The Port of Hong Kong lies on the coast of southern China on the Kowloon Peninsula off the South China Sea about 36 kilometers southeast of the Port of Huadu and 34 kilometers southwest of the Port of Yantian. Originally ceded by China to the United Kingdom in 1898, the Port of Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997. Hong Kong covers over 1.1 thousand square kilometers and includes the adjacent islets in the South China Sea. In 2005, almost seven million people lived in the Hong Kong special administrative region of China.

The Port of Hong Kong is one of the leading financial centers in the world. With a highly capitalist economy, it contains one of the biggest concentrations of corporate headquarters in the region. The Port of Hong Kong's stock exchange is the world's sixth largest. Often cited as the best example of laissez-faire capitalism, the government follows a policy of "positive non-intervention" that leaves the economy to market forces and the private sector.

After World War II, the Port of Hong Kong industrialized quickly, manufacturing products for export. In the 1980s, it just as quickly transformed into a service-based economy. The Port of Hong Kong suffered from the 1998 Asian financial crisis and by the outbreak of SARS in 2003, but it has since recovered. With few natural resources and scant land for agriculture, the Port of Hong Kong depends on imports of food and raw materials. Much of the Port of Hong Kong's exports come from mainland China.

Archaeological evidence found at over 20 sites reveals that people from North China settled the Port of Hong Kong area in the 2nd Millennium BC. In the 1st Century BC, Cantonese settled there, and the Hakka and Hoklo came to the Port of Hong Kong in the following centuries. The last struggles between the failing Ming Dynasty and the thriving Manchu Qing Dynasty took place in the Port of Hong Kong.

In the middle 1800s, Hong Kong Island was home to a small fishing village reputed to be a hideaway for pirates. In 1821, British merchants started using the Port of Hong Kong harbor for opium-laden vessels. They quickly recognized the potential of this deep sheltered harbor for commerce and as a strategic point on the main trade routes to the Far East.

China ceded Hong Kong Island to the British after the first Opium War; however, the British did not have complete control of the Port of Hong Kong under the Treaty of Nanjing. The second Opium War in the middle 1800s forced China to relinquish Kowloon Peninsula to the British. Then, under the Convention of 1898, the British leased the New Territories and 235 islands for a period of 99 years that ended in 1997. In 1861, the small fishing village had grown to a population of 120 thousand. By the turn of the century, over 300 thousand people lived in the Port of Hong Kong.

The Port of Hong Kong was long a refuge for people (and money) leaving China and a stopping point for rural people traveling to Southeast Asia, the free flow depending on economic and political conditions in China. When the Republic of China was created in 1912, a new nationalist spirit sought to end foreign treaty privileges, creating economic problems for Britain. The nationalistic campaign resulted in strikes and conflict in the Port of Hong Kong in the 1920s.

In 1937, the Sino-Japanese War made the Port of Hong Kong a refuge again, and thousands of Chinese fled the advancing Japanese. When World War II began, the British colony became a vulnerable target, and the Japanese attacked and occupied the Port of Hong Kong in 1941. During the war, commerce declined dramatically, food was limited, and Hong Kong residents began to escape to inland China. The population of 1.6 million in 1941 was reduced to around 650 thousand in 1945 when the war ended.

In August 1945, the British army returned to the Port of Hong Kong, and the local government was re-established in 1946. Hundreds of thousands of Chinese and foreign residents returned to the Port of Hong Kong, joined by refugees from China fleeing the post-war Chinese Civil War between the Nationalist and Communist armies.

In 1951, the United Nations imposed a trade embargo on China and North Korea, the commercial life and trading position of the Port of Hong Kong was seriously damaged. Immigrant capitalists began to develop light industries that provided badly-needed employment. These industries served as the basis for further industrialization, but they were based on cheap labor and poor working conditions.

In the early 1960s, labor disputes and civil unrest began to grow, and serious riots broke out in the Port of Hong Kong in 1967 that led to political demonstrations inspired by China's Cultural Revolution. As the 1960s ended, working and living conditions began to improve as labor laws, government housing, and public works programs brought relief for the suffering workers.

At the same time, new high-tech industries began to grow, and the Port of Hong Kong's financial markets thrived. In 1973, the stock market collapsed, and billions of dollars left the Port of Hong Kong. Later in the decade, as relations with China got better, the economy began to recover.

By the late 1970s, anticipation of the end of the British lease created concerns about the Port of Hong Kong's future. The governments of Great Britain and China began to discuss the transfer in 1979, and formal negotiations began in 1982. After two years, the Chinese-British Joint Declaration was signed agreeing that China would receive the Port of Hong Kong on July 1, 1997. Discussions about how the Port of Hong Kong would be governed continued for many years until China's National People's Congress ratified the law in 1990 that established the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region under the direct control of the central Chinese government.

After 1997, the economy of the Port of Hong Kong continued to experience steady growth, although it was heavily dependent on world economic conditions. Economic ties with the Chinese mainland grew stronger. Major investments were made in the transportation infrastructure, including new bridges, roads, and a new airport. Political pressure grew for democratic reforms to the 1990 law, and Beijing announced its intention to allow council members to be directly elected in 2012.

The Marine Department of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region governs the Port of Hong Kong, which does not have a formal port authority that provides and controls port infrastructure. Most of the facilities in the Port of Hong Kong are privately-owned and –operated. The Marine Department is responsible for navigational and safety matters. They facilitate the safe movement of vessels and passengers, ensure compliance with local and international standards, administer the Shipping Register, coordinate maritime research and rescue operations, combat oil pollution and floating refuse in Hong Kong waters, and provide and maintain government vessels.

In 2008, over 217.3 thousand vessels arrived at the Port of Hong Kong, including 32.9 thousand ocean-going cargo vessels and three thousand ocean-going passenger vessels. The Port of Hong Kong handled a total of 259.4 million tons of cargo that included 197.6 million tons of containerized cargo in 24.5 million TEUs, 26.8 million tons of solid bulk, 18.7 million tons of breakbulk, and 16.4 million tons of liquid bulk cargoes. The total included 146 million tons of imports and 113.4 million tons of exports.

Lying at the mouth of the Pearl River Delta, the Port of Hong Kong is in the center of the Asian Pacific Rim, a fast-growing economic region. The Port of Hong Kong is the crossroads for both large ocean-going vessels and smaller coastal and river craft that travel the Pearl River. The Port of Hong Kong is the only fully-developed deep-water harbor between the ports of Shanghai and Singapore. Pilotage is required for vessels of and over three thousand gross tons and for all gas carriers regardless of tonnage.

The Port of Hong Kong contains almost 7.7 thousand meters of quays at the Kwai Chung and Stonecutters terminals, about 7.0 thousand meters of quays at public cargo working areas, and 31 mooring buoys for ocean-going vessels. Three public passenger ferry terminals serve over 20 million passengers per year traveling to and from mainland China and Macau.

The Tsing Yi and Kwai Chung Container Terminals in the northwestern area of the Port of Hong Kong harbor contain nine container terminals with 24 berths that total about 7.7 thousand meters in length. The terminal area of 279 hectares includes container yards and container freight stations. The nine Port of Hong Kong container terminals have capacity to handle more than 19 million TEUs. Of the total 24.5 million TEUs handled in 2008, the Port of Hong Kong's Tsing Yi and Kwai Chung Terminals handled 17.7 million TEUs while other wharves handled the remaining 6.8 million TEUs.

The combined Port of Hong Kong ferry services at the Macau Ferry Terminal, the China Ferry Terminal, and the Tuen Mun Ferry Terminal serve 13 ports in the mainland and Macau. In 2008, almost 24 million passengers traveled through the ferry terminals, with over 76% of those passengers traveling to and from Macau. In addition to the ferries, about 100 high-speed passenger craft use those Port of Hong Kong terminals.

The Port of Hong Kong's government fleet includes more than 760 vessels of all types and sizes that serve 14 government departments like maritime police and fire services and customs. The Marine Department has around 82 vessels that include patrol launches, pontoons, barges, personnel carriers, and specialized vessels that support Port of Hong Kong operations and other government departments. The Government Dockyard consists of a 9.8-hectare site on Stonecutters Island with 12 covered docking sheds and more than 22 open-yard docking spaces for vessel repair and maintenance.

The Port of Hong Kong contains ample facilities for the repair, maintenance, dry-dock, and slipping of vessels. There are three floating docks off Tsing Yi Island, the largest with capacity to lift up to 46 thousand tons. There are many smaller shipyards throughout the Port of Hong Kong that repair vessels and build specialized craft.

The Marine Department operates 29 mooring buoys in the Port of Hong Kong dedicated to ocean-going vessels. Nineteen of these Port of Hong Kong buoys can accommodate ships to 183 meters long, and the remaining buoys can serve vessels to 137 meters long. Eighteen of the buoys are typhoon moorings to which ships can safely moor during tropical cyclones.

The Marine Department also maintains three immigration and quarantine anchorages, eight dangerous goods anchorages, and thirteen general purpose anchorages to provide temporary berthing space. Supporting the transfer of cargoes between vessels and shore and to and from Pearl River ports, the Marine Department manages about 6.7 meters of public cargo working areas throughout the Port of Hong Kong.

Hong Kong is the "Oriental Pearl," one of the most exciting and vibrant cities in the world. Set in an amazingly beautiful natural environment, it is a thriving commercial center with a rich history and almost unlimited opportunities for visitors. The Port of Hong Kong's wonderful natural harbor is the center for diverse cultures, including traditional Chinese influences. Hints of its British history are everywhere around the Port of Hong Kong, yet the Port of Hong Kong preserves traditional values and customs of Confucianism that have been largely forgotten in the Chinese mainland.

Visitors to the Port of Hong Kong can participate in wonderful festivals, dine in the finest world restaurants or at street food stalls, stay in luxurious mansions and penthouses, visit tenements and villages of wooden boats, and hear a range of languages, accents, and Chinese dialects unmatched anywhere in the world. The Port of Hong Kong contains far too many attractions to describe in this article. Please refer to the Port of Hong Kong's tourism website for detailed information on things to see and do.

The Port of Hong Kong, just south of the Tropic of Cancer, has a humid subtropical climate. Summers are hot and humid, punctuated with intermittent showers, thunderstorms, and typhoons. Winter is cloudy with occasional cold fronts that bring cool winds. Spring and autumn are the most comfortable seasons. Temperatures range from an average high of 31 °C (88 °F) in July and August to an average low of 14 °C (57 °F) in January.

Visitors to the Port of Hong Kong will want to check out The Peak, one of the most popular attractions the city has to offer. From atop The Peak, you get spectacular panoramic views of the Port of Hong Kong, Victoria Harbour, and the surrounding hillsides. The Peak Tram climbs 373 meters up the steep hillside that makes the buildings appear to lean over as you pass. The renovated avant-garde The Peak Tower is one of Hong Kong's iconic landmarks. Offering a 360 ° view, the Sky Terrace is complemented by restaurants, shops, and entertainment facilities within The Peak Tower. For more personal experiences, visitors can walk the Peak Circle Walk or Lugard Road or visit the Lions View Point Pavilion or the Peak Galleria viewing terrace.

Victoria Harbour is possibly the most recognizable of the Port of Hong Kong's magical treats. The Tsim Sha Tsui Promenade, located in the Yau Tsim Mong District, offers wonderful views of Victoria Harbor and the Hong Kong skyline. In addition to the wonderful walk and views, the Tsim Sha Tsui Promenade is home to the Avenue of the Stars, the Hong Kong Museum of Art, the Hong Kong Space Museum, the Hong Kong Cultural Center, and the 1921 Clock Tower. Added to these traditional tourist attractions are many exotic and international restaurants and shopping malls, including Harbor City, the biggest shopping and entertainment center in the Port of Hong Kong.

The best way to enjoy Victoria Harbor is taking a nighttime cruise on a ferry where passengers enjoy the stunning "Symphony of Lights," a multi-media show that involves over 40 skyscrapers outfitted with colored lights, laser beams, and searchlights synchronized to music. Whether during the day or at night, visitors love the experience of cruising the Port of Hong Kong's Victoria Harbor on the Star Ferry or on a traditional Chinese junk.

A definite must-see in the Port of Hong Kong is the Giant Buddha/Po Lin Monastery. The Giant Buddha is the world's tallest outdoor seated Buddha. Sitting atop Ngong Ping plateau on Lantau Island, the breathtaking bronze statue is 34 meters high and weighs 250 tons. Made in China and unveiled in deeply-religious ceremonies in 1993, the Giant Buddha forever changed the nearby Po Lin Monastery. Devout Buddhists come there to pray, but the monastery also contains figures of gods and other objects related to the religion that visitors will admire, including a homemade vegetarian lunch made by the monks.

The Temple Street Night Market in the Port of Hong Kong is famous for its celebratory atmosphere and outdoor stalls. Shoppers can find everything there, including Chinese souvenirs, clothing, street singers of Chinese opera, and fortune-tellers. While the market opens at 4pm, it comes alive after 7pm.