These poppies could then be turned into opium, which the Chinese highly desired, but their laws prohibited. When this endeavour failed, the British realised they could grow poppies at an incredible rate. Background Д«ritain acquired Hong Kong Island in 1842, the Kowloon Peninsula in 1860, and the lease of the New Territories in 1898.Д«y the 1820s and 1830s, the British had conquered parts of India and had intentions of growing cotton in these lands to offset the amount of cotton they were buying from America. As no consensus reached on the sovereignty transferring, the Chinese stated ' to recover the Hong Kong area' ( Chinese: ж”¶е›ћй¦™жёЇењ°еЌЂ) and ' to resume the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong' ( Chinese: е°Ќй¦™жёЇжЃўеѕ©иЎЊдЅїдё»ж¬Љ) in the Sino-British Joint Declaration, while the British declared '(to) restore Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China' ( Chinese: е°‡й¦™жёЇдє¤й‚„зµ¦дёиЏЇдєєж°‘е…±е’Њењ‹). Beijing claims neither the Qing dynasty exercised sovereignty of Hong Kong after ceding it, nor the British therefore did, and hence the transfer of sovereignty to China from Britain is not logically possible. ' Transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong' ( Chinese: й¦™жёЇдё»ж¬Љз§»дє¤) is another description frequently used by Hong Kong officials and the media, as well as non-locals and academics, which is not recognized by the Chinese Government.

Nevertheless, ' Handover of Hong Kong' is still mainly used in the English-speaking world. A similar phrase ' return of Hong Kong to the motherland' ( Chinese: й¦™жёЇе›ћжёзҐ–ењ‹) is also often used by Hong Kong and Chinese officials. ' Reunification of Hong Kong' ( Chinese: й¦™жёЇе›ћжё) was seldom used by a minority of pro-Beijing politicians, lawyers and newspapers during Sino-British negotiations in 1983 to 1984, only, of its Chinese translation, to become mainstream in Hong Kong at latest in early 1997. The transfer, which was marked by a handover ceremony attended by Charles, Prince of Wales and broadcast around the world, is often considered to mark the definitive end of the British Empire.ДЇollowing the end of Second World War, both the Kuomintang and Communist Party in China proposed '(China) to recover Hong Kong' ( Chinese: дёењ‹ж”¶е›ћй¦™жёЇ, Yue Chinese: дёењ‹ж”¶иї”й¦™жёЇ), which had since been the common descriptive statement in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan until mid-1990s. With a 1997 population of about 6.5 million, Hong Kong constituted 97 percent of the total population of all British Dependent Territories at the time and was one of the UK's last significant colonial territories. Hong Kong became China's first special administrative region it was followed by Macau after its transfer from Portugal in 1999.

The 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration had set the conditions under which Hong Kong was to be transferred, with China agreeing to maintain existing structures of government and economy under a principle of ' one country, two systems' for a period of 50 years. The date of the handover in 1997 marked the end of this lease. Hong Kong had been a colony of the British Empire since 1842, after the First Opium War, and its territory was expanded on two occasions in 1860 with the addition of Kowloon Peninsula and Stonecutters Island, and again in 1898 when Britain obtained a 99-year lease for the New Territories. Hong Kong was reestablished as a special administrative region of China, and largely continues to maintain its economic and governing systems distinct from those of mainland China. This event ended 156 years of British rule in the former colony. The Hong Kong handover, domestically known as the transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong, was the formal passing of authority over the territory of the then colony of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China at midnight on 1 July 1997. The Monument in Commemoration of the Return of Hong Kong to China in 2009

Gnula invasion 1997