Welcome to Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of I Heart Radio and

Grim and Mild. Our world is full of the unexplainable.

And if history is an open book,

all of these amazing tales are right there on display,

just waiting for us to explore.

Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. If you're a history fanatic like I am, then you know that the past is not gone.

It's not even past. History lives on in the present, influencing the very shape of our world.

The city of Hong Kong is a perfect example of that idea.

Hong Kong is located on China's Southeast coast.

Today it's considered a special administrative region of China,

but that wasn't always the case.

The story of Hong Kong involves multiple wars, occupations, and treaties,

as well as one of the strangest lease agreements

in world history.

Beginning in prehistory, and yes, there is such a thing,

Hong Kong was a territory of Imperial China.

For many centuries, the country was sparsely populated.

It wasn't until the late 1600s

during China's Qing Dynasty that more people moved there

and the region grew into an important trading port.

Now fast forward about a hundred years to the late 1700s China was trade partners with

Great Britain but the British Empire felt like it was getting the short end of the deal.

...