Trip to Provence (4) + 7 days left till the Beijing Olympics!!
Just photos today:
More @ http://www.flickr.com/happymichael
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With seven days to go, I will keep blogging about my trips to Provence every day, with a little bit of information and my opinion about both China and the 2008 Olympics!
I received an email yesterday from one of the readers and he wants to know more about how Hong Kong works in China, so here it is:
Hong Kong became part of the United Kingdom since 1842, after winning the Opium War ( Opium was a popular drug at the time and it is imported from the UK, and even the "queen" was addicted to it. One of the Chinese officials in Hong Kong burnt the Opium coming from the UK, so the war started.) The treaty lasts for 100 years. (it is a bit more complicated that..)
Since then, world war started and many Chinese came down for protection, hoping that the UK can defend Japan, but unfortunately not.
Margaret Thatcher, representing the UK, started the meetings in 1984 about Hong Kong's future after 1997, when the treaty ends. The "Joint Declaration of the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of the People's Republic of China on the Question of Hong Kong" or "Sino-British Joint Declaration" in short, was signed in 1985.
In the treaty, "One Country, Two Systems" was introduced to reduce the change Hong Kong needs to face. This basically means that Chinese Communist system will not be applied in Hong Kong, and Hong Kong just carry on as it is. The PRC has promised that Hong Kong's capitalist system and its way of life would remain unchanged for a period of 50 years. (but still no one knows will happen after then..) Being a "Special Administrative Region", the PRC Government is responsible for the territory's defence and foreign affairs, while Hong Kong maintains its own legal system, police force, monetary system, customs policy, immigration policy, and delegates to international organisations and events. That means, in the coming Olympic Games in seven days, there will be teams representing "China", "Hong Kong", "Macau" and "Chinese Taipei" (<--That's because of complicated history, again.), although they are technically the same country.
On 1st July 1997, Hong Kong was handed over to China. After 10 years of Chinese rule, I don't think there are great changes in Hong Kong, except the fact that there are more and more Chinese tourist - which is one of the policies to help Hong Kong get its economy back on after SARS in 2003.
