Hong Kong (/ˌhɒŋˈkɒŋ/ (listen); Chinese: 香港, Hong Kong Cantonese: [hœ́ːŋ.kɔ̌ːŋ] (listen)), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, is a special administrative region on the eastern side of the Pearl River estuary in southern China. With over 7.4 million people of various nationalities[d] in a 1,104-square-kilometre (426 sq mi) territory, Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated places in the world.

Hong Kong became a colony of the British Empire at the end of the First Opium War in 1842.[16]Sovereignty over the territory was transferred to China in 1997.[17] As a special administrative region, Hong Kong maintains governing and economic systems that are separate from those of mainland China.[18] Its people tend to identify as Hongkongers rather than Chinese.[19]