Hong Kong, also known as Chinese Xianggang or Hsiang-kang, is a Chinese Special Administrative Region. Area: 1,114 sq km or 430 sq mi. Population: 7,541,000 (approx. 2024). Situated on the southern coast of China, it encompasses the following areas: the Kowloon Peninsula (which was given to the British in 1860), the New Territories (which the British leased from China from 1898 to 1997), and the island of Hong Kong and its neighboring islets in the South China Sea (which China gave to the British in 1842). China regained control of the entire region in 1997. More than nine tenths of China’s total land is made up of the New Territories, an enclave in the Guangdong province that is located north of the Kowloon Peninsula. Located on the northwest coast of Hong Kong island, Victoria serves as both the administrative and commercial hub of the island.