FACTBOX: The who, what, when and why of the Hong Kong handover

(Reuters) - At midnight on June 30, 1997, Hong Kong was handed back to China, ending 156 years of British rule.

Here are some facts on the history of the handover:

BRITAIN'S 99-YEAR LEASE:

-- Hong Kong was wrested from China by Britain in three phases, starting with the mid-19th century "opium wars".

-- Hong Kong Island went first, under the Treaty of Nanking in 1842. The Kowloon Peninsula followed, in the 1860 Convention of Peking. The rural New Territories, a mainland area adjacent to Kowloon and 235 islands, was added under a 99-year lease in 1898.

-- Under these treaties, the New Territories, which comprise 70 percent of the colony's area, would revert to China in 1997.

TERMS FOR THE HAND-OVER:

-- After two years of negotiations, Margaret Thatcher and the leader of China, Zhao Ziyang, signed the Sino-British Joint Declaration on December 19, 1984.

-- It agreed all of Hong Kong would be returned to China at midnight on June 30, 1997; it guaranteed a 50-year extension of Hong Kong's capitalist system and relative autonomy until 2047 under the "one country, two systems" formula.

THE CEREMONY:

-- Britain held a "sunset ceremony" in torrential rain at what had been its naval base, before fireworks exploded over Victoria Harbour at 8 p.m. local time, and British and Chinese leaders attended a final ceremony at the Convention Centre.

-- At 9 p.m. 4,000 guests took part in an elaborate banquet at the Convention Centre, as an advance guard of 509 Chinese troops crossed the land border into Hong Kong. Another 4,000 troops arrived early in the morning of July 1.

-- At 11:30 p.m. the Hong Kong flag was lowered. At midnight the British flag came down and the Chinese and new Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) flags were raised together.

THE LAST BRITISH GOVERNOR:

-- Diplomat Chris Patten was Hong Kong's 28th and last Governor, serving five years from 1992.

-- The conservative former member of parliament for Bath, nicknamed "the last imperialist" for overseeing the end of the British Empire, cried along with his wife and three daughters as the Union flag was lowered during heavy rain.