1997 CE
Hong Kong Handover Ceremony
About this moment
The handover of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the People's Republic of China occurred at midnight on 1 July 1997. This event ended 156 years of British rule, dating back to the cession of Hong Kong Island in 1841 during the First Opium War. Hong Kong was a colony within the British Empire from 1841, except during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong from 1941 to 1945.