Hong Kong

Victoria Harbour lies between an island and the mainland.

Ferries go back and forth across it all day. A tall hill called the Peak looks down on the harbor. At night, the towers light up the water.

Victoria Harbour separates Hong Kong Island from Kowloon, and it is the heart of the city. The Star Ferry carries commuters across it, and National Geographic Traveler named the ride one of its "50 places of a lifetime".

Above the towers of Hong Kong Island rises Victoria Peak, 552 meters high. In the 1800s it was a lookout for incoming cargo ships, and later a cool summer retreat. A tram line up its steep slope made the Peak famous for its views, and today about 7 million people visit it each year.

The harbor, which made Hong Kong, was formed by the drowning of a granitic dome. The Victoria district on the northwestern coast of Hong Kong Island, where the British first landed in 1841, has been the center of government and business ever since. The Star Ferry, which calls its crossings an inexpensive and reliable part of the commuter system between the island and Kowloon, is also a major tourist attraction.

The Peak, at 552 m the highest point on Hong Kong Island, served as a signal post for incoming cargo ships in the 19th century; Governor Sir Richard MacDonnell built a summer home there around 1868. In 1881 Alexander Findlay Smith, formerly of Scotland's Highland Railway, petitioned for tram routes, including one to Victoria Gap; with reliable transport, the Peak became renowned for its views and now draws some 7 million visitors a year. The territory's highest point is Tai Mo Shan, 957 m, in the New Territories.

Hong Kong has fast trains, ferries and buses.

The trains are called the MTR. Ferries carry people across the harbor. Some fast trains go all the way into mainland China.

Hong Kong's railway, the MTR, has nine lines serving Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories, plus a Light Rail network in Tuen Mun and Yuen Long and buses that link to the stations. Since September 2018, high-speed trains have run from West Kowloon Station into mainland China's national high-speed network.

The Star Ferry crosses Victoria Harbour between the island and Kowloon, and the Peak Tram climbs the steep hillside to Victoria Peak. Around the time of the handover, Hong Kong also put major resources into new bridges, roads and a new airport.

The MTR operates nine railway lines across Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories, a Light Rail network for Tuen Mun and Yuen Long, and feeder buses. In September 2018 it opened the 26-km Hong Kong section of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong High Speed Rail, which runs from West Kowloon Station and connects to the national high-speed network.

On the water, the Star Ferry links Hong Kong Island and Kowloon across Victoria Harbour. Britannica notes that, around the handover, major resources went into transport infrastructure, including new bridges and roadways and a new airport. (How people climb the island's slopes on outdoor escalators is told in the topic Living in a vertical city: Hong Kong.)

Hong Kong summers are hot, wet and sticky.

Sometimes big storms called typhoons bring strong winds and heavy rain. Winters are cool and dry. November and December are sunny and pleasant.

Hong Kong lies at the northern edge of the tropics. From May to August it is hot and humid, with afternoons often above 31 °C and nights around 26 °C. About 80 percent of the year's rain falls between May and September. Winters are cooler and drier, and many people think November and December are the best months, with breezes and plenty of sun.

From May to November, tropical cyclones can strike, most often from July to September. The strongest are called typhoons. Their heavy rain can last for days and cause landslips and floods. Frost sometimes forms on the hilltops in winter, but snow is rare.

Hong Kong lies at the northern fringe of the tropics, with well-marked monsoon seasons: hot, humid summers under warm, wet southeasterly winds and cool, dry winters under northeasterly winds from the cooling Asian landmass. Britannica gives mean temperatures of about 16 °C in January and 29 °C in July, and about 2,220 mm of rain a year. The Hong Kong Observatory notes that rainfall ranges from about 1,400 mm at Ping Chau to more than 3,000 mm near Tai Mo Shan, with about 80 percent from May to September.

About 30 tropical cyclones form in the western North Pacific or the China Seas each year, and about half reach typhoon strength, with maximum winds of 118 km/h or more; Britannica says an average of five or six affect Hong Kong. Their rain can last for days, and the Observatory warns that landslips and flooding sometimes do more damage than the winds.

Most people in Hong Kong speak Cantonese.

Flat land is scarce, so some streets were built on land made from the sea. New towns have grown up on the mainland. Monkeys live in the green hills!

Cantonese is the language most people speak, and English is official too; Mandarin is used more and more. Because flat land is scarce, much of Hong Kong has been built on reclaimed land, ground made by filling in the sea. Many main streets on the north shore of Hong Kong Island stand on reclaimed land.

Since the 1970s, new towns such as Tai Po, Fanling and Yuen Long have grown up in the New Territories, each planned for 200,000 to 450,000 people. Away from the towers, the hills are green: rhesus macaques and another kind of monkey, neither of them native to Hong Kong, live in the forests of the New Territories.

Cantonese is the most common language, with Teochew, Hakka and Tanka spoken in particular communities, and Mandarin increasingly used since reunification. Lowlands, including floodplains, valleys and reclaimed land, make up less than a fifth of the land; many major streets on Hong Kong Island's north shore, the whole Kwun Tong industrial district and much of southern Kowloon stand on reclaimed land. New towns designated in the 1970s, such as Tai Po, Fanling, Yuen Long and Tseung Kwan O, were planned for 200,000 to 450,000 people each.

Britannica notes the lushness and diversity of Hong Kong's plants, though centuries of cutting and burning left only about one-sixth of the land forested; postwar planting restored stands of pine, eucalyptus, banyan, casuarina and palm. Two nonnative monkey species, including the rhesus macaque, flourish in New Territories forests, and marine fishing in nearby waters remains one of Hong Kong's most important primary activities.