Bao Yugang

Bao Yugang

Bao Yugang (November 10, 1918 - September 23, 1991) was born in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province. Chinese world ship king.

He entered Shanghai Zhongxing school in his early years, and then Wusong Merchant Shipping College. In 1937, he dropped out of school and worked for the Hengyang Office of the Central Trust Bureau. He was the deputy manager of Hengyang Branch of industrial and mining Bank of China and the manager of Chongqing Branch of industrial and mining Bank of China. After the victory of the Anti Japanese War, he became the manager of Shanghai Banking Department and vice general manager and business manager in 1946. From the beginning of 1949 to Hong Kong, he set up a joint venture with others to set up a Chinese travel agency, which deals in import trade, and ships steel, cotton, medicine and other scarce materials for the mainland. In 1955, the company established the global limited company to operate the coal transportation between India and Japan. The next year, Egypt took back the Suez Canal as a state-owned one, and the freight rate rose sharply. With abundant capital, Egypt bought new ships and expanded its business. After the cooperation with Japan shipbuilding industry, financial industry and Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, it gradually became popular in the shipping industry. In 1967, the Middle East War expanded the fleet during the oil crisis. In 1970, it became global shipping group Co., Ltd. and in 1972, it established global international finance Co., Ltd. as the chairman of the board of directors.

In 1978, Bao Yugang's maritime Kingdom reached its peak, ranking first among the world's seven largest ship kings and one of the top ten consortia in Hong Kong. By the end of 1981, it had 210 ships, with a total deadweight tonnage of 21 million tons, which made it a world leader. Fortune and Newsweek called him "the ruler of the sea" and "the king of the sea". Later, he set up more than 10 subsidiaries and agency companies in New York, London, Tokyo and other places, and also engaged in real estate, wharf storage, public transportation and other industries. He has successively served as the chairman of International Independent Tanker Owners Association, Asia Shipping Co., Ltd., world shipping and investment company, world maritime and Lufeng International (investment) company, etc. In 1976, he was knighted by the queen of England, and decorated by the king of Belgium, the president of Panama and the emperor of Japan. On September 23, 1991, Bao Yugang died in Hong Kong at the age of 73.

Life of the characters

On November 10, 1918, Bao Yugang was born into a small business family in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province. His father, Bao Zhaolong, was a business man who had been doing business in Hankou all the year round. Busy as he is, he is very strict with his children. As his family was still rich, he decided to give his children the best education in the area.

Ningbo, located on the coast of the East China Sea, is the largest port city in Zhejiang Province. It is one of the "five ports" for trading after the Opium War. With a long business tradition, Ningbo has formed a famous business gang in history. Since his childhood, he never forgot to go to school with his father in Baohai.

When he was 13 years old, his father sent him to Shanghai to study. Soon after he arrived in Shanghai, he entered Wusong Merchant Shipping College (the predecessor of Shanghai Maritime University and Dalian Maritime University) and began to study shipping. After the outbreak of the Anti Japanese War, he traveled to Chongqing. Here, instead of continuing to study in university according to his father's wishes, he went to a bank and became a clerk.

In 1938, Bao Yugang came to Shanghai to work in the insurance Department of the Central Trust Bureau. With his own efforts and experience accumulated in the bank, in a short period of seven years, he rose from an ordinary employee to the manager of Hengyang bank, the manager of Chongqing Branch, and finally to the deputy general manager of the Bank of Shanghai. The road ahead is smooth sailing. But at this time, he resigned because he had no interest in this aspect, and his relatives and friends were puzzled.

At the beginning of 1949, Bao Yugang, together with his father, went to Hong Kong with hundreds of thousands of yuan of savings. At the beginning, I did some small business and accumulated some money, but what do I do next? Bao Yugang thought of his childhood yearning for the sea, so he put forward the idea of shipping. His mother advised him to take all his assets as a gamble in shipping. If he was careless, he would go bankrupt. His father thought that the shipping industry in Hong Kong was very developed and the competition was quite fierce. Bao Yugang was a layman in shipping. Why should he manage shipping? However, Bao Yugang has made up his mind and is determined to seek development in the marine transportation industry. On the one hand, he continued to do a good job in persuading his father and other family members, on the other hand, he went around to learn about ships and shipping, and carefully studied books on shipping and shipping.

At the age of 37, Bao Yugang was finally able to realize his dream of the sea! Although the journey is very difficult.

At the beginning, the funds were not enough. With the help of friends, Bao Yugang raised more than 700000 US dollars. He went to Britain to buy back a used cargo ship powered by coal. The ship has been in use for 28 years, and its displacement is only 8200 tons. Although the ship is very broken, Bao Yugang, like a rare treasure, asked someone to renovate and paint it, and named it "Jin'an". This ship is the beginning of his career. In 1955, Bao Yugang established "Global Shipping Group Co., Ltd." and negotiated with a Japanese shipping company to sublet the "Jin'an" to this company to transport coal from India to Japan for long-term leasing.

This is a risky decision, because at that time, people in the shipping industry all over the world used the traditional short-term leasing method, that is, they settled accounts with the Charterers for each voyage. In this way, not only the charging standard is high, but also the freight rate can be raised at any time. The world-famous Greek ship king Onassis, the American ship King Ludwig, and the old Hong Kong ship king Dong Haoyun all did this. However, Bao Yugang is different from them. Unexpectedly, he takes a long-term rental mode, renting his ship to others for three, five or even 10 years. The Charterers pay the monthly rent, but the rent standard is much lower. A lot of people are laughing at this child who doesn't know how to behave. But Bao Yugang has his own plan. He once said to people, "my motto is that I'd rather make less money than take risks." What he seeks is a long-term and stable income, which is a way to look forward to the future. And short-term rental will have to bear certain risks.

In fact, it was this steady way that made Bao Yugang different from other ship owners and finally became the world ship king.

Characters and deeds

Contact with Deng Xiaoping

On the 18th floor of huidefeng building in Hong Kong, in the reception room of Bao Yugang, the headquarters of universal group, a large-scale photo of the host's meeting with political leaders from all over the world is particularly eye-catching. Among these photos, Bao's and Deng's photos are not only the first, but also the highest. We can see Deng's position in Bao Yugang's mind. Their handshake is destined to leave a close-up in history.

Since moving to Hong Kong on the eve of liberation, Bao Yugang has returned to the mainland several times, but his first contact with the government was in 1978. In March 1980, the Ministry of six machine services invited Bao to visit China in the name of minister Chai Shufan. In the annex to the report to the State Council, Bao said: "in 1978, at the invitation of Liao Chengzhi, Bao visited China in a private name and met with Liao Chengzhi, Kong yuan, Lu Xuzhang and other comrades." This time, Bao Yugang came to Beijing to discuss shipbuilding cooperation with the Ministry of sixth machinery. This is Bao Yugang's first official visit to the mainland of China. He received a grand reception in Beijing, and was received by China's top leaders, including Hua Guofeng and Ye Jianying.

In fact, the person Bao Yugang wants to see most is Deng Xiaoping. Bao Yugang was summoned back by Deng Xiaoping's wise decision to enter the international market since 1977. The ship king needs to build ships. If the domestic shipyards can build them, isn't it the best of both worlds? As a matter of fact, Deng Xiaoping arranged to see Bao Yugang, but it was only temporarily missed.

A year later, their first meeting finally came. On the morning of July 6, 1981, in the Fujian Hall of the Great Hall of the people, Deng Xiaoping quickly welcomed Bao Zhaolong and Bao Yugang, holding their hands with a smile and saying, "we should have met long ago!" "Should have met long ago" indicates that "should have met but not seen" before; and the word "early" expresses their urgent mood of "hate to meet late". Although they met for the first time, they immediately began to talk like old friends. They exchanged greetings and ordered their ages. Bao Zhaolong is 86 years old. Deng Xiaoping was 77 years old, Lu Xuzhang was 70 years old, and Bao Yugang was 63 years old. Xiao Ping patted Bao Yugang on the shoulder and said, "he is still very strong!"

Bao Yugang introduced his experience in shipping to Deng Xiaoping, from the first ship of 8700 tons in 1955 to 210 ships of 21 million tons in 1981, including 6 ships made in China. Deng Xiaoping listened quietly and sometimes asked some questions, and "how to develop China's shipbuilding industry" became their hot topic. Deng Xiaoping was very enthusiastic, while Bao Yugang was full of confidence. Deng Xiaoping was very happy: "well, you can help us to do this!" The meeting went on unconsciously for 38 minutes. It's time to shake hands and say goodbye. Deng Xiaoping still said, "we haven't seen each other in the past, but we have seen each other this time." "Yes, thank you. Thank you for the interview with Vice President Deng!"

For Bao Yugang, from this first meeting, he deeply felt Deng Xiaoping's political courage and personality charm, and felt Deng Xiaoping's brilliant and pragmatic style of carrying out reform and opening up. All these have become a strong centripetal force. Since then, Deng and Bao have often met, sometimes even several times a year, and sometimes the two families get together like a family

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