Merchants across Europe had been trading in tea from the 1600 and the British interest tea was financed through the trading of precious metals with China, which proved very costly until the British East India Company (1600-1874) developed a product that China wanted-a drug called Opium. The Chinese Emperor of the Qing Dynasty at the time soon made the Opium trade illegal in China, confiscating several thousand chests of Opium. The British not only took offence but also took action.

Due to the 1st Opium War (1839-42) and 2nd Opium War (1856-60) the British prevailed and China was forced to open up its ports, not to only Britain but other European countries over time and to pay reparation for the cost of both wars. It was the Treaties of NangKing (1841) and Tientsin (1858) which ceded Hong Kong port along with its island making it a crown colony in 1843. This extended to the Kowloon Peninsular in 1860 and both were colonised as British territory. Both were acquired as well as the ‘New Territories’ through a 99 year lease in 1898…

The year of 1997 marked the beginning of the end for Britain’s colonial rule around the world but  the start of a new beginning for Hong Kong began nearly 20 years earlier…