Hong Kong, or literally "the port of perfumes", is a former British colony that was returned to China in July 1997 and has managed to maintain its own legal and administrative systems. It is the largest and most populated of the two Special Administrative Regions (SAR) of the People's Republic of China (PRC).
The city is located on the eastern shore of the "Pearl River" on the southern Chinese coast and has a population of approximately 7 million people.
Hong Kong's liberal and dynamic economy has experienced tremendous growth in recent years, and it has been ranked in first place on the Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom, created in 1995. Hong Kong has established itself as a model industrial and commercial hub, and was ranked 3rd as a global financial centre, behind London and New York.