Flag of Hong Kong
Officially Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China
Locally Hēung Góng · 香港
What the flag looks like
A red field with a stylised white five-petalled bauhinia flower in the center, each petal carrying a small red five-pointed star.
What it means
Red is the color of the Chinese national flag and the white bauhinia stands for Hong Kong, so the two colors together express "one country, two systems"; the stars echo those on China's flag.
How to remember it
Hong Kong
is a white bauhinia flower on red, each of its five petals holding a red star; Macau
swaps it for a white lotus on green.
Fun facts
- The flag was first raised officially at midnight on 1 July 1997, at the ceremony handing Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to China.
- The flower, Bauhinia × blakeana, is a sterile hybrid first found in Hong Kong and can only be grown from cuttings or grafts.
Hong Kong at a glance
- Status
- Special administrative region of China
- Sovereign state
- China
- Handover
- 1 July 1997, from the United Kingdom
- Region
- Special administrative region of China
- Population
- 7.5 million
- Area
- 1,114 km²
- Languages
- Chinese, English
- Currency
- Hong Kong dollar (HK$)
- Flag adopted
- 1990
Flags often confused with Hong Kong
- Macau: Hong Kong and Macau both have a white flower in the center of a single-colored field. Hong Kong has a five-petalled bauhinia on red; Macau has a lotus on green, under five yellow stars.
- China: China and Hong Kong both have a red field with five-pointed stars. China has yellow stars in the upper hoist corner; Hong Kong has a white bauhinia flower in the center with small red stars on its petals.