Eric is correct-

I'd like to add that around the same time that the British leased the New
Territories other western powers also 'took' lands from China, this included
the Germans and the French the Italians also tried but were denied (I do not
know when/how the above powers ended their presence in China).
  The New Territories comprise about 90% of the area of Hong Kong and
although the British, based on the treaties of the Opium Wars, could have
'held on' to the portions acquired at the conclusion of those wars, they
deemed that it would have been too 'messy' to try and separate the regions
and thus opted to return the region as a whole.

Paul

______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: Off Topic: History of Hong Kong
Author:  Eric Bender <[log in to unmask]> at CCGATE
Date:    06/30/97 01:25 PM


At 12:49 PM 6/30/97 -0700, Lee Gunter wrote:
>As I recall, the British Empire was ceded Hong Kong as a condition of
>China's surrender following the Opium Wars at the end of the 19th
>Century.  This concession was somehow turned into a 99-year lease -
>possibly with the treaty that was signed in 1984 which agreed to the
>eventual return of Hong Kong to the PRC in 1997.  I'm sorry, but I
>don't know more of the details.
>
>Actually, the (former) Crown Colony of Hong Kong was acquired by the
British in 3 stages:
1) Island of Hong Kong - seized in 1841, during the first Opium War,
2) Kowloon - ceded in 1860, after the second Opium War, and
3) New Territories, a mainland area leased in 1898 for 99 years.

It was the negotiations concerning the termination of the New Territories
lease which led to the 1984 agreement cited above to return the entire
colony to China.

(Incidentally, lost in all the hype over the July 1st and Hong Kong is that
July 1st is also Canada Day, in this case the 130th anniversary of our
Confederation in 1867. So to all my fellow HP3K Canucks - Happy Canada Day ,
eh?)


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