Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
HISTORICAL LANDMARKS
7th-9th centuries AD
Probable arrival of the Tanka People. Chinese fortress
constructed in Tuen Mun.
10th-14th centuries
Arrival of the 'Five Great Clans' in what is now the New
Territories.
1557
Portugal establishes official trading colony at Macau.
1699
British East India Company establishes itself in Canton.
1840
First Opium War sparked by a Chinese-imposed ban on the opium trade
operated by British and American traders.
1841
British fleet attacks Canton and takes possession of Hong Kong.
1842
Treaty of Nanking: Hong Kong ceded to Britain 'in perpetuity'.
1856-60
The British embark on the Second Opium War, force the opening of
further ports and the cession of the Kowloon Peninsula.
1898
Britain negotiates a 99-year lease of the New Territories and the 233
Outlying Islands, until 30 June 1997.
1911
Qing dynasty falls; Sun Yat-sen forms the Republic of China.
1935
Mao Zedong takes control of the Chinese Communist Party.
1941
Hong Kong surrenders to the invading Japanese.
1945
Hong Kong returns to being a British colony.
