Hong (Chinese word)
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From the early 19th to the 20th century, a hong referred to a trading company or store out of Hong Kong, Macau and Canton, China that did internal trade with southern China. The term is transliterated from the Cantonese word 行.
In Qing dynasty, Westerners lived and traded in the Thirteen Hongs, or Thirteen Factories, in Canton City.
James Clavell's novel Noble House gives an introduction to the intrigue, the means of financing everything from tea exports to opium imports.
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[edit] Trading Companies (洋行)
- Hutchison Whampoa (和記黃埔)
- Swire Group (太古) - formerly Butterfield and Swire
- Jardine Matheson Holdings Limited (怡和洋行)
[edit] Stores (行)
- Nam Pak Hong (南北行) (trader of Chinese medicine from North China)
[edit] Individuals
Hong, Alex Lau's driver man.
[edit] Notes
- The Chinese word 行 has two pronunciations. "Hang" (Mandarin equivalent of "Hong") also means a row or a line, while "Xing" also means to go, to proceed, to walk, to circulate, to carry out, to commit etc.
- Many other Cantonese words, such as 香 and 康, can also be transliterated as Hong.
