FASCINATING photographs of Hong Kong taken 150 years ago show what life was like before the skyscrapers dominated the skyline.

John Thomson was one of the first British photographers to travel over to the Far East.

Thomson, who was also a geographer, left Edinburgh for Singapore in 1862 and spent the following decade travelling the region.

He took numerous photographs from 1868 to 1870 of the rapidly expanding settlement and its industrious inhabitants.

HONG KONG HISTORY

Hong Kong became a British colony with the end of the First Opium War in 1842.

The British fought the war to preserve the right of the East India Company to sell opium into mainland China.

The establishment of the colony gave Britain control over a number of ports to which foreign merchants could deliver goods.

Britain obtained a 99-year lease for the territory in 1898, and relinquished control when that lease expired in 1997.

Hong Kong now operates as a semi-autonomous territory, with control over its own trade, tax, and immigration policy.

Under the terms of the 1997 handover, that status is protected until 2047.

What happens after then is currently undecided, but opponents of the Beijing government fear that China will seek to gain control of the territory.

They capture the area, which is currently engulfed in unrest and protest, at a far more tranquil time.

The captivating pictures are due to go under the hammer with auction house Dominic Winter, of Cirencester, Gloucs.

They are expected to fetch in the region of £15,000.

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