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Hong Kong

Hong Kong

293 1.8
A coastal city and region in southeast China with a busy port, strong economy, and a British past
  • proper noun
: Hong Kong
  • My brother Steve and his girlfriend Marcia were flying out of Hong Kong the next day.
  • Hong Kong and China
  • Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
  • Hong Kong government

Just do go to Shenzhen, China, go to Hong Kong, go to fucking Shanghai.

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Examples

  • I visited Hong Kong last summer to explore its famous skyline and vibrant markets.

  • And somebody told me about this opportunity that there was this conference happening in Hong Kong called Rise.

  • We are going to Hong Kong today.

  • Why does it say Hong Kong made in China?

  • We came from Hong Kong last week.

  • When I was 16, I went to work for a newspaper in Hong Kong.

  • From my windows, I can see the whole harbor of Hong Kong.

  • More recently, in seeking to raise capital abroad, China has again turned to Hong Kong.

    Academic text (1999)
  • When you get to Hong Kong, check in, get some sleep, and do some sightseeing.

    Fiction book (1994)
  • So Hong Kong has been for the past four months sort of engulfed in protests.

Surface Forms

Hong Kong main

Morphology

Hong + Kong

This is a place name composed of non-English morphemes ('Hong' and 'Kong' are not lexical English items in the provided data), so a B1 learner who ‘knows’ those constituent syllables would not be able to derive the meaning ‘a Special Administrative Region of China’ from them. As a proper noun/toponym the expression names a specific place and its institutional status, which is not predictable from its parts even though the elements have etymological sense in Cantonese.

Etymology

Hong Kong comes from Cantonese words Hong and Kong that mean 'fragrant harbour'. People think it came from boats trading incense and other scented goods in the old harbour, so the name points to its harbour and helps you remember it's a port city.