Visually stunning Hong Kong offers a warp-speed ‘shop till you drop’ lifestyle combined with enclaves of tradition. It is a popular tourist destination and one of the world’s major business centers. Hong Kong’s 260 outlying islands, few of which are inhabited, provide a tranquil alternative to its frenetic energy elsewhere. Hong Kong Island is an eclectic mix of modern skyscrapers, colonial buildings and traditional temples.

On 1 July 1997, Hong Kong became a Special Administrative Region of China in an arrangement lasting 50 years. Under the ‘one country, two systems’ policy, Hong Kong maintains its own political, social and economic systems. English remains an official language and Hong Kong’s border with China still exists.

Hong Kong was part of China before coming under British administration as a result of the 19th-century Opium Wars. When peace terms were drawn up in 1841, Hong Kong Island was ceded to Britain. It remained under British control (apart from a four-year period under Japanese occupation during WWII) until the 1997 handover.

Much has changed since 1841 when then foreign secretary Lord Palmerston described Hong Kong as ‘nothing but a barren island without a house upon it’.

Geography
Hong Kong is located in East Asia, just south of the Tropic of Cancer. Hong Kong Island is 32km (20 miles) east of the mouth of Pearl River and 135km (84 miles) southeast of Canton. It is separated from the mainland by a good natural harbor. Hong Kong Island was ceded to Britain in 1842 by the Treaty of Nanking; and the Kowloon Peninsula (south of Boundary Street and Stonecutters Island) in 1860 by the Convention of Peking. The area of Boundary Street to Shenzhen River and a group of 260 islands, now known as the New Territories, were leased to Britain in 1898 for a period of 99 years. The New Territories (plus the 260 islands) comprise 891 sq km (380 sq miles). Shortage of land suitable for development has led to reclamation from the sea, principally from the seafronts of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon.