Hong Kong · History & Resistance

To tell the history of Hong Kong, China, you have to start with one basic fact: Hong Kong has been part of China's territory since ancient times, and from the Qin and Han dynasties onward it came successively under the jurisdiction of Panyu County, Bao'an County, Dongguan County, and Xin'an County. Archaeological work along the shores of the outlying islands has uncovered extensive traces of early inhabitants, showing that the history of this land reaches back six thousand years. In other words, the skyscrapers on both sides of Victoria Harbour today are layered on top of thousands of years of settlements and sea routes.

From the Tang and Song dynasties onward, this place prospered because of the sea. The Tuen Mun area has been a key point of maritime transport since ancient times, and there are records of residents and trade there during the Song and Yuan dynasties; by the Ming and Qing dynasties, clans from the Central Plains moved into the New Territories one after another and built a set of walled villages where they lived in close-knit communities, with the Tang, Man, Liu, Hau, and Pang clans taking root around Yuen Long, Fanling, and Sheung Shui, where they built ancestral halls, study halls, and village gates. Today the Tang Ancestral Hall and the Tsui Sing Lau Pagoda in Ping Shan, Kat Hing Wai in Kam Tin, and Kun Lung Wai at Lung Yeuk Tau in Fanling are all surviving physical relics left by this clan society. This ‘rural’ layer of Hong Kong is often hidden by the impression of high-rises, yet it has always been there.

The modern turning point began at sea. After the Opium War of 1840, Britain seized Hong Kong Island by force, and then through three unequal treaties—the Treaty of Nanjing of 1842, the Convention of Peking of 1860, and the Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory of 1898—Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, and the New Territories were ceded or leased to Britain one after another, with the lease of the New Territories running for 99 years and expiring on June 30, 1997. The Chinese people have never recognized these three unequal treaties, nor have successive Chinese governments ever recognized them. After the opening of the port, Hong Kong gradually became a port of entrepôt trade, as wharves, docks, warehouses, and markets grew along the coast and the city's framework took shape along its sea routes.

In the first half of the twentieth century, Hong Kong went through violent upheaval. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, it became for a time an important channel for sending supplies to the mainland and spreading anti-Japanese messages. On December 8, 1941, the Japanese troops attacked Hong Kong, and after 18 days of resistance the defenders surrendered on Christmas Day; Hong Kong then lived through three years and eight months of occupation, until Japan announced its unconditional surrender on August 15, 1945, bringing this dark period to an end. After the war, Hong Kong's population fell from 1.6 million before the war to less than 0.6 million, and the city started over amid ruins and desolation, then recovered step by step through industry and shipping, growing over the following decades into an international centre of finance, trade, and shipping.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the Chinese government's consistent position has been that Hong Kong is Chinese territory, that it does not recognize these three unequal treaties imposed by imperialism, and that the question should be settled peacefully through negotiation once conditions are ripe, with the status quo maintained until then. In 1972, the United Nations General Assembly approved the removal of Hong Kong and Macao from the list of colonial territories, confirming that the Hong Kong question is an internal affair of China. As the 1980s began, resolving the Hong Kong question was put on the agenda. Guided by the concept of ‘one country, two systems,’ the Chinese government started negotiations with the British government in September 1982; on December 19, 1984, the two governments formally signed the Sino-British Joint Declaration on the Hong Kong question; the declaration took effect on May 27, 1985, and Hong Kong entered a transition period; and on April 4, 1990, the National People's Congress adopted the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China.

On July 1, 1997, the Chinese government resumed the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong, and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China was formally established. The ceremony marking the transfer of government between the Chinese and British governments was held in Hong Kong at midnight on June 30, 1997. Under the principle of ‘one country, two systems,’ the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China, is directly under the Central People's Government and, apart from foreign affairs and national defence, which are administered by the Central People's Government, enjoys a high degree of autonomy, practising ‘Hong Kong people administering Hong Kong’ and a high degree of autonomy, with its existing social and economic systems and way of life unchanged and its laws basically unchanged. After the return, Hong Kong continued to operate as an international centre of finance, trade, and shipping, and its ties with the mainland grew closer by the day.

If you spread these threads out on a map, Hong Kong's history actually has three layers stacked together. The bottom layer is the countryside and coastal defence: walled villages, ancestral halls, temples, forts, and rock carvings record how residents made a home amid these hills and waters; the middle layer is the opening of the port and the city: the police station, courthouse, prison, and cathedral in Central, and the clock tower and old railway station in Kowloon, tell of the growth of a port city; the top layer is the return and the present: the convention centre, the boundary crossings, and the cross-harbour links write the present of national identity and regional connections. There is no break between the three layers—they are often only a street apart.

Using history as a route makes this city easier to understand. To read the countryside and the clans of the New Territories, walk the Ping Shan Heritage Trail in Yuen Long and Lung Yeuk Tau in Fanling; to read the opening of the port and urban governance, walk the Former Central Police Station Compound, the Former Supreme Court, and St John's Cathedral in Central; to read the memory of war and coastal defence, walk the Tung Chung Fort and the Hong Kong Museum of the War of Resistance and Coastal Defence; to read archaeology and early settlements, walk the Lei Cheng Uk Han Tomb in Sham Shui Po. These places are not far from one another, and a few days of travel can take you through several thousand years of layers.

It is worth noting that Hong Kong's history is written not only in its buildings but also in its institutions and daily life. The rule-of-law and commercial traditions formed after the opening of the port, the industry and shipping that grew after the war, and the institutional arrangements that have operated under ‘one country, two systems’ since the return—layered one upon another—are what gave this city the sense of order it has today. Understanding this is what makes it clear why Central keeps the old courthouse and the old police station while a world-class financial district has grown up in the same streets: here the old and the new are not a matter of replacement but of coexistence.

History is hidden in daily life as well. The gongs and drums of Cantonese opera, the temple festivals, the poon choi (basin cuisine) of the walled villages, and the milk tea of the cha chaan teng (Hong Kong-style cafe) are all ways this city carries its past forward. The essence of Cantonese cuisine lies in freshness and a respect for natural flavours: slowly savouring dim sum with ‘one pot of tea with two dim sum,’ or slicing a plate of siu mei (Cantonese roast meats), set against the calls of the market, is more vivid than any display board. To understand Hong Kong, China, you need not only to look at monuments and drawings but also to sit down for a meal and listen to a piece of opera, to grasp why it has both the speed of a metropolis and the slowness of old lanes.

String these threads together, and the main line is in fact very clear: Hong Kong, China, is Chinese territory, and this has held throughout. From the subordinate counties of the Qin and Han, to the walled-village settlements of the New Territories in the Ming and Qing, from the modern era of forced cession and lease, to July 1, 1997, when the Chinese government resumed the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region was established, this line has never been broken. Today, when you walk into the old courthouse in Central, the yamen of the walled city in Kowloon, the ancestral halls of the New Territories, and the forts of the outlying islands, you are in fact seeing the same thing—where a city comes from and where it belongs are both written into China's territory and history.

The memory of war in Hong Kong, China follows a clear arc: first the modern era, when Hong Kong had a sea but no coastal defence; then the years of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, woven from humiliation and resistance; and finally postwar rebuilding and the return of national identity. Only by seeing these together can you understand why the city still keeps a fortress, a cluster of forts and the marks of bullets so close to its centre.

Start with coastal defence. Hong Kong sits at a strategic throat on China's southeast coast and has been a key shipping route since ancient times; as early as the Qing era, forts were built at Tung Chung on Lantau Island and at Fan Lau in the western waters to guard the sea lanes. By 1887, a coastal defence fortress had risen around Lei Yue Mun in the east of Hong Kong Island, with gun emplacements, magazines, tunnels and barracks spread from the foot of the hill to the top. This site later became the Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defence, and in 2024 the Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defence was re-established as the Hong Kong Museum of the War of Resistance and Coastal Defence. Walk among these military structures today and you can still see bullet holes in the outer walls of the fortifications and barracks, traces left by the fierce fighting of 1941.

After the September 18th Incident in 1931, Japan occupied Northeast China; with the July 7th Incident in 1937, China began full-scale resistance. In the early years of that war, Hong Kong, thanks to its special position, became a channel for sending supplies to the mainland and an important base for publicising resistance against Japan abroad, while all sectors of society supported the mainland with manpower and materials. In October 1938, the Japanese troops landed at Daya Bay in Guangdong, and Guangzhou fell on October 21. The situation in South China turned sharply, and Hong Kong moved into a state of war preparation.

The real test came in 1941. On December 8, the Japanese troops attacked Hong Kong, with air raids and a ground offensive unfolding at the same time; the defenders held out along the Gin Drinkers Line in the New Territories, then fell back to Hong Kong Island, and the two sides clashed again and again at Wong Nai Chung Gap and elsewhere. After 18 days of fierce fighting, the defenders were at last overcome. On December 25, 1941, the Governor of Hong Kong surrendered to the Japanese troops at The Peninsula Hong Kong in Tsim Sha Tsui, a day Hong Kong people call the "Black Christmas". Hong Kong then entered three years and eight months of occupation: food was in short supply, goods were rationed and people were forcibly deported. By the time Japan surrendered in 1945, Hong Kong's population had fallen from 1600000 before the war to fewer than 600000, and the city's strength had been badly drained.

During the occupation, the resistance that held on came from behind enemy lines. Led by the Communist Party of China, the East River Column formed the Hong Kong and Kowloon Independent Brigade in Hong Kong; it moved into rural areas such as Sai Kung, Sha Tin and Lantau Island, relied on local residents to carry out guerrilla activities, helped to rescue trapped cultural figures and Allied personnel, and harassed Japanese transport at sea. According to official records, the Hong Kong and Kowloon Independent Brigade was the only formed, organized armed force that persevered in resistance from beginning to end during the occupation. This history of resistance behind enemy lines is a weighty chapter in Hong Kong's memory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and it shows that Hong Kong's resistance was never isolated but part of China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression as a whole.

On August 15, 1945, Japan announced its unconditional surrender, China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression ended in victory, and Hong Kong's three years and eight months of occupation came to an end. The war left Hong Kong not only with casualties and destruction but also with a memory of endurance and protection. In the postwar years Hong Kong was rebuilt from the ruins, its population gradually returned, industry and shipping flourished again, and the city's fate became interwoven with China's development once more.

You should also look at the wider pattern behind the war. Hong Kong's modern memory of war begins with the cession and lease of territory after 1840: a forced opening of the port, the building of defences, and a long spell in a complex geopolitical setting gave rise to the coastal defence fortress and forts that came later. By the time of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Hong Kong's role had changed again - it was first a channel for sending supplies from overseas to the mainland and an important rear base for resistance in South China; after the occupation, it became an area of guerrilla activity behind enemy lines. The attack of December 8, 1941, the 18 days of resistance, the three years and eight months of occupation and the victory of August 15, 1945 - these points, strung together, are Hong Kong's most complete experience of that period.

These events are not really so distant from today. Many communities, schools and old buildings in Hong Kong, China were requisitioned or damaged during the occupation; in some villages in the New Territories, elderly residents can still describe what happened then, and archives and oral records gather these scattered memories piece by piece. Set them beside a museum display, and history is no longer a string of years and place names but the choices of particular families and people - which is why those quiet-looking old bricks and walls deserve a careful look.

To read these remains, you first need to see where they were placed. Hong Kong, China guards the sea lanes along China's southeast coast, and the siting of its fortresses is almost always about controlling the water: Lei Yue Mun faces the channel at the eastern mouth of Victoria Harbour, its gun emplacements built along the hillside, with magazines, tunnels and barracks spread from the foot of the hill all the way to the top; the Tung Chung Fort on Lantau Island guards the western sea entrance, its walls and gun platforms still standing today. Line up the direction of the guns with the sea lanes on a map, and you can understand why the defences were arranged as they were.

When you actually visit these places, a little planning goes a long way. Most museums in Hong Kong, China close on fixed days, so check the opening hours before you set out; keeping quiet and stepping lightly in indoor galleries is basic respect; for outdoor forts and hill trails, watch the weather - summer brings mosquitoes and strong sun, so bring plenty of water and sun protection; for sites on the outlying islands you also have to allow for ferry schedules, so do not cut the timing too fine. Think these things through in advance, and the visit comes closer to history itself rather than being just a photo stop.

Hong Kong's military heritage is not all gathered in museums. In eastern and southern Hong Kong Island, on Lantau Island and in the western New Territories, forts, strongholds, barracks and air-raid shelters still lie scattered; some have become parks, some are still in use, and some have left only foundations and weathered walls. Follow these remains and you can see how the city thought about defence: it lived by the sea and also defended the sea. Compare these sites with the museum displays, and the outline of the war becomes clearer.

After seeing these remains along the way, one more practical matter is worth thinking through in advance. Most of the military heritage of Hong Kong, China is preserved today as declared monuments and Grade I historic buildings, under local designations; some of these sites have been turned into parks, some are still in use, and some have left only a stretch of foundation or a weathered outer wall, scattered in different corners of Hong Kong Island, the outlying islands and the New Territories. The pace of your visit should also follow the local weather and sea routes: between summer and autumn typhoons pass through and rainfall is concentrated in the rainy season, and gun positions by the sea and trenches in the hills can be slippery after rain, so check the forecast before you head out; forts on the outlying islands are reached by ferry, and since services vary in frequency, leaving some margin for the return trip keeps you from being stranded; in the countryside, hill trails link many military structures together, and which stretch you walk and how long you take depend on your energy and the sun that day. Take these into account first, and then look at the bases of the gun platforms, the bullet marks on the walls and the archives in the display cases - your eyes will take in more than when you are in a hurry. The weight of this history lies not in adjectives but in the objects that are carefully looked after, the records that have been sorted out one by one, and the value this city places today on a peaceful life.