Hong Kong–United Kingdom relations a deeply important role in the formation of the modern Hong Kong. Sovereignty of Hong Kong was ceded to the UK "in perpetuity" on 29 August 1842 through the Treaty of Nanking. The UK further expanded the territory of Hong Kong in 1860 by another cessation, plus a 99-year lease of the New Territories in 1898. The stability, security, and predictability of British law and government enabled Hong Kong to flourish as a centre for international trade. Localisation of teritary institutions, the Hong Kong government and the independent Judiciary in the run-up to the 1997 Handover of sovereignty, caused a
Religion in Hong Kong which comprehend the worship of local gods and ancestors, in many cases not declaring this practice as a religious affiliation in surveys. The traditional Chinese religiosity was generally discouraged during the British rule over Hong Kong, which favoured Christianity. With the end of the British rule and the handover of the sovereignty of the city-state to China, there has been a renewal of Buddhist and Chinese folk religions. Chinese folk religion, also named Shenism, is the indigenous religion of the Han Chinese. Its focus is the worship of the "shen" (神 "expressions", "gods"), that are the generative powers of nature,