Hong Kong

22.3193°N, 114.1694°E.

Special Administrative Region of China, occupying 1,114 km² across Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, the New Territories, and 263 outlying islands. Ceded to Britain in three treaties (1841, 1860, and the 99-year lease of the New Territories in 1898), returned to China in 1997. Victoria Peak rises 552 metres above the harbor; the Peak Tram funicular has been climbing the 1.4 km of track since 1888. Hong Kong Island's flat ground is so scarce that 70% of the territory remains undeveloped country park while the city has the densest concentration of skyscrapers on Earth: 552 buildings exceed 150 metres, more than New York City and Chicago combined. The harbor is one of the deepest natural deepwater ports in the world (12-metre depth in places), enabling the container terminals at Kwai Tsing. The financial district (Central) was largely reclaimed from the harbor — the original 1841 shoreline now runs through the middle of the buildings.

A city with more skyscrapers than any other left 70% of itself as country park — and the original waterfront passes through the lobbies of the buildings that replaced it.