Hong Kong

name

Etymology: Etymology tree Cantonese 香港 (hoeng¹ gong²)bor. English Hong Kong An irregular romanization of Cantonese 香港 (hoeng¹ gong², “incense harbor”), the former name of a settlement in what is now Aberdeen on the southwest side of Hong Kong Island, where joss stick incense was stored for export, made from agarwood.

1. A city and special administrative region in southern China, located on an island east of the Pearl River delta in the South China Sea; a former British colony.

   “CHINA. A rebellion of more than ordinary importance is in progress in this country. At the departure of the last mail from Hong Kong numerous bands of robbers were plundering and burning throughout the provinces of Kangsi and Canton, and, having captured the city of Kintschan, had advanced to within 120 English miles of Canton.”

   “In 1962 a special law had to be passed to permit the immigration of several thousand Chinese refugees who had escaped from Communist China to Hong Kong.”

2. An island in southeastern China, Hong Kong Island, the site of the city of the same name, lying off Guangdong (Canton) province.

   “Sampans and punts crowded the tight harbors of places like Shau Kei Wan on Hong Kong Island, and these fisherfolk cooked up the day’s catch for their customers on the most minimal of stoves.”

   “This two-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bathroom apartment is in the western section of Mid-Levels, an affluent residential area built into the northern slope of Victoria Peak on Hong Kong Island, in Hong Kong.”

3. A special administrative region of China, which includes the city and island of the same name as well as nearby islands and the Kowloon Peninsula.
4. A former British colony in 1843–1941 and 1945–1981 and then British Dependent Territory in 1981–1997 in modern southern China in the area of modern Hong Kong.