Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
'Albert is so amused at my having got the island of Hong Kong', wrote Queen Victoria to
King Leopold of Belgium in 1841. At the time, Hong Kong was little more than a backwater
of about 20 villages and hamlets.
The Road to Boomtown
After Japan's withdrawal from Hong Kong, and subsequent surrender in August 1945, the
colony looked set to resume its hibernation. But events both at home and on the mainland
forced the colony in a new direction.
The Chinese Civil War (1945-49) and the subsequent communist takeover of China
caused a huge number of refugees - both rich and poor - to flee to Hong Kong. The
refugees brought along capital and cheap labour which would prove vital to Hong Kong's
economic takeoff. On a paltry, war-torn foundation, local and foreign businesses built a
huge manufacturing (notably textiles and garments) and financial services centre that trans-
formed Hong Kong into one of the world's great economic miracles.
Hong Kong's stability received a hard battering at the height of the Cultural Revolution in
1967, as local procommunist groups instigated a series of anticolonial demonstrations,
strikes and riots. The violence soon mushroomed into bombings and arson attacks, and the
colony's economy was paralysed for months. The riot came to an end in December 1967,
when Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai ordered the procommunist groups to stop.
In the early years of British Hong Kong, opium dens, gambling clubs and brothels prolifer-
ated; just a year after Britain took possession, an estimated 450 prostitutes worked out
of two-dozen brothels, including a fair number of foreign prostitutes clustered in
Lyndhurst Tce, which today is home to a hip bar scene.
A Society in Transition
After the 1967 crisis the colonial government initiated a series of reforms to alleviate social
discontent and to foster a sense of belonging to Hong Kong. In the next decade the govern-
ment introduced more labour laws, and invested heavily in public housing, medical services,
education and recreational activities for youth.
Although Hong Kong's stock market collapsed in 1973, its economy resumed its upward
trend later in the decade. The 'Open Door' policy of Deng Xiaoping, who took control of
China in the confusion after Mao Zedong's death in 1976, revived Hong Kong's role as the
gateway to the mainland and it boomed. By the end of the 1980s, Hong Kong was one of the
richest places in Asia, second only to Japan in terms of GDP per capita.
