VISIT OF HER ROYAL HIGHNESS PRINCESS ALEXANDRA
TO HONG KONG
OCTOBER 1972
Hong Kong
Fact Sheet
The land area of Hong Kong is approximately 403.7 square
miles. Hong Kong Island (29.2 square miles) was ceded to
Britain as a trading station in 1841. The Kowloon Peninsula
together with Stonecutters' Island, Green Island and Ap Lei
Chau Island (34 square miles) were added in 1860 under the
Convention of Peking. In 1898 the New Territories (370.4
square miles), which consist of the rural areas north of
Kowloon and some 235 adjacent Islands, were leased to Great
Britain for 99 years.
LAND POLICY
All land is owned by the Crown.
Government policy is to
sell leases to the highest bidder by public auction or by
tender, except in the case of land required for public,
charitable or non-profit making purposes when grants are
made, usually on favourable terms, by private treaty.
POPULATION
Total population according to an official estimate of the
census of December 1971 is 4,064,400, about 98% of whom are
Chinese in origin. Population has increased from 1,600,000
in 1946 largely as a result of immigration from mainland
China. Some 57% of the total population are British subjects
by virtue of Hong Kong birth.
ECONOMY
Hong Kong is now firmly established as a light industrial
economy based on exports. It nevertheless retains a very
/considerable