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HISTORY
southern sides of Hong Kong Island and will connect with the cross-harbour tunnel route. The largest tunnelling project of all-for the mass transit railway-began at the end of 1975 and got seriously under way in 1976. The 15.6-kilometre initial section of the railway is due to be fully operative by 1980. Buildings in Hong Kong have risen to as high as 40 and 50 storeys in the past 10 years, with the 52-storey Connaught Centre-completed in 1973-being the second tallest building in Asia. The 60-year-old railway station was replaced in 1975 with a new $150-million terminus, and in 1976 work was begun on a 15,000-spectator indoor sports stadium which is to form part of the new station complex.
Early History
Investigation has shown that people have lived in Hong Kong from primitive times, but population was sparse up to the 19th century. Small villages maintained themselves by fishing, by cultivation of the scanty soil available, and by casual preying on coastal shipping. The fishing ports of Shau Kei Wan and Shek Pai Wan (Aberdeen) were noted as the haunts of pirates from the time of the Mongol Dynasty.
The Kwangtung area of the Chinese mainland was first brought under the suzerainty of China between 221 and 214 BC, but even after its conquest by the Han Emperor Wu Ti in 111 BC, it remained for some centuries a frontier area. The Lei Cheng Uk Tomb, which was discovered in Kowloon in 1955, probably dates from before the Tang Dynasty (620-907) and is evidence of Chinese penetration, although Chinese migration on a large scale did not come until the Sung Dynasty (960–1279). The oldest villages in the New Territories, those belonging to the Tang Clan, have a continuous history dating back to the 11th century, and other villages date from the Yuan Dynasty (1280-1368). Hakka and Cantonese, the two main Chinese groups, probably settled in the area over the same period.
In 1278, Ti Ping, the Sung Emperor, was driven by the invading Mongols to Kowloon and died there. A small hill crowned with a prominent boulder bearing the characters Sung Wong Toi (Sung Emperor Stone) was held sacred to his memory until the hill was demolished in 1943, during the Japanese occupation in World War II, to make room for expansion of the airport. His brother, the last Sung boy emperor, met with final defeat in an attempted stand in the New Territories and he and his ministers fled to Ngai Shan further south. Some of his followers found refuge on Lantau Island, where their descendants are still to be found.
A place to trade from
Hong Kong's development into a commercial centre began with its founding as a British colony in 1842. At the end of the 18th century the British dominated the foreign trade at Canton but found conditions unsatisfactory, mainly because of the conflicting viewpoints of two quite dissimilar civilisations.
The Chinese regarded themselves as the only civilised people and foreigners trading at Canton were subject to humiliating personal restrictions. Confined to the factory area, they were allowed to reside only for the trading season, during which