Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
A BRIEF HISTORY
In the popular mind, the history of Hong Kong, long the point of entry to China for Western-
ers, begins in 1841 with the British occupation of the territory. However, it would be wrong
to dismiss the long history of the region itself. Archaeologists today are working to uncover
Hong Kong's past, which stretches back thousands of years. You can get a glimpse into that
past at Lei Cheng Uk Han Museum's 1,600-year-old burial vault on the mainland just north
of Kowloon (for more information, click here ) . In 1992, when construction of the airport on
Chek Lap Kok began, a 2,000-year-old village, Pak Mong, was discovered, complete with
artefacts that indicated a sophisticated rural society. An even older Stone Age site was dis-
covered on Lamma Island in 1996.
Time travel
The Hong Kong Story at the Hong Kong Museum of History is
the best way for a visitor to experience the territory's past. For
just HK$10, you can travel from a point 400 million years ago
to the 1997 handover. Exhibits are richly displayed and include
replicas of an 18th-century fishing junk and a 1960s cinema.
While Hong Kong remained a relative backwater in its early days, nearby Guangzhou
(Canton) was developing into a great trading city with connections in India and the Middle
East. By AD900, the Hong Kong islands had become a lair for pirates preying on the ship-
ping in the Pearl River Delta and causing a major headache for burgeoning Guangzhou; small
bands of pirates were still operating into the early years of the 20th century.
In the meantime, the mainland area was being settled by incomers, the 'Five Great Clans':
Tang, Hau, Pang, Liu and Man. First to arrive was the Tang clan, which established a number
of walled villages in the New Territories that still exist today. You can visit Kat Hing Wai and
Lo Wai, where the old village walls are still intact. Adjacent to Lo Wai is the Tang Chung
Ling Ancestral Hall, built in the 16th century, and which is still the centre of clan activities to
this day.
The first Europeans to arrive in the Pearl River Delta were the Portuguese, who settled in
Macau in 1557 and had a monopoly on trade between Asia, Europe and South America for
Search WWH ::




Custom Search