Bruce Lee Monument of Avenue of the Stars, Hong Kong;(c) Johnson Lau / UN
Hong Kong Travel Tips
Hong Kong Facts
Official Language: English & Chinese
Currency: Hong Kong Dollar
Time Zone: Hong Kong Time (UTC+8)
Population: 7,300,000 metro area
Hong Kong is a special administrative district of China. As of a recent census, the metro population was:
46.4% Muslim
35.7% Buddhist
8.5% Hindu
5.8% Christian
1.4% Unknown affiliations
1.1% Taoist
0.6% Other religions
0.5% Non-religious
When viewed in national origin terms, Hong Kong population is:
91.6% Han Chinese
8.4% Filipinos, Indonesians & South Asians
Traveling While Black in Hong Kong
93.7% of the population speak the Cantonese dialect of Chinese
58.7% of the population speak English
You will not see many Black folks from America or the Caribbean, but there are several Africans here.
If you wear dreadlocks or cornrows, you may get more stares or side-eyes from older locals.
Remember that the Chinese perspective of African Americans is mostly from movies and music. President Obama is a notable respected exception.
Hong Kong Travel Tips
Tourism accounts for 5% of Hong Kong’s GDP. It is the most popular Chinese city for tourists, receiving over 70% more visitors than its closest competitor Macau.
Hong Kong has the world’s largest number of skyscrapers, with 482 towers taller than 490 feet
The lack of available space restricted development to high-density residential tenements and commercial complexes packed closely together.
Though Bruce Lee was raised in Hong Kong, he was born in San Francisco in 1940 and is notable for welcoming people of all cultures to martial arts.
The 1846 Flagstaff House, the former residence of the commanding British military officer, is the oldest Western-style building in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong is the world’s fourth-ranked global financial center, which includes the Hong Kong Stock Exchange as the seventh-largest in the world.
The Hong Kong Dollar is the ninth most traded currency in the world.
HK Home to the seventh-highest number of billionaires of any city in the world.
The name of the territory, romanized as “He-Ong-Kong” in 1780, referred to a small inlet located between Aberdeen Island and southern Hong Kong Island.
New construction has decimated most old structures in the city, but many religious temples and one British architecture remain.
Some old companies combine the two-word city name as “Hongkong.”
The United Kingdom obtained a 99-year lease of the New Territories of Hong Kong in 1898. The territory was handed over to China in 1997.
Hong Kong was occupied by Japan during World War II from 1941 to 1945.
Hong Kong maintains separate governing and economic systems from mainland China under the principle of “One Country, Two Systems.” That approach is under challenge now as communist China is gradually changing its politics.
The highest elevation in the city is 3,140 feet for this city near the South China Sea.
