Formally an independent country and colony of the British, Hong Kong, known officially as ‘Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China’, is a special administrative region of the People’s Republic of China.

Hong Kong is an island off the southern area of china’s coastline. Under British rule and now, the island has Hong Kong has long been a melting pot of cultures and a land of confrontation or collaboration between East and West. Since the hand over of control to China in 1997 Hong Kong has been facing new challenges in creating a new identity for itself. It is still very much independent from China. On the international stage Hong Kong presents itself as ”Hong Kong, China”, not “China, Hong Kong”.

The location of Hong Kong makes it an ideal location for business with all major Asian destinations

Most predictions for Hong Kong after the hand over in 1997 were pessimistic foretelling that this Asian tiger regress and under direct control from Beijing would lose its distinct identity and economic global independence. Since 1997 Hong Kong has seen changes, but it still remains a thriving, unique, cosmopolitan city, which is very much independent from Mainland China. Mainland China is still referred to as a foreign country by its residents and residence permits for Mainland Chinese have even stricter requirements than under British rule. Most of the younger generation aspire toward the west rather than East. The Beijing government seems content to leave Hong Kong to govern independently and has restrained itself for the sake if international interest and business. Hong Kong tends to take care of its own affairs and rather than leading the Chinese mainland. Its open doors to the rest of the world is a vision of what China as a whole could be like once it fully opens up to the west. It is the Hong Kong Government and not Beijing that have been responsible for bringing in stricter laws concerning individual freedoms. This has manly been a response to the fear of an influx of poor mainlanders seeking a new future and fortune within the skyscrapers and dazzling lights of Hong Kong.