Hong Kong …

"Hong Kong," Microsoft (R) Encarta. Copyright (c) 1994 Microsoft Corporation. Copyright (c) 1994 Funk & Wagnall's Corporation.

 Hong Kong, British dependency in eastern Asia, on the South China Sea, bordered by China on the north. It is made up of many islands, a portion of the mainland, and a considerable expanse of water surface. It has a land area of 1076 sq km (415 sq mi). Despite its small size, Hong Kong plays an important role in the world economy.

Geography

The dependency can be divided into three main regions_Hong Kong Island and nearby islets; the mainland Kowloon Peninsula and Stonecutters Island; and the New Territories, made up principally of a large area on the mainland and Lantau island. The dependency is partly situated in the Zhu Jiang, or Pearl River, delta, and the Sham Chun River forms the border with China. Much of Hong Kong is hilly, and substantial areas of the low-lying terrain are made up of land reclaimed from the sea. Only about 12 percent is forested, but small tropical and subtropical plants are abundant elsewhere. Hong Kong's small amount of fertile soil is concentrated in the mainland portion of the New Territories, near Deep Bay. Few large wild animals inhabit the dependency.

Climate

Although within the Tropics, Hong Kong has a subtropical climate because of the southwestern monsoon, a moist, warm, equatorial wind that brings a rainy season between May and August. The mean annual temperature is 22.2E C (72E F), with a range from 15E C (59 E F) in February to 27.8E C (82E F) in July. Typhoons occasionally cause great destruction.

People and Principal Cities

The population of Hong Kong is about 97 percent Chinese, with some Filipinos, British, Indians, Portuguese, and Americans. The population of Hong Kong (1990 estimate) was 5,575,900. The overall population density was 5351 people per sq km (13,874 per sq mi), making Hong Kong one of the most densely populated regions in the world.

Chinese culture dominates in Hong Kong. Yet, as a port inhabited and visited by persons of many nationalities, the dependency is subject to diverse influences, especially that of the British. Most people adhere to a version of the Chinese folk religion, which combines elements of Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, and other beliefs. About 8 percent of the people are Christian.

The capital and cultural center of Hong Kong is Victoria, which is on the northern shore of Hong Kong Island. Also of major importance are Kowloon and New Kowloon, extending from the Kowloon Peninsula into the New Territories. Kowloon and Victoria are separated from each other by Victoria Bay.

Language and Education

English and the Cantonese form of Chinese are the official languages of Hong Kong, but Chinese is the most widely used. Primary and junior secondary education is free and compulsory. In the late 1980s about 534,500 pupils attended primary schools, and some 450,100 students were enrolled in secondary and vocational schools. The main institutions of higher education are the University of Hong Kong (1911), the Chinese University of Hong Kong (1963), and Hong Kong Polytechnic (1972).

Agriculture and Fishing

Because of the land shortage, Hong Kong imports much of its food supply. Vegetables are the primary crop. Farming is largely confined to the New Territories. Fishing is an important occupation; in the late 1980s some 228,000 metric tons of fish were caught annually. A large portion of the fish catch is exported.

Manufacturing

Partly because of the large influx of skilled immigrants from China after 1950, Hong Kong has developed important manufacturing industries. The principal products include textiles, clothing, footwear, electronic and electrical equipment, ships, fabricated metal, chemicals, rubber goods, precision instruments, timepieces, printed materials, toys, and processed food.

Currency, Banking, and Transportation

The unit of currency is the Hong Kong dollar (7.5853 Hong Kong dollars equal U.S.$1; 1991). The dependency is an important international financial center, with many offices of foreign banks. It has several stock exchanges.

Hong Kong had about 1465 km (about 910 mi) of roads in the late 1980s. With more than 400,000 motor vehicles, Hong Kong has one of the highest vehicle densities in the world. The dependency is connected by railroad with China and has a subway system. Ferries and hydrofoils link various parts of the dependency, which is also served by a major international airport near Kowloon.

Foreign Trade

Hong Kong is important as a port primarily because its excellent natural harbor is the only satisfactory seaport between Shanghai and Indochina. Hong Kong, which levies few customs duties, handles a great volume of cargo and serves as an important link in China's foreign trade. In the late 1980s Hong Kong's annual imports were valued at $72.2 billion and its exports and re-exports at $73.1 billion. The principal imports included foodstuffs, industrial raw materials, machinery and transport equipment, telecommunications equipment, and chemicals. Major exports were clothing, textiles, timepieces, toys, electrical machinery, and computer and other electronic components. Hong Kong's principal trade partners are China, Japan, Germany, Taiwan, the United States, Singapore, South Korea, Canada, and Great Britain. Much foreign exchange comes from the expenditures of the more than 6 million tourists who visit Hong Kong each year.

Government

Hong Kong is governed with guidance from London. Paramount military and civil authority is vested in an appointed British governor representing the Crown. The governor presides over and is assisted by a 14-member executive council and a 60-member legislative council. The highest tribunal of the dependency is a supreme court, which is divided into a court of appeal and a high court.

History

Before the British occupation, Hong Kong had a small fishing community and was a haven for pirates and opium smugglers. Britain first used the island as a naval base during the Opium Wars with China. By the Treaty of Nanking (also known as Nanjing) in 1842, which ended the First Opium War, Hong Kong was ceded to the British in perpetuity. After a second conflict in 1860, Great Britain acquired Kowloon and Stonecutters Island and in 1898 obtained the New Territories under a 99-year lease.

Hong Kong became a refuge for political exiles from the mainland of China following the establishment of the Chinese Republic in 1912. Ensuing Chinese nationalism was marked by antagonism toward all foreign countries, and a Chinese boycott from 1925 to 1927 denied British shipping access to the ports of southern China.

When Japan seized Manchuria in 1932 and the Sino-Japanese War broke out in 1937, China turned to Great Britain and other European countries for its military supplies, and diplomatic relations between the British in Hong Kong and the Chinese became friendlier. Throughout 1937 hundreds of thousands of Chinese, displaced by the Japanese invasion of their country, sought refuge in Hong Kong. Meanwhile, Great Britain began strengthening the colony's defenses.

The outbreak of World War II (1939-1945) in September 1939 further dislocated the economic life of Hong Kong, already seriously affected by the Sino-Japanese conflict. The threat of Japanese aggression also grew steadily. Japanese aircraft bombed Kowloon on December 8, 1941, and ground forces dislodged British troops from Kowloon and the New Territories; the British surrendered on December 25. Having occupied Hong Kong, the Japanese converted it into a military bastion and supply station for their projected campaigns in East Asia. Their operations were largely hampered, however, by U.S. submarines and bombing planes. The British reoccupied Hong Kong following the unconditional surrender of Japan on August 14, 1945.

Hong Kong After World War II

Hong Kong swiftly regained its status as a major southeast Asian trade center. Numerous economic dislocations resulted, however, from the Nationalist-Communist civil war in China. Hundreds of thousands of Chinese took refuge in the colony before and after the Communist victory in 1949. Following the U.S.-imposed ban on trade with Communist China in 1950, the commercial activity of Hong Kong declined. The colony had to use its own resources to develop new industries.

Thousands of newly arrived Chinese from the mainland provided labor and money for the rapid growth of light manufacturing industry during the 1950s and 1960s. In this period, also, the liberal tax policies of the government attracted foreign investment. The resultant economic boom transformed Hong Kong into one of the wealthiest and most productive areas in southeast Asia. Communist-led riots raged throughout the spring and summer of 1967 and temporarily threatened the political stability of the colony. In the mid-1970s the flow of refugees from the mainland increased. Relations, however, remained friendly, and commercial ties with the Chinese prospered with the initiation in the early 1980s of a number of joint economic ventures.

An agreement reached between China and Great Britain in September 1984 and signed in Beijing in December stipulated that Hong Kong would revert to Chinese sovereignty in 1997. The territory, which would at that time become known as the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China, would be allowed to maintain its own legal, social, and economic systems for at least another 50 years, and civil liberties would be guaranteed. China would assume responsibility for foreign affairs and defense, however.

"Hong Kong," Microsoft (R) Encarta. Copyright (c) 1994 Microsoft Corporation. Copyright (c) 1994 Funk & Wagnall's Corporation.