Hi! I'm JanCheung, and I'm from Hong Kong. Sorry if this dragged on a lot, I kinda got sidetracked.
this was supposed to be on CityQuirks but I don't think they update anymore lol
Intro
Hong Kong is a city located in southeastern China. It is NOT a country or a state, but an autonomous territory of China. The official name is Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China. I know, it's a mouth full. Just in case you've never heard of this place before, here's a lil map.
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To put it simply, yes, we are a part of China, but we have a separate economic and political system from China under "one country, two systems. We have our own currency, our own judiciary system (different court than China), but China provides us with military defence (we don't have an army) and most foreign affairs. You do see us in the Olympics. (we're good at table tennis) I know, it's kinda confusing, but someone's gotta do the explaining.
History
This part is gonna be dedicated to explaining the history of how we became a British colony and how the "one country, two system" thing came to be, so if you're not interested, just skip ahead.
You still here? Good. To start with explaining the British control, we have to go back to 1839. Basically, the British imported opium into China, and being the weak ass Qing government China had, everyone got addicted. Some guy (I actually learnt about him but now I can't even remember his name lol) protested then threw it all into the ocean. Then, of course, they went to war and because QING SUCKED the British won and they had to give them some territory. That was the first opium war (yes there's more) and so Qing gave the British Hong Kong Island (A part of our city).
THAN THEY FOUGHT AGAIN. The second opium war (which the Qing LOST AGAIN) expanded the territory to the Kowloon Peninsula. After that, they were like, "You know what, let's just get a lease of the northern parts and the islands so we can make this city whole." So Qing gave them a 99-year lease (You could've made it a 100...) of New Territories, Lantau Island and all of the 200-something islands.
