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HISTORY
The area which now forms the Crown Colony of Hong Kong is first mentioned in Chinese histories as part of the territories of the Maan Tribes, who then inhabited the greater part of China south of the River Yangtse. About this early culture little is known, though pottery of the prehistoric period unearthed on the islands of Lamma and Lantao, south and west of Hong Kong Island, indicates the existence of trade with the South at a remote period. The Maan tribes of Kwangtung gradually accepted Chinese culture from the close of the Han dynasty (III century A.D.) onwards, and by the end of the Sung dynasty (XIII century A.D.) the local people, whatever their racial origin, evidently regarded themselves as Chinese.
Only once during this long period does the area appear in the spotlight of Chinese history. This was when the last Sung emperor, Ti-ping, in flight from the invading Mongols, camped temporarily near Kowloon before fighting his final battle against his adversaries in the neighbourhood of Tsun Wan in 1278. It is said that after his defeat at this battle the Emperor and members of his Court retreated to From Lantao Island, where many of his retinue committed suicide. there the Emperor and a few followers escaped by boat into the Pearl River delta where the final suicide took place. A small hill crowned with prominent boulders in the neighbourhood of Kai Tak airfield was held sacred to the memory of Ti-ping until 1943 when the Japanese demolished it.
The Arabs were already known in Canton in the VII century A.D., and houses were occupied by Jews there in the XIII century and for some time afterwards. Western intercourse with China, however, properly starts with the arrival of the Portuguese on the China coast, the first Portuguese ship having anchored somewhere between Lintin Island and Deep Bay in 1513. After an unsuccessful attempt to establish themselves near Ningpo, the Portuguese founded their settlement at Macao, and from 1557 onwards this attractive piece of continental Europe in the heart of the Far East grew up on the benefits accruing to the Portuguese from their virtual monopoly of the valuable trade
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