Lai Enjue ( Chinese:赖恩爵, 1795-1848), also known as ''Jian Ting'' (简廷) was a late

Qing The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

military general. He was from Dapeng Fortress, Xin'an County,

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020 ...

(within modern-day Dapeng New District,

Shenzhen Shenzhen (; ; ; ), also historically known as Sham Chun, is a major sub-provincial city and one of the special economic zones of China. The city is located on the east bank of the Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern provi ...

), and has ancestry from Zijin County,

. Lai fought the British in the Battle of Kowloon during the

First Opium War The First Opium War (), also known as the Opium War or the Anglo-Sino War was a series of military engagements fought between Britain and the Qing dynasty of China between 1839 and 1842. The immediate issue was the Chinese enforcement of the ...

in 1839 and was given the title of

Baturu Baturu (Manchu: ''baturu''; ) was an official title of the Qing dynasty, awarded to commanders and soldiers who fought bravely on the battlefield. In Manchu, ''baturu'' means "warrior" or "brave." It is originally from the Mongolian word '' baγa ...

and an equivalent rank of

Lieutenant General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on th ...

. On 25 December 1843, he was appointed as the Admiral () of the Guangdong Navy. He served in this post until 1848 when he died of illness. Just before Lai died, he told his family clan that his wish was to see the return of Hong Kong to China. Ten days before the

handover of Hong Kong Sovereignty of Hong Kong was transferred from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China (PRC) at midnight on 1 July 1997. This event ended 156 years of British rule in the former colony. Hong Kong was established as a special admin ...

on 1 July 1997, more than a hundred of the Lai clan descendants from different parts of the world returned to their ancestral home to mark the event. Lai worked directly under the orders of Emperor Guangxu and Lin Zexu, both prominent figures in the First Opium War. The current Kowloon Walled City's "Dapeng Association House" forms the remnants of what was previously Lai's garrison. His tomb is under the maintenance of the Shenzhen Cultural Protection Division.

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