Me, Jamie | J3 Private Tours Hong Kong | 48 years living in Hong Kong - I know the culture
… and yes, I am a proud Yorkshireman
The Ultimate Hong Kong Tour Blog
Cecil Chao | Hong Kong Billionaire,
car lover and that errant daughter Gigi.
© Jamie Lloyd | J3 Private Tours Hong Kong | 2011 - 2020. All rights reserved. Click on the image to enlarge to full screen
Rolls Royce - CECIL
April 8th 2020 | The Rolls Royce Phantom with the personalised number plate CECIL
Cecil Chao is 83 years old, flamboyant, a very successful Property Developer, 2 sons and 1 errant daughter and gosh, what a collection of cars.
Unfortunately for Mr. Chao the last 8 years in Hong Kong have been dominated by the tragic | funny story about his daughter Gigi Chao who is now in her early 40’s and her lesbian relationship with her life partner, husband Sean Eav.
Mr. Chao only wants whats best for his daughter but in hindsight offering a huge sum (US$65 Million) of money to any male that would marry his daughter and get on her straight and narrow (sorry) was probably a mistake!
I prefer to concentrate on his collection cars and his Crazy Rich Asian Billionaire Lifestyle.
Not one to shy from publicising himself and therefore his business he has a lovely Rolls Royce Phantom with a pretty straight forward licence plate CECIL I am guessing there are not many Cecil’s in Hong Kong so he probably got it on the cheap without the normal frenzied bidding at the auction.
It is incidentally parked outside the Hong Kong Club, still the premier Private Club in Hong Kong, even more so than the Jockey Club.
We have a rather tenuous connection, Mr. Chao went to University in Durham, England, I am from Middlesbrough which is just 26 miles driving distance from there… I doubt he has heard of me. He has however seen me in Hong Kong, I have some images of him giving me the death stare when I have photographed him in his cars.! - bit of a lifestyle difference as well, he goes home normally in a Rolls Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe or just the Rolls Royce Silver Phantom, I go home on the bus.
This is a lovely Silver Rolls Royce Phantom by the way, bear in mind with a Rolls they do not use normal car paint, there is always something very silky smooth about the paint work on a Rolls.
The Ultimate Hong Kong Tour Blog
The Drophead Phantom Coupe | 4
© Jamie Lloyd | J3 Private Tours Hong Kong | 2011 - 2020. All rights reserved. Click on the image to enlarge to full screen
Rolls Royce - 4
April 8th 2020 | The Rolls Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe with the personalised number plate 4
Mr. Chao is also the proud owner of this fabulous car, the Rolls Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe with that much talked about licence plate.
4 = death
Chinese people in Hong Kong are very superstitious about numbers and they go to great lengths to avoid this number ( virtually every building in Hong Kong is missing a 4th, 14th, 24th, 34th and 44th floor) and that’s not the half of it.
So this begs the question, why this number? it does not even appear on the list for the most expensive car number plates in Hong Kong that I compiled, probably because no one else made a bid, when you think that the number plate 9 sold for US$1,666,666 you know he got a bargain.
I did a bit of research and checked with some reliable sources, apparently in Northern China for some people the number 4 translates to running water which is considered very lucky and yes, you have guessed it, Mr. Chao is from Shanghai in China., to me is all sounds a bit strange given the vast majority of people in China like Hong Kongers think that 4 means death! but who I am to argue?.
You just have to love the complex culture in Hong Kong.
The Ultimate Hong Kong Tour Blog
The Drophead Phantom Coupe | 4
© Jamie Lloyd | J3 Private Tours Hong Kong | 2011 - 2020. All rights reserved. Click on the image to enlarge to full screen
Rolls Royce - 4
April 8th 2020 | The Rolls Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe with the personalised number plate 4
I have to admit one thing here, I do NOT like drophead coupes one bit in a nutshell, any car without a roof! I mean seriously this car is well over US$1 Million here in Hong Kong and it has a bloody canvas roof, it looks really, really awful.
Naturally without the canvas roof is looks seriously amazing but more often or not this beautiful Rolls Royce looks like this…uuugghhh
I doubt Mr. Chao cares very much what anyone thinks, this car is very famous in Hong Kong and when it swishes by we all know who is in it, he does not keep a low profile.
The Ultimate Hong Kong Tour Blog
The Bentley Mulsanne EWB | CHAO
© Jamie Lloyd | J3 Private Tours Hong Kong | 2011 - 2020. All rights reserved. Click on the image to enlarge to full screen
Bentley - CHAO
April 8th 2020 | The Bentley Mulsanne with extended wheelbase and the personalised number plate CHAO
……and why wouldn’t you have a stable of huge luxury cars to go with your extravagant lifestyle? I have zero issues with people like Mr. Chao living it large and swanning around town., I day dream about doing that all the time and why not have a Bentley Mulsanne EWB to go with your two Rolls Royce Phantoms.
I have sat in this model car and also the Rolls, similar but not, Bentley has always been the poor relation to Rolls Royce, for every Rolls Royce we have in Hong Kong we have 3 Bentley’s, I guess a Rolls Royce is just a little more exclusive.
Side by side the cars make a grand statement, the licence plates CECIL CHAO I love the symmetry and that cost him a whole shed load of money to get that image.
Brilliant.
ps. It is interesting to note that in Hong Kong, white is the colour of death particularly in the colour of clothes at funerals where white robes are normal.
The Ultimate Hong Kong Tour Blog
Gigi Chao in her Tesla | ZISEAN
© Jamie Lloyd | J3 Private Tours Hong Kong | 2011 - 2020. All rights reserved. Click on the image to enlarge to full screen
Tesla - ZISEAN
April 8th 2020 | The Tesla sports car with the personalised number plate ZISEAN
So this is Gigi Chao giving me the death stare at the Hong Kong Country Club, to be fair, I did have a chat with her and I got a lovely smile and she was incredibly charming., she mentioned that she had seen me many times outside the Hong Kong Country Club photographing cars and mentioned her Dad’s collection of fine cars.
I have talked with my fair share of famous people in Hong Kong (many times without realising it) without exception they have been very nice and find it very humourous that I have no idea who they are and are very happy I do not start fawning over them, to me I am more interested in the choice of car, I have no desire to get their autograph.
From this image it is still hard to believe that she is | was one of the most visible lesbians in the world?! with her love life making so many headlines and naturally she was pestered by many loathsome males looking to straighten her out for the reward money of US$65 Million offered by her father Cecil Chao… apparently around 20,000 men made an offer (the mind boggles) without Gigi showing a flicker of interest so the amount was increased to HK$1 Billion or US$130 Million! and you guessed it nothing happened.
…anyway Gigi and Cecil are still friends!
Gigi is a charming young lady and that is that, however this nasty little Tesla needs to be gotten rid of… she needs to buy a McLaren and have some proper fun, this model in white would be the perfect car and yes, this one came out of the Hong Kong Country Club as well.
© Jamie Lloyd | J3 Private Tours Hong Kong | 2011 - 2020. All rights reserved. Click on the image to enlarge to full screen
The Ultimate Hong Kong Tour Blog
The Cars of Hong Kong
© Jamie Lloyd | J3 Private Tours Hong Kong | 2011 - 2020. All rights reserved. Click on the image to enlarge to full screen
Lister - RU 4420
© Jamie Lloyd | J3 Private Tours Hong Kong | 2011 - 2020. All rights reserved. Click on the image to enlarge to full screen
Hongqi - RED FLAG
© Jamie Lloyd | J3 Private Tours Hong Kong | 2011 - 2020. All rights reserved. Click on the image to enlarge to full screen
Rolls Royce - LF 88
© Jamie Lloyd | J3 Private Tours Hong Kong | 2011 - 2020. All rights reserved. Click on the image to enlarge to full screen
1968 Ford Shelby Mustang GT 500
© Jamie Lloyd | J3 Private Tours Hong Kong | 2011 - 2020. All rights reserved. Click on the image to enlarge to full screen
Bentley - KASU I
This is NOT how I do tours! There are NO flags, whistles, stickers or large groups!
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