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Hong Kong

Hong Kong, officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region , is one of the Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China. Consisting of a peninsula and 236 islands on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, Hong Kong has developed into one of the world's top financial centres. It has a highly developed capitalist economy, and has a "high degree of autonomy" in all areas except foreign affairs and defence. Renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour, its identity as a cosmopolitan centre where east meets west is reflected in its cuisine, cinema, music and traditions.

Starting out as a fishing village on Hong Kong Island in the late Paleolithic and early Neolithic period, Hong Kong progressed through being a salt production site into a trading and military port of strategic importance. It became a colony of the British Empire after the First Opium War (1839–1842), and then in 1898 expanded onto the mainland and northern islands. It was occupied by the Japanese during the Second World War, when the population halved. The British resumed control, and the population gradually recovered as corporations moved there from China when the Communist Party of China became the ruling political party after the Chinese Civil War. Textile and manufacturing industries grew, then toward the end of the 20th century the economy shifted to mainly services-based, as the financial and banking sectors became increasingly dominant.

Hong Kong was reclassified as a British dependent territory in 1983 until its sovereignty was transferred to the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1997. The city's population is 95% Chinese and 5% from other ethnic groups. At 1104 km2 and a population of 7 million people, Hong Kong is the 179th largest habited territory in the world. It is also one of the most densely populated areas in the world. The land area consists primarily of Hong Kong Island, Lantau Island, Kowloon Peninsula and the New Territories as well as some 260 other islands.

The Hong Kong dollar is the 9th most traded currency in the world. Under the principle of "one country, two systems", the judiciary system in Hong Kong maintains the English Common law framework rather than legal system of China. The political system takes place in a structure dominated by its constitutional documents, the Basic Law of Hong Kong, its own legislature, the Chief Executive of Hong Kong as the head of government, and of a multi-party system. Regardless of the change in sovereignty, Hong Kong's immigration system remained largely unchanged from its British predecessor model. Residents from mainland China do not have the right of abode in Hong Kong, nor can they enter the territory freely, both before and after 1997. Another distinction from mainland China is the left-hand traffic rule. The defence of Hong Kong is handled by military forces sent by the Central Government to prevent outside interference of its internal affairs.

History
Hong Kong began as a coastal island. While pockets of settlements had taken place in the region with archaeological findings dating back thousands of years, regularly written records were not made until the engagement of Imperial China and the British Colony in the territory. Starting out as a fishing village, salt production site and trading ground, it would evolve into a military port of strategic importance and eventually an international financial centre that enjoys the world's 6th highest GDP (PPP) per capita, supporting 33% of the foreign capital flows into China.

Human settlement in the area now known as Hong Kong dates back to the late Paleolithic and early Neolithic era, but the name Hong Kong (香港) did not appear on written record until the Treaty of Nanking of 1842. The area's earliest recorded European visitor was Jorge Álvares, a Portuguese explorer who arrived in 1513.

In 1839 the refusal by Qing Dynasty authorities to import opium resulted in the First Opium War between China and Britain. Hong Kong Island became occupied by British forces in 1841, and was formally ceded to Britain under the Treaty of Nanking at the end of the war. The British established a Crown Colony with the founding of Victoria City the following year. In 1860, after China's defeat in the Second Opium War, Kowloon Peninsula south of Boundary Street and Stonecutter's Island were ceded to Britain under the Convention of Peking. In 1898 Britain obtained a 99-year lease of Lantau Island and the adjacent northern lands, which became known as the New Territories. Hong Kong's territory has remained unchanged to the present.

During the first half of the 20th century, Hong Kong was a free port, serving as an entrepôt of the British Empire. The British introduced an education system based on their own model, while the local Chinese population had little contact with the European community of wealthy tai-pans settled near Victoria Peak.

In conjunction with its military campaign in the Second World War, the Empire of Japan invaded Hong Kong on 8 December 1941. The Battle of Hong Kong ended with British and Canadian defenders surrendering control of the colony to Japan on 25 December. During the Japanese occupation, civilians suffered widespread food shortages, rationing, and hyper-inflation due to forced exchange of currency for military notes. Hong Kong lost more than half of its population in the period between the invasion and Japan's surrender in 1945, when the United Kingdom resumed control of the colony.

Hong Kong's population recovered quickly as a wave of migrants from China arrived for refuge from the ongoing Chinese Civil War. When the People's Republic of China was proclaimed in 1949, more migrants fled to Hong Kong in fear of persecution by the Communist Party. Many corporations in Shanghai and Guangzhou also shifted their operations to Hong Kong.

As textile and manufacturing industries grew with the help of population growth and low cost of labour, Hong Kong rapidly industrialised, with its economy becoming driven by exports, and living standards rising steadily. The construction of Shek Kip Mei Estate in 1953 marked the beginning of the public housing estate program, designed to cope with the huge influx of immigrants. Trade in Hong Kong accelerated even further when Shenzhen, immediately north of Hong Kong, became a Special Economic Zone of the PRC, and established Hong Kong as the main source of foreign investment to China. With the development of the manufacturing industry in southern China beginning in the early 1980s, Hong Kong's competitiveness in manufacturing declined and its economy began shifting toward a reliance on the service industry, which enjoyed high rates of growth in the 1980s and 1990s, and absorbed workers released from the manufacturing industry.

With the lease of the New Territories due to expire within two decades, the governments of Britain and China discussed the issue of Hong Kong's sovereignty in the 1980s. In 1984 the two countries signed the Sino-British Joint Declaration, agreeing to transfer sovereignty to the People's Republic of China in 1997, and stipulating that Hong Kong would be governed as a special administrative region, retaining its laws and a high degree of autonomy for at least fifty years after the transfer. The Hong Kong Basic Law, which would serve as the constitutional document after the transfer, was ratified in 1990, and the transfer of sovereignty occurred at midnight on 1 July 1997, marked by a handover ceremony at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Hong Kong's economy was affected by the Asian financial crisis of 1997 that hit many East Asian markets, and the H5N1 avian influenza also surfaced that year. After a gradual recovery, Hong Kong suffered again due to an outbreak of SARS in 2003. Today, Hong Kong continues to serve as an important global financial centre, but faces uncertainty over its future role with a growing mainland China economy, and its relationship with the PRC government in areas such as democratic reform and universal suffrage.

Etymology
The name "Hong Kong" is an approximate phonetic rendering of the Cantonese pronunciation of the spoken Cantonese name "香港", meaning "fragrant harbour" in English. Before 1842, the name Hong Kong originally referred colloquially to a small inlet (now Aberdeen Harbour/Little Hong Kong) between the island of Ap Lei Chau and the south side of Hong Kong Island. The inlet was one of the first points of contact between British sailors and local fishermen. The reference to fragrance may refer to the harbour waters sweetened by the fresh water estuarine influx of the Pearl River, or to the incense factories lining the coast to the north of Kowloon which was stored around Aberdeen Harbour for export, before the development of Victoria Harbour. In 1842, the Treaty of Nanking was signed, and the name Hong Kong was first recorded on official documents to encompass the entirety of the island.