Guo Le (1874-1956) was born in Zhuxiuyuan Village in Xiangshan County (nowadays Zhongshan). When he was young, his family was very poor. He went to Australia to strive for a living in 1892, and he has ever been a servant, a peddler and a shop assistant. In 1897, together with his countrymen like Ouyang Qinmin, Liang Chuang, Ma Zuxing, Peng Rongkun, he raised 1400 Australian dollars to invest in a fruit shop which was named Wing On Fruit Shop, and became the manager. Since then he started his business career.

In 1907, Guo Le set up Wing On Department Store, whose business volume rose rapidly. He did not only make a huge profit but also accumulated much experience in business administration. In 1910, Wing On Company set up a bank department in Shiqi, Xiangshan County. It was particularly responsible for absorbing overseas remittance, and thus gave overseas financial support to the development of the Wing On Company. Several years later, Guo Le diverted his business goal to Shanghai whose commerce was most developed in the country. On September 5, 1915, Wing On Company started its business in Shanghai with the sound of gongs and drums. Guo Le has defined his business policy as “to deal with sales of goods all around the world, to export Chinese locally-made goods abroad”. 

While he was running Wing On Department Store, Guo Le invested in textile industry, changing from commercial sale to industrial production. In 1922, he raised money to found Shanghai Wing On Textile Factory, which also proved to be a success. The business boomed continuously, and soon a second, a third and a fourth factory were set up, with all together 24,000 spindles, 1500 looms, and a total capital of more than 36000,000 Yuan. It later became the largest textile factory, only second to Sheng Xin Textile Company. Shanghai Wing On Department Store and Wing On Textile Factory moved forward hand in head, bringing Guo Le’s career into its peak. The colored cloth the factory made was mainly sold by Wing On Department Store, so a path was formed that Chinese locally-made goods replaced foreign goods and were sold by Chinese producers themselves. 

During those days in Shanghai, the largest department stores were Whiteaway Laidlaw and Hall ? Holtz set up by British businessmen. Soon after Sincere and Wing On were established, Huiluo and Fuli became second-class companies, in which Chinese people took great pride. Comparatively speaking, Wing On Company is better than Sincere Company in different aspects, and led the industry in national department store in China.

While Wing On Company was running department business, it also dealt with amusement service. In the department store of the company, Guo Le established Da Dong Hotel which was the grandest in Shanghai and owned the best equipments during those days, thus promoting the department store trip business. In this way, Wing On Company has gradually grown into a comprehensive commercial enterprise focusing mainly on department stores and sidelining amusement service as well.