Hong Kong and Macau_ City Guide (Lonely Planet, 14th Edition) - Andrew Stone [30]
1895
Sun Yat-sen, a newly qualified Chinese doctor from Guangzhou, uses Hong Kong as a base to drive an insurrection in southern China; it fails and the British ban Sun from the territory.
1898
China hands the New Territories to Britain; instead of annexing the ‘New Territories’, the British agree to sign a 99-year lease, beginning on 1 July 1898 and ending at midnight on 30 June 1997.
1911
With waves of immigrants fleeing the Chinese Revolution on the mainland, the colony’s population continues to grow.
1937
Pouncing on a country weakened by a bloody civil war, Japan invades China; as many as 750,000 mainland Chinese seek shelter in Hong Kong over the next three years, fleeing the invaders.
1941
After just over two weeks of fierce but futile resistance, 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 pro-communist 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
The ‘Open Door’ policy of Deng Xiaoping, who took control of China after Mao Zedong’s death, revives Hong Kong’s role as the gateway to the mainland.
1982
The prime minister of Britain, Margaret Thatcher, visits Beijing to begin talks on the future of Hong Kong; Hong Kong’s future is sealed after two years of closed-door wrangling between the Chinese and British.
1989
More than one million Hong Kong people march in support of the pro-democracy movement in Beijing; Chinese tanks and troops mow down protesting students in Tiananmen Square.
1990
The government introduces a Bill of Rights and in 1991 bestows on Hong Kong citizens the right to choose 18 of the 60 members of the Legislative Council.
1997
The rain falls, Chris Patten cries and Hong Kong returns to Chinese sovereignty; Avian Flu breaks out, killing six people and leading to the slaughter of more than one million birds in a bid to contain the outbreak.
2001
Tung Chee Hwa follows the lead of his Beijing political masters in labelling the Falun Gong a ‘vicious cult’ and limits the group’s activities in Hong Kong.
2003
The Closer Economic Partnership Agreement signed with the mainland government provides favourable business opportunities to Hong Kong’s investors and industries.
2006
A flood of pregnant mainland Chinese women entering Hong Kong to give birth and claim citizenship strains Hong Kong’s maternity resources, spurring a ban on heavily pregnant women entering the territory.
2007
A green paper examining the possible introduction of greater representation to create a more democratic system is released; democracy campaigners accuse the government of dragging out any move towards universal suffrage.
2009
Hong Kong’s population exceeds seven million and the unemployment rate grows to almost 5% in the face of the world’s worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
2009
Some 150,000 people, according to the organisers, attend the 20th anniversary of the candlelight vigil held in Victoria Park to mark the 4 June 1989 crackdown on
pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing.
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NEIGHBOURHOODS & ISLANDS
* * *
HONG KONG ISLAND
CENTRAL
EXPLORING HONG KONG’S HEART
ADMIRALTY & WAN CHAI
OLD WAN CHAI’S FORGOTTEN STREETS
LAN KWAI FONG & SOHO
SHEUNG WAN
HONG KONG’S WHOLESALE DISTRICT
CAUSEWAY BAY
WESTERN DISTRICTS
THE MID-LEVELS
THE PEAK
HAPPY VALLEY
ISLAND EAST
ISLAND SOUTH
KOWLOON
TSIM SHA TSUI
TSIM SHA TSUI EAST & HUNG HOM
YAU MA TEI
MONG KOK
KOWLOON’S TEEMING MARKET STREETS
NEW KOWLOON
NEW TERRITORIES
TSUEN WAN
TAI MO SHAN
TUEN MUN
YUEN LONG
MAI PO MARSH
KAM TIN
FANLING & SHEUNG