Original subtitles

I'm in Southeast Asia with my 1913 Bradshaw's handbook,

published at the height of European imperialism.

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

through archipelagos and peninsulas 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.

I'm in Hong Kong, continuing to explore this mega metropolis.

I visited the Kowloon Peninsula and crossed Victoria Harbour

to Hong Kong Island.

From here, I'll head north to visit the walled villages

of the new territories, and west to the remote

and tranquil Lantau Island.

I'll meet a descendant of one of the region's oldest dynasties.

Your family has been here, how long?

Over 1,000 years.

It makes the British occupation seem like just a...

Learn about the father of modern China.

Sun Yat-sen was the person who came and make change in a huge way.

And discover why Hongkongers 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.

I'm exploring Hong Kong Island on a metro system that handles

around six billion trips a day.

The success of Hong Kong's mass transit railway

is very hard to believe.

It's only existed in its modern form since 1979,

and yet it has now 91 heavy rail stations, including some

which are indescribably huge.

Most unusually amongst metros in this world, it is highly

profitable and its punctuality record is just shy of 100%.

I'm travelling to Hong Kong University to learn about one

of its most renowned alumni.

Bradshaw's tells me that the foundation stone

was laid in 1910.

Before that, it was the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese,

and the physician, Dr Sun Yat-sen graduated in 1892.

Since he went on to become a revolutionary, to overthrow

the Chinese imperial dynasty and to become known

as the Father of Modern China, it makes you wonder

what was on the curriculum.

In 1911, Sun Yat-sen and a group of revolutionaries, led a successful

uprising against the Qing dynasty and founded a republic in China.

But he spent his formative years in Hong Kong.

Dr Ho Yin Lee is an associate professor

in architectural conservation.

His grandfather was Sun Yet-sen's secretary.

I understand that Sun Yet-sen graduated

from the medical school here,

was his background before that in Hong Kong?

Before he came to Hong Kong, he was in China as a young person,

and went to school, as most people who came from a family

of reasonable wealth.

And he wasn't happy, obviously, with the educational system

and all kinds of system in China then.

And so, in fact, he went to America, to Hawaii, where his brother lived,

and he did this study for a short while in Hawaii,

before he came to Hong Kong.

While he was studying to be a physician,

do you think he was already having political ideas?

Yes, very much.

By the time he went to medical school, he was beginning to...

..get into contact with like-minded people

to form a revolutionary idea to overhaul the Qing government

and to establish a modern China.

Why would he have revolutionary ideas,

what was wrong with China in those days?

China, I can't even begin to count, you know,

what's wrong with China then.

And so if you look at education, China was still stuck

in a educational system, that is to say the least, you know,

is not about academic freedom.

And if you look at governance,

and so it's a huge nation ruled by a small family.

So, it's a royal family but, you know, essentially

it was a dictatorship.

And the worst part is that there is no...

..concern by the government to the demand of the people.

The best way to put it, simply, is that people were fed up,

is looking forward to change, you know.

And so Sun Yat-sen is the person who came and make change in a huge way.

Sun Yat-sen was a graduate of an open and modern,

Western-style education.

In 1923, he returned to the university

to deliver a speech that's remembered to this day.

Oh, what an impressive room.

It is.

This is the place where, one summer day in 1923,

Dr Sun Yat-sen, the founding father of modern China, came to give

a rousing speech to the community of the University of Hong Kong.

Well, if you come on stage I'll tell you what Sun Yat-sen said.

So in 1923 on that day, imagine these rooms

completely filled with people, professors, students.

They are all anticipating what Sun Yat-sen is going to say.

And he said that, "I feel as though I've come home, and Hong Kong

"and this University of Hong Kong are my intellectual birth place."

And you can just imagine, the crowd must have been cheering.

And he continued to say that,

"And where did I get my revolutionary and modern idea?"

And he said that, "This idea came from the colony of Hong Kong."

He you are, resident in Hong Kong, teaching in Hong Kong,

what do you think of Sun Yat-sen today?

If you go back to his, the three principles of the people

in which he advocate for a strong Chinese nation.

So that means having pride in the Chinese identity.

And the second thing that it's about,

developing a liberal society with freedom of all sorts.

That's important to this university - intellectual freedom.

And the third thing is about the livelihood of people.

So that means having a responsible government that addresses

and respond to people's needs in a timely manner.

So all of this is exactly what the young people,

the protester asking for.

So, in fact, it's totally relevant and there's no contradiction at all.

So I wish more people will look into Sun Yat-sen's political thoughts,

you know, and think more about it.

I think that way Hong Kong will get out of the trouble

that we have now.

I'm heading towards Hong Kong's northern border.

As I travel away from central districts,

the contrast is remarkable.

Skyscrapers are replaced by mountains, concrete by trees

and urban density by thinly populated villages.

My preconceptions of Hong Kong are being challenged.

I'm heading towards Hong Kong's northern border.

25 minutes later, I'm in Kam Tin, a district in the New Territories.

This is the walled village of Kat Hing Wai.

First settled by the Tang Clan over 500 years ago, it was built

to protect the residents from rival clans and bandits.

At the time of my guidebook, the village's distinctive brick walls

will be tested once more.

In 1898, the British wanted to establish a defensive barrier

for Hong Kong.

And so they acquired, on a 99-year lease,

the so-called New Territories, which consisted of more than 600 villages.

Not all the inhabitants were at all happy with British rule,

and there followed a very bitter six-day war

with very high Chinese casualties.

Here at the village of Kat Hing Wai,

they closed the gates against the British.

Nonetheless, they were overrun, the gates were stolen

and sent to Britain and restored to the village

only in 1925 as a gesture of goodwill.

Also in Kam Tin, another beautifully preserved historic village,

Shui Tau Tsuen, inhabited by descendants of the Tang Clan.

Featuring traditional Cantonese architecture, parts of the village

date to the 17th century.

Village leader, Ying Wu Tang, is showing me the family temple.

This is very, very beautiful, how old would this be?

HE SPEAKS IN NATIVE LANGUAGE

200 years? Yeah.

200 years. Uh-huh.

Tell me about this.

HE SPEAKS IN NATIVE LANGUAGE

Then my daddy, my grandfather and all the generations.

Well, wonderful, may I see?

OK.

My father and my grandfather.

Very beautiful and very moving.

Your family have been here, how long?

Over a thousand years.

A thousand years? Yeah.

All Mr Tan.

One family, 1,000 years?

Yeah.

It makes the British occupation seem like just a...moment.

Tucked away in the quiet village, the Yi Tai study hall,

built during the latter years of the Qing dynasty

in the mid-19th century, was converted into a primary school

around the time of my guidebook.

A little desk like this, countless generations of villagers

will have done their Confucian studies and will have learned

too, to revere their ancestors.

It strikes me that in a place where a family has lasted

for 1,000 years, you probably view history differently.

It's not so much about the isms - imperialism, communism, capitalism.

The empires don't matter so much, the Qings and the Mings.

And even for the one-day visitor to the village,

it makes you perceive the past quite differently.

I'm leaving the New Territories,

and taking the MTR back to the heaving metropolis...

..where I'm navigating a vast, open-air market in Wan Chai,

on Hong Kong Island.

Wan Chai is an old residential district of faded apartment blocks.

And on them, they've grown air-conditioning units,

like barnacles on the hull of an old ship.

But down here, by contrast,

the produce is incredibly beautiful and fresh.

Well, fresh it should be, half of it is still alive!

Hello, guys. Hi. Excuse me. How are you?

Are you enjoying Hong Kong? Yeah, we are.

Where have you come from? Well, we both live here.

You do? Yeah. So this is our local...our local market.

Oh, how amazing! How long have you lived in Hong Kong?

Er...I've been here nine months.

I've been here for, like, a month and a half.

Wow! Just moved here.

How are you enjoying it? Yeah, I love it.

What do you enjoy about the life here?

I mean, for me, we came here because of the food

and the...the travel opportunities.

You can really travel anywhere in South Asia very easily from here.

And it's an exciting place.

There's a lot going on.

It's never boring.

There have been protests recently. Has that been disruptive?

Has that had you on edge a bit?

Er...no. It's actually been very exciting, I think, for me.

I mean, it's not very often you see democracy, like,

happen in front of your eyes that dramatically.

Thank you so much. So nice to talk to you. Thank you. Yeah. Bye-bye.

Enjoy your meal tonight.

This silent and very dignified demonstration

is part of a series of protests that have been held in Hong Kong

over the proposal for a law by which Hong Kong people could be extradited

to the People's Republic of China for trial on charges,

presumably including political charges.

Now, the British did not really bequeath to Hong Kong democracy,

but they did leave a legacy of laws

that were pretty much fair and non-political.

And so Hong Kong people now fear

that they're losing some of those important rights,

they're losing their special standing

and they're losing their autonomy.

It's my last day exploring Hong Kong,

and I'm heading to one of its outlying islands.

My next stop will be Lantau,

which the Chinese call Big Island Mountain.

Certainly, it's a great deal larger than Hong Kong Island.

And although it's sparsely populated,

it is strategically important.

It hosts the International Airport that opened in 1998.

I'd like to see how important it was to the British

as they monitored shipping headed towards the Pearl River Delta

and the great ports of China beyond.

TANNOY ANNOUNCEMENT IN CHINESE

TANNOY: Be a safe escalator user.

Hold the handrail and don't keep your eyes only on your mobile phone.

Lantau Island was added to the colony in 1898

as part of the New Territories' lease.

Today, it's connected to the mainland by a large double-deck suspension bridge,

with road above and rail underneath.

The largely-mountainous island is often referred to as,

"the lungs of Hong Kong".

A destination for pilgrims, the remote Po Lin Monastery,

with its colourful Buddhist imagery,

sits alongside the Big Buddha,

a 34-metre bronze statue built in 1993.

I've arrived in Tai O,

a traditional fishing village on the west coast of the island.

HUBBUB

What a sight - the village of Tai O,

on the same island as the Intercontinental Airport.

But here, houses on stilts.

Long before people lived in apartment blocks,

I suppose this is how they dwelt.

And long before they made their living out of financial services and shipping,

it was with a boat and a fishing net.

LOW CHATTER

No need to ask here whether the fish is fresh.

Hello! Hello.

Let's go for a lovely cruise, please. Thank you.

Mm! There's a cool breeze upon the water

and the modern world seems very far away.

The fishing village of Tai O offers a glimpse of what life was like

in pre-colonial Hong Kong.

And just outside the village, with a commanding view over the Pearl River Delta,

is a striking example of colonial architecture.

It's now a boutique hotel,

and Karl Law is the manager.

Karl, from the veranda, we have a terrific view. Lots of islands,

and actually, quite a lot of shipping, as well. Yes.

And if I look out, what...what can I see?

If you look all the way, far, you can see Macau and Zhuhai.

So, this is quite a strategic point? Yes, it is.

This building, what was...what was this?

This building, it was a marine police station.

And it was the period of 1902.

And during that time, there were a lot of pirates around this area.

So this is why this police station was built,

to look after this coastline, also look after this fishing village.

What were the tasks of the marine police?

At the night-time, the police officer would use a searchlight to scan around the area,

to look for any illegal immigrant, also the smuggler,

around this area during that time.

When did it cease to be a police station?

This police station was closed in 2002.

The reason it was closed is because this village became safer and safer.

They only recorded only five crimes during the period.

So they decided the police station was closed

and then the police were moved out.

A happy reason for a closure.

I'm nearing the end of my exploration of Hong Kong

and returning to the Central District.

I came in for a simple cup of char.

This is wholly unfamiliar to me.

Red-brown liquid, boiling hot.

It's a whole new strain of chai,

and not necessarily my cup of tea.

This, I'm told, is Hong Kong-style milk tea.

Thank you very much! Thank you.

Hm.

The whole place smells strongly of tea.

Ha-ha-ha!

Yeah, it's very, very strong tea with condensed milk.

And the tea has been repeatedly strained to make it smooth. It is smooth.

It's a kind of very strange fusion

between British and Chinese ways.

Which actually reminds me that I came to Hong Kong

in the very last days of British rule.

I was Defence Secretary, I came to visit the troops.

Was received by the last governor at Government House.

And we did feel very sad about giving up Hong Kong,

but I think that was mixed with a certain shame.

Because, you know, possessing a colony

in the closing years of the 20th century,

was anachronistic, to put it mildly.

And in 150 years of British rule,

we had not established British-style democracy.

But still, we did fear for the future of Hong Kong.

Two decades have passed since the handover ceremony

overseen by the Prince of Wales

and the Governor, Chris Patten.

I want to find out from Hongkongers how life has changed for them.

Radio presenters Noreen Mir and Hugh Chiverton,

and Benita Chick, a CEO of a social enterprise,

are long-time residents.

It's nearly a generation since the handover of Hong Kong back to China.

Is it still very different to live in Hong Kong

from elsewhere in the People's Republic?

Things have certainly changed.

Our education system, a lot of the shops, a lot of things,

but I think there's something very distinct about Hong Kong culture and our identity.

How we behave, how we interact with the rest of the world.

People would still want to come to Hong Kong because

we have the rule of law, or whatever, that make us distinct.

Noreen, for you, too, would this be the fundamental difference - the rule of law?

I think so. I agree with Benita,

the rule of law is very different in China.

In China, it's a civil-law system.

In Hong Kong, we've still got a common-law system,

I think inherited from Britain.

And we trust the judicial system here in Hong Kong.

Hugh, I take it you've lived here before and after the handover.

Has it made much of a difference to you?

Have you seen many differences?

I think the biggest differences I've seen, to be honest,

in Hong Kong, over that period,

have been differences that have affected the whole world,

in terms of globalisation.

I think Hong Kong is a more, er...it's a more westernised place.

It's a more international city than it used to be

back in the '80s, when I came to Hong Kong,

But I think that's true of China, as well.

One thing that hasn't changed that is important, I think, also, is freedom of expression.

You can really say we're as free to say what we want in Hong Kong

as anywhere in the world.

And you're not, over the border.

What is at stake now with the demonstrations?

The crux of the problem is the lack of democracy,

or universal suffrage, which is enshrined in the basic law.

People want to vote.

People want to vote for their leaders in Hong Kong, and they're not able to.

20 years after the handover,

we're not being given what was promised.

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

My fear for Hong Kong would be all of the protests,

all of the noise, all of the international coverage

actually won't achieve anything.

Amid the pulsating pace of capitalist life in Hong Kong,

I've enjoyed perceiving contrasts.

My unexpected brushes with village life

and with traditional ways of thinking and doing.

On my first visit since the end of colonial rule,

I find the long-established trends have continued.

Passing under the control of communist China

has not prevented the city from becoming bigger,

taller and even more international.

But as Sun Yat-sen observed a century ago,

the city's people are used to living freely and expressing their minds.

And the question for the future

is whether for Beijing, that contrast goes too far?

Next time, I'm in Thailand

to find out about one of the kingdom's great monarchs.

King Vajiralongkorn is, up to today, Michael, venerated

for saving Thailand from this colonial threat.

Take cover in an umbrella factory.

How do I look?

Wow! You look like an astronaut.

And discover the potent ingredients of Thai cooking.

This is shrimp paste.

Really? Yeah. Have a smell.

Shall we, um...? Oh!

THEY CHUCKLE