave in The Netherlands, they returned to the Orient, where Charles continued to work for HCHC in Hong Kong. <Read more ...>
Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos):
Charles Gesner van der Voort had started his career in Rotterdam, at Holland-China Trading Company (HCHC). In 1938, he went to Shanghai for the firm. The Japanese interned him, and most other Dutch nationals, from 1943-45. In camp, he met his wife Nancy and they married after the war. After a leave in The Netherlands, they returned to the Orient, where Charles continued to work for HCHC in Hong Kong.
Twenty years before Charles started, in 1918, a photo album was made of the Hong Kong office and office staff. This photo shows the Guangzhou office, Canton at the time. <Read more ...>
Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos):
Charles Gesner van der Voort worked for Holland-China Trading Company (HCHC) in Shanghai. This photo shows one of its first directors, Willem Kien, standing at the quay in Macau.
On the photo, a steamer is about to board in Macau. The workmen are ready to connect a walking bridge, there is a crowd at the quay and a line of passengers waiting to board. It looks like the photo was taken from the arriving ship.
