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Travel Blog - By Ethan Groom:
How Hong Kong became a British colony.
It all started with the opium war, a time when England sold opium to China in return for silver. In 1799 the trade of opium was banned however illegal trade continued. In 1839 the Chinese government ordered the British garrison to handover 20,000 chests full of it. They declined and were held under siege for 6 weeks until ordered by a British general to hand over the chests. As a result of this action all trade was suspended with China and in 1840 British forces began blockading a number of ports along the Yangtze River and the coast as far as Shanghai. To the Chinese emperor's great alarm the British forces threatened Beijing (the capital) so he sent a negotiator to discuss the situation with the British. In exchange for the British withdrawal, China agreed to give Hong Kong Island to Britain.
At the time Hong Kong was only 20 villages and hamlets but offered a sheltered deep water harbour that could be used by the British trading fleet.
Hong Kong gets it's name from the Cantonese for heung-gawng which means fragrant harbour named after the scent from sandalwood incense factories that wafted accros the harbour from what is now Aberdeen from the western edge of the island. Today, incense still plays a huge part in Chinese culture as you will see from our temple photographs.
Hong Kong Island and the surrounding islands were also home to barbaric pirates who patrolled the South China seas and attacked trade ships. The British navy had to fight the pirates. Repulse bay on Hong Kong Island gets its name from where two pirate lords were beaten in one such battle and were repelled.
It has been great fun learning about the history.
Ethan Groom
- comments
Neil Hawkey Well Done Ethan, fascinating !
Saralouise Wow Ethan, really enjoyed reading your blog and certainly learnt something new. Big hugs Saralouise xx
Lisa Well Done Ethan, interesting reading. X