Portal:Hong Kong/Selected article/2006/December

The location of Hong Kong

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (Chinese: 中華人民共和國香港特別行政區 [pronunciation]) is one of the two special administrative regions (SARs) of the People's Republic of China (PRC), the other being Macau. It is commonly known as Hong Kong (Chinese: 香港), which is often written Hongkong in older English-language texts. The Hong Kong Government officially changed the name of Hongkong to Hong Kong on 3 September 1926.

Hong Kong is on the eastern side of the Pearl River Delta on the southeastern coast of the People's Republic of China, facing the South China Sea in the south, and bordering Guangdong Province in the north. Hong Kong has one of the world's most liberal economies and is a major international centre of finance and trade. Hong Kong is China's richest region in terms of GDP per capita and gross metropolitan product figures.

Hong Kong was a British colony from 1842, until its sovereignty was transferred to the PRC in 1997. It is governed as a special administrative region under the Basic Law of Hong Kong. Under the terms of the Sino-British Joint Declaration, the PRC has promised that Hong Kong will have a relatively high degree of autonomy until at least 2047, fifty years after the transfer of sovereignty. Under the "One Country, Two Systems" policy, it retains its own legal system, currency, customs policy, cultural delegation, international sport teams, and immigration laws, with the PRC representing Hong Kong diplomatically and militarily. (Read more...)