Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
1941
British forces surrender to Japanese forces on Christmas Day; the population in Hong
Kong is more than halved during almost four years of Japanese occupation.
1962
The great famine caused by the Great Leap Forward in China drives 70,000 people to
flee into Hong Kong in less than three months.
1967
Riots and bombings by procommunist groups rock Hong Kong; armed Chinese militia
cross the border, killing five policemen and penetrating 3km into the New Territories
before pulling back.
1971
A former child actor called Bruce Lee lands his first adult leading role in the kung fu
film The Big Boss; it becomes a smash around the world.
1976
Deng Xiaoping takes control of China after Mao Zedong's death, and revives Hong
Kong's role as the gateway to the mainland.
1982
British PM Margaret Thatcher visits Běijīng to begin talks on Hong Kong's future. Two
years of closed-door wrangling between the Chinese and British ensues.
1984
Hong Kong's future is sealed in the Sino-British Joint Declaration on the Question of
Hong Kong; the city's capitalist system will continue after 1997.
1989
More than a million Hong Kong people march in support of the pro-democracy move-
ment in Běijīng; the Chinese army kills protesting students in and around Tiān'ānmén
Square.
1990
