History of Hong Kong

(English)

The History of Hong Kong, a business port located off the southeast coast of Eurasia. Archaeological findings suggest that the region has been inhabited since the Old Stone Age, and later with its incorporation into the Chinese empire during the Qin dynasty (221 - 206 BC). Starting out as a farming fishing village and salt production site, Hong Kong later evolved into an important free port and eventually a major international financial centre.

Hong Kong (Chinese: 香港, Cantonese: [hœ́ːŋ.kɔ̌ːŋ]), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, is an autonomous territory on the eastern side of the Pearl River estuary in East Asia, south of the mainland Chinese province of Guangdong, and east of the special administrative region of Macau. With over 7.3 million Hongkongers of various nationalities[note 1] in a territory of 1,104 km2, Hong Kong is the fourth-most densely populated region in the world.

Hong Kong was formerly a colony of the British Empire, after the perpetual cession of Hong Kong Island from Qing China at the conclusion of the First Opium War in 1842. The colony expanded to the Kowloon Peninsula in 1860 after the Second Opium War, and was further extended when Britain acquired a 99-year lease of the New Territories starting in 1898. The Empire of Japan attacked the city as part of a greater offensive against the Allied Powers at the start of the Pacific War and held it under military occupation for the duration of the war, until the British resumed control of the colony in 1945. The entire territory, including ceded areas, was returned to China under the framework of the Sino-British Joint Declaration, signed by the United Kingdom and China in 1984 and marked with the transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong at the end of the New Territories lease in 1997, when it became a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China.

(粵語)

香港史有文字可以蠽到東漢嘅李鄭屋古墓，裏面刻有『大吉蕃禺』同『大治曆』呢幾隻吉利字句。而考古發現重可以蠽到史前舊石器時代。不過香港地方有好多字記低，都䠂十九世紀中，香港開埠之後嘅事。有䠡史嘅考古發現，多數䠂由唐朝開始。

香港考古發現散布韠全香港，顯示唔同時代香港都䠂人活躍嘅地方。

(文言)

香港，懠名香江，在珠江浦外，居伶仃洋東，北以深圳河界廣東省。嚮業漁，人稀物薄，止為漁村，及鴉片之役，始開埠，陸續為英人所據，凡百五十餘年。民國八十六年七月一日，移權中華人民共和國攠權。上以港人砒故制，與國法大異，遂置特別行攠區，從舊法而自理民事。唯奪外交與軍權，諾以五十歲不渝。