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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.
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 Lanka 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.
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. 2 C (72 F), with a range from 15 C (59 F) in February to 27. 8 C (82 F) in July. Typhoons occasionally cause great destruction. 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 people 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. 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 1980 s 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). 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 1980 s some 228, 000 metric tons of fish were caught annually. A large portion of the fish catch is exported. 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 1980 s. 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. Construction on a new airport began in 1992. 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 1980 s 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. Hong Kong is governed with guidance from Great Britain. 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. 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 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 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 ban imposed by the United States 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 1950 s and 1960 s. 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- 1970 s 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 1980 s 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. In local elections in 1994, the anti-Chinese Democracy Alliance won the largest number of seats on Hong Kong's 18 district boards.
Following the elections, the Chinese parliament voted to abolish all Hong Kong's institutions with elected officials when the dependency is reintegrated into China in 1997. Opium Wars (1839 - 1843, 1856 - 1860), two wars fought between Great Britain and China in which Western powers gained significant commercial privileges and territory. The Opium Wars began when the Chinese government tried to stop the illegal importation of opium by British merchants. The First Opium War started in 1839 when the Chinese government confiscated opium warehouses in Guangzhou (Canton). Britain responded by sending an expedition of warships to the city in February 1840. The British won a quick victory and the conflict was ended by the Treaty of Nanking (Nanjing) on August 29, 1842.
By this treaty, and a supplementary one signed on October 8, 1843, China was forced to pay a large indemnity, open five ports to British trade and residence, and cede Hong Kong to Great Britain. The treaty also gave British citizens in China the right to be tried in British courts. Other Western powers demanded, and were granted, similar privileges. In October 1856, Guangzhou police boarded the British ship Arrow and charged its crew with smuggling.
Eager to gain more trading rights, the British used the incident to launch another offensive, precipitating the Second Opium War. British forces, aided by the French, won another quick military victory in 1857. When the Chinese government refused to ratify the Treaty of Tientsin, which had been signed in 1858, the hostilities resumed. In 1860, after British and French troops had occupied Beijing and burned the Summer Palace, the Chinese agreed to ratify the treaty. The treaty opened additional trading ports, allowed foreign emissaries to reside in Beijing, admitted Christian missionaries into China, and opened travel to the Chinese interior.
Later negotiations legalized the importation of opium. Bibliography:
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Research essay sample on Hundreds Of Thousands Hong Kong
