On this page you can find links to 106 published business and residents’ directories published in China or Hong Kong between 1842 and 1947. There are also links to scanned extracts in PDF format, of lists of foreign residents in China. These directories contain a great deal of information – lists of residents, street directories (addresses and occupants), lists of companies and their staff, and much more besides. Directories were often thrown away when the next year’s edition was published, so unbroken runs of them of any length are not easy to find.
The Shanghai Library has a long run of the China Hong List or Desk Hong List (it had various titles). As well as keeping them secure in a safe in its reading room, it does make these available in digital form there as well. Some volumes of this title for the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s are now available through links below. An extensive run of the Chronicle & Directory for China is held at Hong Kong University library’s Special Collections reading room. London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies holds the years 1885, 1890, 1895, 1900, 1905, 1910, 1915 (see below), 1917-19, 1925-26, 1930, 1937, 1932, 1938, 1941. This is all that remains of a full run formerly held by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. Single issues survive in the British Library and other libraries. Cornell University holds the years 1879, 1909, 1910, 1913-1929, 1941. Follow this link for scanned copies of 20 directories of Protestant missionaries in China (ranging from 1874-1940).
Other sites: Developed by a team at the University of Basle, the Asian Directories Database provides a platform that allows anyone to search across most copies of the Chronicle & Directory for China etc from 1863-1941 when it ceased publication. It also provides direct access to individual volumes, although this function requires an academic login via ORCID. None of the links below require any academic login. The National Library of Scotland has published searchable scans of most of the directories for 1917-1941 (these are included below). This set is searchable also via the subscription site Ancestry.com, while many of the China Families directory uploads to the Internet Archive can be searched via Findmypast.com (list here). A subscription is needed for that site, but not for direct access on Internet Archive.
1842 The Chinese Repository, volume 11:1, A list of foreign residents in China (external link)
1845 The Anglo-Chinese Calendar (external link) includes list of all foreign residents in China
1846 The Anglo-Chinese Calendar (external link) includes list of all foreign residents in China
1847 The Anglo-Chinese Calendar (external link) includes list of all foreign residents in China
1848 The Anglo-Chinese Calendar (external link) includes list of all foreign residents in China
1848 Hongkong Almanack & Directory … also includes all China coast treaty ports (external link)
1849 The Anglo-Chinese Calendar (external link) includes list of all foreign residents in China
1850 The Chinese Repository, volume 19:1. A List of foreign residents in China (external link)
1850 The Anglo-Chinese Calendar (external link) includes list of all foreign residents in China
1850 Hong Kong Almanack & Directory … General Directory for Canton, Shanghae, Amoy, Ningpo, Fuh-chau-fu, Macau & Manila (external link)
1851 The Anglo-Chinese Calendar (external link) includes list of all foreign residents in China
1854 Anglo-Chinese Calendar (external link) includes list of all foreign residents in China
1856 The Anglo-Chinese Calendar (external link) includes list of all foreign residents in China
1856 Shanhae Almanac … and Miscellany (external link)
1859 The Hong Kong Directory: with a list of foreign residents of China (external link).
1862 The China Directory (external link)
1863 The China Directory (external link)
1864 Chronicle and Directory for China … (external link)
1864 List of British Land Renters at Shanghai PDF, 11mb
1865 List of Land Renters at Shanghai, registered at the British and American consulates. PDF, .5mb
1865 The Chronicle and Directory for China (external link)
1867 China Directory (extract). PDF, 11mb
1867 The Treaty ports of China and Japan (external link). This volume is a mine of contemporary information about the treaty ports.
1868 The Chronicle and Directory for China (external link)
1869 The Chronicle and Directory for China (external link)
1870 Morris’s Directory for China, Japan and the Phillipines (external link)
1872 Chronicle and Directory for China (extract). PDF, 11mb
1873 The Chronicle and Directory for China (external link)
1874 The China Directory (external link)
1874 Chronicle and Directory for China (external link) (not searchable: hint, use the thumbnails view to navigate around)
1875 The Chronicle and Directory for China (external link)
1876 The Chronicle and Directory for China (external link)
1877 The Chronicle and Directory for China (external link)
1879 Chronicle and Directory for China (external link)
1882 The Chronicle and Directory for China (external link)
1882 Desk Hong List for Shanghai and Northern Ports (external link)
1884 Desk Hong List for Shanghai and Northern Ports (external link)
1884 Chronicle and Directory for China (external link)
1885 Chronicle and Directory for China (external link) (also here)
1888 The Chronicle and Directory for China (external link)
1889 Chronicle and Directory for China (external link)
1890 Chronicle and Directory for China (external link) (not searchable: hint, use the thumbnails view to navigate around)
1892 Chronicle and Directory for China (external link)
1894 Chronicle and Directory for China (external link)
1899 Chronicle and Directory for China (external link)
1900 Chronicle and Directory for China (external link) (not searchable: hint, use the thumbnails view to navigate around)
1901 Chronicle and Directory for China (external link) (not searchable: hint, use the thumbnails view to navigate around)
1902 The Chronicle and Directory for China (external link) (not searchable: hint, use the thumbnails view to navigate around)
1903 Chronicle and Directory for China (external link) (not searchable: hint, use the thumbnails view to navigate around)
1904 The Chronicle and Directory for China (external link)
1904 Desk Hong List for Shanghai and Northern Ports (external link)
1905 Chronicle and Directory for China (external link)
1906 Chronicle and Directory for China (extract) PDF, 7mb
1906-7 Who’s Who in the Far East (external link)
1908 Chronicle and Directory for China (external link)
1908 Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai and other Treaty Ports of China (external link)
It is always worth searching through this compendious volume for names.
1909 The Chronicle and Directory for China (external link)
1910 The Chronicle and Directory for China (external link)
1912 The Chronicle and Directory for China (external link)
1915 The Chronicle and Directory for China (external link)
1916 Directory and Chronicle (external link) (not searchable: hint, use the thumbnails view to navigate around)
1917 Chronicle and Directory for China (external link)
1917 Rosenstock’s Directory of China and Manila (external link)
1918 Chronicle and Directory for China (external link)
1919 North China Hong List (external link)
1919 Chronicle and Directory for China Shanghai (extract) PDF, 9.5mb
1920 Chronicle and Directory for China (external link)
1920 Rosenstock’s Directory of China and Manila (external link)
1921 Directory of Protestant Missions in China (external link)
1921 Chronicle and Directory for China (external link)
1922 Chronicle and Directory for China (external link)
1922 The China Who’s Who (external link)
1922 Peking Who’s Who (external link)
1924 Chronicle and Directory for China (external link)
1925 Chronicle and Directory for China (external link)
1925 North-China Desk Hong List (external link)
1925 Comacrib Directory of China (external link)
1926 North-China Desk Hong List (external link)
1926 Chronicle and Directory for China (external link)
1927 Chronicle and Directory for China (external link)
1927 North-China Desk Hong List (external link)
1928 Chronicle and Directory for China (external link)
1928 North-China Desk Hong List (external link)
1929 Chronicle and Directory for China (external link)
1929 North-China Desk Hong List (external link)
1930 Chronicle and Directory for China (external link)
1930 Shanghai Directory July edition of the North-China Desk Hong List (external link)
1931 Shanghai Directory. City Supplementary edition to the China Hong List (external link)
1931 Chronicle and Directory for China (external link)
1932 Chronicle and Directory for China (external link)
1933 Chronicle and Directory for China (external link)
1933 Men of Shanghai and North China: A Standard Biographical Reference Work (Shanghai: The Oriental Press, 1933). Editor George Nellist. This is a vanity publication, but includes good biographical data about and photographs of, a good number of Chinese and foreign figures.
Pt 1 Prelims to Cosgrave. PDF, 4.5mb
Pt 2 Courtills to Lee, Poy Gum. PDF, 6mb
Pt 3 Lee, Poy Gum cont. to Ren, Sz Dah. PDF, 6.5mb
Pt 4 Ren, Sz Fah cont. to Waung Cho Jan. PDF, 5.7mb
Pt 5 Weall, to end, addenda, index. PDF, 9mb
1934 Chronicle and Directory for China (external link)
1934 Christie’s Peiping Directory (external link). Peiping was the official name of the city of Peking (Beijing) after the transfer of the national capital to Nanjing.
1934 North China Desk Hong List, July (external link)
1935 Chronicle and Directory for China (external link)
1936 Chronicle and Directory for China (external link)
1937 Chronicle and Directory for China (external link)
1938 Chronicle and Directory for China (external link)
1939 Chronicle and Directory for China (external link)
1939 China Hong List (External link)
1940 Chronicle and Directory for China (external link)
1941 Chronicle and Directory for China (external link)
1941 Shanghai Directory, July edition of the North-China Desk Hong List (external link)
1947 Shanghai Telephone Directory (External link)