Districts of Hong Kong-Cedar Herald Index

The districts of Hong Kong are the 18 political areas of Hong Kong, a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China, that are geographically and administratively divided. Under the one country, two systems concept, each district has a district council, formerly district boards, for which the boards were established in 1982, when Hong Kong was under British rule. However, the districts have limited relevance to the population, as few public services operate according to district boundaries. The police, fire services, health services, education and hospital authorities, and postal service each define their own idiosyncratic geographic divisions.

History

In the 1860s, residents speaking the same dialects were often grouped together, and social structure was more important than district structure. Merchants often travelled together as guilds and sold common goods across different areas. Organizations such as Nam Pak Hong, Tung Wah Hospital Committee and "District Watch Committee" often cut across any native district lines. The concept of boundary separation only became important around 1870, when cultural conflicts increased between coolies, Chinese and the British. One of the first legal attempt to control districts came in 1888 under the European District Reservation Ordinance, which reserved areas exclusively to Europeans. The first Town Planning Ordinance did not appear until 1939.

Districts of Hong Kong

The New Territories and New Kowloon became part of Hong Kong since 1898. The colonial government appoints District Officer to oversee the area. At first the Northern District Officer was stationed in Tai Po. The Northern District and Southern District was later split into Islands District Office, Tuen Mun District Office, Yuen Long District Office, Sai Kung District Office, etc.

Districts of Hong Kong

Following the appointment of district officers in urban Hong Kong, Kowloon and New Kowloon since 1968, the District Administration Scheme was implemented in 1982 with the establishment of a district board and a district management committee in each of the districts in Hong Kong, including Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and aforementioned the New Territories. The aim of the scheme is to achieve a more effective co-ordination of government activities in the provision of services and facilities at the district level, ensure that the Government is responsive to district needs and problems and promote public participation in district affairs. From 1 July 1997 to 31 December 1999, the former district boards were replaced by provisional district boards. The provisional district boards were in turn replaced on 1 January 2000, with 18 district councils.

Districts of Hong Kong

There have been two major changes on district divisions since their implementation in 1982:

Kwai Tsing District split off from Tsuen Wan District in 1985. Yau Tsim District and Mong Kok District merged to become Yau Tsim Mong District in 1994.

There were also alterations to the borders between Sham Shui Po and Kwai Tsing districts, which used to straddle across Nob Hill since its development on the site of the former Lai Chi Kok Amusement Park, in 2006, and between Eastern and Wan Chai districts, which involved reallocation of the Tin Hau and the Victoria Park constituencies in 2014. The borders between Sham Shui Po with that of Kwai Tsing and Yau Tsim Mong were also altered after new land reclamation projects in the 1990s made it necessary to redraw the previous sea borders over newly formed land. The border between Yau Tsim Mong and Kowloon City districts was altered following reclamation of Hung Hom Bay in the 1990s.

Districts

Hong Kong in administration consists of 18 districts in 3 different regions. The 3 regions are: Hong Kong Island (HK), Kowloon (KLN), and the New Territories (NT). The New Territories has the most districts (9), followed by Kowloon (5) and lastly Hong Kong Island (4).

The population density per district varies from 1,021 (Islands) to 59,704 (Kwun Tong) per km2. Before the combination of Mong Kok and Yau Tsim districts in 1995, Mong Kok District had the highest density (~120,000/km2).