The People's Republic of China (PRC), known officially as Zhōnghuá (中华), has a lengthy coastline, many large harbors, and a large number of lighthouses. The country is divided into 23 provinces and 11 other province-level regions of various special types. Hong Kong is a territory surrounded by Guangdong province on the south coast of China. The territory includes Hong Kong Island, the Kowloon Peninsula facing Hong Kong Island, Lantou Island, and many other surrounding islands. British troops occupied Hong Kong Island in 1841 and the island was ceded to Britain the following year. Additional territory was ceded in 1860 and in 1898 the British obtained a 99-year lease on the remaining parts of the territory. All of Hong Kong was returned to Chinese control when that 99-year lease expired in 1997. Since 1997 Hong Kong has been a province-level Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China with an autonomous government. Although it is definitely part of China, Hong Kong functions in certain respects as if it were a separate country. A financial center and one of the world's great ports, Hong Kong has a population of approximately 7.5 million. Aids to navigation in Hong Kong are maintained by the Hong Kong SAR Marine Department. The five historic lighthouses are well known but less is known about smaller lights. Both Chinese and English are official languages in Hong Kong. In the Yue (Cantonese) dialect spoken in Hong Kong, tsui is a cape, chau is an island, and kong is a harbor ("Hong Kong" means "Fragrant Harbor"). Due to competing systems for transliterating Chinese and related dialects into Latin characters, there are always several possible spellings for the names of places in China. Special thanks to Matthew Yuen for sharing his research on the history of Hong Kong lighthouses. ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights. HK numbers are the SAR Marine Department's light list numbers; these numbers are painted or displayed on the light towers. Admiralty numbers are from volume P of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. NGA numbers are from NGA Publication 112. The Maritime Department does not publish its list of lights.
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Information available on lost lighthouses:
Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: East: Shànwěi Area | West: Macau, Pearl River
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Posted November 10, 2008. Checked and revised March 12, 2024. Lighthouses: 41. Site copyright 2024 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.