Facts and Figures

When we talk about Hong Kong, how much do you know about the city? Let’s take a glance……

History
There is evidence of human settlement in Hong Kong from Neolithic times. Several thousand years ago, people here were hunting, fishing and making exquisite rock carvings.

The city was a British colony from 1842 to 1997. China assumed sovereignty of Hong Kong under the “One Country, Two Systems” principle on 1 July 1997, since then the city was formally renamed as “Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China”.

Location and Landscape
Hong Kong is a small but dynamic city located to the southeast of the Mainland of China, adjoining the province of Guangdong. It forms a triangle with Macao to the west and Guangzhou to the Northwest in the Pearl River Delta.

Hong Kong packs a lot of action into a mere 1 104 square kilometers. Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon peninsula are at the core of the city, surrounding famed Victoria Harbour, one of the world’s most renowned deep-water harbours. This is where you can see Hong Kong's celebrated skyline and experience urban dynamism at its utmost. To the north, the rural New Territories are home to vast country parks, ancient villages, tranquil wetlands, and diverse wildlife. Over 200 outlying islands have largely retained their natural character, accessible to the adventurous yet removed from the rigors of modern life.

Legal System
Laws in Hong Kong consist of the Basic Law, locally enacted ordinances, subsidiary legislation, the common law, rules of equity and customary law.

Basic Law ensures Hong Kong's autonomy in its executive, legislative, and judicial systems, as well as certain foreign relations. It protects freedom of expression, assembly and religion as well as forbids torture and unwarranted searches, seizures and arrest.

Population
Currently, the city’s population is over 7 million. People of Chinese descent comprise the vast majority of the population. The Chinese majority forms the core of the local culture. Yet Hong Kong is a cosmopolitan city with a significant foreign population.

There are about 500 000 people from different parts of the world living here for education, employment, business, etc. Indonesian, Filipinos, British, American, Thai, Indian, Japanese, Australian, Pakistani and Nepalese form the majority foreign population here.

Economy
Hong Kong's economy is characterised by free trade, low taxation and minimum government intervention. Do you know that Hong Kong, a city with small territory, is the world's 8th largest trading economy? Hong Kong is also a major service economy, with particularly strong links to the Mainland of China and the rest of the Asia-Pacific region.

Language
In Hong Kong, nearly 90% of the population are Cantonese speakers. You may straightly think that Chinese is Hong Kong’s only official language. Not really! Here, both Chinese and English are the official languages. English is widely used in the Government, public organisations, tertiary institutions and by the legal, professional and business sectors.

Climate and Weather
Hong Kong's climate is sub-tropical, with temperatures dropping below 10 ºC in winter and exceeding 31 ºC in summer. It is warm, sunny and dry in autumn, cool and dry in winter, and hot, humid and rainy from spring to summer.