Hong Kong

The most successful pirate who ever sailed ruled the waters around Hong Kong. And she was a woman.

In the early 1800s, Zheng Yi Sao commanded a fleet of up to 1,800 ships and tens of thousands of pirates. Blackbeard, the famous one, had four ships.

She beat the Chinese navy so badly that the emperor gave up, offered her a pardon, and let her retire rich.

For a long time, Hong Kong was just fishing and salt villages, with whole families living on boats in the harbour.

The thing that turned it into a city was a war over drugs.

Britain was buying mountains of Chinese tea and running low on silver to pay for it. So British traders started selling opium, a powerful and addictive drug, to China instead.

When China tried to stop them, Britain went to war, won, and took Hong Kong Island in 1842.

Britain wasn't done. It grabbed the Kowloon Peninsula in 1860, then rented the nearby New Territories for exactly 99 years.

That clock would matter later.

World War II hit hard. Japan attacked the day after Pearl Harbor, and the city surrendered on Christmas Day 1941, a day locals still call "Black Christmas."

The occupation lasted nearly four years.

After the war, people poured into Hong Kong, many of them fleeing turmoil in mainland China.

The city rebuilt fast, first on factories making clothes and toys, then on banking and trade. Within a few decades it was one of the richest, busiest cities on the planet.

Then the lease ran out. In 1997, Britain handed Hong Kong back to China under a deal called "one country, two systems."

The idea was simple. Hong Kong would belong to China, but for 50 years it could keep its own laws, its own money, and freedoms the mainland didn't have.

That promise is set to last until 2047. The two systems haven't always fit together smoothly.

Today Hong Kong has more skyscrapers than any other city on Earth. Ride the steep Peak Tram up Victoria Peak for the best view of that wall of towers.

Hop the Star Ferry across the harbour, then ride a cable car up to the giant bronze Big Buddha on Lantau Island.

On Cheung Chau island, you can squeeze into the cave where one of Zheng Yi Sao's pirate captains supposedly stashed his loot.

Eat your way through dim sum, a parade of dumplings and small plates wheeled around on carts.

Then grab a warm egg tart and a bubbly egg waffle from a street stall.