Original subtitles

published at the height of European imperialism.

My 100-year-old guidebook will lead me on a railway adventure

dotted with hills, forests

and paddy fields.

I'll tour towering megacities

and magnificent mosques.

I'll encounter golden Buddhas and jewelled temples

and experience some of the world's most spectacular

and notorious railways.

As I travel through the diverse nations of this vast region,

I'll learn how they asserted their independence

against the British, French and Dutch empires to become

the economic tigers and dragons of today.

My 2,500-mile exploration of Southeast Asia

begins in Hong Kong.

My Bradshaw's, 1913, tells me that Hong Kong is the chief centre

for British commerce in China and the most important

military and naval station in the Far East.

It is the principal port of the British Empire.

The tonnage being more than double that of London.

Britain had won it after a disgraceful war,

but its permissive Government

allowed the economic dynamism of the Chinese population

to make it into a great success.

When Britain gave up control in 1997,

the People's Republic of China agreed to respect its autonomy.

But in recent years, the anxiety of Hong Kongers to preserve

their separateness has led to mass demonstrations,

which Beijing dislikes and fears.

My first port of call will be the Kowloon Peninsula

before I cross Victoria Harbour to Hong Kong Island.

I'll head north to visit the walled villages of the New Territories

and west to the remote and tranquil Lantau Island.

On my travels, I hear what British colonisation meant for Hong Kong.

They had transformed what was once referred to as a barren island

into an international metropolis.

Learn the traditional art of noodle making...

I hope no-one comes in now.

..and discover the extent of Britain's railway ambition in Asia.

The British were building railways all across China.

They wanted Hong Kong's position as the main port in southern China

to be strengthened.

This global trading and financial hub

sits on one of the world's finest natural harbours.

Flanked by mountains and sea,

Hong Kong's 420 square miles are home

to seven and a half million people.

It's one of the most densely populated places in the world.

When Britain returned Hong Kong to China in 1997,

the territory became a Chinese Special Administrative Region

with a distinct political system.

I've alighted at Kowloon.

Hong Kong first impressions -

with about 9,000 high rise buildings -

eat your heart out, New York City.

I'm in the Avenue of Stars

where Hong Kongers celebrate their cinema industry.

The waterfront promenade overlooks Victoria Harbour

and Hong Kong Island beyond.

The first Chinese war, the Opium War, says Bradshaw's,

terminated in 1842

by the cession of Hong Kong Island to England

and the opening of Chinese ports to British trade.

A journey through colonial history is an uncomfortable ride

past imperial atrocities at a time when both the Chinese

and the British felt racially superior.

But Britain's war to impose its opium upon China

was one of its least noble ventures.

It's pointless trying to apply the values of the 21st century

to the 19th.

The conflict gave Hong Kong to Britain

and this has been the result.

To understand the role that opium played in British colonial rule,

I'm meeting historian Doctor Chi Chi Huang.

Chi Chi, in the 1830s and 1840s, why was it so important to Britain

to send opium to China? In the 19th century,

the East India Company were trading with China and they were importing

a lot of tea, porcelain and silks to Britain and they were paying

the Chinese government,

the Qing government then, in silver.

And of course, this is really expensive.

They were running out of silver.

And so the East India Company imported opium from India into China

as a way of addressing this trade imbalance.

The merchants of the British East India Company made good profits

on Chinese goods, but the Chinese weren't interested in acquiring

British products in return.

They wanted only silver.

So this powerful corporation, and others, smuggled

Indian opium into China.

Customers paid in silver, which was used to buy the tea.

By 1839, sales of opium to China funded Britain's entire tea trade.

Within a year,

ten million Chinese people

were addicted to opium and China took steps

to impound and destroy it.

Britain responded with the full might of the Royal Navy,

blockading and besieging Chinese ports

and forcing China into submission.

What was the result of the war?

So after some back and forth, Captain Charles Elliot decides

to conclude the war.

A treaty was signed to hand over this island of Hong Kong to Britain.

How would you describe at the time the British attitude to the Chinese

and the Chinese attitude to the British?

There was a big misunderstanding in cultural perception.

So the British believed the Chinese to be quite stubborn.

They refused to trade with them.

How dare they?

The Chinese government did really believe that they were the centre

of the world and that they didn't need the outside world.

The island didn't look like this then, what was it like?

It was basically a fishing island.

There wasn't any infrastructure as we know it now.

The British were very quick to bring in roads.

The land was reclaimed into the sea here.

So there was a lot more flat land to build on

rather than just steep hills.

And it was a lot greener. By the time of my guide book,

what had the British managed to make of Hong Kong?

They had transformed what was once referred to as a barren island

into an international metropolis.

It was the third most busy port city after London and Liverpool

by the turn of the 20th century. They were very proud of it.

It was almost an example of what a good British tropical city

should look like and should function like.

I'm leaving the Kowloon Peninsula to explore the area

surrendered to the British after the first Opium War.

Off to Hong Kong Island.

And surely there's only one way to go.

50,000 people a day can't be wrong.

Take the ferry.

The ferry is one of the things you have to do when you visit.

These boats have been going back and forth since 1888.

And until 1972, when they built a road tunnel,

this was the only practical way to make the journey.

And what a way to see this extraordinary island.

I've arrived in the district of Central on Hong Kong Island -

the first area to be colonised by the British in 1842.

Today, it's the financial and retail district

and home to the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank,

founded in 1865 by Scottish shipping merchant

Thomas Sutherland to finance the colony's growing trade.

The bank's present building, designed by Norman Foster,

is an icon of the city skyline.

Amidst this density of buildings,

and in humidity that tops 80% in the summer,

Hong Kong's climate is challenging. To escape the mugginess,

I'm making a journey suggested in my guidebook, which begins

just ten minutes' walk away from the HSBC building.

Bradshaw's tells me that in the hot season,

people live in bungalows at The Peak,

where quite a town has grown up connected with the city

by the funicular rail.

It's now rather misleadingly called the Peak Tram, but it's a survivor

and the technology is the same.

And in a moment, it will whisk me nearly 400 metres

for an unforgettable view of Hong Kong.

At the time of my Bradshaw's, the highest mountain in Hong Kong,

The Peak, was reserved for privileged expatriates to retreat

from the scorching summer heat. Before the advent of the funicular,

in 1888, wealthy residents were carried up

by Chinese bearers.

Bradshaw's tells me that the usual conveyances are sedan chairs

and the image of wiry Chinese toiling up The Peak

carrying portly Europeans is a kind of stereotype of empire.

And it makes me relieved that the funicular would at least

have made it unnecessary going up the mountain.

The Peak Tram was the first cable funicular railway in Asia.

On its first day, 600 people took the journey to the top.

By the end of its first year, it had carried 150,000 passengers.

You think when you are amongst those high buildings

you can't get higher, but you can when you're at The Peak.

The bright lights of the ultimate metropolis.

This is one of 14 Rolls-Royce Phantoms bought by my hotel in 2006.

The manufacturer's largest ever single order.

The paintwork is in Peninsula green.

I've returned to Kowloon.

Welcome to Peninsula. Thank you very much indeed.

Thank you.

The Peninsula Hotel built beside the quays where liners

from all over the world docked and next to the railway station,

which was the terminus of the Trans-Siberian Railway.

When it opened its doors in 1928,

it was intended to be the most luxurious hotel east of Suez.

There were regular tea dances and nightly dinner and dancing.

I'll settle for air conditioning

and a view.

I've spent the night in Hong Kong's oldest hotel.

The Peninsula Hotel, with its magnificent views, is named

after the Kowloon Peninsula, which was ceded to Britain by China

in 1860 after the second Opium War in a very unequal treaty.

The hotel served as the headquarters for Japan after it seized the colony

and the British Governor

was humiliated in a surrender ceremony

on the third floor below us on Christmas Day, 1941.

The hotel had been founded by two Jewish brothers from Iraq,

and at the end of the Second World War, Jews who had fled Europe

were being repatriated through Hong Kong and were invited to sleep

in the hotel ballroom.

This region has been described as the Far East,

but Hong Kong has always been very close to British interests.

Over the road from the hotel, I've spotted an intriguing remnant

of the colonial era.

Now, here's a mystery - a solitary clock tower by the water's edge.

Would anyone build such a noble, soaring structure to stand alone?

I think not.

And who needed to know the time?

Railway passengers, slaves to their Bradshaw's timetables,

scurrying towards relentlessly punctual trains.

I have a nose for the site of a former railway station.

And although not a brick remains excepting the clock tower,

I'm sure that there was one here, and my guide book tells me

that the Kowloon to Canton Railway opened towards the end of 1911.

Adonis Min Yan Li, from the University of Hong Kong,

is writing his PhD on railway history in the region.

Hello, Michael, nice to meet you. Very good to meet you.

My guidebook tells me that the railway line into Kowloon

opened only in 1911, which is quite late for a railway because Hong Kong

was already well connected.

Yeah. Hong Kong had many connections

by sea and by river and there were actually

early plans for a railway

all the way back in the mid-19th century,

but those never materialised.

What about railway building in China, generally?

Had other railways been built?

There were many foreign concessions that were granted to various

countries to build these railways.

For example, you had the Chinese Eastern Railway up in the north.

That linked the Trans-Siberian Railway to Manchuria

and then Vladivostok. The other railway lines in China,

who'd been building them?

You had Germans in the north west.

You had Russians up in north China.

You also had the French in the south west as well.

And of course, the British were building railways all across China.

The Germans, Russians, French.

Did the British in Hong Kong feel threatened

by these imperial competitors?

Certainly there were British merchants

and Chinese merchants that wanted a connection from Hong Kong to Canton.

And they wanted the trunk line to have its southern terminus

in Hong Kong and nowhere else.

They wanted Hong Kong's position as the main port in southern China

to be strengthened.

The construction of the line from Canton, present day Guangzhou,

to Hong Kong was plagued with problems.

The mountainous terrain was challenging.

It took five years to build the track and cost

more than double the estimate.

Kowloon Station eventually opened in 1916.

I've guessed that the old railway terminus was here.

What was it like?

So this was a massive, red brick building right in the centre

of the urban area of Kowloon.

But unfortunately, in the 1970s, due to the need for land,

the station was demolished.

Well, was it quite an attractive station, would you say?

I'd say so. Red brick buildings,

in fact clock towers are hard to come by in Hong Kong.

So it was definitely an attraction in itself.

And it was possible to travel from Europe to Hong Kong by train.

Tell me about that journey.

Yep, you would have taken the Trans-Siberian Railway

across the Great Eurasian Plains and the Great Eurasian continent,

made a connection at Beijing and come down here to Hong Kong.

Although that would have been a long journey,

it would still have been quicker than coming by sea.

Yes, and as a railway historian, a lot more exciting

than travelling by boat.

Exactly so.

The old terminus has gone.

Today, Hong Kong is connected to the rest of China

by high speed trains and travellers

begin their 1,000 mile journey to Beijing

from a new station in Kowloon.

Hong Kong West Kowloon High Speed Station -

an extremely futuristic structure

that, to me, looks a little bit like a giant squid, but it also

intrigues me to know what lies inside.

Opened in 2018, the station's giant curtain wall features

over 4,000 glass panels.

It's the largest underground, high-speed

rail station in the world.

Well, the station with these curved ceiling beams

and the splayed columns really is spectacular.

Minutes after they depart this station, trains leave

the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong.

So along with the ticket offices and waiting halls,

there's also a checkpoint.

Railways are political.

The British used them throughout their empire to carry away jewels

and silks and spices to Europe and to rush troops

to quell rebellions.

This high-speed line is controversial,

partly because a village was swept away in its construction,

partly because it overran its budget.

And this station does seem to be several times bigger

than is strictly necessary, but mainly because in part

of the station down below, officials of the People's Republic of China

enforce their own national laws,

which many here regard as an infringement

of Hong Kong's sovereignty.

Behind the new station,

the backstreets of Kowloon

are packed with traditional Cantonese eateries.

I've arranged to meet a restaurant owner who makes his noodles

in a way that would have been familiar to the Bradshaw traveller.

Hello. Hello.

Can you help me, please? I'm looking for Cheong...

This way? OK.

This way?

Going out again.

The Sham Shui Po district is a working class area

of densely packed restaurants and apartment buildings.

I don't know where we're going.

Firmly off the beaten track now.

Oh.

Thank you. Thank you.

After you, after you.

This can't be right.

We're going to a flat.

Oh, wow.

Really?

Ah!

Hello.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We found him. OK.

I make the noodle here.

Oh, my goodness, wow.

But your home is completely, well, covered in flower dust.

You have sacks of flour everywhere.

This is your noodle factory at home.

Yeah. It's an old-style

noodle factory at home in Hong Kong.

It's, it's amazing.

Has this been in your family for a long time?

Yeah. From my grandfather.

Yeah.

And is there a traditional way of making noodles

and then a modern way of making noodles?

It's the old-style technique of making noodle by bamboo.

No. I can't imagine what that means. Can you show me? How do you do it?

OK.

This one? Yeah, that's the one.

This I don't believe.

HE LAUGHS

I'm in a fifth floor flat with a man I've never met before

who's bouncing up and down on a bamboo pole to make noodles.

This is amazing.

Can I try that? Yeah, sure.

Yeah. One by one.

Like this? Yeah.

MICHAEL LAUGHS

I hope no-one comes in now.

Oh, that is exhausting.

In this heat. Good.

So how many times do you do that? Again and again?

Again and again, six to eight times.

Wow.

So is it the best restaurants that use handmade noodles?

Is it a matter of taste? Do some people love to have noodles

that are made in the old-fashioned way?

Yes, I think so.

Do they taste better?

Yeah, absolutely.

My father say, dancing in the mouth.

That's a nice expression. A noodle dancing in the mouth...

..after the noodle maker has danced on the bamboo pole. Yeah.

Back at the noodle restaurant,

I'm eager to taste the results of my efforts.

Hello.

Thank you.

Ah! Thank you very much.

A lovely wonton noodle soup with dumplings

of pork and shrimp and noodles.

Hmm.

Very good.

A little crunchy.

Dancing in the mouth.

Next time, I meet a descendant of one of Hong Kong's oldest dynasties.

Your family has been here how long?

Over a thousand years.

Learn about the father of modern China.

He's the person who came and make change in a huge way.

And discover why Hong Kongers are protesting.

20 years after the handover, we're not being given

what was promised.

The anger and the frustration is there and it's escalating.