Legend of Xiangjiang Tycoon

The family of ship king Cao Wenjin owns 44 ships with a total of 1.57 million tons. In addition, the family holds a 40% stake in Wanbang Shipping, a 6.4% stake in the National Shipping Company of Malaysia, and a 70% stake in the National Shipping Company of Thailand.

Cao Wenjin is one of the current world-class ship kings.

Unlike Mr. Xu, Mr. Xu made up his mind to abandon the boat to land, while Mrs. Cao adjusted the tonnage of the fleet at any time according to the global shipping market.

In 1981, at the beginning of the decline of shipping, Cao Wenjin did not hesitate to reduce the number of ships.

By the end of the 1980s, shipping was just beginning to emerge, and Cao spent another HK$980 million to order 5 cargo ships from Japan's Oshima Shipyard.

Mr. Cao believes that he is not optimistic about the shipping industry at present. In the long run, it will inevitably lead to a situation in which the supply exceeds the demand, and the shipping market will improve. Everything has a cycle of ups and downs. Some people say that shipping cannot prosper forever. It should be noted that shipping will not be able to decline like this forever.

Just like the darkness before dawn, it is not an easy task to successfully support the shipping industry until the sun shines. In 1992, Cao Wenjin sighed in an interview with Mr. Lu Shuizhong: Lin Baixin is the big boss of Asia Television, and he has a mantra: "The most important thing to be a person is to rely on yourself!"

"Because the freight is not expensive now, but the cost of the ship is very large. Remember that in 1981 it was shipped from the United States: the freight for a ton of grain to Japan was thirty-eight dollars, but now, it turned out to be twenty dollars! The 10,000-ton ship was worth 670,000 pounds (1 pound was 16 Hong Kong dollars at that time), which means that a ship cost more than 10,000 Hong Kong dollars. If the market value of the year was calculated, it was more than enough to buy an Alexander Building in Central! But , the price of the ship was only 40,000 pounds when it was finally scrapped. Also, in 1980, a 250,000-ton oil tanker cost 70 million dollars, but in 1985 it was only worth 2 million, Three million dollars!

"This business has become more and more complicated and difficult. In fact, the competition in the shipping industry is quite fierce, and the economic downturn in the West has also directly affected the development of the shipping industry. Many large-scale shipping companies have closed down one after another.”

Cao Wenjin is obsessed with shipping, and at the same time, he deeply borrows the principle of "diversifying investment and diversifying risks". Since the late 1950s, he has adopted a strategy of focusing on shipping and diversified development.

Wanbang Group's business covers Southeast Asia, with nearly 20 types of business! Cao's Wanbang Shipping accounts for 1/4 of Wanbang Group's assets, and the family's assets are valued at HK$7 billion.

When commenting on his various investments, Mr. Cao said: "The biggest pain is not investing in real estate in Hong Kong!"

And Li Zhiwen's experience of the world's ship king is even more powerful.

Before liberation, there was a saying in Jiangsu and Zhejiang that "no peace can make business". Doing business is a traditional occupation for Ningbo people. If a Ningbo person stays in his hometown and does not go out in his 10s, he will be considered unpromising.

Ningbo has been an important commercial port on the southeast coast since ancient times. After the Opium War, Ningbo became one of the first four trading ports opened in China.

Chinese businessmen and foreign businessmen gather together, and the dense commercial atmosphere has influenced the people of seven counties (Yin County, Zhenhai, Xiangshan, Fenghua, Dinghai, Shengsi and Cixi) in one city of Ningbo.

Today, there are about 300,000 Ningbo businessmen overseas, forming the Ningbo Gang with strong financial resources, and many of them have become leaders in the business world.

Among the Shanghai businessmen in Hong Kong, the Ningbo Gang is the most popular. Such as textile giants. An Zijie, Chairman of Nanlian Industrial; Wang Kuancheng, former Chairman of the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce and Chairman of Happiness Group; Chen Tinghua, King of Cotton Yarn, founder of Nanfeng Group; Shao Yifu, a film and television rich man and Shaw Brothers; ; Another is Bao Yugang, the protagonist of this chapter.

On the 1st, Bao Yugang was born in the ancestral home of the Bao family in Ningbo. Before that, father Bao Zhaolong had a son Bao Yushu and a daughter Bao Aiju.

After Bao Yugang was born, his mother also gave birth to a son and three daughters, the third son Yuxing, the second daughter Meiju, the third woman Suju, and the fourth daughter Liju.

His father, Bao Zhaolong, opened a Pinghe shoe shop in Hankou. He was open-minded and humorous. He is busy with business and spends few days at home during the year.

Zhongbao Village is a small village on the outskirts of NB City. Bao Yugang went to primary school in Yejiayi Village, a famous local school.

Bao Yugang's grades in the class are not top-notch. However, Ningbo people are not demanding of their offspring's studies. They only require their offspring to be literate and count, and to be able to do business in the future.

There are very few middle schools in Ningbo, and Ningbo teenagers often go to Shanghai and other places to "study teachers" after completing primary school.

Bao Yugang's grades are not top-notch, but his talent is smart. He hates the stereotyped teaching method of memorizing ancient poetry and prose.

Ningbo is dozens of miles from the sea. Once, Bao Yugang went to Zhenhai with his father, took a boat down the Yongjiang River, and finally saw the vast and vast sea.

The water and the sky are the same color, thousands of sails are racing, especially the huge sea ships, like a mountain moving in the sea.

The feeling of seeing the sea for the first time was deeply imprinted in Bao Yugang's young mind.

In 1931, the thirteen-year-old Bao Yugang had just graduated from elementary school and went to Hankou alone. For Ningbo people, it is not surprising that they are alone in the world at a young age.

Bao Yugang went to Shiliyangchang in Shanghai first. Before he could go to the Bund to go shopping and see the scenery, he bought a ferry ticket and took a ferry to Hankou.

Bao Yugang started out helping out at his father's shoe store. One day, Bao Yugang suggested that he wanted to continue his studies. Bao Zhaolong was surprised that doing business is the innate ancestral business of Ningbo people.

Business experience is learned from teachers, not from reading clubs. Bao Zhaolong is an opener, agreeing to his son's extravagant requests.

Ningbo people do not let their descendants read more, not because of lack of money, but because of the secular prejudice of "a scholar who has nothing to do with it".

But this situation has changed a lot in the 1930s and 1940s. Many Ningbo rich people in Shanghai did not hesitate to send their children to study abroad. They said that in the future, when doing business, it would be impossible to eat just by being able to write down the price and plan.

Bao Zhaolong sent his son to a middle school in Hankou. Bao Yugang worked hard and went to his father's shop to help after school or on Sundays.

A few years later, Bao Zhaolong opened Tianbao Bank in Shanghai, and Bao Yugang came to Shanghai with his father, studying and helping at the bank. After graduating from middle school, Bao Yugang joined the Insurance Department of the Central Trust Bureau as a staff member.

He plans to save up some money and go to college. However, the War of Resistance against Japan destroyed Bao Yugang's university dream, and the universities in Shanghai moved south one after another.

Bao Yugang first went back to his hometown in Ningbo, and his newlywed wife Huang Xiuying insisted on walking with her husband. Since 2000, the couple have been close to each other and spent ten years of turbulent and turbulent years together.

This is Bao Yugang's first visit to Hong Kong. In the cool autumn weather, the couple took the Peak Tram, Hong Kong's most distinctive means of transportation, to the summit of Victoria Peak.

In the azure-blue Victoria Harbour, sampans and sea ships shuttle in and out, rolling up white waves. The current situation is very different from what we saw in Ningbo.

The concept of ship and sea was once again deeply imprinted in Bao Yugang's mind.

Soon after Bao Yugang arrived in Kunming, he was dispatched to Hengyang as the director of the Insurance Department of the Hengyang Office of the Central Trust Bureau. He then transferred to ICBC and served as deputy manager of Hengyang branch and manager of Chongqing branch.

In 1945, the Anti-Japanese War was won. Bao Yugang was sent to Shanghai to receive Imperial Bank of Japan assets. After the reorganization, a Shanghai-listed bank was established at the original site.

Bao Yugang, who was only 28 years old, was appointed as the manager of the business department. The following year, Bao was promoted to the deputy general manager of the Shanghai-listed bank, and he was still the manager of the business department. Bao was young and promising, and was highly appreciated by the mayor and deputy mayor of Shanghai at that time.

Bao Yugang's family lives in a house at No. 20 Anting Road. The family has a dance hall and a piano. Bao's family has a special car provided by the bank.

Decades later, Bao Yugang's daughter went to the former residence to visit Nostalgia and found that there were actually 5 families living in it.

Pao earns a lot of money and lives comfortably. But the taste of it, only Bao's heart knows best. Inflation and runs on the bank are rising like waves, and the National Bank has become the target of public scolding.

Pao worked hard to maintain social stability through the role of the bank. But at this time, the party's general trend has gone, and the people's hearts are stabilized.

The second Shanghai mayor after the war said: "With Bao Yugang there, the bank can function normally."

In the spring of 1949, Bao Yugang submitted his resignation to the president. The mayor did not force it to stay, but only asked Bao Yugang to wait until February.

In early March, Bao Yugang left Shanghai with his wife and daughter.

Bao Yugang is an important member of the government-run bank of the Guo Party, and has been valued and promoted by the two mayors before and after.

Bao Yugang is grateful to these bosses. But have a view on the fruit party. At that time, most of the military and political personnel went to Wanwan with the Guo Party, but Bao Yugang went to Hong Kong, the neutral zone.

If the party was defeated and retreated to the mainland, Bao Yugang's career in the financial industry was interrupted. This became an opportunity for Pao to develop his skills in the Hong Kong business community in the future.

Bao Yugang's arrival in Hong Kong coincided with the peak of the "refugee" tide. After the recovery of Hong Kong, the population grew rapidly, but not many houses were built.

Now that so many people are pouring in all of a sudden, the housing shortage is getting worse, and many "refugees" live in temporary tents, or sleep under the roof.

Bao Yugang's family is lucky. Father Bao Zhaolong rented a unit on Seymour Road last year, covering more than 100 square meters and a monthly rent of HK$450.

The monthly rent is not expensive, because the Hong Kong government has restrictions on rent. But in fact, the government's laws don't work, there are more people and fewer rooms, and the top-hand fee has become an open secret.

Bao Zhaolong spent another HK$20,000 top-hand fee. A year later, the HK$20,000 is still cheap.

Bao Zhaolong also had a foresight. Before coming to Hong Kong, he sold all the things that could be sold at home and exchanged them for gold and silver dollars, estimated to be worth hundreds of thousands of Hong Kong dollars.

Bao Yugang is over his thirties, and he does his part to provoke the burden of feeding a family for three generations. He is familiar with the banking industry, and his preferred occupation is, of course, a bank clerk.

At that time, Hong Kong banks, in addition to foreign banks, were also Cantonese banks, and they had to be proficient in English and Cantonese. Bao Yugang is not very proficient in English, but not at all in Cantonese.

After Bao Yugang made a test, he wiped out this idea. Thinking that a few weeks ago, I was a well-known banker in Shanghai, and it was not easy to find a bank job in Hong Kong.

However, this also made Bao Yugang realize more clearly that there will be no free bread anywhere in the world, and everything has to rely on his own efforts.

Pao and his son decided to engage in import and export trade that can advance and retreat, and achieve quick results. At this time, Bao's Shanghai and Ningbo friends often gathered together to discuss issues of livelihood and a way out. Two of his former colleagues at Shanghai Bank agreed with Bao Yugang.

So everyone joined together to form a four-member joint company.

Finding office space is arduous. Coincidentally, a company rented an office building in the Chinese branch of Queen's Road, but could not pay the rent, so they squeezed out a small room for the four-person company of Bao.

Bao Yugang once recalled: "The four were squeezed together, and there was no place to turn around. One had to open the drawer, and the other had to stand outside to make room."

The four-person company is under the supervision of others, and there is no place to hang a sign.

If it wasn't for Bao Yugang to become a giant in the business world in the future, ordinary Hong Kong citizens at that time and in the future would never have known that such a four-person company existed.

They do business in China's native products in obscurity, and the business is relatively smooth, but they are all small-profit businesses and have not shown any major breakthroughs.

The outbreak of the Korean War was nothing short of a bolt from the blue for the British businessmen in Hong Kong who were doing business in the Mainland; it was also a heaven-sent opportunity for Chinese businessmen who were inextricably linked with the Mainland.

Not all those who joined the smuggling of "prohibited materials" to the mainland became rich overnight. Like Huo Yingdong, who jumped from a commoner to a very rich man.

Some people made a lot of money; some people made small profits; some people were flooded with goods and even lost their lives.

There are many factors: luck, guts, routes, goods. Generally speaking, the farther the voyage is, the more profitable it is, so some people will die and sail to the Liaodong Peninsula and North Korea.

Bankers have always been conservative and prudent. The four bosses of the four-person company are all from the banking industry, and their style is inevitably conservative.

They purchased general strategic materials such as chemical raw materials, cast iron ingots, and tires from Europe, and sold them to other businessmen through a third country or the neutral zone Lisboa.

Other merchants ship to the mainland and have a direct relationship with the relevant departments. Obviously, it is the latter type of businessmen who are most profitable, but the risks are also high.

Bao Yugang and others do not seek huge profits, but seek peace. Due to the large volume, the profit is also considerable.

With the end of the Korean War, UU Reading www.uukanshu.com, the "pig cage into the water" business abruptly stopped.

The four-person company changed to the livelihood business, buying sugar from Wanwan; then handing over a company to sell it to the mainland.

During the Korean War, members of the Pao family continued to join the company due to the expansion of the business.

The staff expanded, but the business was reduced to sugar. The Pao and his son were very anxious, so they came up with the idea of ​​going out to the mainland to open up business channels.

Bao Yugang was a "senior official" in a Shanghai-listed government bank. Bao Zhaolong decided to go by himself and revisit his business friends in Shanghai as a private businessman. When they arrived in Shanghai, those old friends were silent, lest they should avoid them in a hurry.

Bao Zhaolong said that as soon as there is good news, he will communicate with his family immediately. Even after several weeks of waiting, there was no news from Bao Zhaolong, and the family was very anxious, and they did not dare to go to Shanghai rashly.

"So, the mainland doesn't need us to do business with them?" asked Bao Yuxing, the third son of Bao Zhaolong.

"Yes, father!" Bao Yuxing said.

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