On this day 165 years ago, on March 21, 1860 (February 29, 1860), the United Kingdom rented 500 taels of "perpetual lease" of the Kowloon Peninsula every year. The South Kowloon Peninsula covers an area of 11.1 square kilometers and is located on the east side of the Pearl River Estuary. It is a peninsula extending into the sea. Its scope is the Chinese territory south of the boundary street of the Kowloon Peninsula. This place is across the sea from Hong Kong Island and is a barrier for Hong Kong. It has long been coveted by the United Kingdom. In October 1856, while the Qing government was busy suppressing the peasant uprisings such as the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in China, Britain joined forces with France to launch the Second Opium War. The Qing army was defeated one after another. In March 1858, Captain Hall of the British ship "Calcutta" formally proposed to the Admiralty to occupy Kowloon as the periphery of Hong Kong Island. In February 1860, Parkes, the British consul in Guangzhou, sent troops to seize Kowloon. On March 21, Parkes forced the governor of Guangdong and Guangzhou, Lao Chongguang, to sign an agreement to "lease" the Kowloon Peninsula south of Boundary Street to the United Kingdom for 500 taels per year. In October 1860, the British and French allied forces invaded Beijing. The Qing government and Britain and France signed the "Beijing Treaty" and the "Sino-British Beijing Treaty" respectively. Article 6 stipulates that the Chinese territory south of Boundary Street on the Kowloon Peninsula will be ceded from permanent lease to "and within the boundaries of British Hong Kong".