Officials and business magnates paid tribute yesterday to philanthropist tobacco tycoon Ho Ying-chie.
About 200 mourners attended Ho's funeral at the Hong Kong Funeral Parlour yesterday following his death in hospital at the age of 89 last week.
Those paying tribute included Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa, Financial Secretary Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, New World Development chairman Cheng Yu-tung, Cable & Wireless HKT chief executive Linus Cheung Wing-lam and movie star Jackie Chan.
Wreaths from Vice-Premier Qian Qichen and head of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office Liao Hui were placed at the front of the funeral hall.
Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai, president of the Legislative Council, praised Ho's support for charity. 'He was always low-profile. But he was always the first when it came to charity.' Mrs Fan said Ho had donated more than $1 billion to the Tung Wah Group, the Hong Kong Society for the Blind, Orbis, Red Cross and other disaster relief agencies on the mainland.
'When we talked about celebrating the handover, Mr Ho said he wanted to support it,' Mrs Fan said. 'He held up two fingers and asked me if that was enough. I thought he was talking about $2 million and thought that was great. But he was in fact saying $20 million.' Born in 1911 in Pudong, Shanghai, Ho set up a printing factory with initial capital of 2,000 yuan when he was 20.