Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
More than four generations passed before the population was able to recover to its
mid-17th-century level, boosted in part by the influx of the Hakka (Cantonese for 'guest
people'), who moved here in the 18th century and up to the mid-19th century. A few
vestiges of their language, songs, folklore and cooking survive, most visibly in the wide-
brimmed, black-fringed bamboo hats sported by Hakka women in the New Territories.
In 1276 the boy emperor Duan Zong and his younger brother, Bing, were forced to flee to
Hong Kong as the Mongols swept aside the remaining army of the Song dynasty (AD
960-1279). After Mongol ships defeated the tattered remnants of the imperial fleet in a
battle on the Pearl River, the Song dynasty was definitively ended.
Arrival of the Outer Barbarians
For centuries the Pearl River estuary had been an important trading artery centred on the
port of Canton (now Guǎngzhōu). Some of the first foreign traders (or 'outer barbarians')
were Arab traders who entered - and sacked - the settlement as early as the 8th century AD.
Similarly, the Ming emperors regarded their subjects to the south as an utterly uncivilised
bunch. It was therefore fitting that the Cantonese should trade with the 'outer barbarians'.
Regular trade between China and Europe began in 1557 when Portuguese navigators set
up a base in Macau, 65km west of Hong Kong. Dutch traders came in the wake of the Por-
tuguese, followed by the French. British ships appeared as early as 1683 from the East India
Company concessions along the coast of India, and by 1711 the company had established
offices and warehouses in Guǎngzhōu to trade for tea, silk and porcelain.
The First Opium War & British Hong Kong
China did not reciprocate Europe's voracious demand for its products, for the most part
shunning foreign manufactured goods. The foreigners' ensuing trade deficit was soon re-
versed, however, after the British discovered a commodity that the Chinese did want: opi-
um.
The British, with a virtually inexhaustible supply of the drug from the poppy fields of In-
dia, developed the trade aggressively. Consequently, opium addiction spread out of control
in China, and the country's silver reserves became perilously drained.
In late 1838 Emperor Dao Guang (r 1820-50) appointed Lin Zexu, governor of Húnán
and Húběi and a Mandarin of great integrity, to stamp out the opium trade. His rather suc-
cessful campaign would ultimately lead to the First Opium War (or First Anglo-Chinese
War) of 1839-42.
