Hung Hom became the Kowloon base of heavy industry from the 1880s onwards. Two important industrial districts were developed at the foot of Tai Wan Hill: in the north was Hok Yuen (formerly Hok Un), where we could find Green Island Cement Company (opened in 1899), CLP Power Station and manufacturing plants of varying scale; in the south was Hong Kong and Whampoa Dock, opened in 1881 after the land was reclaimed. In the 1900s, Whampoa Dock with a workforce of over 4,000 had become one of the most notable dockyards in the far-eastern region. This troop of workers helped turn Hung Hom into a large, low-income residential district. Like Taikoo, which put up mansions at the hills of Quarry Bay for its managerial staffs, Whampoa erected a number of colonial-style buildings on Tai Wan Hill as offices and executive homes.

Whampoa and the enterprises in Hok Yuen took on reclamation one after another to expand their plant and business before the outbreak of the Second World War. The fill material, naturally, came from Tai Wan Hill. The earliest exploitation was carried out on the land-facing side of the hill; the other side, which butt up to and overlooked the dockyard, was “salvaged” by the Whampoa offices built on the summit until it was completely demolished in the 1980s.