The Green Island Cement Company was established in 1890 by the Messrs. Shewan, Tomes & Co. It was initially built on the Green Island near Macao and in 1899 a larger and more fully equipped factory was opened in Hong Kong, in Hok Yuen, an area on the Kowloon side of the harbour. Raw materials for the manufacture of cement in Hong Kong consisted of hard limestone, clay, iron ore, gypsum and coal. The two essential components - clay and iron ore - were available from the soil of Hong Kong, whereas limestone was brought from the neighbourhood of Canton. Green Island cement was comparable to the best English and European manufacture, the more famous products in the 1950s were Portland cement as well as Low Heat and Sulphate Resisting Cement. The company was also agents in Hong Kong for the largest cement manufacturers in the world. It also imported and distributed a number of other imported products to the local construction sites.
One of the jobs of the women workers in the preserved ginger workshop was to peel the ginger, a process in preparing ginger before it is boiled in syrup.
Hong Kong manufacturers displayed ginger products in a British Industries Fair in London. The British Industries Fair began in 1915 in London and Birmingham for British manufactures to promote overseas trade. Every year, manufacturers from the British Empire including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa; manufacturers from British colonies, dominions and territories like Hong Kong, India, Malaya, Burma, Malaya, Palestine & Cyprus, Ceylon, West Africa, East Africa, Bermuda, West Indies and British Guiana also sent their representatives to the Fair, where admission was restricted only to trade buyers.
