Kowloon was part of China until 1860, when it was ceded to Britain following China’s defeat in the Second Opium War (see Opium Wars). The British initially used the area to protect Victoria Harbor and stationed colonial troops there, but Kowloon also quickly developed important port facilities. More significant development of Kowloon occurred after 1898, when China leased the adjacent New Territories to Britain. This added a substantial population and land area to support commercial and industrial development in Kowloon. It also permitted urban expansion northward, beyond the original Kowloon region, to include the area called New Kowloon. By 1910 a railway had been completed between Kowloon and the Chinese city of Guangzhou, and Kowloon became an important transit point for trade and traffic with China. Port and storage facilities expanded, industrial growth soon followed, and Kowloon developed as one of several important manufacturing sites in Hong Kong. Since the 1950s, Kowloon has continued to grow and prosper as Hong Kong has developed into an important Asian market. Kowloon, like the rest of Hong Kong, returned to Chinese control on July 1, 1997. Population, including New Kowloon (1991) 2,030,683.
The name Kowloon comes from the words kow (Cantonese for "nine") and loon (Cantonese for "dragon"). According to legend, when the last emperor of the Song dynasty first saw the peninsula’s eight peaks, he remarked that eight dragons must live there. The ninth dragon refers to the emperor himself.
Bright neon signs illuminate Nathan Road, a popular commercial district in Kowloon. Nathan Road is named after Sir Mathew Nathan, a late 19th-century British governor of Hong Kong who commissioned the district’s wide avenue. Because the Kowloon Peninsula had few residents at the time, the avenue was nicknamed Nathan’s Folly. Since then, however, Kowloon has become one of Hong Kong’s most crowded districts. The southern end of the road is known as the Golden Mile because of its display of commercial wealth.
