What started as a technical school has become a beacon of academic achievement
THE STORY OF The Hong Kong Polytechnic University began in 1937, when the Government Trade School opened in Wan Chai. The school made history as the first government, post-secondary technical learning institution in what was then still a crown colony.
Seventy years ago Hong Kong was something of a regional backwater compared with the glamorous and decadent metropolis that was Shanghai, and sultry Singapore, both of which offered more educational and vocational-learning opportunities.
Under the stewardship of the first principal, George White, the Government Trade School ran courses in construction, mechanical engineering and 'marine-wireless operating'. It also took over the vocational evening practice courses previously run by Taikoo Dockyard (which was a good thing because American B-24 bombers flattened the dockyard in the second world war).
The Japanese occupation from 1941 to 1945 was not a productive or happy time for the school. Historian and former president of the Royal Asiatic Society Dan Waters said: 'Oral history has it that the Trade School building was used for a period as an opium processing plant.'
The sturday old building survived the war, but not the 1980s property boom. It was demolished in 1988.
The school expanded its facilities in 1947 and became the Hong Kong Technical College. Ten years later it moved across the harbour near the tunnel in East Kowloon.
