With Hong Kong's return to China in 1997 comes these outstanding One Million ( As Hong Kong boasts the highest per capita rate of millionaires in the world ) fantasy commemorative banknotes. Featured on these notes is the former Chinese leader Deng Hsiao - Ping and the Hong Kong skyline with a reverse showing the world's longest road & rail suspension Tsing Ma bridge and jumping pink dolphins ( Sousa Chinensis ) unique to the South China Seas. Each is uncirculated a bears a serial #.

Hong Kong, a former British dependency in eastern Asia, consisted of more than 200 islands and a mainland portion located on the southeastern coast of China. The land area of Hong Kong covers 1076 square kilometers ( 415 square miles ). Hong Kong is extremely mountainous; level land for development is scarce. The climate is subtropical and monsoonal, with typhoons in summer and autumn bringing violent winds and heavy rains. The soil is generally thin, poor, and unsuitable for intensive agriculture, and Hong Kong must import the majority of its food. In addition, it must import more than 80 percent of its drinkable water. Hong Kong's greatest asset is the deep and well-protected harbor between Hong Kong Island and Kowloon (on the mainland). Hong Kong's population was about 6 million in 1991. The greatest concentrations of people in Hong Kong live in Kowloon and on Hong Kong Island. Some districts have impressive population densities of about 40,000 persons per square kilometer ( about 100,000 per square mile ) among the highest urban densities in the world. Hong Kong has one of the highest standards of living in Asia- more than 30 times higher than that of China.

In the early 19th century the British, hoping to expand trade along the China coast and find a location to serve as a naval supply point, became interested in Hong Kong. The Opium Wars ( 1839 - 1843, 1856 - 1860 ), between Great Britain and China, led to Britain's acquisition of Hong Kong and part of the Kowloon Peninsula, thereby allowing the British to establish control over the harbor between Hong Kong Island and the mainland. In 1898 China leased a large area called the New Territories to Britain for 99 years, adding considerable land and territorial waters to Hong Kong.

Hong Kong grew rapidly in the 20th century, with an influx of people fleeing political instability in China and attracted by industrial development in Hong Kong. The population increased from about 100,000 in 1900 to nearly 2 million in 1947, with even greater growth and development occurring in the second half of the 20th century. Britain returned all of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty at the expiration of the lease of the New Territories.