Background
Mr. Li was born in Taishan, Guangdong, China, in 1850.
Mr. Li was born in Taishan, Guangdong, China, in 1850.
Li Yu-tang established the King Li Yuen Co. in Hong Kong. He became interested in insurance business and organised many insurance companies, including the Hong Nin Life Insurance Co., the Lun Yick Fire Insurance and Marine Insurance Co., the Lun Tai Fire and Marine Insurance Co., the Shanghai Fire and Marine Insurance Co., etc.
Mr. Li was a member of the Kuomintang party and was appointed Commissioner of Finance for Guangzhou shortly after the 1911 Revolution, which position he held for six months, than he returned to his insurance business and established branches of his companies in various cities in China and in the South Sea Islands. He was a promoter of the Bank of Canton with its head office at Hong Kong, of which he has served as chairman of the board of directors and the managing director since its establishment, the bank having branches at Shanghai, Hankou, New York, San Francisco and Bangkok.
He made an extensive tour in Europe in 1920, investigating foreign banking and insurance systems, following his return, he promoted and organised the Sun Sun Department Store in Shanghai fit which he was the managing-director for several years. Yu-tang Li contributed liberally to charitable work and the cause of education, as a director of the Guangdong Hospital in Guangzhou and a director of the Agricultural School of Guangzhou Christain College (now Lingnan University), to which he made the largest contribution, though a man on his eighties, he is still in sound health and active in his business.