China: A junk crosses Victoria Harbour with Hong Kong's third highest building, Central Plaza rising in the background. Originally a sparsely populated area of farming and fishing villages, Hong Kong has become one of the world's most significant financial centres and commercial ports. It is the world's tenth-largest exporter and ninth-largest importer. Hong Kong became a colony of the British Empire after the Qing Empire ceded Hong Kong Island at the end of the First Opium War in 1842.