Sun Yat-sen and the Revolution in China (China, Hong Kong)

Sun Yat-sen was born in Cuiheng in 1866. In 1878 he went to a school in Honolulu and in 1886 he started to study medicine in Hong Kong, where he afterwards worked as doctor. The time he spent in the West nurtured his dissatisfaction with the government of the Qing dynasty and so he started to be active in politics. After he failed riot in 1895 he went into exile in Europe, the USA, Canada and Japan for 16 years. After he heard of the Wuchang Uprising in 1911 he convinced the Western Powers to stop their credit payment for the Qing and returned to China. The Wuchang Uprising became the catalyst to the Xinhai Revolution, which ended the Qing Dynasty and two millennia of imperial rule in China. In 1912 he became the first president of the Republic of China and founded the Nationalist Party, which preceded the Kuomintang. Due to inner conflicts he had to leave China again in 1913 and only returned in 1917. In 1923 he delivered a speech in which he proclaimed his Three Principles of the People. Sun Yat-sen died in Beijing in 1925 and left China in a unfavourable situation.

Today Sun Yat-sen is admired as Father of the Nation in the Republic of China on Taiwan and as Forerunner of the Revolution in the People's Republic of China.

Hong Kong, Macau and the PR China issued a joint stamp
for his 150th birthday on 12th November 2016. 

The Sun Yat-sen Residence Memorial Museum was opened in 1956 next to his former residence in Cuiheng. It is a nationally protected cultural site.

The card is a maxicard with one of the joint stamps from the PR China.

The Dr Sun Yat-sen Museum in Hong Kong was opened in 2006 in the Kom Tong Hall. It shows various relics of Sun Yat-sen and focuses on the years he spent in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong to China (Hong Kong)

In the 19th century the territory of Hong Kong became a colony of the United Kingdom. Hong Kong Island was acquired in 1842, Kowloon Peninsula in 1860 and the New Territories were leased in 1898 for 99 years.

It was considered to be impossible to divide the territory after 99 years and the People's Republic of China anyway considered the status of Hong Kong as illegitimate due to it being a consequence of the "unfair and unequal treaties", so negotiations between the United Kingdom and China began. 

It was decided that a Special Administrative Region would be created and that Hong Kong's previous capitalist system and its way of life would remain unchanged for a period of 50 years. This became known as "One Country, Two Systems" principle.

On 1st July 1997, 20 years ago, the United Kingdom handed over Hong Kong to China.

The Golden Bauhinia Square is a public area named after the giant statue of a golden Bauhinia blakeana, the flower on Hong Kong's flag. It is located outside the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, where the ceremonies for the handover of Hong Kong and the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region were held. Every day a flag is raised ceremonially on the square.