#backwater #commercial #metropolis
Modern-day Hong Kong is best known for its skyscrapers and role as a bustling financial center and regional trade channel off the south coast of mainland China.
But the area was once a tranquil hinterland of rural hamlets and fishing communities where mountainous terrain dominated sparse human settlement.
Twenty-five years since the city was returned to China by colonial power Britain, here are the highlights of its development:
– Old story –
Remains of burial sites and early rock carvings show human life in Hong Kong dating back to the Stone Age.
The area is believed to have existed between 206 B.C. and 220 AD came into the bosom of the Chinese Empire under the Han Dynasty.
Increasing numbers of mainland Han Chinese began to settle in Hong Kong, alongside boat-dwelling communities believed to also be from southern China.
– trade boom –
Hong Kong’s sheltered main port became a place to resupply merchant ships on the maritime Silk Road between Asia, Africa and the Middle East and flourished from around the 7th century.
In addition to silk, China exported porcelain and tea, and received everything from spices to plants and textiles.
Hong Kong’s offshore islands were also a haven for Chinese pirates – their current territory includes 260 islands, many of which are uninhabited.
– European arrival –
Portuguese, Dutch, and French traders arrived on the southern coast of China in the 15th century, and Portugal established a base in Macau, which borders Hong Kong.
But in the 18th century, China imposed restrictions on Europeans to curb their influence.
Britain was angered after an imperial edict banned the opium trade from India to China, leading to the spread of the addiction.
After Chinese authorities seized a large quantity of the drug, Britain attacked in 1840 and reached northern China in the First Opium War, where it threatened Beijing.
In order to make peace, China agreed to cede Hong Kong Island to Great Britain in 1841.
The Kowloon Peninsula followed in 1860 after a second Opium War, and Britain expanded north into rural New Territories in 1898, leasing the area for 99 years.
– British rule –
Hong Kong was part of the British Empire until 1997, when the New Territories lease expired and the entire city was returned to China.
Under British rule, Hong Kong transformed itself into a commercial and financial center with one of the busiest ports in the world.
Anti-colonial sentiment fueled riots in 1967 that led to some social and political reforms – when the city was returned to China, the city had a partially elected legislature and retained an independent judiciary.
Hong Kong boomed when China opened up its economy in the late 1970s and became a gateway between the rising power and the rest of the world.
– return to China –
After lengthy negotiations, including between former leader Deng Xiaoping and British ex-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the two sides signed off on Hong Kong’s future handover in 1984.
The Sino-British declaration said that Hong Kong would be a special administrative region of China and would retain its freedoms and way of life for 50 years after the July 1, 1997 handover date.
Beijing says Hong Kong’s “one country, two systems” model remains intact.
But critics, including Britain and other Western powers, say China has gutted the city’s unique freedoms, especially after the big pro-democracy protests that erupted in 2019.
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