Background
Mr. Lee Tsung-ching was born at Ningbo, Zhejiang province in 1878.
Mr. Lee Tsung-ching was born at Ningbo, Zhejiang province in 1878.
Mr. Lee graduated from the Anglo-Chinese College, Shanghai specializing in a commerical line.
In 1892 Mr. Lee began his business career as a shipping clerk in a native business firm at Shanghai. In 1895, when the commerical navigation between Soochow and Hangchow had just been started, he was employed as customs clerk of the Soochow-Hangchow Inland Navigation Company. A year later he joined the Shanghai office of Carlowitz & Co. as cashier.
In 1897 Mr. Lee went to Tianjinn and joined the firm of Gipperich & Co. His position was a general clerk. In 1903 he started his first independent business as compradore of the Siemessen & Co., Tientsin. This position he held until 1905 when he was invited to join the Shanghai office of Gipperich & Co., becoming the principal assistant of E. Gipperich, the general manager of that firm.
Mr. Lee returned to Tianjin in 1908 and accepted the compradoreship of Rousseau & Co., then a leading French firm. In 1910 in partnership with L. Mc Gowan promoted the China American Trading Co., with head office at Tianjin. Mr. Lee was the Chinese manager of that newly established firm. At the same time he accepted the compradoreship of the Fearon, Daniel & Co., holding this concurrent post for three years.
In 1918, during the time of repatriation of enemy subjects in China, Mr. Lee was entrusted with the work of establishing the Tientsin office of the San Peh Steam Navigation Co., by Yu Ya-ching, the founder of this company, who has been for many years one of the commerical leaders in Shanghai. Very soon the branch office was founded at Tianjin, occupying the wharves formerly belpnging to Hambury Steamship Co. Ever since its establishment, this company under the managership of Mr. Lee, was playing an important part in the China sea coast navigation service.
In the spring of 1921 Mr. Lee accepted another concurrent post as manager of the Tianjin office of the Industrial Development Bank of China. In 1923, owing to the pressure of work in the San Peh Steam Navigation Co., he resigned from both the China-American Trading Co., and the Industrial Development Bank. In September 1924 he rejoined the China-American Trading Co. Mr. Lee was one of the pioneer southern merchants at Tianjin and served for ten years as a director of the Zhejiang Provincial Guild, Tianjin. He was also one of the founders of the Zhejiang School of Tianjin.