Went to Hong Kong from August 8 to 12, 2001. This is the first time I went to Hong Kong and I really enjoyed myeself there although it was only for 5 days. Spend alot of money in Hong Kong because it was there Summer Shopping Sales period. The weather was very hot and humid too! We were quite worried about the typhoon in Hong Kong but luckily the typhoon didn't sweep us away.
About 2,200 years ago, during the Qin Dynasty, Hong Kong became a part of the Chinese empire, but Han-Chinese from the north's Central Plain area did not settle in large numbers until the 12th Century. Those dominant settler families, known as the "Five Great Clans", are still a strong presence in the New Territories. Some of the earliest written references to Hong Kong foreshadow its destiny as an economic centre. Imperial records state that troops were stationed at Tuen Mun and Tai Po in order to guard the pearls which were harvested from Tolo Harbour by aboriginal Tanka divers.
The Tanka people were boat-dwellers who lived their lives in the many sheltered bays and anchorages of Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories, and who rarely came ashore. The Hoklos were another seafaring people who had migrated from the northern coast, establishing fishing villages in the area. Historical accounts of the New Territories describe fertile paddy fields, and flourishing inshore fisheries and salt ponds. The ponds provided the large amounts of salt needed for preserving fish, which were sold locally and in the markets of Macau.
By the 17th Century, the region was infamous for rebellion and piracy. In an attempt to solve the problem, the ruling Manchus evacuated the coastal area in the hope of denying supplies and food for the pirates. The scheme was unsuccessful and eventually settlers were allowed to return to the coast. A new group of emigrants arrived from the north: the Hakka people, a clan who farmed rice, pineapples, tea and incense.
By the end of the 19th Century, about 100,000 people lived in the New Territories, many of them in close-knit clans occupying walled villages. More than half of the population was Punti, or Cantonese-speaking people, while the rest were mainly Hakka.
Meanwhile, in the early 19th Century, the British began to use the deep-sheltered port of Hong Kong Island for their booming trade in silk, tea, spices and opium. After the opium war, China was forced to cede the island of Hong Kong in perpetuity to the British in 1842. Although Hong Kong was infamously described as a "barren rock", the reputation of the Crown Colony quickly grew, as did the fortunes of the traders who built up the "hongs", the flourishing trading houses. Hostilities continued to occasionally break out between the two nations, so British sought more territory to protect itself. In 1860, the Kowloon Peninsula and Stonecutter's Island were ceded, and in 1898, Britain was granted a 99-year lease on the New Territories.
Hong Kong's cityscape soon reflected its status as an important trading port. The Peak Tram funicular railway was built in 1888 - it replaced the sedan chair as the main form of transport for the wealthy Westerners who lived in the Peak's elite residences. The street tramway system was constructed in 1904, followed by a new railway to Canton six years later. At the turn of the century, about 11,000 ships berthed in Victoria Harbour each year.
Britain's 99-year lease on the New Territories expired at midnight on 30 June 1997. Thirteen years earlier, in 1984, the Sino-British Joint Declaration made history by stating Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories would all revert to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, to become an autonomous Special Administrative Region (SAR). On that landmark date, 1 July 1997, the Crown Colony once more became a part of China, the largest nation on Earth |
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