Hong Kong ( US : / ˈ h ɒ ŋ k ɒ ŋ / or UK : / h ɒ ŋ ˈ k ɒ ŋ / ; Chinese : 香港 , Cantonese : [hœ́ːŋ.kɔ̌ːŋ] ( listen ) ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR ), [d] is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta in South China . With 7.4 million residents of various nationalities [e] in a 1,104-square-kilometre (426 sq mi) territory, Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated places i
Hong Kong was established as a colony of the British Empire after the Qing Empire ceded Hong Kong Island from Xin'an County at the end of the First Opium War in 1841 then again in 1842. The colony expanded to the Kowloon Peninsula in 1860 after the Second Opium War and was further extended when Britain obtained a 99-year lease of the New Territories in 1898. British Hong Kong was occupied by Imperial Japan from 1941 to 1945 during World War II ; British administration resumed after the surrender of Japan .
Originally a sparsely populated area of farming and fishing villages, [18] [19] the territory has become one of the world's most significant financial centres and commercial ports. As of 2021, it is the world's ninth-largest exporter and eight-largest importer. Hong Kong has a market economy characterised by a focus on services , low taxation and free trade ; its currency, the Hong Kong dollar , is the eighth most traded currency in the world. Hong Kong is home to the third-highest number of billionaires of