History, at its finest.

With such a brilliant past and recent historical change, one would think I knew something, anything before today about this great place we call Hong Kong.

I’ll begin with opium. Back in 1773, China was very self-sufficient and was not much into trading with other countries, like Europe. But Europe was addicted to tea that China had, so China got smart, some would argue, and brought over something even more addictive than tea, opium. Opium spread like white on rice all across China until they realized their silver was being drained. Then, this guy tried to stop it, but it didn’t work because of corruption and addiction. Then, another guy came and in one week (because he cut off the opium guys food supply) they surrendered it all. British did not like it and thus began the First Opium War of 1840.

British besieged a part of China which scared them so they sorta agreed to give Hong Kong Island to the British. oops.

Then the second Opium War began in 1856 and a lot happened but it ended by the British agreeing to sign a 99 year lease of the “New Territories” beginning July 1, 1898. This is one of the Hong Kong Islands.

The population in Hong Kong grew significantly, especially when China had wars and massive amounts of people fled to Hong Kong. Then Japan got occupation of Hong Kong for 4 years because the British surrendered to them on Christmas Day, 1941.

Years later, the working conditions were horrid (think ‘Made In China’) and people wanted things to change so they started riots. That ended because there were bigger fish to fry.

Communists got power of China and everyone thought they would take over Hong Kong, but they didn’t. They actually let Hong Kong function on its own, still as a British territory, and things like the brilliant Mass Transit Railway (that Houston needs) were built and housing was better and more affordable. They also got into the money making business and China had this ‘open door’ policy, which allowed Hong Kong to be a major trans-shipment point for China’s exports and imports.

Then many years passed and people migrated away from Hong Kong because they were scared what would happen with the 99-year lease agreement with Britian that was coming up. The plans were all wishy-washy and that clearly scared people. But just after midnight on June 30, 1997, Hong Kong was given back to China!

Hong Kong was ‘reborn’ as a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China, which it still is today. This means that Hong Kong still functions much like it did when British ruled for 99 years, therefore it has a very modern, Britian/American feel/look. Now, China has implemented policies as well. For example, all the children in school now have to learn Mandarin, as well as Cantonese and English. This may be a seemingly small change but it is a very big deal that this trade happened so smoothly and in my lifetime.

I mean really, where were you the night of June 30, 1997?

Thanks to the Lonely Planet book for helping guide me through this incredible journey to the past. Hope you enjoyed your first history lesson. Let me know if you want to read any books about Hong Kong.