Hong Kong, China - Recent (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
1. Various of ship at port, water
2. Libby Chan, assistant director of Hong Kong Maritime Museum, talking to reporter, walking
3. Various of paintings, silk, porcelain on display
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Libby Chan, assistant director, Hong Kong Maritime Museum (starting with shot 3):
"Talk about the porcelain in China, that would start very, very early, and we'll be in 2,000 years ago, that technology developed. But when it captures western eyes and becomes a very lustrous item for the home, for the royal families or for emperors."
5. Various of opium instrument on display
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Libby Chan, assistant director, Hong Kong Maritime Museum (partially overlaid with shot 7):
"We know that in the 18th century, it's very clear that the Jiaqing Emperor says there's no opium trade, because everyone knows this kind of drug is harmful to everyone. But the European countries, the westerners still love tea, porcelain, so what to trade with them, I no longer have enough currency."
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7. Chan talking to reporter
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8. Various of ship models on display
9. Various of ships at port, buildings

The Hong Kong Maritime Museum is a good classroom in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region where people can learn about the region's trade history and, more importantly, about the humiliation and suffering the Chinese people endured in the hands of the West imperialists in the old days.

Hong Kong was once a deep water port that the British could park ships to do trade, from where they went to a small trading hub known in the west as Canton (Guangzhou), where they got access to tea, porcelain and silk.

It was the West's thirst for tea that first drove the trade. But at that time, the problem for the West is that China didn't really want western goods in return, so the traders had to pay in silver.

Then the traders discovered more silks and other commodities, most importantly porcelain, and still they paid in silver.

"Talk about the porcelain in China, that would start very, very early, and we'll be in like 2,000 years ago, that technology developed. But when it captures western eyes and becomes a very lustrous item for the home, for the royal families or for emperors," said Libby Chan, assistant director of the museum.

Fed up with paying in silver, the British jumped on the idea of using its vast quantities of opium grown in India to trade instead -- a highly addictive drug banned in China.

"We know that in the 18th century, it's very clear that the Jiaqing Emperor says there's no opium trade, because everyone knows this kind of drug is harmful to everyone. But the European countries, the westerners still love tea, porcelain, so what to trade with them, I no longer have enough currency," said Chan.

Later on, backed by the British government, the East India Company forced open the Chinese market with guns and warships with devastating consequences for the Chinese people.

Hong Kong was ceded to Britain in the first of the unequal treaties. And in another war, more lands and privileges were reluctantly conceded to the British and other colonial powers.

Hong Kong became a magnet for industry with following ship building, finance and trading.

And in 1997, to the great welcome of the whole nation, Hong Kong returned to the motherland and thus began a new chapter of fast development of trade and thriving economy.