Rheumatology, Orthopedics & Sports Medicine

Hong Kong , officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (HKSAR), is a special administrative region of China on the eastern side of the Pearl River estuary in southern China. With over7.4 million people of various nationalities in a 1,104-square-kilometre (426 sq mi) territory, Hong Kong is the world's fourth-most densely populated region.

Hong Kong became a colony of the British Empire after Qing China ceded Hong Kong Island at the end of the First Opium War 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.The territory was returned to China when the lease expired in 1997.As a special administrative region, Hong Kong maintains separate governing and economic systems from that of mainland China.and its people overwhelmingly identify as Hong Kongers rather than Chinese.

Originally a sparsely populated area of farming and fishing villages, the territory has become one of the world's most significant financial centres and commercial ports.It is the world's seventh-largest trading entity, and its legal tender (the Hong Kong dollar) is the world's 13th-most traded currency. Although the city has one of the highest per capita incomes in the world, it faces severe income inequality and hosts the largest concentration of ultra high-net-worth individuals of any city in the world.

Hong Kong is classified as an alpha+ world city, indicating its influence throughout the world.The city has the largest number of skyscrapers in the world, most surrounding Victoria Harbour.Hong Kong consistently ranks high on the Human Development Index, and has one of the highest life expectancies in the world. Although over 90 per cent of its population uses public transportation, air pollution from neighbouring industrial areas of mainland China has resulted in a high level of atmospheric particulates in the region.

The name of the territory, first spelled "He-Ong-Kong" in 1780, originally referred to a small inlet between Aberdeen Island and the southern coast of Hong Kong Island. Aberdeen was an initial point of contact between British sailors and local fishermen.Although the source of the romanised name is unknown, it is generally believed to be an early phonetic rendering of the Cantonesepronunciation hēung góng. The name translates as "fragrant harbour" or "incense harbour"."Fragrant" may refer to the sweet taste of the harbour's freshwater influx from the Pearl River or to the odor from incense factories lining the coast of northern Kowloon. The incense was stored near Aberdeen Harbour for export before Victoria Harbour developed. Sir John Davis (the second colonial governor) offered an alternative origin; Davis said that the name derived from "Hoong-keang" ("red torrent"), reflecting the colour of soil over which a waterfall on the island flowed.

The simplified name Hong Kong was frequently used by 1810, also written as a single word. Hongkong was common until 1926, when the government officially adopted the two-word name.Some corporations founded during the early colonial era still keep this name, including Hongkong Land, Hongkong Electric, Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels and the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation.

History

Main articles: History of Hong Kong and History of China

The region is first known to have been occupied by humans during the Neolithic period, about 6,000 years ago. Early Hong Kong settlers were a semi-coastal people who migrated from inland and brought knowledge of rice cultivation.The Qin dynastyincorporated the Hong Kong area into China for the first time in 214 BCE, after conquering the indigenous Baiyue. The region was consolidated under the Nanyue kingdom (a predecessor state of Vietnam) after the Qin collapse, and recaptured by China after the Han conquest. During the Mongol conquest, the Southern Song court was briefly located in modern-day Kowloon City (the Sung Wong Toi site) before its final defeat in the 1279 Battle of Yamen. By the end of the Yuan dynasty, seven large families had settled in the region and owned most of the land. Settlers from nearby provinces migrated to Kowloon throughout the Ming dynasty. The earliest European visitor was Portuguese explorer Jorge Álvares, who arrived in 1513. Portuguese merchants established a trading post called (Tamão) in Hong Kong waters, and began regular trade with southern China. Although the traders were expelled after military clashes in the 1520s, Portuguese-Chinese trade relations were reestablished by 1549. Portugal acquired a permanent lease for Macau in 1557.

After the Qing conquest, maritime trade was banned under the Haijin policies. The Kangxi Emperor lifted the prohibition, allowing foreigners to enter Chinese ports in 1684. Qing authorities established the Canton System in 1757 to regulate trade more strictly, restricting non-Russian ships to the port of Canton. Although European demand for Chinese commodities like tea, silk, and porcelain was high, Chinese interest in European manufactured goods was insignificant. To counter the trade imbalance, the British sold large amounts of Indian opium to China. Faced with a drug crisis, Qing officials pursued ever-more-aggressive actions to halt the opium trade. The Daoguang Emperor rejected proposals to legalise and tax opium, ordering imperial commissioner Lin Zexu to eradicate the opium trade in 1839. The commissioner destroyed opium stockpiles and halted all foreign trade, forcing a British military response and triggering the First Opium War. The Qing surrendered early in the war and ceded Hong Kong Island in the Convention of Chuenpi. However, both countries were dissatisfied and did not ratify the agreement. After over a year of further hostilities, Hong Kong Island was formally ceded to the United Kingdom in the 1842 Treaty of Nanking.

Administrative infrastructure was quickly built up by early 1842, but piracy, disease, and hostile Qing policies towards Hong Kong prevented the government from attracting merchants. The Taiping Rebellion, when many wealthy Chinese fled mainland turbulence and settled in the colony, improved conditions on the island.[16] Further tensions between the British and Qing over the opium trade escalated into the Second Opium War. The defeated Qing were again forced to give up land, ceding Kowloon Peninsula and Stonecutter's Island in the Convention of Peking.[17] By the end of this war, Hong Kong had evolved from a transient colonial outpost into a major entrepôt. Rapid economic improvement during the 1850s attracted foreign investment, as potential stakeholders became more confident in Hong Kong's future.[61]

The colony was further expanded in 1898, when Britain obtained a 99-year lease of the New Territories. The University of Hong Kong was established in 1911 as the territory's first higher-education institute. Kai Tak Airport began operation in 1924, and the colony avoided a prolonged economic downturn after the 1925–26 Canton–Hong Kong strike. At the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, Governor Geoffry Northcote declared Hong Kong a neutral zone to safeguard its status as a free port. The colonial government prepared for a possible attack, evacuating all British women and children in 1940. The Imperial Japanese Armyattacked Hong Kong on 8 December 1941, the same morning as its attack on Pearl Harbor. Hong Kong was occupied by Japan for almost four years before Britain resumed control on 30 August 1945.

Its population rebounded quickly after the war as skilled Chinese migrants fled from the Chinese Civil War, and more refugees crossed the border when the Communist Party took control of mainland China in 1949. Hong Kong became the first of the Four Asian Tiger economies to industrialise during the 1950s. With a rapidly increasing population, the colonial government began reforms to improve infrastructure and public services. The public-housing estate programme, the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), and Mass Transit Railway were established during the post-war decades to provide safer housing, integrity in the civil service, and more-reliable transportation. Although the territory's competitiveness in manufacturing gradually declined due to rising labour and property costs, it transitioned to a service-based economy. By the early 1990s, Hong Kong had established itself as a global financial centre and shipping hub.

The colony faced an uncertain future as the end of the New Territories lease approached, and Governor Murray MacLehose raised the question of Hong Kong's status with Deng Xiaoping in 1979. Diplomatic negotiations with China resulted in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration, in which the United Kingdom agreed to transfer the colony in 1997 and China would guarantee Hong Kong's economic and political systems for 50 years after the transfer. The impending transfer triggered a wave of mass emigration as residents feared an erosion of civil rights, the rule of law, and quality of life. Over half a million people left the territory during the peak migration period, from 1987 to 1996.Hong Kong was transferred to China on 1 July 1997, after 156 years of British rule.

Immediately after the transfer, Hong Kong was severely affected by several crises. The government was forced to use substantial foreign-exchange reserves to maintain the Hong Kong dollar's currency peg during the 1997 Asian financial crisis, and the recovery from this was muted by an H5N1 avian-flu outbreak and a housing surplus. This was followed by the 2003 SARS epidemic, during which the territory experienced its most serious economic downturn.

Political debates after the transfer of sovereignty have centred around the region's democratic development and the central government's adherence to the "one country, two systems" principle. After reversal of the last colonial-era Legislative Council democratic reforms following the handover, the regional government unsuccessfully attempted to enact national-security legislation pursuant to Article 23 of the Basic Law. The central government decision to implement nominee pre-screening before allowing Chief Executive elections triggered a series of protests in 2014 which became known as the Umbrella Revolution. Discrepancies in the electoral registry and disqualification of elected legislators after the 2016 Legislative Council elections and enforcement of national law in the West Kowloon high-speed railway station have raised concerns about the region's autonomy.