travel and tourism: Hong kong china

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Hong kong china

The island of Hong Kong held little more than a few fishermen until the arrival of Europeans in the 19th century. British merchants had been exporting opium to China in exchange for Chinese goods, outraging the Chinese and leading to the first Opium war (1839-1842), in which the victorious British occupied Hong Kong. British victory in a second Opium war (1856-60) added the territory of Kowloon.

Nature having provided it with an excellent natural harbour, the next half-century saw Hong Kong transformed into the hub of Britain’s China trade. In 1898, the colony was expanded when Britain negotiated a 99-year lease of the New Territories. The colony’s population expanded to reach 1.6m by 1941 but by the end of the Second World War the effects of Japan’s harsh occupation left the colony with just 650,000 inhabitants.

However once peace resumed people were quick to return and Hong Kong’s populations reached 2.2m by 1950 and Hong Kong became a major centre for the manufacture of cheap goods of all sorts. By the 1970s, financial services began to take on increasing importance, and as low-wage jobs moved to the mainland and the importance of manufacturing fell as Hong Kong became a global financial hub.