South China Morning Post
Honeymoon years (1997-2002): Hong Kong’s early period under Chinese rule in 25 photos
Hong Kong at 25
  • The former British colony began a new chapter in its history as a newly returned Chinese city full of ambition and enthusiasm, its evolution scrutinised by the world
Hong Kong at 25
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After more than 150 years of British rule, Hong Kong was handed back to China in 1997 and embarked on its first five years as a special administrative region full of enthusiasm despite uncertainties and proclamations by magazines that predicted its death.

As the world watched the initial evolution of the first-ever political experiment of the governing principle of “one country, two systems”, hedge fund speculators had begun shorting currencies, and consequently the financial systems of countries in the region, sparking the Asian financial crisis in 1997. Hong Kong weathered the initial storm before speculators renewed their attack on the Hong Kong dollar, forcing the government to intervene to fend them off. But that success did not prevent property prices collapsing and job losses.

In the five years, however, the city, under the leadership of Shanghai-born shipping tycoon Tung Chee-hwa, enjoyed a honeymoon period as it benefited from major infrastructural projects started during the final years of British colonial rule. The Hong Kong International Airport, for example, expanded the city’s aviation hub status rapidly, becoming the world’s busiest by cargo traffic in just 12 short years after opening in 1998.

A number of mega projects proposed in the first government term had a profound impact on the local economy in later years. As the late paramount leader promised in the handover negotiations, Hong Kong after 1997 was still a place where the horse racing, the stock market and the dancing would continue.

[That’s a wrap] Legislative Council members wrap up their final meeting on June 28, 1997, before the city’s return to Chinese rule three days later. In the years leading up to the handover, Britain turned Legco into an increasingly democratically elected body, angering Beijing, which viewed the changes as violating the Basic Law arising out of their joint agreement on Hong Kong’s future signed in 1984. The central government established a provisional legislature, whose members met in Shenzhen until the body was transferred to Hong Kong on July 1. Photo: Oliver Tsang
[Making history] A historic midnight handover ceremony ends British rule in Hong Kong on July 1, 1997, as Prince Charles returns the sovereignty of the city to Chinese President Jiang Zemin at the newly completed Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. Just moments before midnight, the Union Jack was lowered to the tune of God save the Queen, immediately followed by the raising of China’s national flag while a band played the Chinese national anthem March of the Volunteers. The terms of the return of Hong Kong were set in the Sino-British Joint Declaration, a treaty between the United Kingdom and China signed in 1984. “July 1, 1997, will go down in the annals of history as a day that merits eternal memory,” Jiang told the assembled guests and a global television audience. Photo: Robert Ng
[End of an era] Prince Charles, British Governor Chris Patten and his wife Lavender bid farewell on the royal yacht Britannia moored at Victoria Harbour after the midnight handover ceremony on July 1, 1997. Hong Kong became a British colony in 1842 after the first opium war, with two more plots of land given over later, of which one was a 99-year lease for the New Territories. The date of the handover marked the end of that lease. The British rulers, who arrived by sea to claim the territory 156 years ago, fittingly sailed away after the handover, opening a new chapter for Hong Kong under Chinese rule in which the city would enjoy a high degree of autonomy under the “one country, two systems” governing model. Photo: K. Y. Cheng
[Rising stars] The national emblem of China is installed at the central government offices early on July 1, 1997, as the city’s sovereignty is returned from Britain to China. When anti-government protests erupted in 2019, radical activists wrote derogatory graffiti on the liaison office building, and defaced the emblem with black paint. The top Beijing official in charge of local affairs issued a stern warning saying the vandalism had “touched the bottom line of the principle of ‘one country, two systems’” and was “absolutely intolerable”. Since November 2021, in accordance with the country’s laws, the rules on the use of the national flag and the national emblem in the city were strengthened and all government websites must display the emblem. Photo: David Wong
[It’s in the bag] An investor hoping to avoid photojournalists rushes to check share prices at a bank as the Asian financial crisis worsens in Hong Kong on October 23, 1997. Attacks on the dollar and surging interest rates sent the benchmark Hang Seng Index down more than 10 per cent to 10,426 at the closing ­– its steepest decline since Black Monday in 1987. The city recovered but more attacks followed the next summer, prompting the government to go on an unprecedented HK$118 billion stock-buying spree to defend the currency peg from speculators, including billionaire financier George Soros. Years later, Soros would praise the government for thwarting his attempts to undermine the dollar, saying “‘They actually did a very good job defending the Hong Kong dollar, so they deserve credit. And my attack, if you call it that, was without success.” Photo: Garrige Ho
[Going, going, gone] Hundreds of bargain hunters wait outside an outlet of Japanese retailer Yaohan on November 29, 1997, after it announces it is shutting down as the Asian financial crisis roils the city. The company that started out as a greengrocer’s in the hot-spring town of Atami outside Tokyo grew into a behemoth, counting more than 400 stores in 15 countries as far apart as Brazil and China. But as the financial crisis worsened, Yaohan was forced to declare bankruptcy, putting nearly 3,000 people out of work. Photo: Photo: Tony Aw
[Chicken run] In the first health crisis since the handover, workers prepare to slaughter 1.3 million chickens on January 1, 1998, nearly the city’s entire stock, in a bid to contain the spread of a mysterious bird flu. The mass culling by the Agriculture and Fisheries Department was accompanied by a six-week ban on fresh chicken imports. While six people died before the threat was brought under control, the sweeping actions of the government were credited with preventing, at least temporarily, the release of the H5N1 virus into the wider world. Photo: C. Y. Yu
[Royal rumble] The four Heavenly Kings – (from left) Leon Lai Ming, Jacky Cheung Hok-yau, Aaron Kwok Fu-shing and Andy Lau Tak-wah – dominate at the Channel V Chinese Top 20 Awards in Taipei on January 21, 1998. The 1990s was a golden era for Canto-pop, with Lai, Cheung, Kwok and Lau becoming household names among Chinese communities worldwide, their faces appearing on television screens, commercials and movies, while their voices ruled the airwaves. Lai released more than 60 albums and appeared in a raft of romantic films, while Cheung was dubbed the “God of Songs” for his technically sound vocals. Kwok was known as the “King of the Stage” with his nifty dance moves, and Lau was a television darling before becoming a big-screen superstar. The last time all four singer-actors performed together was in 2007 at a concert marking the 10th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to Chinese rule. Photo: Winnie Chung
[Taking stock] Eight months after the formation of the special administrative region, Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa discusses his achievements with the Post on February 26, 1998. Hanging on the wall near him was a calligraphy painting written by Chinese President Jiang Zemin, predicting a brighter future for Hong Kong. Tung maintained Hong Kong enjoyed “very good” relations with the central government and that the “one country, two systems” governing model was properly in place. Photo: Antony Dickson
[Taste of victory] Winning 13 seats in the first Legislative Council election after the handover, the Democratic Party, led by Martin Lee Chu-ming, becomes the largest political group in the body on May 24, 1998. The pro-democracy bloc took 63 per cent of the popular vote, but their share of directly elected seats – at a third – was smaller, due to the adoption of a proportional representation system that favoured pro-Beijing group the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong. Photo: Robert Ng
[No room to grow] A boy and his grandfather find what space they can in one of the city’s notorious cage homes on June 11, 1998. Low-income families on the waiting list for public housing who cannot afford to rent a flat often have no option but to turn to subdivided flats or the even more cramped cubicle homes. Fast forward to 25 years later, there are still more than 220,000 living in such flats, mostly in dilapidated buildings in Kowloon and the New Territories. The living conditions in one of the world’s wealthiest cities underscore the extreme income disparity in society and its persistent shortage of housing. Photo: Ricky Chung
[In plane sight] Residents seize one of the final chances to watch a plane sweep past Kowloon buildings as it lands at the airport at Kai Tak on June 28, 1998, just days before the new one at Chek Lap Kok opened. Set in the middle of Kowloon City with a runway protruding into the sea, the airport was regarded as one of the most difficult in the world for pilots to navigate. Five years earlier, in November 1993, China Airlines Flight 605 skidded off the end of the runway and into Victoria Harbour while landing in bad weather, but fortunately there were no deaths. Decades later, a consortium of four major local developers would pay US$1 billion for a plot of the prime real estate. Photo: Garrige Ho
[Monkey see, monkey do] The monkey known as Kam Ying salutes passers-by atop 90-year-old hawker Chan Yat-biu, also known as “Uncle Bill” outside the herbalist’s stall in Sham Shui Po on October 2, 1998. A year later, she was taken from Chan, with authorities citing violations of laws protecting wild animals. After more than 10,000 people signed a petition demanding the companion be returned, the courts ordered her to be given back to her owner on condition that she was treated humanely. In 2016, the only monkey in the city with a licence to be reared in a household died at the age of 18. Photo: Robert Ng
[Taste for nostalgia] Hong Kong’s final governor Chris Patten savours one of the city’s famed artery-choking egg tarts at a bakery on Lyndhurst Terrace in Central on October 29, 1998. Pilloried by Beijing – most memorably by former mainland official in charge of Hong Kong affairs Lu Ping who called him “a sinner for a thousand years” – over his introduction of democratic reforms, Patten nevertheless looked back on his time as governor with great fondness. “I love Hong Kong as a community, I love it as a place,” he told the Post years later. Photo: Dustin Shum
[Home at last] Nine-year-old Cheung Lai-wah says she is proud to be a “proper” Hong Kong resident on January 29, 1999, after landmark rulings by the Court of Final Appeal in favour of abode-seekers. The interpretation of the Basic Law by the city’s highest court swept away restrictions preventing children born in mainland China and who counted one Hongkonger as a parent from settling in the city. Fearing an influx of more than a million immigrants, the government turned to Beijing for help, and the National People’s Congress Standing Committee effectively vetoed the court’s decision, sending a clear message that the powers of the city’s judges to decide constitutional issues were firmly limited. Photo: David Wong
[Ring of fire] Flames blaze across Kowloon Peak, also known as Fei Ngo Shan, on April 6, 1999, one of the driest days following the Ching Ming Festival since 1947. The blaze was one of more than 400 reported in the aftermath of the festival, which draws thousands of residents to cemeteries dotting the city’s hills to clean away brush and other debris at the site of the graves of their ancestors. Photo: Robert Ng
[Political animal] A welcome-home present from Beijing to Hong Kong, Jia Jia prepares for her public debut along with mate An An at Ocean Park on May 17, 1999. They were joined in 2007 by panda cubs Le Le and Ying Ying, making the park one of just a handful of places outside mainland China with four of the endangered animals. Jia Jia died in 2016 at age 38, or about 114 years old in human terms, making her one of the oldest giant pandas to have lived under human care. Photo: Martin Chan
[Blown to pieces] The city counts the cost of destruction in the wake of Typhoon York on September 18, 1999. One resident was killed, another went missing and more than 490 were injured in the city’s worst weather in 16 years. The storm forced authorities to raise the No 10 signal for the first time since Typhoon Ellen killed 10 people in 1983. York cost local insurers HK$500 million in compensation for property damage, ­half of all claims paid by local general insurers in 1999. Since York, three more No 10 typhoon signals – the highest in the city’s warning system – have been issued, namely Typhoon Vicente in 2012, Hato in 2017 and Mangkhut in 2018. Photo: David Wong
[Bound together] People’s Liberation Army soldiers rehearse on September 30, 1999, ahead of National Day celebrations marking the half-century since the founding of the nation. When the army crossed the border into Hong Kong with the handover, residents were deeply apprehensive over becoming home to a force that had killed pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square only a decade earlier. But those fears failed to materialise, with soldiers only leaving their barracks to help with clean-up after Typhoon Mangkhut in 2018 and following protests near Baptist University the year after. Photo: David Wong
[Head of approval] As Chinese President Jiang Zemin meets Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa at Zhongnanhai in Beijing on March 6, 2000, the state leader praises Hong Kong for its resilience in the face of the recent Asian financial crisis. As the dollar came under pressure from speculators and finance officials debated their course of action, the chief executive called Qian Qichen, a vice-premier and the man who was personally in charge of the handover, to request expert assistance, Tung later revealed. But Qian decided against dispatching a team, saying Beijing was not familiar enough with the local situation to help craft policy, and that he trusted the government to devise solutions. But he cited another reason as well, telling Tung: “You know under ‘one country, two systems’, we are not supposed to send people over.” Photo: Martin Chan
[End of fishing days] Almost 300 villagers are left homeless after a fire tears through Hong Kong’s oldest fishing outpost at Tai O and destroys about a third of the settlement on July 2, 2000. The early morning blaze was made worse by exploding liquefied petroleum gas cylinders and the wood used to construct the unique stilt houses. While villagers rebuilt, the government banned trawling activities in Hong Kong waters in 2012, forcing the community to rely on tourism for income. Photo: Edward Wong
[Testing times] More than 1,500 angry teachers urge the government in a last-ditch effort to scrap a language benchmark test they regard as “insulting” on October 7, 2000, before it is introduced to those who teach English and Mandarin. Organised by the Professional Teachers’ Union, once the city’s largest teachers group before it folded, the rally was hosted by chairman Cheung Man-kwong (right) and senate chairman Szeto Wah, who argued using the rigid test as the sole means of assessing educators would “injure the dignity of teachers and deal a heavy blow to their dedication”. Photo: Dickson Lee
[Roaring success] Returning with an Academy Award for best cinematography for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon after its visual lyricism enthralled the world, Peter Pau Tak-hei celebrates with family and friends at the airport on March 27 2001. Pau was born into a family of actors but stayed behind the camera to forge a career spanning numerous films. Asked about the keys to success in his profession, Pau told the Post: “When I first became a cinematographer, I focused on whether the picture looks beautiful. But now ... I would make sure the picture tells the story in the best possible way.” Photo: Garrige Ho
[Powerful ally] Li Ka-shing backs the re-election of Tung Chee-hwa after a ceremony in which the chief executive awarded the tycoon the city’s highest accolade, the Grand Bauhinia Medal, on October 13, 2001. The 73-year-old Li, chairman of then conglomerate Cheung Kong, was one of three to receive the medal that year, the others being veteran unionist and 1967 riots leader Yeung Kwong and prominent doctor Harry Fang Sin-yang. Tung was re-elected unopposed to a second term that unravelled amid a host of controversies, culminating in his resignation two years before his term expired. Photo: Oliver Tsang
[Fostering a vision] The man behind HSBC’s iconic headquarters and the city’s airport, British architect Norman Foster shows off his master plan for the West Kowloon Cultural District on March 15, 2002. His ambitious HK$24 billion design to occupy the reclaimed land called for building the largest roof in the world, but the idea was scrapped amid intense public criticism over cost. It would take years more for the design of the arts hub to be finalised and longer still for construction of the main attractions to finish. Photo: David Wong
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