Title: British Hong Kong
Content:  The stability, security, and predictability of British law and government enabled Hong Kong to flourish as a centre for international trade. In the colony's first decade, the revenue from the opium trade was a key source of government funds. The importance of opium reduced over time, but the colonial government was dependent on its revenues until the Japanese occupation in 1941. Although the largest businesses in the early colony were operated by British, American, and other expatriates, Chinese workers provided the bulk of the manpower to build a new port city. By the late 1980s, many ethnic Chinese people had become major business figures in Hong Kong. Amongst these billionaires was Sir Li Ka-shing, who had become one of the colony's wealthiest people by this time.
Title: British Hong Kong
Content:  Hong Kong, now referred to as British Hong Kong, was a colony and dependent territory of the British Empire from 1841 to 1997, apart from a brief period under Japanese occupation from 1941 to 1945. The colonial period began with the occupation of Hong Kong Island in 1841 during the First Opium War. The island was ceded to Great Britain by the Treaty of Nanking, ratified by the Daoguang Emperor in the aftermath of the war of 1842. It was established as a Crown colony in 1843. The colony expanded to include the Kowloon Peninsula in 1860 after the Second Opium War. Hong Kong's territory was further extended 
Title: The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation
Content:   After the British established Hong Kong as a colony in the aftermath of the First Opium War, merchants from other parts of the British Empire, now in Hong Kong, felt the need for a bank to finance the growing trade, through Hong Kong and sometimes also through Shanghai, between China and India, the rest of the British Empire and Europe, of goods, produces and merchandises of all kinds, but especially opium, cultivated in or transited (re-exported) through the Raj, and to that end, they organised amongst themselves and formed The Hongkong and Shanghai Bank in Hong Kong (March 1865), and 
Title: History of Hong Kong
Content:  The region of Hong Kong has been inhabited since the Old Stone Age, later becoming part of the Chinese empire with its loose incorporation into the Qin dynasty (221–206 BC). Starting out as a farming fishing village and salt production site, it became an important free port and eventually a major international financial centre. The Qing dynasty ceded Hong Kong to the British Empire in 1842 through the treaty of Nanjing, ending the First Opium War. Hong Kong then became a British crown colony. Britain also won the Second Opium War, forcing the Qing Empire to cede Kowloon in 1860, while leasing the New Territories for 99 years from 1898. Japan occupied Hong Kong from 1941 to 1945 during the Second World War. By the end of the 
Title: Manufacturing in Hong Kong
Content:  After the British acquisition of Hong Kong Island in 1842, manufacturing started to develop. Most factories were limited to small workshops producing hand-made goods. Primitive methods, techniques and facilities were used for production. Productivity was low and manufacturing was not as important as the re-exportation, which was most important at the time. At the beginning of the colonial era, all factories in the city were owned by the British. The British-owned factories were mainly limited to shipbuilding and rattan furniture. British industrialists did not consider Hong Kong to be favourable for manufacturing because Hong Kong lacked natural resources, and instead focussed on entrepôt trade and such related industries as shipping and banking. Guangdong officials fled to Hong Kong because of the Taiping Rebellion in the 1850s and 60s, bringing in capital and boosting manufacturing. Such factories were the first Chinese-owned 
Title: Britons in Hong Kong
Content:  The first British presence in the area was the British East India Company, which started trading in the area in 1699 and set up a trading post in Canton in 1711. The British captured Hong Kong Island in 1841 during the First Opium War and were officially ceded the territory in 1842 under the Treaty of Nanking. Over the next 150 years Britons came to Hong Kong in relatively large numbers—many to work in the colony's administration, trading houses, and merchant banks—along with other Europeans and Americans. Between 1991 and 1996 there was a substantial increase in the number of British citizens in Hong Kong; the number of UK passport holders in Hong Kong more than doubled, to over 34,000. This increase was mainly due to the British Nationality Selection Scheme, which granted British citizenship to 50,000 families (mostly ethnic Chinese), some of whom did not emigrate. However, in those years many young people from the United Kingdom went to Hong Kong to take up unskilled jobs (e.g., as doorpersons or in food service).
Title: Anarchism in Hong Kong
Content:  In 1841, Hong Kong was occupied by the British Empire, which made it into a crown colony. Hong Kong Island was officially ceded by the Qing Empire and the British-held territory was subsequently extended by the First and Second Conventions of Peking. Strikes against the British colonial administration broke out not long after the occupation started and continued throughout the 19th century, with many workers in Hong Kong ceasing their labour and returning to China in protest. Hong Kong also became a stronghold of revolutionary ideas among the Chinese population, now outside of the Qing dominion, where a group of students known as the 
Title: Military history of Hong Kong
Content:  The Military history of Hong Kong is dated back to Qin conquest. As Hong Kong is on the sea routes to the city of Guangzhou, the territories of Hong Kong served as an outer port. Numerous of precious resources like salt and pearl on the shore of Hong Kong. Thus, there is a long history of military and navy garrisoning the territory.
Title: Hong Kong–United Kingdom relations
Content:  Hong Kong–United Kingdom relations refers to international relations between the post-colonial Hong Kong and the United Kingdom. Hong Kong was a British colony from 1841 to 1941 and again from 1945 to 1997 when sovereignty was handed over to China. UK policy towards Hong Kong is underpinned by its substantial commercial interests, and fulfilling obligation as the other signatory of Sino–British Joint Declaration on the future of Hong Kong, in addition to support Hong Kong's mini-constitution, the Basic Law, and in accordance with China's policy of observing "one country, two systems".
Title: South Asians in Hong Kong
Content:  Indian traders and the British East India Company had already commenced commercial activities in Macau (1654) and Canton (1771) long before Hong Kong became a British colony in 1841. At the time when the Union Jack flag was hoisted in January 1841 there were around 2,700 soldiers and 4 merchants from the Indian subcontinent. Indian troops and traders played an important role in the early development of Hong Kong. In the early years of British Hong Kong, the Indian gold mohur and the rupee were legal tender. Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) was created in 1864 with 2 Parsees and 1 Indian Jew among the 13 founding 

Question: why was hong kong important to the british empire?
Answer: a centre for international trade.