There Are 263 Islands in Hong Kong

Hong Kong owes its name to an island: Hong Kong Island. This is the island the Qing Dynasty ceded to the British Empire following their defeat in the First Opium War.

After a second defeat, in the Second Opium War, the Qing Dynasty ceded the Kowloon Peninsula, along with Stonecutters Island. By then, Hong Kong consisted of two main islands and Kowloon.

This all changed on July 1, 1898, when the lease of the New Territories took effect (the lease itself was formalized on June 9, 1898). Along with the New Territories, the lease included approximately 265 islands, some of which have since disappeared due to land reclamation projects. Stonecutters Island is one of those islands that is no longer an island.

In present-day Hong Kong, the largest island is Lantau Island. With an area of 147.16 square kilometers (56.82 square miles), it is nearly twice as large as Hong Kong Island. However, it is also twelve times less populated than Hong Kong Island.

On the other end of the spectrum is Ap Chau, in the northeast of Hong Kong. With an area of only 0.04 square kilometers (0.015 square miles), it is the smallest inhabited island in Hong Kong.

Kowloon Rock, in the middle of Kowloon Bay, is the smallest island in Hong Kong overall, measuring barely 6 square meters (64.6 square feet).