Now, the background of our story: Hong Kong, after opening up, became the gateway between China and the West — a bridgehead, as some people said, from which the Chinese came into contact with Western thoughts. Two things made it a promising birthplace of revolution: first, the westernized system of education and the spread of western religion, which nurtured a new generation of educated men well read in western political philosophy and was therefore subscribed to revolutionary thoughts; second, the independent legal system, political environment, treasury, financial system and international network, all of them favorable to the insurgents in organizing and publicizing anti-government activities. Since the late 19th century revolutionary societies had established and propagated themselves in Hong Kong; here they raised fund, opened schools, traded munitions, delivered their comrades and coordinated their revolts.
In just six years, from the 1895 Guangzhou Uprising to the 1911 Wuchang Uprising, the revolutionaries had plotted and directed seven revolts in Hong Kong, not to mention the number of times they assisted other "border revolutions".
Though not a battlefield itself, Hong Kong is a casket of spots directly related to the revolution. Mr. Sun, when tracing back to the source of the 1911 revolution, said: "my thoughts as such were originated in Hong Kong", and Feng Ziyou, another architect of the revolution, even held that "Hong Kong, for its paramount importance, should be the first page of the History of Revolution".
