Hong Kong

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Hong Kong

Hong Kong has it all. It is perhaps one of the world’s most amazing and most important economic cities. Being located in China on 22° 18' N 114° 10' E, it puts the city right in the middle of Japan and Singapore, and also on many shipping and air routes of the western Pacific. Hong Kong did not become a successful city overnight. It was a British dependency dating back to the 1842 to July 1, 1997. The First Opium War forced China to give Hong Kong to the British. A British-appointed governor headed Hong Kong’s government and military affairs. In 1984 Britain and China signed the Sino-British Joint Declaration, and agreed that Hong Kong return to Chinese rule in 1997 as the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China. The Joint Declaration and a Chinese law called the Basic Law, which followed in 1990, provide for the SAR to operate with a high degree of economic independence for 50 years beyond 1997.

Hong Kong grew slowly during the 19th century. There were about 100,000 people in the 1900s. The territory grew more rapidly in the 20th century when employment in Hong Kong’s developing light industries attracted Chinese immigrants. Hong Kong’s greatest growth and development took place after the Communist takeover of China in 1949, when the commercial and shipping functions of Guangzhou and Shanghai changed to Hong Kong. Hong Kong served as China’s key to success to the world during the Chinese administration of Mao Zedong. After Mao’...

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