Now for the history lesson.

Wednesday 23rd November 2016

Today we leave Hong Kong.  We have an overnight flight to Brisbane so we will have a bit more jet lag. However we took the free morning opportunity to visit the Museum of Hong Kong History.  And a very good museum it was too.  

We wanted to see a 'junk'.  There don't seem to be any still used on the water anymore!  We were a bit shocked about the pearl diving that went on around Hong Kong where divers were tied to heavy stones to keep them deep enough to collect the oysters!!  I don't think they had 'health and safety' risk assessments in those days and many divers were drowned, not surprisingly.

 I was particularly interested in the period of history that involved Britain.  I'm a bit sketchy on some of the dates as I am working from memory but we seemed to have be involved in some trading with China through the British East India Company from prior to the 1800's and of course we were a powerful maritime force with colonies in India and Australia already established.  The First Opium War started in 1839 because China wasn't happy with us selling them a load of opium from India, making millions of Chinese people addicted.  So, to protect our drugs trade we went to war and won!  China were forced to cede Hong Kong and the New Territories to Britain.  Hong Kong was only a small place back then but it must have been seen as a good deep water harbour for further trade purposes.  The Chinese got a bit uppity and we had a Second Opium War around 1860 to teach them a lesson.  We actually attacked and occupied Peking until they agreed further concessions. 

The next significant occurrence was in 1898 when we agreed a 99 year lease of Hong Kong with the Chinese government.  Shortly after this the Boxer Rebellion of 1899-1901 took place.  Apparently some groups in North China were fed up of foreign powers pushing their governments around and they protested against the foreigners and against their own government.  They believed they were impervious to foreign weapons! They were wrong.  The Boxers were given their name not because they wore loose fitting shorts but because they primarily fought by hand, which was probably not a good tactic when we had guns and cannon.  A multi-country force that included Britain, Japan, Russia, France, Portugal and Austria (mainly, British, Russian and Japanese) attacked the Chinese forces and quelled the rebellion.  The alliance was one of convenience because all the nations had a vested interest in exploiting China for trade purposes.

Since these times Hong Kong has grown immensely, in population and in international importance as a trading and financial city. 

On 30th June 1997 the 99 year lease ran out and we handed Hong Kong back to China on the basis that it was a Special Administrative Region of China with self control for the following 50 years.  I get the impression that Hong Kong is probably happy to escape British control but wish to retain the lifestyle and many of the freedoms that they currently have.  

That's a lot of history...I hope it gives you a bit of an overview.  I hope you are still awake.

We certainly enjoyed the Museum.

Overall, we were very impressed with Hong Kong.  We always felt safe.  The hotel was good and in a really good location.  I felt very tall amongst the local people and Janice felt very blonde (purely in a hair colour sense).  There is certainly lots to see in a smallish area and it is visually stunning especially when the 'humidity' stops.  Most people speak some English and they are courteous.  I expected to be jostled in crowds of rushing people but that never happened even when we were on busy streets.  I even enjoyed being grumpy about our dodgy meal.  It is certainly in my top five world cities to visit.

We are currently waiting at the airport for our flight.  The temperature in Brisbane tomorrow is 34 degrees, we could be in for a shock but we will tough it out!