From “just a collection of rocks,” the phrase used to describe it when it was handed over to the British under the Treaty of Nanking, the tiny island city of Hong Kong has been transformed into the centre of international trade, manufacturing and tourism. China leased Hong Kong to Great Britain in 1899 for 99 years. In just about a hundred years the city developed so rapidly that it has become central to global trade and finance. Hong Kong as a part of British territory also enjoyed considerable economic, social and political freedom and it thrived on this liberalism.
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