Why go
The treaties explain the map, but institutions and local responses explain more of the city. Sun Yat-sen’s medical studies connect Hong Kong with China’s republican revolution. Kat Hing Wai in Kam Tin offers a different perspective through the confrontation that followed British expansion into the New Territories.
The full story
British demand for Chinese tea and the opium trade formed the background to the First Opium War. Britain occupied Hong Kong Island in 1841, and the Treaty of Nanking ceded it in 1842. Southern Kowloon followed under the 1860 Convention of Beijing; the 1898 agreement leased the New Territories rather than repeating the earlier cessions. Missionary organisations founded schools, churches and medical institutions. The Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese, established in 1887, counted Sun Yat-sen among its early graduates. It became a predecessor of the University of Hong Kong’s medical school. Sun’s student circle also discussed opposition to Qing rule. Colonial expansion met resistance. In 1899, residents defended Kat Hing Wai in Kam Tin against British troops. Its iron gate was removed and sent to London after the fighting, then returned in 1925 following demands from the Tang clan. That episode connects a village structure with a larger political change.