Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
trade aggressively and by the start of the 19th century traded this 'foreign mud'
for Chinese tea, silk and porcelain.
China's attempts to stamp out the opium trade gave the British the pretext
they needed for military action. Gunboats were sent in. In 1841, the Union flag
was hoisted on Hong Kong Island and the Treaty of Nanking, which brought an
end to the so-called First Opium War, ceded the island to the British crown 'in
perpetuity'.
At the end of the Second Opium War in 1860, Britain took possession of
Kowloon Peninsula, and in 1898 a 99-year lease was granted for the New Ter-
ritories.
In 1984 Britain agreed to return what would become the Special Administrat-
ive Region (SAR) of Hong Kong to China in 1997, on the condition it would re-
tain its free-market economy and its social and legal systems for 50 years.
