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Toh Han Shih

The  port city of Ningbo still has weighty influence in Hong Kong, thanks to its many links with prominent Hongkongers, including Henry Fan Hung-ling, Sir Yue-kong Pao,  the Koo family and former chief executive Tung Chee-hwa.
Mr Fan recalled how as a young man, he was entrusted by  Sir Yue-kong with disbursing pocket money to the late shipping tycoon's daughters.
'Sir Y.K.  was my boss. After graduating from university, my first job was in  his shipping company. I got to know him personally when I was posted to Tokyo, where I became his personal assistant,' he said.
Mr Fan has since become an important  figure in his own right.
He is deputy chairman of  Cathay Pacific Airways, and managing director of Citic Pacific, a  Hong Kong-listed conglomerate which owns stakes in a range of businesses, including a 17.5 per cent stake in Cathay Pacific.
Mr Fan also holds  positions in the Hong Kong government, including chairmanship of the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Association.
He was speaking recently  at the Ningbo-Hong Kong Economic Co-operation Forum. Mr Fan and  Pao share the same ancestral hometown, Ningbo,  160km  south of Shanghai.  Pao was born in Ningbo in 1918.
'I am part of the Hong Kong Ningbo gang, but I don't fully qualify. I was born in Shanghai, and moved to Hong Kong when I was four years old. I made my first visit to Ningbo when I was 47 years old,'  Mr Fan said.
Ningbo has a sculpture of the late leader Deng Xiaoping shaking hands with  Pao. In 1984, Deng, who was spearheading the country's economic reform, urged 'the Ningbo gang be mobilised worldwide to build up Ningbo'.
During the 1980s,  Pao played a key role in getting Ningbo to obtain foreign trading rights and direct contact with foreign businesses. In 1987, the  central government granted Ningbo this privilege, which was shared by only a few  mainland cities.
Hong Kong has an estimated 150,000 people of Ningbo ancestry. They include Mr Tung, the former  chief executive,  movie mogul Sir Run Run Shaw, actor-director Stephen Chow Sing-chi  and  textile businessmen such as  Chen Din-hwa and Chao Kuang-piu.
Kenneth Koo, the present chairman of Tai Chong Cheang Steamship (TCC), said: 'My father and Tung Chee-hwa were born in Shanghai, with roots in Ningbo. My family and the Tung family's shipping businesses originated in Shanghai.'
Mr Koo's late grandfather, Koo Chung-shui,  was the father-in-law of Mr Tung's father, Tung Chao-yung.  In 1947,  Mr Tung founded what is today Overseas Orient (International) Ltd (OOIL).
Mr Koo founded the Valles Group in Shanghai in 1910, which provided cargo liner services. During the 1920s, he founded TCC in Shanghai, which today is  based in Hong Kong and Singapore with over 18 ships.
His  son, Koo Kou-hwa,  started the Ningbo-Hong Kong Economic Forum with the Ningbo government in 2002. In the past six sessions,  Ningbo attracted  US$1.24 billion of  investment from  Hong Kong,  according to the Ningbo government.
In December 2005, Ningbo port merged with the neighbouring port on the Zhoushan islands, to better compete with Shanghai's deepwater port, Yangshan, which opened the same month. The merger of the Ningbo and Zhoushan ports was first proposed by  Mr Koo in 2003, according to the Ningbo government.
When he   died in 2005, his son, Kenneth, took over.
Why did Ningbo turn out shipping families such as the Koos, Paos and Tungs?
'Ningbo people are very closely tied to the sea. The sea and trading businesses are in Ningbo people's blood. So you could say Ningbo people are good traders and good with shipping businesses,' said Basil Hwang, a Singapore lawyer of Ningbo descent.
Ningbo's importance as a port declined after Britain defeated China in the Opium War during the 1840s. The first territory annexed by British forces was the Zhoushan islands off Ningbo, but the British chose Hong Kong over Zhoushan as a permanent settlement. Since then, Europeans preferred the ports of Shanghai and Hong Kong over Ningbo. For this reason, Ningbo-born businessmen such as  Pao,  Mr Tung and  Mr Koo moved to Shanghai.
'Ningbo people tended to gravitate to Shanghai because of its proximity, the similarity of the dialects and most importantly, the business opportunities there,'  Mr Koo said.
Even now, Ningbo people wield considerable influence - both good and bad - in Shanghai.
Han Zheng, the mayor of Shanghai, was born in Ningbo. Chen Liangyu, the former party chief of Shanghai arrested for corruption in September 2006, was also born in Ningbo.
Ningbo's party chief, Bayin Chaolu, admitted that Ningbo lagged far behind Hong Kong and Shanghai in urban development.
However,  he can  take pride in the fact that his city has produced people that have played important roles in Hong Kong and Shanghai.
'Hong Kong is Ningbo's earliest and most important  economic partner. Hong Kong is also a major base of the overseas Ningbo gang,' said Ningbo vice-mayor Wu Hemin.
Hongkongers of Ningbo descent have invested  1.2 billion yuan (HK$1.36 billion) in their hometown. As of August, the cumulative Hong Kong investment in Ningbo was  US$14.2 billion,  Mr Wu said.
Last year,  Ningbo's exports to Hong Kong doubled to US$2.37 billion, making Hong Kong the port city's third-largest trading partner.
An important factor in the booming trade between Hong Kong and Ningbo is the shipping services of OOIL,  said a Ningbo government spokesman.



Old-school ties  with HK live on  in Ningbo scions