I want to achieve this using html and css:

I have tried to set the opacity of the container
As far as I know you can't do it in a simple way. There a couple of options here:
Use absolute positioning to position box "inside" the container.
#container {
opacity: 0.3;
background-color: #777788;
position: absolute;
top: 100px;
left: 100px;
height: 150px;
width: 300px;
}
#box {
opacity: 1;
background-color: #ffffff;
position: absolute;
top: 110px;
left: 110px;
height: 130px;
width: 270px;
}
Something in here
Use Javascript - almost the same as above, but position and size don't have to be hardcoded.