Famous landmarks in Hong Kong SAR China

Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China on the country's southern coast, just south of the city of Shenzhen. It is made up of Hong Kong Island, the Kowloon Peninsula, the New Territories and more than 200 smaller islands. Around 7.5 million people live here, making it one of the most crowded places on Earth. Hong Kong is famous for its forest of skyscrapers around Victoria Harbour, its busy port and its role as a world financial centre.

On My Earth Toy you can see the giant bronze Tian Tan Buddha on Lantau Island, the green-and-white Star Ferry crossing the harbour, and skyscrapers such as the International Commerce Centre, the Bank of China Tower, the HSBC Main Building, Jardine House, Central Plaza, Two International Finance Centre and the Lippo Centre.

Geography and nature

Hong Kong is very hilly, so its towers squeeze onto narrow strips of flat land and land reclaimed from the sea. The highest peak, Tai Mo Shan, is 958 metres tall. Surprisingly, about 40 percent of the land is protected as country parks and nature reserves, with hiking trails, beaches and forests. Chinese white dolphins, which are often pink, swim in the waters around Lantau. Summers are hot and rainy, and typhoons sometimes sweep in from the South China Sea.

People, languages and culture

Most people in Hong Kong speak Cantonese, and Chinese and English are both official languages. The city mixes Chinese traditions with influences from its British past: you can ride a double-decker tram, then go for yum cha, a meal of tea and small dishes called dim sum. Festivals such as Chinese New Year and the Dragon Boat Festival are celebrated with fireworks and races. Hong Kong films, especially martial arts movies, became famous around the world.

History in a nutshell

Hong Kong was once a group of fishing and farming villages. Britain took Hong Kong Island in 1841 during the First Opium War, added Kowloon in 1860, and leased the New Territories for 99 years in 1898. Japan occupied the territory during the Second World War. Under an agreement signed in 1984, Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule on 1 July 1997 as a special administrative region, under a system known as one country, two systems.