Every day a traditional redsailed Chinese junk boat passes by the skyscrapers along Victoria Harbour; a symbol of Hong Kong’s rich maritime history. I watch the junk go by as I wait for my friend Edie and her acquaintance from the art world, Mrs Chu – one of the socalled ‘freedom swimmers’ who swam into Hong Kong for a new life.
In 150 years, Hong Kong transformed from a collection of fishing villages of perhaps 2,000 inhabitants to an international commercial centre and metropolis of seven million people. It did so with wave after wave of migrations from the Chinese mainland.
Hong Kong’s current border dates back to 1898 when British colonisers agreed a 99-year lease with the Qing Dynasty for the ‘New Territories’, to add to Hong Kong Island (1841) and the Kowloon Peninsula (1860).