Situated on the southeast coast of China, Hong Kong’s strategic location on the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea has made it one of the world’s most thriving and international cities.

Beginning with its incorporation into the Chinese empire during the Qin Dynasty (221–206 B.C.), Hong Kong as we know it today was born when China’s Qing Dynasty government was defeated in the First Opium War in 1842, and it ceded Hong Kong Island to Britain.

Within 60 years, Kowloon, the New Territories and 235 Outlying Islands were also leased to Britain. However, the history of the more than 1,100 square kilometers that Hong Kong now occupies predates the events of the Qing Dynasty by more than 1,000 years.

From its earliest days under British rule, Hong Kong served as a center for international trade. In the turbulent years of the early 20th century, the city’s population was bolstered by refugees, mostly from the Chinese mainland. The arrival of large numbers of migrants helped launch a new role for Hong Kong as a major manufacturing hub. It also brought economically stimulating energy and industry to the city’s character. In recent decades, as the economy of the Chinese mainland has undergone a process of opening up, Hong Kong has transformed yet again — this time into a service-based economy as well as an important gateway to the world’s largest market.

Under the principle of “One Country, Two Systems,” Hong Kong became a Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China on July 1, 1997. This arrangement allows the city to enjoy a high degree of autonomy, including retaining its capitalist system, independent judiciary and rule of law, free trade and freedom of speech.

A look at the city’s history could give a strong impression that change is the only constant there. However, despite all its reinventions, Hong Kong’s spirit has never changed. In fact, the same energy and dynamism that turned a group of sleepy fishing villages into a crossroads of international trade is now taking Asia’s international city into the 21st century.