Introduction to Hong Kong and Poverty
Hong Kong is a complex city with an extremely long history. Hong Kong has been handed around, and had many changes happen to it that are still in effect today, and is still ever changing. Many people have inhabited Hong Kong for along time all the way since stone tools were first being used. Hong Kong has had a lot of wars with other countries and handed around from territory to territory also. This complex history, and different rulers shaping Hong Kong, has slowly led it to be a thriving city to having a large percentage of their people in poverty. Real issues are happening in Hong Kong with their people in poverty, which needs to be dealt with very soon. Hong Kong is becoming filled with many people who live in poor households. Poverty is important because it makes so many people's lives extremely miserable and depressing. Many people have to endure every day barely getting enough money to live now, and other side effects are happening because of it. This city is going to be in serious trouble.
History of Hong Kong
Hong Kong has been inhabited for over 6,000 years, and was part of the mainland China during the Qin Dynasty. Later, when opium was being imported to China in far too great amounts from Britain, the opium wars began. China wanted to stop opium from being imported into their country, while the British wanted to continue selling to get people addicted. This earned them lots of money. The opium wars started around 1829, and Britain won the war. They then continued importing and selling opium to China. Hong Kong was the main trading post of the western world and China, so it was a real convenient place for the British to import their opium. The British, after winning the war, took control over Hong Kong and leased out two other islands of Hong Kong for 99 years in 1898. While the British were in control over Hong Kong, the city was now taking a very positive turn under better rule. Hong Kong was a free port, and was used by the British. Many people had good education and jobs, which lead Hong Kong to be a very wealthy city, with some glitches, but pretty fair rules. During World War II, the Japanese invaded Hong Kong, and seized control of it. When this happened, the economy of Hong Kong plummeted straight down, and became extremely bad. Hong Kong became very corrupt, and many famines occurred along with extreme amounts of money being lost due to the war. The many people that had fled away from the communists in China to Hong Kong were greatly affected because there was now such a large population. Many people fell into extreme poverty during this time. After World War Two was over, Hong Kong got handed back over to the British in 1945. The UK then restored Hong Kong quickly to what it used to be with many immigrants coming now to Hong Kong from the main part of China, for many different reasons. Then Hong Kong was back on its feet again. Hong Kong became very industrialized, and had many trades and affairs with different countries. Hong Kong was at this point kind of getting out of the way for the British and the United Kingdom to be dealing with. They had other problems, and their lease on the other two islands was coming close to running out. When the lease finally did run out, the British gave back the main part of Hong Kong, along with the other two parts they had leased out 99 years ago, under certain agreements on July 1, 1997. The agreement was that China would get back Hong Kong, as long as for fifty years it was a free part of their country, with their own laws, rules, and regulations. After this hand over, many people in Hong Kong revolted against this. They did not believe that the communists in China would keep their word, and fled to other countries. This is the main cause of the modern poverty in Hong Kong. China left Hong Kong alone for the main part, but is slowly trying to edge in and apply their own rules to the city. With Hong Kong being all on its own without the United Kingdom to help it, it is struggling to keep up. Especially with many of their people fleeing, the smaller population and no help is making it a very poor country with many people in extreme poverty. This is one of the main reasons that Hong Kong has many inhabitants with low incomes and bad jobs.
Hong Kong's Geography
Hong Kong is a small island that is part of China in the South-China Sea. It has over 260 other smaller islands that are parts of it also. Part of Hong Kong is connected to the main part of China, and many are small islands. For the most part, Hong Kong is very hilly and has its highest point reach to 3,140 feet. Hong Kong is hilly because it does have a few volcanic structures, which have not erupted since 1874, with little damage being done. Some of the new territories in Hong Kong are flatter, and much less hilly. Hong Kong is trying to slowly become greener with a more earth-friendly environment. Forty percent of the overall land in Hong Kong is part of a country park or other recreational park, which is trying to help the environment. About 7% of the land in Hong Kong is farm land, and helps the city survive. Much of the land in Hong Kong is nice, but some of the areas also have lots of poor people. In some of the city parts there are more poor people, and in some other small islands where everyone is on their own with no help. That is what the land in Hong Kong is like.
