Hongkong Tak Seng On Casa De Penhores, Macau History

Hongkong Tak Seng On Casa De Penhores, Macau History

Arek Madiun   2:38 AM   Comment  

A couple of months ago I posted about the imminent demolition of the Tung Tak Pawn Shop - one of only four remaining curved Canton-style (i.e. with supporting front pillars) buildings left in Hong Kong. Sadly it looks as though that sad matter is being seen through to the end by its owner. So, rather than dwell on the negative in HK, let's head over to Macau (or Macao, if you prefer) and have a look at a nicely preserved example of Macanese pawnshoppery.

For those who don�t speak Portuguese (me included), Casa De Penhores is the Portuguese name for a pawnshop (lit: house of pledges). The Tak Seng On is one of the most famous pawnshops in Macau and sits on the Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro next to Senado Square.

Tak Seng On was first opened in 1917 by a Mr Kou Ho-ning, who established it along the lines of one of three types of allowed business: accepting pawned items for a period of up to two years for cash advances paid out at certain interest rates (in general not too high, but not too low either).

Tak Seng On was forced out of business in the 1980�s (mainly due to advances in banking sophistication and changes in the nature of the pawn business) but thanks to the foresightedness of the Macanese authorities (via the Cultural Institute), the building wasn�t ripped down and replaced by a generic glass office block (as would happen in Hong Kong) but was instead restored to its former glory and turned into a pawnshop museum in 2003.

Just to back-pedal a little bit to discuss the aforementioned two-year term of loan. This is how long the pawnshop would keep the pawned item before it exercised its ownership over the collateral. The shop needed vast amounts of space to hold these items and as a result had a large castle-like tower at the back, affording large amounts of well protected storage space. As you can see from the photo below, the tower like structure is reminiscent of the watchtowers that form part of the fortifications at many walled villages in the New Territories. The small narrow windows making it difficult to break into.

In case you are distracted by the beautiful building on the left, the pawnshop tower is centre photo and you can see the balconies of the pawnshop on the right.

When I originally posted this article, the nice chappy from the Hong Kong and Macau Rough Guide, David Leffman, got in touch and added his own little tidbit.

Tak Seng Lau museum has restored the interior to much as it was during the pawn shop days, with the counter inside for staring down at customers and a few cases of bits and pieces relating to the trade. The rear storehouse tower you mention seemed totally authentic and very secure, lots of old wooden flooring and scaffolding, barred doors and tiny windows. Other parts of the building have, if I remember correctly, been turned into trinket shops, with a library on the top floor for Jin Yong�s (Louis Cha) martial arts novels.

So there you have it, not only a pawnshop museum but also a Louis Cha library - two good reasons to head to the place if you are in the vicinity.

Actually, Tak Seng On isn't the only pawnshop building still standing. There is also the nearby (on the opposite side of the road) Cheung Tai Dai On Pawnshop. This one hasn't had the honour of being turned into a museum of any sort (not that I know of) but does that the obscure honour of briefly being glimpsed during the Shanghai-set chase scenes of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom that were filmed in Macau. Just as a reminder here is the pawnshop I am talking about. It has a very distinctive open arch at the front making it quite easy to recognise on the film (see bottom screen capture).

Cheung Tai Dai On Pawnshop

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Hongkong Iec Long Fabrica De Panchoes, Macau History

Hongkong Iec Long Fabrica De Panchoes, Macau History

Arek Madiun   6:22 AM   Comment  

I've just realised that despite this blog's name and the fact that I have been moving my posts over here now for almost a year, I've only managed to publish a single article about Macau. Time to change that, I think, with this old post concerning the Iec (pronounced "Yeck") Long Fabrica De Panchoes in Taipa village.

The old Taipa village area is one of my favourite places to wander around when I get over to Macau (less frequently these days). It�s quite picturesque with lots of small lanes, old houses and temples and, as such, has been featured in quite a few film sover the years. Just to the south of the village is a long thin road called Rua Fernao Mendes Pinto. The road actually separates the main village from the small hill behind that houses the Carmel Church. It's a narrow road and when it has no traffic on it looks like you have stepped back a couple of centuries � that is until another great big tourist coach comes speeding down the road.

Here is a quick snap of the road complete with the aforementioned bus that just shouldn�t be allowed to go down this route (way too dangerous if you are a pedestrian).

Notice the yellowing wall on the left hand side. This wall marks the boundary of the old firework factory area. In fact in a few places along this wall you can see some Chinese characters written in yellow and black paint. Here are two of them.

?? (Gung Cheung)

Reading right to left you can see the characters ?? (Gung Cheung) � one of the Chinese terms for a factory or industrial building. If you were walking along the whole wall you would eventually see the full name of the firework company: ?????? (Yik Lung Pau Juk Gung Cheung).

Firecracker production was once one of the staple industries in Macau and several companies operated from the territory, Iec Lung being one of two that still has remnants to be found here in Taipa (down the road you can also find the old entrance to the Him Yuen Yick Kei Chan firework factory - but I'll leave that one for another post). It seems as though as it stands you have to be very lucky to get a look inside the compound as the gates are usually locked.

Locked gate

Iec Lung was founded by the Tang family circa 1923 and went on to become the second largest firecracker company in Macau � operating out of this base on Taipa. It was based on Taipa because making firecrackers was an extremely dangerous undertaking, as you can imagine, and Taipa was fairly remote in terms of local population. This fact that was demonstrated a couple of years later when a huge explosion at a firecracker factory on the peninsula (a competitor company called Toi San) killed nearly two hundred people! From that time onwards (around 1925) all firecracker production was moved over to Taipa and Coloane.

The site in Taipa was large enough to contain all the necessary areas for the complete production of firecrackers � each stage of the process took place in a different building to lessen the chance of catastrophe and, believe it or not, there is a water channel inside the compound that was originally connected to the harbour front to allow the direct transfer of raw materials from a ship straight to the storage buildings. Likewise, the finished product could be reloaded back onto the ships and sent off to their respective destinations. There was even a temple inside the compound dedicated to the god, Lei Cheng, who was supposed to look over the safety of the compound (though it seems he wasn�t always looking in the right direction) and at its peak the factory company employed 600 people with the workload split into male and female work: men doing the hazardous stuff and women taking care of the, supposedly more, delicate (though equally hazardous in my opinion) work of assembly and hole making for fuses.

The original site of Iec Long seems to have been considerably smaller because the founder, Mr Tang Bick Tong (a.k.a Tan Pec Tong) applied and received additional land grants in both 1936 and 1948. However the 1936 extension was given back to the Govt in 1957 because the illustrious Mr Tang had died and his heirs showed no interest in utilising the extra land. It seems as though Mr Tang�s passing marked the beginning of the decline of the industry as it was overtaken by the new industry of gambling and, in fact, many of Iec Long�s competitors � who by the same virtue were also sitting on large tracts of land � sold to developers and disappeared from the scene. The land Iec Long sits on reverted to the Govt in 1993 (the company had stopped production sometime in the 1980�s) and plans were drawn up for the site�s redevelopment.

Luckily though the plans have yet to be acted on due to, initially, various financial crises but then calls for its preservation also started to be heard and the Govt has been mulling the idea of some sort of urban park to help deal with the increase of tourists that visit the area since the Cotai Strip was redeveloped/reclaimed. However, nothing is set in stone and only time will tell what will become of the place. Local public opinion seems to be that any major development that would ruin the low rise/low density nature of Taipa would be a non-starter and you would hope that the Macau Govt would be more sensible about this kind of thing than its clueless out-of-touch HK counterpart, but time will tell.

�Duck Brand� � one of Iec Long�s best sellers

Hongkong The Former Bela Vista Hotel, Macau History

Hongkong The Former Bela Vista Hotel, Macau History

Arek Madiun   6:45 AM   Comment  

Yes, the former Bela Vista Hotel, because these days this building is used as the residence of the Portuguese Consul in Macau. My initial post was spurred on after reading a very interesting book called Macao by Phillipe Pons (written in the late 90's and translated from the original French print). He provides such a great summary of its colourful history that I felt the need to share. Understandably, Pons spends a lot of time lamenting over the fact that the modern Macao is now like a Disney Theme park. When you consider that he wrote that in the 90's before the current phase of Disneyfication (i.e. Grand Lisboa, reclamation of the Cotai strip etc), then I dread to think how depressed he must be feeling right now :-(

Anyway, Pons has a great summary of the building�s history, which I shall unashamedly summarise even more for your reading pleasure. In case you wish to read this information first hand here is a link to the book at the publishers Hong Kong University Press.

Built in 1870, originally as a residence for Edward and Catherine Clarke, a British Captain and his wife, they decided in 1890 to turn it into a hotel and named it the �Boa Vista�. Unfortunately their fortunes weren�t so great and they were forced to put it on the market after only a few years. They were about to sell it to the French, who wanted to turn it into a hospital for French soldiers wounded in Indo-China but the sale was opposed by the British who feared a French expansion in China. And so it went on with several owners, including the Santa Casa De Misericordia (an age-old Catholic charitable organisation that administers various hospitals and clinics and which has an eponymous building on Senado Square). In an unspecified year it was once again turned into a hotel with initially a French, then British manager (the latter was deported due to running illegal roulette games in the building � perhaps providing the inspiration to turn Macau into its current status as the worlds biggest gambling town?) before then being used as a Secondary school. All this happened before 1936.

In 1936 it once again became a hotel, this time under its most famous name as the �Bela Vista� and was unfortunate enough to have its new opening coincide with the invasion of China, by Japan. As a result the place was taken over by the Govt to house Portuguese refugees from China � in particular those from Shanghai.

It�s not too clear what happened post-war. Pons mentions that the building wasn�t turned back into a hotel again until 1958 when it was bought by three Chinese women. The Macau Heritage website claims this actually happened in 1948 � perhaps someone out there knows the correct date?

Anyway, 1958 or 1948, it seems that the hotels fortunes still had yet to pick up and was hit by more misfortune when its manager, Paulo Chung, suddenly disappeared during the cultural revolution in 1965. Perhaps a victim of Red Guard fervour? His replacement, Adriano Pinto Marques, was luckier (or perhaps just more business savvy) staying at the hotel for twenty years until his death � in a chair on the verandah � in 1985. Pinto Marques was a big fan of Napolean and decked the hotel with souvenirs from that era, and was credited with restoring the hotel�s fortunes.

His son, Adrian, picked up where he left off but soon after Excelsior Hotels took out a 25 year lease out on the hotel, from the Govt. The Excelsior decided a renovation was in order and a couple of local architects were taken on board to see the project through during 1990-92. When it reopened its capacity was drastically reduced (to just 4 suites and 4 rooms!) and its financial ruin was more or less secured. It finally closed as a hotel on March 31 1999, and, fittingly, was taken over by the Portuguese Consul when Macau was handed back to China in December 1999.

Now, since I first posted this I have received a whole bunch of very informative and nostalgic comments from former guests as well as Mr Pinto Marques himself who left the following comment:

Hello Phil, what would you like to know? �that Austin Coates� favorite room was 209, on the upper right corner facing the governor�s mansion? �that his favorite drink was Casal Garcia? ..or Tiziano Terzani frequented it and happily enjoyed his sunset drinks before storming town? Or that a Donald Sutherland�s movie that was shot there? Or Paulo Chung�s secret hideout, in the event that Macau is overrun by the Red Guards? Or how the Portuguese colonial government engineered a plan to ensure they maintain a presence after 1999, that symbolizes their old Colonial glories? � APM

Some food for thought from Mr Pinto Marques. Austin Coates will be a name familiar to anyone with a grasp of HK history. He was the British Civil servant who worked for the HK govt and has written some great books on both Hong Kong and Macau. Myself a Mandarin is on my recommended books page. Tiziano Terzani was an Italian writer who worked extensively in various parts of Asia, including Hong Kong and China.

Hmm, a Macau-set film starring Donald Sutherland? I'm no expert, but I reckon this may be referring to a 1990 film called Bethune: The Making of a Hero. I haven't seen it so can't confirm and IMDB just lists the filming location as "China" which isn't much help. But for now it's the only one I can think of. If anyone knows any differently, please leave a comment and I shall add the film to my ever growing list of HK/Macau-shot movies.

Speaking of movies, not so long ago a nice friendly chap called Neil left some interesting comments about his time at Salon Films in HK and this hotel was mentioned as the location used for the Pierce Brosnan/Peter Ustinov version of Around the World in 80 Days. Another one on my to-do list. And finally film-related was the appearance of the hotel in a scene from a home movie shot by Ahna Capri on the set of Enter the Dragon. This film is highly controversial because it is in the hands of a private collector, but every so often someone with a copy sneaks it out and it stays online for a few days before the owner starts sending out legal threats. Anyway, I did catch a glimpse a while back and saw the Bela Vista hotel featured. I can only assume that Capri visited Macau during her time off from filming and she must have stayed at the hotel.

Finally, Paulo Chung was mentioned previously as the owner/manager of the hotel before Mr Pinto Marques' father took over. I'm not sure anyone knew what happened to him but it sounds to me that his hidden room didn't work out too well for him, did it?

Another film-related comment came from Simon:

Stayed there in �86, while I was an extra on �Taipan�. I think we pretty much took over the whole hotel. The movie paid for the room, but I recall it was cheap. I didn�t have quite the same old-characterful-hotel sensibility back then (I was 20) as I do now, but I did recognise the history of the building. I think �unrealised potential� was the best characterisation of what the BV was back then and I do remember a photocopy of a �Best 10 hotel bars in the world� stuck on a noticeboard in the hotel, which included the BV. My mate was the Aide-de-camp to the Portuguese Governor, and he (the ADC) was also an extra on the film. I�m a bit too scared to go back to Macau now � better to let it rest in memory I think.

I will get around to Taipan at some point because I do remember some Macau scenes in there. Simon also went on to remind me about Madonna and Sean Penn's Macau foray called Shanghai Surprise. I seem to remember the news about Penn hitting lots of people etc.

Virginia also popped by with, what sounds like, a decent book recommendation:

Hi. I was reading an autobiography by Kenneth Sly (Australian) who lived in Hong Kong from 1956 to 1965 and he visited Macau a few times during these dates and fondly recalls the Bela Vista Hotel. He mentions the excellent restaurant that served the best Portuguese food. He also has 2 photographs in the book. Published by Temple House in 2006. So 1958 sounds like it was definitely a Hotel. Cheers Virginia

Finally, Angus, long time contributor of useful and interesting info on my old blog, sent me a link of a few Macau photos in his collection, including some of the hotel. Enjoy:

http://envirohk.wordpress.com/2010/10/25/macau/