Hong Kong became a colony of the British Empire<\/a> after Qing China ceded Hong Kong Island at the end of the First Opium War in 1842<\/a>. The colony expanded to the Kowloon Peninsula<\/a> in 1860 after the Second Opium War<\/a>, and was further extended when Britain obtained a 99-year lease of the New Territories<\/a> in 1898. The territory was returned to China<\/a> in 1997. As a special administrative region, Hong Kong maintains separate governing and economic systems from that of mainland China under the principle of “one country, two systems<\/a>“.<\/p>\n Originally a sparsely populated area of farming and fishing villages, the territory has become one of the world’s most significant financial centers and commercial ports. It is the world’s tenth-largest exporter and ninth-largest importer, and its legal tender (the Hong Kong dollar) is the world’s 9th-most traded currency (as of 2019). Hong Kong hosts the largest concentration of ultra high-net-worth individuals of any city in the world. Although the city has one of the highest per capita incomes in the world, there is severe income inequality.<\/p>\n Hong Kong is a highly developed territory, ranking seventh on the UN Human Development Index<\/a>. The city has the largest number of skyscrapers of any city in the world and its residents have some of the longest life expectancies in the world. Over 90% of its population uses public transportation. Air pollution has resulted in a high level of atmospheric particulates in the city.<\/p>\n The name of the territory, first spelled “He-Ong-Kong” in 1780, originally referred to a small inlet located between Aberdeen Island<\/a> and the southern coast of Hong Kong Island. Aberdeen<\/a> was an initial point of contact between British sailors and local fishermen. Although the source of the romanized name is unknown, it is generally believed to be an early phonetic rendering of the Cantonese pronunciation h\u0113ung g\u00f3ng. The name translates as “fragrant harbor” or “incense harbor”. “Fragrant” may refer to the sweet taste of the harbor’s freshwater influx from the Pearl River or to the odor from incense factories lining the coast of northern Kowloon. The incense was stored near Aberdeen Harbour for export before Victoria Harbour developed. Sir John Davis<\/a> (the second colonial governor) offered an alternative origin; Davis said that the name derived from “Hoong-keang” (“red torrent”), reflecting the color of soil over which a waterfall on the island flowed.<\/p>\n The simplified name Hong Kong was frequently used by 1810. The name was also commonly written as the single word Hongkong until 1926, when the government officially adopted the two-word name. Some corporations founded during the early colonial era still keep this name, including Hongkong Land<\/a>, Hongkong Electric Company<\/a>, Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels<\/a> and the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC).<\/a><\/p>\n The region is first known to have been occupied by humans during the Neolithic period, about 6,000 years ago. Early Hong Kong settlers were a semi-coastal people who migrated from inland and brought knowledge of rice cultivation. The Qin dynasty<\/a> incorporated the Hong Kong area into China for the first time in 214 BCE, after conquering the indigenous Baiyue<\/a>. The region was consolidated under the Nanyue kingdom<\/a> (a predecessor state of Vietnam) after the Qin collapse, and recaptured by China<\/a> after the Han conquest. During the Mongol conquest of China<\/a> in the 13th century, the Southern Song<\/a> court was briefly located in modern-day Kowloon City<\/a> (the Sung Wong Toi site<\/a>) before its final defeat in the 1279 Battle of Yamen<\/a>. By the end of the Yuan dynasty<\/a>, seven large families had settled in the region and owned most of the land. Settlers from nearby provinces migrated to Kowloon throughout the Ming dynasty<\/a>.<\/p>\n The earliest European visitor was Portuguese explorer Jorge \u00c1lvares<\/a>, who arrived in 1513. Portuguese merchants established a trading post called Tam\u00e3o<\/a> in Hong Kong waters, and began regular trade with southern China. Although the traders were expelled after military clashes<\/a> in the 1520s, Portuguese-Chinese trade relations<\/a> were re-established by 1549. Portugal acquired a permanent lease for Macau<\/a> in 1557.<\/p>\n After the Qing conquest<\/a>, maritime trade was banned under the Haijin<\/a> policies. The Kangxi Emperor<\/a> lifted the prohibition, allowing foreigners to enter Chinese ports in 1684. Qing authorities established the Canton System<\/a> in 1757 to regulate trade more strictly, restricting non-Russian ships to the port of Canton<\/a>. Although European demand for Chinese commodities like tea, silk, and porcelain was high, Chinese interest in European manufactured goods was insignificant, so that Chinese goods could only be bought with precious metals. To reduce the trade imbalance, the British sold large amounts of Indian opium<\/a> to China. Faced with a drug crisis, Qing officials pursued ever-more-aggressive actions to halt the opium trade.<\/p>\n In 1839, the Daoguang Emperor<\/a> rejected proposals to legalize and tax opium and ordered imperial commissioner Lin Zexu<\/a> to eradicate the opium trade. The commissioner destroyed opium stockpiles and halted all foreign trade, triggering a British military response and the First Opium War. The Qing surrendered early in the war and ceded Hong Kong Island in the Convention of Chuenpi.<\/a> However, both countries were dissatisfied and did not ratify the agreement. After more than a year of further hostilities, Hong Kong Island was formally ceded to the United Kingdom in the 1842 Treaty of Nanking<\/a>.<\/p>\n Administrative infrastructure was quickly built by early 1842, but piracy, disease, and hostile Qing policies initially prevented the government from attracting commerce. Conditions on the island improved during the Taiping Rebellion<\/a> in the 1850s, when many Chinese refugees, including wealthy merchants, fled mainland turbulence and settled in the colony. Further tensions between the British and Qing over the opium trade escalated into the Second Opium War. The Qing were again defeated, and forced to give up Kowloon Peninsula and Stonecutter’s Island<\/a> in the Convention of Peking<\/a>. By the end of this war, Hong Kong had evolved from a transient colonial outpost into a major entrep\u00f4t<\/a>. Rapid economic improvement during the 1850s attracted foreign investment, as potential stakeholders became more confident in Hong Kong’s future.<\/p>\n The colony was further expanded in 1898, when Britain obtained a 99-year lease of the New Territories. The University of Hong Kong<\/a> was established in 1911 as the territory’s first institution of higher education. Kai Tak Airport<\/a> began operation in 1924, and the colony avoided a prolonged economic downturn after the 1925\u201326 Canton\u2013Hong Kong strike<\/a>. At the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War<\/a> in 1937, Governor Geoffry Northcote<\/a> declared Hong Kong a neutral zone to safeguard its status as a free port. The colonial government prepared for a possible attack, evacuating all British women and children in 1940. The Imperial Japanese Army<\/a> attacked Hong Kong<\/a> on 8 December 1941, the same morning as its attack on Pearl Harbor<\/a>. Hong Kong was occupied by Japan<\/a> for almost four years before Britain resumed control on 30 August 1945.<\/p>\n Its population rebounded quickly after the war, as skilled Chinese migrants fled from the Chinese Civil War<\/a>, and more refugees crossed the border when the Communist Party<\/a> took control of mainland China in 1949. Hong Kong became the first of the Four Asian Tiger<\/a> economies to industrialize during the 1950s.<\/p>\n With a rapidly increasing population, the colonial government began reforms to improve infrastructure and public services. The public-housing estate programme<\/a>, Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC)<\/a>, and Mass Transit Railway<\/a> were all established during the post-war decades to provide safer housing, integrity in the civil service, and more-reliable transportation. Although the territory’s competitiveness in manufacturing gradually declined due to rising labor and property costs, it transitioned to a service-based economy. By the early 1990s, Hong Kong had established itself as a global financial center and shipping hub.<\/p>\n The colony faced an uncertain future as the end of the New Territories lease approached, and Governor Murray MacLehose<\/a> raised the question of Hong Kong’s status with Deng Xiaoping<\/a> in 1979. Diplomatic negotiations with China resulted in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration<\/a>, in which the United Kingdom agreed to transfer the colony in 1997 and China would guarantee Hong Kong’s economic and political systems for 50 years after the transfer. The impending transfer triggered a wave of mass emigration<\/a> as residents feared an erosion of civil rights, the rule of law, and quality of life. Over half a million people left the territory during the peak migration period, from 1987 to 1996. Hong Kong was transferred to China on 1 July 1997, after 156 years of British rule.<\/p>\n Immediately after the transfer, Hong Kong was severely affected by several crises. The government was forced to use substantial foreign-exchange reserves to maintain the Hong Kong dollar’s currency peg during the 1997 Asian financial crisis<\/a>, and the recovery from this was muted by an H5N1 avian-flu outbreak<\/a> and a housing surplus. This was followed by the 2003 SARS epidemic<\/a>, during which the territory experienced its most serious economic downturn.<\/p>\n Political debates after the transfer of sovereignty have centered around the region’s democratic development<\/a> and the central government’s adherence to the “one country, two systems” principle. After reversal of the last colonial era Legislative Council democratic reforms<\/a> following the handover, the regional government unsuccessfully attempted to enact national security legislation<\/a> pursuant to Article 23 of the Basic Law<\/a>. The central government decision to implement nominee pre-screening<\/a> before allowing Chief Executive elections<\/a> triggered a series of protests in 2014<\/a> which became known as the Umbrella Revolution. Discrepancies in the electoral registry and disqualification of elected legislators after the 2016 Legislative Council elections<\/a> and enforcement of national law in the West Kowloon high-speed railway station<\/a> raised further concerns about the region’s autonomy. In June 2019, large protests<\/a> again erupted in response to a proposed extradition amendment bill permitting extradition of fugitives to mainland China<\/a>. The protests have continued into October, possibly becoming the largest-scale political protest movement in Hong Kong history, with organizers claiming to have attracted more than one million Hong Kong residents.<\/p>\n Hong Kong is on China’s southern coast, 60 km (37 mi) east of Macau, on the east side of the mouth of the Pearl River estuary. It is surrounded by the South China Sea<\/a> on all sides except the north, which neighbors the Guangdong city of Shenzhen<\/a> along the Sham Chun River<\/a>.<\/p>\n The territory’s 2,755 km2 (1,064 sq mi) area consists of Hong Kong Island, the Kowloon Peninsula, the New Territories, Lantau Island, and over 200 other islands. Of the total area, 1,073 km2 (414 sq mi) is land and 35 km2 (14 sq mi) is water. The territory’s highest point is Tai Mo Shan<\/a>, 957 metres (3,140 ft) above sea level. Urban development is concentrated on the Kowloon Peninsula, Hong Kong Island, and in new towns<\/a> throughout the New Territories. Much of this is built on reclaimed land, due to the lack of developable flat land; 70 km2 (27 sq mi) (six per cent of the total land or about 25 per cent of developed space in the territory) is reclaimed from the sea.<\/p>\n Undeveloped terrain is hilly to mountainous, with very little flat land, and consists mostly of grassland, woodland, shrubland, or farmland. About 40 per cent of the remaining land area are country parks and nature reserves. The territory has a diverse ecosystem; over 3,000 species of vascular plants<\/a> occur in the region (300 of which are native to Hong Kong), and thousands of insect, avian, and marine species.<\/p>\n Hong Kong has a capitalist mixed service economy, characterised by low taxation, minimal government market intervention, and an established international financial market. It is the world’s 35th-largest economy, with a nominal GDP of approximately US$373 billion. Although Hong Kong’s economy has ranked at the top of the Heritage Foundation’s economic freedom index since 1995, the territory has a relatively high level of income disparity. The Hong Kong Stock Exchange<\/a> is the seventh-largest in the world, with a market capitalization of HK$30.4 trillion (US$3.87 trillion) as of December 2018.<\/p>\n Hong Kong is the tenth-largest trading entity in exports and imports (2017), trading more goods in value than its gross domestic product. Over half of its cargo throughput consists of trans-shipments (goods travelling through Hong Kong). Products from mainland China account for about 40 per cent of that traffic. The city’s location allowed it to establish a transportation and logistics infrastructure which includes the world’s seventh-busiest container port and the busiest airport for international cargo. The territory’s largest export markets are mainland China and the United States.<\/p>\n It has little arable land and few natural resources, importing most of its food and raw materials. More than 90 per cent of Hong Kong’s food is imported, including nearly all its meat and rice. Agricultural activity is 0.1% of GDP, and consists of growing premium food and flower varieties.<\/p>\n Although the territory had one of Asia’s largest manufacturing economies during the latter half of the colonial era, Hong Kong’s economy is now dominated by the service sector. The sector generates 92.7 per cent of economic output, with the public sector accounting for about 10 per cent. Between 1961 and 1997 Hong Kong’s gross domestic product increased by a factor of 180, and per capita GDP increased by a factor of 87. The territory’s GDP relative to mainland China’s peaked at 27 per cent in 1993; it fell to less than three per cent in 2017, as the mainland developed and liberalized its economy. Economic and infrastructure integration with China has increased significantly since the 1978 start of market liberalization on the mainland. Since resumption of cross-boundary train service in 1979<\/a>, many rail and road links have been improved and constructed (facilitating trade between regions). The Closer Partnership Economic Arrangement formalized a policy of free trade between the two areas, with each jurisdiction pledging to remove remaining obstacles to trade and cross-boundary investment. A similar economic partnership with Macau details the liberalization of trade between the special administrative regions. Chinese companies have expanded their economic presence in the territory since the transfer of sovereignty. Mainland firms represent over half of the Hang Seng Index<\/a> value, up from five per cent in 1997.<\/p>\n As the mainland liberalized its economy, Hong Kong’s shipping industry faced intense competition from other Chinese ports. Fifty per cent of China’s trade goods were routed through Hong Kong in 1997, dropping to about 13 per cent by 2015. The territory’s minimal taxation, common law system, and civil service attract overseas corporations wishing to establish a presence in Asia. The city has the second-highest number of corporate headquarters in the Asia-Pacific region<\/a>. Hong Kong is a gateway for foreign direct investment in China, giving investors open access to mainland Chinese markets through direct links with the Shanghai<\/a> and Shenzhen stock exchanges<\/a>. The territory was the first market outside mainland China for renminbi-denominated bonds<\/a>, and is one of the largest hubs for offshore renminbi<\/a> trading.<\/p>\n Tourism is a major part of the economy, accounting for five per cent of GDP. In 2016, 26.6 million visitors contributed HK$258 billion (US$32.9 billion) to the territory, making Hong Kong the 14th most popular destination for international tourists. It is the most popular Chinese city for tourists, receiving over 70 per cent more visitors than its closest competitor (Macau). The city is ranked as one of the most expensive cities for expatriates.<\/p>\n Hong Kong has a highly developed, sophisticated transport network. Over 90 per cent of daily trips are made on public transport, the highest percentage in the world. The Octopus card<\/a>, a contactless<\/a> smart<\/a> payment<\/a> card, is widely accepted on railways, buses and ferries, and can be used for payment in most retail stores.<\/p>\n The Mass Transit Railway (MTR) is an extensive passenger rail network, connecting 93 metro stations throughout the territory. With a daily ridership of over five million, the system serves 41 per cent of all public transit passengers in the city and has an on-time rate of 99.9 per cent. Cross-boundary train service to Shenzhen is offered by the East Rail line<\/a>, and longer-distance inter-city trains to Guangzhou, Shanghai<\/a>, and Beijing<\/a> are operated from Hung Hom Station<\/a>. Connecting service<\/a> to the national high-speed rail system<\/a> is provided at West Kowloon railway station.<\/p>\n Although public transport systems handle most passenger traffic, there are over 500,000 private vehicles registered in Hong Kong. Automobiles drive on the left (unlike in mainland China), due to historical influence of the British Empire. Vehicle traffic is extremely congested in urban areas, exacerbated by limited space to expand roads and an increasing number of vehicles. More than 18,000 taxicabs, easily identifiable by their bright color, are licensed to carry riders in the territory. Bus services operate more than 700 routes across the territory, with smaller public light buses (also known as minibuses) serving areas standard buses do not reach as frequently or directly. Highways, organised with the Hong Kong Strategic Route and Exit Number System<\/a>, connect all major areas of the territory. The Hong Kong\u2013Zhuhai\u2013Macau Bridge<\/a> provides a direct route to the western side of the Pearl River estuary.<\/p>\n Hong Kong International Airport<\/a> is the territory’s primary airport. Over 100 airlines operate flights from the airport, including locally based Cathay Pacific (flag carrier)<\/a>, Hong Kong Airlines<\/a>, regional carrier Cathay Dragon<\/a>, low-cost airline HK Express<\/a> and cargo airline Air Hong Kong<\/a>. It is the eighth-busiest airport by passenger traffic, and handles the most air-cargo traffic in the world. Most private recreational aviation traffic flies through Shek Kong Airfield<\/a>, under the supervision of the Hong Kong Aviation Club<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Star Ferry<\/a> operates two lines across Victoria Harbour<\/a> for its 53,000 daily passengers. Ferries also serve outlying islands inaccessible by other means. Smaller kai-to<\/a> boats serve the most remote coastal settlements. Ferry travel to Macau and mainland China is also available. Junks<\/a>, once common in Hong Kong waters, are no longer widely available and are used privately and for tourism.<\/p>\n The Peak Tram<\/a>, Hong Kong’s first public transport system, has provided funicular rail transport<\/a> between Central<\/a> and Victoria Peak<\/a> since 1888. The Central and Western District<\/a> has an extensive system of escalators and moving pavements<\/a>, including the Mid-Levels escalator<\/a> (the world’s longest outdoor covered escalator system). Hong Kong Tramways<\/a> covers a portion of Hong Kong Island. The MTR operates its Light Rail system<\/a>, serving the northwestern New Territories.<\/p>\n The flag of Hong Kong, officially the regional flag of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China, depicts a white stylized five-petal Hong Kong orchid tree (Bauhinia blakeana<\/em>)<\/a> flower in the center of a Chinese red<\/a> field. Its design was adopted on 4 April 1990 at the Third Session of the Seventh National People’s Congress<\/a>. The precise use of the flag is regulated by laws passed by the 58th executive meeting of the State Council<\/a> held in Beijing. The design of the flag is enshrined in Hong Kong’s Basic Law<\/a>, the territory’s constitutional document, and regulations regarding the use, prohibition of use, desecration, and manufacture of the flag are stated in the Regional Flag and Regional Emblem Ordinance. The flag of Hong Kong was first officially hoisted on 1 July 1997, during the handover ceremony<\/a> marking the transfer of sovereignty from Britain to China.<\/p>\n The design of the flag comes with cultural, political, and regional meanings. The color itself is significant; red is a festive color for the Chinese people, used to convey a sense of celebration and nationalism. Moreover, the red color is identical to that used in the national PRC flag<\/a>, chosen to signify the link re-established between post-colonial Hong Kong and China. The position of red and white on the flag symbolizes the “one country two systems<\/a>” political principle applied to the region. The stylized rendering of the Bauhinia blakeana<\/em> flower, a flower discovered in Hong Kong, is meant to serve as a harmonizing symbol for this dichotomy. The five stars of the Chinese national flag are replicated on the petals of the flower.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/11\/Hong-Kong-Within-China-300x239.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Etymology:<\/h2>\n
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<\/a>History:<\/h2>\n
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<\/a>Geography:<\/h2>\n
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<\/a>Economy:<\/h2>\n
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<\/a>Transportation:<\/h2>\n
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<\/a>Flag of Hong Kong:<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/11\/Flag-of-Hong-Kong-300x200.png\" "\\"\\"")
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<\/a>