HONG KONG

Hong Kong, special administrative region (Pinyin: tebie xingzhengqu; Wade-Giles romanization: t’e-pieh hsing-cheng-ch’e) of China, located to the east of the Pearl River (Xu Jiang) estuary on the south coast of China. The region is bordered by Guangdong province to the north and the South China Sea to the east, south, and west. It consists of Hong Kong Island, originally ceded by China to Great Britain in 1842, the southern part of the Kowloon Peninsula and Stonecutters (Ngong Shuen) Island (now joined to the mainland), ceded in 1860, and the New Territories, which include the mainland area lying largely to the north, together with 230 large and small offshore islands—all of which were leased from China for 99 years from 1898 to 1997. The Chinese-British joint declaration signed on December 19, 1984, paved the way for the entire territory to be returned to China, which occurred July 1, 1997.

Hong Kong has rugged relief and marked variations in topography, which is in sharp contrast to the low-lying areas of the Pearl River Delta region but conforms geologically and structurally to the well-eroded upland region of the great South China massif. Structurally, the area is an upfold, running northeast-southwest, that was formed about 150 million years ago toward the latter part of the Jurassic Period. Lava poured into this structure and formed volcanic rocks that were later intruded by an extensive granitic dome. The harbour of Hong Kong was formed by the drowning of the denuded centre of the dome. The surrounding hills on the mainland and on Hong Kong Island are partly capped by volcanic rocks, and steep, scarplike concave slopes lead to the inner harbour.

Hong Kong lies at the northern fringe of the tropical zone. Its monsoonal (wet-dry) seasonal changes are well marked, however, with hot, humid summers and cool, dry winters. The climate is largely controlled by the atmospheric pressure systems over the adjacent great Asian landmass and ocean surface. Thus, relatively dry monsoonal winds blow from the northeast in winter as a result of the cooling of the landmass and the development of a large thermal anticyclone over Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Warm, wet southeasterly winds develop in summer when the North Pacific Ocean heats up more slowly through solar radiation and becomes a high-pressure area.

The mean January and July temperatures are about 60 °F (16 °C) and 84 °F (29 °C), respectively. The lowest recorded temperature was 32 °F (0 °C) in January 1893, and the highest was 97 °F (36 °C) in August 1900. Frost occasionally occurs on hilltops in winter. The average annual rainfall amounts to about 88 inches (2,220 mm), more than half of which falls during the summer months of June, July, and August; only about 10 percent falls from November to March. Tropical cyclones, or typhoons, generally occur between June and October, and, of the 20 to 30 typhoons formed over the western North Pacific and South China Sea each year, an average of five or six may affect Hong Kong. The torrential downpours and strong winds that frequently accompany the typhoons sometimes devastate life and property in Hong Kong and in adjacent areas of Guangdong.

Hong Kong’s free-trade policy has made the territory one of the world’s great centres of trade. There is no tariff on imports, except for some luxury items, such as perfumes, motor vehicles, alcoholic beverages, and tobacco. Hong Kong is dependent upon imported products, which make up about half of the total amount of external trade, the rest being divided between exports and reexports. Apart from trade with other regions of China, major suppliers include Japan, Taiwan, and Singapore. Capital and consumer goods such as electrical machinery and apparatus, clothing, radios, television sets, stereos, and computers represent the largest group of imports. The second largest group includes mineral fuels, raw materials, semi-manufactured goods.