Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region of China, and the name covers more than most accounts of it suggest: Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, the New Territories and the outlying islands, 1,114.57 km² in all. Hong Kong Island accounts for 78.64 km² of that — about seven per cent of the land and about sixteen per cent of the people. Kowloon sits on the mainland peninsula across the harbour from the island, not across water from it, which is the relationship older accounts invert.
The population was 7,518,300 at mid-2026 — not the fifteen million those accounts give, a figure it has never approached. It grows by migration rather than by birth: a natural decrease of 20,400 over the year was offset by a net inflow of 39,800. More than half the people live in the New Territories, under a third in Kowloon, and under a sixth on Hong Kong Island.
On the familiar claim that this is one of the three most active business centres on the planet, the two halves of it go in opposite directions. As a financial centre a third place stands up, provided the index is named: Hong Kong placed third globally and first in Asia-Pacific in the Global Financial Centres Index in March 2026, and held third in the September edition. As a port it does not: the transport bureau itself put Hong Kong tenth in the world for container throughput in 2023, one place lower than the year before, and it has since been reported as dropping out of the top ten altogether.
The practical thing to know first is the border. Hong Kong operates its own immigration control under the Basic Law, and British citizens may visit for 180 days without a visa — an entitlement that has nothing to do with the mainland's visa-free trial and is far longer than it. Other British categories are not the same: British Overseas Territories citizens, British Overseas citizens, British subjects and British Protected persons are listed at 90 days, and British National (Overseas) does not appear on the immigration department's table at all. A passport must be valid at least a month beyond the intended date of departure.
Crossing into the mainland needs separate permission, and the control runs both ways — residents of other parts of China also require approval to enter Hong Kong, under a daily quota. Macao is a third jurisdiction again, with its own immigration control and its own arrangements.
Visitors should also be aware of the national security legislation, and the official wording carries it better than any summary. British government travel advice records that those laws "apply to activities taking place inside and outside Hong Kong, including in the UK", that they can be interpreted broadly, and that some offences carry a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. It names two instruments — the National Security Law of 2020 and the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance of 2024 — and records that people have been prosecuted for publishing or supporting statements critical of the authorities, including online. It also notes that Hong Kong does not recognise dual nationality, so a dual British-Chinese national may be treated as a Chinese citizen even when travelling on a British passport, with consular assistance limited accordingly. Photography of military installations is prohibited.
For a visitor the territory divides into the island, the Kowloon peninsula, the New Territories and the outlying islands, and the distances between them are short — the harbour crossing itself takes about ten minutes.