Background
Mr. Li Ming was a native of Shaoshing, Zhejiang province, and was born in 1889.
Mr. Li Ming was a native of Shaoshing, Zhejiang province, and was born in 1889.
In early years Mr. Li received his education in a middle school at Shaoshing and the Wayland Academy, Hangchow. Being anxious to obtain a higher education he went to Japan and pursued his studies in the Yamaguchi Commercial College.
After seven years in Japan Mr. Li returned to China just before the outbreak of the revolution and served the Zhejiang provincial government as financial advisor to the Commissioner of Finance. Later on he joined the Shanghai office of the Zhejiang Bank as manager and under his hand this institution underwent severe re-organization, being, renamed the Zhejiang Industrial Bank, Ltd. He introduced and directed its business along modern commercial banking lines instead of in semiofficial nature. Since then it was built up on modern business lines. He encouraged public savings by opening a Savings Bank Department along purely Western lines and participated in financing imports and exports by opening the Foreign Exchange Department in the Shanghai office of the Bank. Due to his work the Bank’s capital was increased to $2,000,000, and the interest of the Chekiang provincial government was bought over at a premium of about 70% to make the hank a purely private institution. At the same time he acquired and built a permanent and commodious home to house the ever increasing activities of the bank and removed its head office from Hangchow to its present location in Shanghai at the corner of Hankow and Kiangse Roads, known as the Zhejiang Industrial Bank building.
Mr. Li was purely self-màde, good natured, kind hearted, generous, self-confident, full of energy and with always a keen eye in business and financial matters. He gave much of his time for public service and education and was decorated by the Chinese government in 1921 with the third Order of Chiaho for meritorious public service.