The summer of 1967 was hardly an auspicious time for M.T. Geoffrey Yeh to close a huge business deal in Hong Kong. Labor strife, inspired by left-wing agitation spilling over the border from China's Cultural Revolution, had led to sporadic riots across the city, and mobs roamed the streets brandishing stones and knives. Many local entrepreneurs worried that China might take advantage of the chaos to seize Hong Kong.

So it took a good deal of courage for Yeh's construction company, Hsin Chong, to go ahead with building a giant condominium complex in the troubled colony. Indeed, when Yeh emerged one sultry morning from an office building in Central, having wrapped up negotiations on its second contract for the housing complex, he had to dodge rioters on his way to the ferry that would take him safely home to Kowloon. But Yeh never wavered in his determination to pursue contracts that would eventually lead to his company building a total of 44 towers with 5,900 apartments between the late '60s and mid-'70s. "We felt China would not want to recover Hong Kong then. We got a lot of business at that time," recalls Yeh, allowing himself a wry smile. "We were, in today's terminology, 'very committed' to Hong Kong."

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