18
Geography and Climate
THIS chapter, and those which follow on the history of the Colony and its system of government, present a background against which the detailed descriptions in other chapters of the Report may be viewed.
The Colony of Hong Kong is on the south-east coast of China, adjoining the province of Kwangtung. It is just inside the tropics, less than 100 miles south of the tropic of Cancer, and lies between latitudes-22°9′ and 22°37′N and longitudes 113°52′ and 114°30′E. The twin cities of Victoria, on Hong Kong Island, and Kowloon, on the mainland, stand on either side of the harbour, and are about 90 miles south-east of Canton and 40 miles east of Portuguese Macau. The jet age has brought the Colony to within less than 24 hours of Britain, while the shortest air route across Eurasia between London and Hong Kong is 5,965 miles.
The total land area of the Colony is 398 square miles of which Hong Kong Island itself, together with a number of small adjacent islands, comprise 29 square miles. Kowloon and Stonecutters Island comprise another three-and-three-quarter square miles. The New Territories, which consist of part of the mainland and more than 230 islands, have a total area of 3653 square miles.
TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY
Hong Kong is situated on the edge of an eroded mountain chain which extends along the south coast of China. The main components of the chain are folded and metamorphosed volcanic and sedimen- tary rocks with younger intrusions of granitic rocks nearly all of which formed during the Jurassic Period.
The oldest rocks in the Colony are marine sedimentary rocks forming the Tolo Harbour Formation. This formation is exposed on Ma Shi Chau and contains fossils that have been dated as most probably Permian in age. The stratigraphic relationships of this
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