 There's a lot more to Hong Kong than marble and glass |
The dramatic events of the mid-19th Century created Hong Kong from a string of minor fishing villages on the island that now bears its name. The British, on an expansionist roll, obtained Hong Kong Island in 1841 and then, in 1860, Kowloon on the adjacent mainland, after giving the Chinese forces of the Qing Dynasty a sound hiding in the two Opium Wars.
Prior to this, Macau had been the sole enclave for European settlement in Asia, but the new colony soon overtook the Portuguese outpost as the key regional centre for international commerce, banking and trade.
At the end of the last century, Hong Kong was back in the news with the historic handover of the British colony to the People’s Republic of China. Although many were nervous about the returning Communists, the transition was much less troublesome than many imagined and Hong Kong residents still enjoy special economic and political concessions.
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