Public housing in Hong Kong
Public housing in Hong Kong is a set of mass housing programmes through which the Government of Hong Kong provides affordable housing for lower-income residents. It is a major component of housing in Hong Kong, with nearly half of the population now residing in some form of public housing; the public housing policy dates to 1954, after a fire in Shek Kip Mei destroyed thousands of shanty homes and prompted the government to begin constructing homes for the poor. Public housing is built by the Hong Kong Housing Authority and the Hong Kong Housing Society. Rents and prices are lower than those for private housing and are subsidised by the government, with revenues recovered from sources such as rents and charges collected from car parks and shops within or near the residences. Many public housing estates are built in the new towns of the New Territories, but urban expansion has left some older estates deep in central urban areas, they are found in every district of Hong Kong except in Wan Chai District.
The vast majority of public housing are provided in high-rise buildings, recent blocks comprise 40 or more storeys. The government has in recent years begun to prioritise economic benefit rather than meeting the demand of citizens; this has led to a large number of citizens who are unable to afford private housing to seek accommodation in subdivided flats and bedspace apartments. The average waiting time for public housing is around 6 years, with some having to wait for over 10 years. In the 20's and 30's, a large number of Mainland Chinese flooded into Hong Kong and resulting in a serious shortage of housing. Thus, in the Housing Committee Report of 1935, the colonial government proposed to build some low-costing housing for public to solve this housing problem. However, Hong Kong was facing an economic downturn at that time, the proposals did not implemented. On 25 December 1953, a major fire in Shek Kip Mei destroyed the makeshift homes of refugees from Mainland China, leaving more than 50,000 people homeless.
After the fire, facing a surge of immigrant population governor Alexander Grantham launched a public housing program to introduce the idea of "multi-storey building" for the immigrant population living there, thus commencing a programme of mass public housing, providing affordable homes for those on low incomes. Some scholars have argued that the government has been overstating the role of the fire in the history of public housing in Hong Kong. For example, Faure argues that Grantham was concerned with introducing subsidised housing as early as 1949, but encountered opposition from Chinese members of the Legislative Council; the Shek Kip Mei Estate, ready for occupation in 1954, was the first tangible manifestation of this policy. These resettlement blocks were built in the basic design of H-shape. In those early days, housing units were little more than small cubicles, the original plan was to allocate 24 square feet per adult and half that for each child under 12. However, they were in reality occupied by more than one family, due to the extreme shortage of available housing.
Facilities and sanitation were rudimentary and communal, like the bath rooms and laundry areas, were located in the cross bar of the "H", linked the residential wings on two sides. Rents were pitched without caps on income; that year, the Resettlement Department was formed, as was the first Housing Authority, out of the Urban Council, through enactment of the 1954 Housing Ordinance. The demolition of the buildings of Shek Kip Mei Estate was started from 2007, has now been extensively redeveloped. Today, all H-shaped resettlement blocks had to be destructed, but only the Mei Ho House is still standing. In 1961, the "low-cost housing" scheme was introduced through the construction of 62,380 flats in 18 estates, while HA accommodation would be available to those whose household incomes were between $900 and $1500. In 1963, due to the rapid escalation of squatter numbers, squatters' eligibility for public housing was frozen, future squatter areas came under licensing per the 1964 White Paper; the settlements of these squatters on the urban fringe were cleared in order to provide housing and industrial sites.
With the formation of this ad hoc resettlement scheme, it evolved into a policy tool to support the burgeoning manufacturing industry. The Housing Board was set up with the role of coordinating between agencies responsible for domestic housing, it made recommendations to have annual evaluations of supply and demand of housing, as well as increasing the minimum standard floor area per person to 35 sq ft. Lower Ngau Tau Kok Estate, built between 1967 and 1970, was among the first group of resettlement estates built with lifts. All blocks were 16-floor high, lifts from the ground floor could reach the 8th and the 13th floors. In 1973, the Government of Hong Kong announced a ten-year plan for the public provision of housing, to provide everyone in Hong Kong with permanent, self-contained housing with a target of housing; the objective was to provide 1.8 million people with "satisfactory accommodation". The Government saw as its responsibility to provide accessible housing for "the poor" – defined as those whose monthly household income was between HK$2,100 and HK$3,150.
In 1975, the Government opened the Oi Man Estate. The blocks were built in twin-tower layout with two square blocks interlocked together. There were sixteen large and small units on each floor of the block, each flat with its own kitchen and toilet inside; the housing estate was built on a concept of "a little town withi
British Hong Kong
British Hong Kong denotes the period during which Hong Kong was governed as a colony and British Dependent Territory of the United Kingdom. Excluding the Japanese occupation during the Second World War, Hong Kong was under British rule from 1841 to 1997; the colonial period began with the occupation of Hong Kong Island in 1841 during the First Opium War. The island was ceded by Qing China in the aftermath of the war in 1842 and established as a Crown colony in 1843; the colony expanded to the Kowloon Peninsula in 1860 after the Second Opium War and was further extended when Britain obtained a 99-year lease of the New Territories in 1898. Although Hong Kong Island and Kowloon were ceded in perpetuity, the leased area, which comprised 92 per cent of the territory, was vital to the integrity of Hong Kong that Britain agreed to transfer the entire colony to China upon the expiration of that lease in 1997; the transfer has been considered by many as marking the end of the British Empire. In 1836, the Manchu Qing government undertook a major policy review of the opium trade.
Lin Zexu volunteered to take on the task of suppressing opium. In March 1839, he became Special Imperial Commissioner in Canton, where he ordered the foreign traders to surrender their opium stock, he cut off their supplies. Chief Superintendent of Trade, Charles Elliot, complied with Lin's demands to secure a safe exit for the British, with the costs involved to be resolved between the two governments; when Elliot promised that the British government would pay for their opium stock, the merchants surrendered their 20,283 chests of opium, which were destroyed in public. In September 1839, the British Cabinet decided that the Chinese should be made to pay for the destruction of British property, either by the threat or use of force. An expeditionary force was placed under Elliot and his cousin, Rear-Admiral George Elliot, as joint plenipotentiaries in 1840. Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston stressed to the Chinese government that the British government did not question China's right to prohibit opium, but it objected to the way this was handled.
He viewed the sudden strict enforcement as laying a trap for the foreign traders, the confinement of the British with supplies cut off was tantamount to starving them into submission or death. He instructed the Elliot cousins to occupy one of the Chusan islands, to present a letter from himself to a Chinese official for the Emperor to proceed to the Gulf of Bohai for a treaty, if the Chinese resisted, blockade the key ports of the Yangtze and Yellow rivers. Palmerston demanded a territorial base in Chusan for trade so that British merchants "may not be subject to the arbitrary caprice either of the Government of Peking, or its local Authorities at the Sea-Ports of the Empire". In 1841, Elliot negotiated with Lin's successor, Qishan, in the Convention of Chuenpi during the First Opium War. On 20 January, Elliot announced "the conclusion of preliminary arrangements", which included the cession of Hong Kong Island and its harbour to the British Crown. Elliot chose Hong Kong instead of Chusan because he believed a settlement further east would cause an "indefinite protraction of hostilities", whereas Hong Kong's harbour was a valuable base for the British trading community in Canton.
British rule began with the occupation of the island on 26 January. Commodore Gordon Bremer, commander-in-chief of British forces in China, took formal possession of the island at Possession Point, where the Union Jack was raised under a feu de joie from the marines and a royal salute from the warships. Hong Kong was ceded in the Treaty of Nanking on 29 August 1842 and established as a Crown colony after ratification was exchanged on 26 June 1843; the treaty failed to satisfy British expectations of a major expansion of trade and profit, which led to increasing pressure for a revision of the terms. In October 1856, Chinese authorities in Canton detained the Arrow, a Chinese-owned ship registered in Hong Kong to enjoy protection of the British flag; the Consul in Canton, Harry Parkes, claimed the hauling down of the flag and arrest of the crew were "an insult of grave character". Parkes and Sir John Bowring, the 4th Governor of Hong Kong, seized the incident to pursue a forward policy. In March 1857, Palmerston appointed Lord Elgin as Plenipotentiary with the aim of securing a new and satisfactory treaty.
A French expeditionary force joined the British to avenge the execution of a French missionary in 1856. In 1860, the capture of the Taku Forts and occupation of Beijing led to the Treaty of Tientsin and Convention of Peking. In the Treaty of Tientsin, the Chinese accepted British demands to open more ports, navigate the Yangtze River, legalise the opium trade and have diplomatic representation in Beijing. During the conflict, the British occupied the Kowloon Peninsula, where the flat land was valuable training and resting ground; the area in what is now south of Boundary Street and Stonecutters Island was ceded in the Convention of Peking. In 1898, the British sought to extend Hong Kong for defence. After negotiations began in April 1898, with the British Minister in Beijing, Sir Claude MacDonald, representing Britain, diplomat Li Hongzhang leading the Chinese, the Second Convention of Peking was signed on 9 June. Since the foreign powers had agreed by the late 19th century that it was no longer permissible to acquire outright sovereignty over any parcel of Chinese territory, in keeping with the other territorial cessions China made to Russia and France that same year, the extension of Hong Kong took the form of a 99-year lease.
The lease consisted of the rest of Kowloon south of the Shenzhen River and 230 islands, which became known as the New Territories. The British formally took possession on 16 April 1899. In 1941, duri
China
China the People's Republic of China, is a country in East Asia and the world's most populous country, with a population of around 1.404 billion. Covering 9,600,000 square kilometers, it is the third- or fourth-largest country by total area. Governed by the Communist Party of China, the state exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four direct-controlled municipalities, the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau. China emerged as one of the world's earliest civilizations, in the fertile basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, China's political system was based on hereditary monarchies, or dynasties, beginning with the semi-legendary Xia dynasty in 21st century BCE. Since China has expanded, re-unified numerous times. In the 3rd century BCE, the Qin established the first Chinese empire; the succeeding Han dynasty, which ruled from 206 BC until 220 AD, saw some of the most advanced technology at that time, including papermaking and the compass, along with agricultural and medical improvements.
The invention of gunpowder and movable type in the Tang dynasty and Northern Song completed the Four Great Inventions. Tang culture spread in Asia, as the new Silk Route brought traders to as far as Mesopotamia and Horn of Africa. Dynastic rule ended in 1912 with the Xinhai Revolution; the Chinese Civil War resulted in a division of territory in 1949, when the Communist Party of China established the People's Republic of China, a unitary one-party sovereign state on Mainland China, while the Kuomintang-led government retreated to the island of Taiwan. The political status of Taiwan remains disputed. Since the introduction of economic reforms in 1978, China's economy has been one of the world's fastest-growing with annual growth rates above 6 percent. According to the World Bank, China's GDP grew from $150 billion in 1978 to $12.24 trillion by 2017. Since 2010, China has been the world's second-largest economy by nominal GDP and since 2014, the largest economy in the world by purchasing power parity.
China is the world's largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. China is a recognized nuclear weapons state and has the world's largest standing army and second-largest defense budget; the PRC is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council as it replaced the ROC in 1971, as well as an active global partner of ASEAN Plus mechanism. China is a leading member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, WTO, APEC, BRICS, the BCIM, the G20. In recent times, scholars have argued that it will soon be a world superpower, rivaling the United States; the word "China" has been used in English since the 16th century. It is not a word used by the Chinese themselves, it has been traced through Portuguese and Persian back to the Sanskrit word Cīna, used in ancient India."China" appears in Richard Eden's 1555 translation of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa. Barbosa's usage was derived from Persian Chīn, in turn derived from Sanskrit Cīna.
Cīna was first used including the Mahābhārata and the Laws of Manu. In 1655, Martino Martini suggested that the word China is derived from the name of the Qin dynasty. Although this derivation is still given in various sources, it is complicated by the fact that the Sanskrit word appears in pre-Qin literature; the word may have referred to a state such as Yelang. The meaning transferred to China as a whole; the origin of the Sanskrit word is still a matter of debate, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. The official name of the modern state is the "People's Republic of China"; the shorter form is "China" Zhōngguó, from zhōng and guó, a term which developed under the Western Zhou dynasty in reference to its royal demesne. It was applied to the area around Luoyi during the Eastern Zhou and to China's Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing, it was used as a cultural concept to distinguish the Huaxia people from perceived "barbarians". The name Zhongguo is translated as "Middle Kingdom" in English.
Archaeological evidence suggests that early hominids inhabited China between 2.24 million and 250,000 years ago. The hominid fossils of Peking Man, a Homo erectus who used fire, were discovered in a cave at Zhoukoudian near Beijing; the fossilized teeth of Homo sapiens have been discovered in Fuyan Cave in Hunan. Chinese proto-writing existed in Jiahu around 7000 BCE, Damaidi around 6000 BCE, Dadiwan from 5800–5400 BCE, Banpo dating from the 5th millennium BCE; some scholars have suggested. According to Chinese tradition, the first dynasty was the Xia, which emerged around 2100 BCE; the dynasty was considered mythical by historians until scientific excavations found early Bronze Age sites at Erlitou, Henan in 1959. It remains unclear whether these sites are the remains of the Xia dynasty or of another culture from the same period; the succeeding Shang dynasty is the earliest to be confirmed by contemporary records. The Shang ruled the plain of the Yellow River in eastern China from the 17th to the 11th century BCE.
Their oracle bone script
Standard Chinese
Standard Chinese known as Modern Standard Mandarin, Standard Mandarin, Modern Standard Mandarin Chinese, or Mandarin, is a standard variety of Chinese, the sole official language of China, the de facto official language of Taiwan and one of the four official languages of Singapore. Its pronunciation is based on the Beijing dialect, its vocabulary on the Mandarin dialects, its grammar is based on written vernacular Chinese. Like other varieties of Chinese, Standard Chinese is a tonal language with topic-prominent organization and subject–verb–object word order, it has more initial consonants but final consonants and tones than southern varieties. Standard Chinese is an analytic language, though with many compound words. There are two standardised forms of the language, namely Putonghua in Mainland China and Guoyu in Taiwan. Aside from a number of differences in pronunciation and vocabulary, Putonghua is written using simplified Chinese characters, Guoyu is written using traditional Chinese characters.
Many characters are identical between the two systems. In Chinese, the standard variety is known as: 普通话 in the People's Republic of China, as well as Hong Kong and Macau. Standard Chinese is commonly referred to by generic names for "Chinese", notably 中文. In total, there have been known over 20 various names for the language; the term Guoyu had been used by non-Han rulers of China to refer to their languages, but in 1909 the Qing education ministry applied it to Mandarin, a lingua franca based on northern Chinese varieties, proclaiming it as the new "national language". The name Putonghua has a long, albeit unofficial, history, it was used as early as 1906 in writings by Zhu Wenxiong to differentiate a modern, standard Chinese from classical Chinese and other varieties of Chinese. For some linguists of the early 20th century, the Putonghua, or "common tongue/speech", was conceptually different from the Guoyu, or "national language"; the former was a national prestige variety. Based on common understandings of the time, the two were, in fact, different.
Guoyu was understood as formal vernacular Chinese, close to classical Chinese. By contrast, Putonghua was called "the common speech of the modern man", the spoken language adopted as a national lingua franca by conventional usage; the use of the term Putonghua by left-leaning intellectuals such as Qu Qiubai and Lu Xun influenced the People's Republic of China government to adopt that term to describe Mandarin in 1956. Prior to this, the government used both terms interchangeably. In Taiwan, Guoyu continues to be the official term for Standard Chinese; the term Guoyu however, is less used in the PRC, because declaring a Beijing dialect-based standard to be the national language would be deemed unfair to speakers of other varieties and to the ethnic minorities. The term Putonghua, on the contrary, implies nothing more than the notion of a lingua franca. During the government of a pro-Taiwan independence coalition, Taiwan officials promoted a different reading of Guoyu as all of the "national languages", meaning Hokkien and Formosan as well as Standard Chinese.
Huayu, or "language of the Chinese nation" simply meant "Chinese language", was used in overseas communities to contrast Chinese with foreign languages. Over time, the desire to standardise the variety of Chinese spoken in these communities led to the adoption of the name "Huayu" to refer to Mandarin; this name avoids choosing a side between the alternative names of Putonghua and Guoyu, which came to have political significance after their usages diverged along political lines between the PRC and the ROC. It incorporates the notion that Mandarin is not the national or common language of the areas in which overseas Chinese live. Hanyu, or "language of the Han people", is another umbrella term used for Chinese. However, it has confusingly two different meanings: Standard Chinese; this term, as well as Hànzú, is a modern concept. A related concept is Hànzì; the term "Mandarin" is a translation of Guānhuà, which referred to the lingua franca of the late Chinese empire. The Chinese term is obsolete as a name for the standard language, but is used by linguists to refer to the major group of Mandarin dialects spoken natively across most of northern and southwestern China.
In English, "Mandarin" may refer to the standard language, the dialect group as a whole, or to historic forms such as the late Imperial lingua franca. The name "Modern Standard Mandarin" is sometimes used by linguists who wish to distinguish the current state of the shared language from other northern and historic dialects; the Chinese have different languages in different provinces, to such an extent
Lo Wu
Lo Wu or Lowu is an area in North District, New Territories, Hong Kong. It lies on the border between Hong Kong and mainland China the Luohu District of Shenzhen in mainland China; the area is most notable as the location of the most used immigration control point for passengers travelling to and from mainland China. It is. Lo Wu was known as 螺湖 in Cantonese language. 羅 and 螺 are two characters with same vowel but of different tones. Lo Wu was mentioned in the list of withdrawn villages during Qing era against remaining resistance of former Ming. Lo Wu is located at junction of Sham Chun River. East of Lo Wu is a hill named Sandy Ridge, known as Sha Ling to locals, one of the major cemeteries located in Hong Kong; the entire Lo Wu area was divided in 1898 by the Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory. Between 1898 and 1949, there was no border patrol in the area, as a result, people were free to travel between Hong Kong and China. In 1952, in an effort to combat illegal immigration and smuggling, the Hong Kong Government established the Frontier Closed Area, which included the Lo Wu area.
The border crossing facility is only accessible by the Lo Wu Station of the East Rail Line. For those who are not residents within the Frontier Closed Area, are not crossing the border, a Closed Area Permit is required. Applications for Closed Area Permits outside the Closed Area can be made at the Sheung Shui Police station in Fanling. Lo Wu Station is the northern terminus of the East Rail Line of Hong Kong, sitting in the southern bank of the Sham Chun River, the Frontier Closed Area on Hong Kong's northern frontier; the station serves as a primary checkpoint for rail passengers between mainland China. Lo Wu Immigration Control Point is a passenger cross border point between Hong Kong and mainland China, it operates daily from 6:30 am to midnight. During peak hours and weekends, the waiting time for entries and exits through Lo Wu is shorter than the other 3 control points because it has the largest visitors' handling capacity. Of all passenger departures from Hong Kong for mainland China, 90% go through the land border control points of Lo Wu, Lok Ma Chau, Man Kam To and Sha Tau Kok, with Lo Wu accounting for 85% of total departures.
Lo Wu is the most popular border crossing for people travelling to mainland China because most people take the East Rail Line, more convenient compared to other means of transport. By passing through Lo Wu, one can reach the busiest commercial zone of Shenzhen in the shortest period of time. Starting from 5 July 2002, a returning Hong Kong resident aged 18 or above who has spent at least 24 hours outside Hong Kong may bring in 60 cigarettes duty-free for his own use. Starting from 1 August 2010, this duty-free allowance has been reduced to 19. Under the Dutiable Commodities Ordinance, an incoming passenger must declare dutiable cigarettes to a Customs officer and pay the duty on them. In mid-December 2002, the Hong Kong government announced that the Lok Ma Chau immigration control point bordering the Huanggang Port Control Point on the Shenzhen side shall take the lead to provide round-the-clock passenger service just before Chinese New Year. Vehicles and container trucks have been moving both ways throughout the night at this control point.
However, 24-hour border-crossing at Lo Wu control point is still undergoing vigorous debates arguing about the limited number of passengers at night. In addition, higher costs and noise pollution are to be created. Kowloon-Canton Railway chairman Michael Tien has once said that it is impossible to run railway services round-the-clock because of the difficulties in maintenance; this new policy has both disadvantages. It is clear that trade and transportation and logistic links between mainland China and Hong Kong will flourish. However, it may cause some social problems since it eases the way to go from Hong Kong to mainland China. Lo Wu is within the Closed Area along the long border. Only travellers wanting to pass through Lo Wu to reach Shenzhen are allowed to enter the area. Citizens wishing to enter the area for other purposes require special approval from the Hong Kong Police Force. An incident happened in 2000, involving a boy named Yu Man-Hon, mentally disabled, he was missing at the Lo Wu boundary control point.
The controversy arose when the fifteen-year-old ran across the boundary control point, without any identification. In the confusion, due to the lack of understanding by border officers on both sides, he was mistakenly released into mainland China and has not been heard from since; the officials were criticised for a lack of awareness and for failure to recognise Yu's mental disability, letting him free to roam in an unfamiliar place. His parents are still searching for him. Due to its strategic location as a gateway to Hong Kong and in the CBD of Shenzhen, the Luohu District has flourished with many top-grade office buildings; the Lo Wu area in Hong Kong is remote from the city centre, far from urban development. As it is lying within the Closed Area, access is restricted, development is impossible and the area has remained rural. Cheaper prices of durable goods, gourmet dining and entertainment in the Shenzhen side has hit the retail industry of Hong Kong in Sheung Shui and Fanling in the North District.
There is change afoot. Despite the pleas of environmental groups the closed area is to be opened to'selective' development, despite its splendid isola
Starling Inlet
Starling Inlet or Sha Tau Kok Hoi is a harbour in northeast New Territories, Hong Kong. The whole body of water falls within the Closed Area and restricted to local residents. Settlements around the harbour include: Sha Tau Kok, Wu Shek Kok, Yim Tso Ha, Nam Chung, Luk Keng, Fung Hang, Kuk Po, Yung Shue Au. Islets within Starling Inlet include A Chau, near the southwestern end of the Inlet, Shui Cham Tsui Pai; the border town Sha Tau Kok is located at the north of the opening of the inlet to Mirs Bay. For those who are not residents within the Closed Area, or are not crossing the border, a Closed Area Permit is required. On 15 February 2012, areas around Sha Tau Kok were taken out of the Frontier Closed Area; the checkpoint at Shek Chung Au on Sha Tau Kok Road was decommissioned. Sha Tau Kok Public Pier Mirs Bay
Hakka people
The Hakka, sometimes Hakka Han, are Han Chinese people whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Zhejiang and Guizhou. The Chinese characters for Hakka mean "guest families". Unlike other Han Chinese groups, the Hakkas are not named after a geographical region, e.g. a province, county or city, in China. Modern day Hakka are identified by different degrees of Hakka ancestry and speak the Hakka language; the Hakkas are thought to have originated from the lands bordering the Yellow River. In a series of migrations, the Hakkas moved and settled in their present areas in Southern China, from there, substantial numbers migrated overseas to various countries throughout the world; as the most diasporic among the Chinese community groups, the worldwide population of Hakkas is about 75 million to 120 million. The Hakkas moved from northern China into southern China at a time when the Han Chinese people who lived there had developed distinctive cultural identities and languages from their northern Han Chinese counterparts.
The Tunbao and Chuanqing people are other Han Chinese subgroups that migrated from north China to south China while maintaining their northern Han Chinese traditions which differentiated them from their southern Han neighbours. The Hakka people have had significant influence on the course of modern Chinese and overseas Chinese history; the Hakka language was the national language of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which had, at one stage, occupied one-third of China in the 19th century. Today, it is one of the official languages of the Republic of China. Migrants were referred to as no specific people were referred to as Hakka at first. Northern China's Yellow River area was the homeland of the Hakka. Since the Qin dynasty, the ancestors of the Hakka people have migrated southwards several times because of social unrest and invasions. Subsequent migrations occurred at the end of the Tang dynasty in the 10th century and during the end of the Northern Song dynasty in the 1120s, the last of which saw a massive flood of refugees fleeing southward when the Jurchens captured the northern Song capital of Bianliang in the Jingkang Incident of the Jin–Song Wars.
The precise movements of the Hakka people remain unclear during the 14th century when the Ming dynasty overthrew the Yuan dynasty and subsequently fell to the Manchus who formed the Qing dynasty in the 17th century. During the 16th century, in response to an economic boom, the Hakka moved into hilly areas to mine for zinc and lead, moved into the coastal plains to cultivate cash crops. After an economic downturn, many of these ventures failed and many people had to turn to pillaging to make ends meet. During the reign of the Kangxi Emperor in the Qing dynasty, the coastal regions were evacuated by imperial edict for a decade, due to the dangers posed by the remnants of the Ming court who had fled to the island of Taiwan; when the threat was eliminated, Kangxi Emperor issued an edict to re-populate the coastal regions. To aid the move, each family was given monetary incentives to begin their new lives. Although different in some social customs and culture from the surrounding population, they belong to the Han Chinese majority.
Historical sources shown in census statistics relate only to the general population, irrespective of particular districts, provinces, or regions. These census counts were made during imperial times, they did not distinguish. Therefore, they do not directly document Hakka migrations; the study by Lo Hsiang-lin, K'o-chia Yen-chiu Tao-Liu / An Introduction to the Study of the Hakkas used genealogical sources of family clans from various southern counties. According to the 2009 studies published in the American Journal of Human Genetics, Hakka genes are tilted towards northern Han people compared with other southern Han people; the study has shown a strong common genetic relationship between all Han Chinese with only a small difference of 0.32%. Lingnan Hakka place names indicate a long history of the Hakka being culturally Han Chinese. Unlike other Han Chinese groups, the Hakkas are not named after a geographical region, e.g. a province, county or city. The Hakka people have a distinct identity from the Cantonese people.
As 60% of the Hakkas in China reside in Guangdong province, 95% of overseas Hakkas ancestral homes are in Guangdong. Hakkas from Chaozhou and Fujian are mistaken to be Chaoshanese and Hokkiens. Strangers who find out that the other party is a Hakka will affectionately acknowledge each other as "zìjiārén" meaning "all's in the same family", it is held that the Hakkas are a subgroup of the Han Chinese that originated in Northern China. To trace their origins, three accepted theories so far have been brought forth among anthropologists and historians: The Hakkas are Han Chinese originating from the Central Plain in China; the latter two theories are the most and are together supported by multiple scientific studies. Clyde Kiang stated that the Hakkas' origins may be linked with
Hong Kong
