Yue-Kong Pao - Early Days

Early Days

Pao was born in 1918 in Ningbo, the 3rd of seven children of a prosperous upper-middle-class family. In 1931 he went to Hankou to work in his father's shoe manufacturing business whilst continuing his education at night. However, he decided that the shoe business did not suit him and he secured a traineeship with a foreign insurance company. By the age of twenty he was established in his new position and married a young girl selected by his parents, which marriage was to endure until death separated them.

In 1937 Hankou came under attack from the Japanese and Pao along with 70 colleagues moved to Hunan and then Shanghai whilst leaving his wife in the relative safety of Ningbo. In Shanghai he found a position in the insurance department of the Central Trust of China and as tension eased sent for his wife to join him. He was soon moving up the corporate ladder, moving into the area of banking, and moving to Hengyang and Chongqing as the progress of the war dictated. At the end of the war in 1945 he was sent by the Government back to Shanghai to help set up and manage the new Municipal Bank and in a short time had worked his way to Deputy General Manager, effectively in charge.