ENG-1963 — Page 417

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GEOGRAPHY

total population to be 3,133,131, of whom 1,610,650 were male and 1,522,481 female.

The bulk of the population comes from the neighbouring Chinese province of Kwangtung. It consists of Cantonese, more than twelve times the size of the next largest group, followed by Hoklo, Hakka, Sze Yap and Tanka. From 1949 to 1951 a certain number came from the central coastal provinces of China. Not all of Hong Kong's phenomenal increase is due to immigrant popula- tion; the natural annual increase of births over deaths is close to 100,000. The greatest concentration of people (a little over 70 per cent) live around the coastal fringes of the harbour, where the population pressure strikes the visitor most forcibly. The crude birth rate in Hong Kong is about 33 per mille, which is very low for Asia.

CLIMATE

The climate of Hong Kong is governed by the monsoons, and although the Colony lies within the tropics it enjoys a variety of weather from season to season unusual for tropical countries. The winter monsoon blows from the north or north-east and normally begins during September. It prevails from October until mid- March, but can persist until May. Early winter is the most pleasant time of the year, when the weather is generally dry and sunny with mean daily temperatures about 70°F to 75°F; this is the most popular time of the year with tourists. After the New Year the sky is more often clouded, though rainfall remains slight; fre- quently the days are overcast and dull with chilly winds. Coastal fogs occur from time to time in early spring-during breaks in the monsoon when warm south-easterly winds may temporarily displace the cool north-easterlies.

The summer monsoon blows from the south or south-west and although it can occur from mid-April until September it is not as persistent as the north-east monsoon of winter. During this part of the year the weather is almost continuously hot and humid, and is often cloudy and showery with occasional thunderstorms. Summer is the rainy season. The annual rainfall, as measured at the Royal Observatory, has varied between 46 inches and 120 inches, but the normal value is 85 inches. On average the five dry months from November to March yield only nine inches as com- pared with 76 inches spread over the other seven months. There