Port Of Hong Kong, China

The Port of Hong Kong lies on the coast of southern China on the Kowloon Peninsula off the South China Sea about 36 kilometers southeast of the Port of Huadu and 34 kilometers southwest of the Port of Yantian. Originally ceded by China to the United Kingdom in 1898, the Port of Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997. Hong Kong covers over 1.1 thousand square kilometers and includes the adjacent islets in the South China Sea. In 2005, almost seven million people lived in the Hong Kong special administrative region of China.

The Port of Hong Kong is one of the leading financial centers in the world. With a highly capitalist economy, it contains one of the biggest concentrations of corporate headquarters in the region. The Port of Hong Kong's stock exchange is the world's sixth largest. Often cited as the best example of laissez-faire capitalism, the government follows a policy of "positive non-intervention" that leaves the economy to market forces and the private sector.

After World War II, the Port of Hong Kong industrialized quickly, manufacturing products for export. In the 1980s, it just as quickly transformed into a service-based economy. The Port of Hong Kong suffered from the 1998 Asian financial crisis and by the outbreak of SARS in 2003, but it has since recovered. With few natural resources and scant land for agriculture, the Port of Hong Kong depends on imports of food and raw materials. Much of the Port of Hong Kong's exports come from mainland China.

Hong Kong is one of several hub ports serving the South-East and East Asia region, and is an economic gateway to mainland China. Hong Kong set a record in its container throughput in 2007 by handling 23.9 million TEUs (20-foot equivalent units of containers), maintaining its status as the largest container port serving southern China and one of the busiest ports in the world. Some 456,000 vessels arrived in and departed from Hong Kong during the year, carrying 243 million tonnes of cargo and about 25 million passengers. The average turnaround time for container vessels in Hong Kong is about 10 hours. For conventional vessels working in mid-stream at buoys or anchorages, it is 42 and 52 hours respectively.