Archaeology shows that Chinese ancestors were living and raising
their families in Hong Kong as early as 6,000 years ago.
Dongwan is a 6,000 year old Neolithic site situated southwest of
Dayu Mountain in Hong Kong. Excavated in 1987 it produced over 100
stone tools, large quantities of earthenware and the foundations of
a house.
The chipped stone implements that characterize the early stage
of the Dongwan culture represent a significant link to Southeast
Asia's stone-working traditions. In the later period, the
appearance of millstones and polished hand-axes together with
grinding and carving implements added variety to Dongwan's
inventory of stone tools. This development in the production of
tool making went hand in hand with the advances in people's
material well-being, which were taking place at the time.
The handmade Dongwan earthenware comprising plain, coarse
pottery together with fine but fragile soft pottery, firmly links
this local culture with south China's other Neolithic cultures.
Connections can be seen both in the shape of the utensils and in
the decorative patterns applied.
In the latter half of 1997 archaeologists from the mainland and
Hong Kong jointly launched an extensive excavation project at
Dongwanzai, Mawan. There they discovered many cultural relics. Of
these the discovery of a prehistoric cemetery with 20 tombs has
been selected by the State Cultural Relics Bureau as one of the
"Top Ten Archaeological Finds of 1997."
The 1999 excavation of a stone-age workshop occupying an area of
some 200 square meters in Xigong produced hundreds of flakes,
scrappers, stone rings and burins as well as polished stone
implements including adzes and shovels. They cast a light on the
techniques of stone tool manufacture adopted by Hong Kong's
Neolithic ancestors.
Archaeology shows gradually strengthening cultural links between
the mainland and Hong Kong. Finds of large numbers of bronze
weapons such as knives, arrowheads and dagger-axes together with
less warlike bronze implements like axes and fishhooks demonstrate
that the bronze-casting technology developed in the mainland was
introduced into Hong Kong around 1500 BC.
Between November and December of 1990 the Chinese University of
Hong Kong and the Guangzhou-based Sun Yat-sen University undertook
a joint excavation at Dawan site on Nanya Isle. They unearthed 10
tombs containing many funerary objects such as stone implements,
pottery, bronze ware and jade articles. Among the jade artifacts
discovered, one item in particular, a jade tablet was to attract
wide attention. The only one to be found in south China, it is of a
type used as a ceremonial, sacrificial item by Bronze Age people in
the Central Plains. This is the name given to the middle and lower
reaches of the Yellow River comprising most of today's Henan
Province and parts of Shandong, Hebei and Shanxi provinces. The
discovery of the jade tablet beside the South China Sea shows that
at least 3,000 years ago, Hong Kong had connections with a mainland
region over a thousand miles away.
After Qinshihuang, the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty (221-206
BC), unified China in 221 BC, Hong Kong was incorporated into Panyu
County, Nanhai Prefecture. Since then, more and more people from
the mainland have moved to Hong Kong, not only offering their labor
but bringing advanced production technology and culture with them.
The incomers served to promote the development of Hong Kong's
economy and society. This can be evidenced by the coins of the Han
Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD) which have come from excavations throughout
Hong Kong.
The 1955 discovery of a well-preserved brick tomb in Kowloon has
connected Hong Kong's pre-Qin and post-Han history and revealed the
uninterrupted continuity of an advanced culture matching that of
the mainland. The Kowloon tomb has been dated back to the early and
middle period of the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220) and showed a
structure, grave bricks and burial articles all in the Han
style.
Songwangtai inscriptions near Hong Kong International Airport,
Song stone engravings at Tianhou Temple as well as the many
discoveries of Song coins and celadon ware tell of the fall of the
Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) and the southward deployment of
troops of the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368).
Excavated china ware of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) proves that
Hong Kong had become an important thoroughfare for trade between
China's mainland and Southeast Asia as well as with Western
countries by the beginning of the 16th century.
As the years passed a unique cultural panorama evolved in Hong
Kong. That it is founded in a longstanding inter-relationship with
mainland Chinese culture is well demonstrated by discoveries from
Neolithic sites to Han graves together with cultural relics from
the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. Modern times have
seen it absorb what it wished of western culture and emerge as a
truly international metropolis of the 20th century and beyond.
(China.org.cn, translated by Shao Da, April 8, 2003)