China–Hong Kong football rivalry China–Hong Kong football rivalry The China–Hong Kong football rivalry is a sports rivalry between the national association football teams of the People's Republic of China and Hong Kong. The rivalry has been exacerbated by Hong Kong's status as a Special Administrative Region of China, which means that it does not practise communism as on the mainland, a legacy of having been under British rule until the transfer of sovereignty in 1997. China and Hong Kong have been playing each other in football matches since a friendly in Hong Kong in 1978. In 1985, Hong Kong, then a British dependent territory,
Wellington Barracks, Hong Kong Wellington Barracks, Hong Kong Wellington Barracks () was a military barracks located to the east of Garden Road in Admiralty, Hong Kong. One of many military complexes constructed by the British Army in the area, the land was returned to the Hong Kong government in the 1970s and gradually reverted to civilian use. As a result, the barracks was closed at the end of that decade, demolished in the mid-1980s and replaced with Harcourt Garden. During the First Opium War, the British occupied Hong Kong in 1841 and one year later, Hong Kong Island was ceded to them in the