Hong Kong

The name "Hong Kong" is an approximate phonetic rendering of the pronunciation of the spoken Cantonese or Hakka name 香港, meaning "Fragrant Harbour".[31] Before 1842, the name referred to a small inlet—now Aberdeen Harbour (香港仔 hoeng1gong2 zai2, or Hiong1gong3zai3[9] in Hong Kong Hakka, literally means "Little Hong Kong")—between Aberdeen Island and the south side of Hong Kong Island, which was one of the first points of contact between British sailors and local fishermen. As one of the world's leading international financial centres, Hong Kong has a major capitalist service economy characterised by low taxation and free trade. The currency, Hong Kong dollar, is the eighth most traded currency in the world as of 2010.[20] Hong Kong was once described by Milton Friedman as the world's greatest experiment in laissez-faire capitalism, but has since instituted a regime of regulations including a minimum wage.[132] It maintains a highly developed capitalist economy, ranked the freest in the world by the Index of Economic Freedom every year since 1995.[133][134][135] It is an important centre for international finance and trade, with one of the greatest concentrations of corporate headquarters in the Asia-Pacific region,[136] and is known as one of the Four Asian Tigers for its high growth rates and rapid development from the 1960s to the 1990s. Between 1961 and 1997 Hong Kong's gross domestic product grew 180 times while per-capita GDP increased 87 times over.