For more than two decades, South China (especially Hong Kong and the provinces of Guangdong and Fujian) has been described as the "promised land" of modern China. Its modern socioeconomic growth can be traced back to the early eighteenth century when groups of Cantonese and Fujianese migrated to Southeast Asia. Starting from the 1840s, the Chinese Diaspora gained momentum again with the establishment of treaty ports in coastal Guangdong and Fujian, and the ceding of Hong Kong to British rule. In the late 1970s, South China has been selected by the central government as modern China's "special economic regions" to implement economic reforms. Its familial and ethnic network with the overseas Chinese has transformed into channels of capital investment. These investments, in turn, have placed South China as Asia's fastest growing area.