In a This Day in History video, learn that on July 1, 1997, China regained control of Hong Kong after 156 years of British rule. China gave up the island at the end of the first Opium War; at the time, it was a barren, rocky, no-man's land. But under British ownership, Hong Kong became a metropolis and the commercial gateway to the East and China wanted it back. After years of negotiation, the U.K. was willing to give back Hong Kong as long as Communist China agreed to preserve the island's Capitalist ways.
This Day In History: July 1
