Part 3/10:
The initial years post-handover were relatively prosperous for Hong Kong with rapid economic growth throughout the 1970s and 1980s. However, the city began to realize its vulnerabilities as it faced external economic shocks, including the Asian financial crisis in 1998, the bursting of the dot-com bubble in 2000, and the SARS outbreak in 2003. Despite these challenges, Hong Kong has maintained its status as a financial hub until recent years when its contribution to China's GDP plummeted to just 2% in 2021.