In the Shadow of Big Business

On the east side of the island of Hong Kong is this place:

As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, Tai Koo (太古) is a common name to come across in this city, as it is the local name for the Swire Group, a British corporation founded in Liverpool, 1862 by a man named John Swire.  As he wanted to create an import-export company, it was natural for him to set up a base in Hong Kong, the most important British possession in the Far East.

As far as I can tell, there is no etymology behind the Chinese name Tai Koo, which roughly translates to "great ancient".  The Swire Group was one of the original Hongs (行) in the city, businesses that drove its early economic growth.  It remains one of the most powerful corporations in Hong Kong today, owning several desirable swaths of land, multiple businesses (including Hong Kong's flag carrier airline, Cathay Pacific [國泰航空]), and other holdings across the world.

So why would this MTR station be named Tai Koo?  Originally, this area was entirely owned by various Swire organizations, and when it was redeveloped for residential purposes, it was mostly planned and developed by Swire, called Island East (港島東).  It's a basically self-contained town, with a huge shopping complex in the middle and various office towers surrounded by residential units.

Immediately to the north of Island East is Kornhill, another basically self-contained development named after the hill on which the manager of Swire's old sugar operations, Ferdinand Korn, lived.  It was developed by another familiar corporation:

  

Yep.  The MTR, in addition to running the rapid transit system in the city, also develops property.  Originally, this was due to the huge swaths of land that it owned (in the form of railway yards) that could be built on.  Over time, the MTR became more and more involved in property, and it became a larger and larger part of its portfolio.  Today, the main source of income for the corporation is property, a large part of the reason why it is profitable.  (Take note: unless you start building apartments on top of huge railway yards, a private rapid transit company is not going to be profitable, even in a place like Hong Kong!)

Oh, and they're insane about their hygiene here.  Signs like this one above are everywhere in the city, and once every four hours is considered very little - many places, especially malls, clean their elevators once every hour or so.

We had a friend on the 20th floor of one of the Kornhill apartments:

And on the walk down to lunch, we passed a large chunk of the development:

complete with its own schools:

One Island East in the distance, at 298m still taller than First Canadian Place.

Recreation complexes:

And not pictured, but its own mall.

The shopping centre at the centre of Island East is !Cityplaza (as stylized).

In most public areas, pertinent weather announcements such as typhoon signals or rainstorm warnings are posted:

You can see the Swire logo at the bottom!

And it turned out that it was raining quite heavily...

There are three levels of rainstorm warnings: Amber, Red, and Black, each signifying an increased severity in the downpour.  It's been raining nonstop since the typhoon hit!

We ate at another place owned by a huge conglomerate:

Maxim's Palace (美心皇宮), a Chinese restaurant chain owned by Maxim's Catering, a restaurant group that also includes Maxim's MX fast food, Maxim's Cakes, Maxim's..., Maxim's...

...oh, they also own all the local Starbucks, of which there are well over a hundred.

Maxim's Catering is in turn owned by the conglomerate Dairy Farm (牛奶公司, lit. "milk company"), which also owns the local 7-Elevens, Ikea, the supermarket chain Wellcome...

You get the point.

Maxim's Palace is an upscale, posh version of the traditional "serious" Chinese restaurant, and as such, serves (overpriced) dim sum at breakfast and lunch hours.  (At least they still use the old carts filled with stacks of bamboo baskets to sell their dim sum!)

Something I had never seen before:

Pickled garlic.  Apparently an appetizer.

Now, most of these dishes I couldn't even name when I was eating them, so here are the pics:

Tripe!

This one was memorably unnecessary, however:

Siu mai (without wrappers!) topped with scallops, oysters, and shittake.  "High Class", and not even that tasty (although I have been spoiled by Tim Ho Wan)

The dessert was sesame filled steamed buns: