With the exception of mail from Mainland China, postal codes are not used in Hong Kong as the Hongkong Post deems it unnecessary to adopt such a system. Hongkong Post advised to leave the postcode field blank or try to fill in with "000", "0000", "000000" or "HKG" wherever required. [1] The People's Republic of China's national postal service, China Post, has allocated postal code 999077 to Hong Kong, although this is only sporadically used when sending mail from Mainland China. [2] As China Post does not serve Hong Kong, this code is generally not used in any other scenarios and remains little-known. [2]
Hong Kong has been a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China (PRC) since 1997. Between 1841 and 1997, Hong Kong was a Crown Colony of the United Kingdom, and the colonial government-established postal service, the Hongkong Post, was retained after the 1997 handover. As such, postal service remained and remains separate from the rest of the PRC under the one country, two systems principle.
Given Hong Kong’s compact size, postal codes have never been introduced as it would bring little benefit to the already-efficient postal service. [2] In 2000, city officials once considered a post code system for the city, but the idea was not implemented. [3] [4] [5]
The China Post-designated postal code, 999077, is one of the 9-series codes that China Post uses for international and interregional mail sent from Mainland China. [2]
Hongkong Post recommends to address letters using recipient name, flat number, building name, house number, street and village or district. [6]
The politics of Hong Kong takes place in a framework of a political system dominated by its quasi-constitutional document, the Hong Kong Basic Law, its own legislature, the Chief Executive as the head of government and of the Special Administrative Region and of a politically constrained multi-party presidential system. The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China is led by the Chief Executive, the head of government.
Under the Basic Law, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is exclusively in charge of its internal affairs, whilst the central government of China is responsible for its foreign affairs and defence. As a separate customs territory, Hong Kong maintains and develops relations with foreign states and regions, and plays an active role in such international organisations as World Trade Organization (WTO) and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in its own right under the name of Hong Kong, China. Hong Kong participates in 16 projects of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
The special administrative regions (SAR) of the People's Republic of China are one of four types of province-level divisions of the People's Republic of China directly under the control of its Central People's Government, being integral areas of the country. As a region, they possess the highest degree of autonomy from China's central government. However, despite the relative autonomy that the Central People's Government offers the special administrative regions, the National People's Congress and its Standing Committee remains capable of enforcing laws for the special administrative regions.
A postal code is a series of letters or digits or both, sometimes including spaces or punctuation, included in a postal address for the purpose of sorting mail.
"Mainland China", also referred to as "the Chinese mainland", is a geopolitical term defined as the territory under direct administration of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the aftermath of the Chinese Civil War. In addition to the geographical mainland, the geopolitical sense of the term includes islands such as Hainan, Chongming, and Zhoushan. By convention, territories outside of mainland China include:
Postal codes used in the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown dependencies are known as postcodes. They are alphanumeric and were adopted nationally between 11 October 1959 and 1974, having been devised by the General Post Office. A full postcode is known as a "postcode unit" and designates an area with several addresses or a single major delivery point.
The Three Links or Three Linkages was a 1979 proposal from the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China (PRC) to open up postal, transportation, and trade links between Mainland China and Taiwan, with the goal of unifying Mainland China and Taiwan.
China Post, legally the China Post Group Corporation, is the state-owned enterprise operating the official postal service of China, which provides the service on Mainland China, excluding its special administrative regions, Hong Kong and Macao, which have their own postal service independent of the mainland's. Postal services on island of Taiwan, which is claimed as part of China but not controlled by it, are provided by Chunghwa Post.
Poste restante, also known as general delivery in North American English, is a service where the post office holds the mail until the recipient calls for it. It is a common destination for mail for people who are visiting a particular location and have no need, or no way, of having mail delivered directly to their place of residence at that time.
The British Forces Post Office (BFPO) provides a postal service to HM Forces separate from that provided by Royal Mail in the United Kingdom. BFPO addresses are used for the delivery of mail in the UK and around the world. BFPO moved from its original base at Inglis Barracks, Mill Hill to its current base at RAF Northolt in northwest London in 2007.
An address is a collection of information, presented in a mostly fixed format, used to give the location of a building, apartment, or other structure or a plot of land, generally using political boundaries and street names as references, along with other identifiers such as house or apartment numbers and organization name. Some addresses also contain special codes, such as a postal code, to make identification easier and aid in the routing of mail.
Hongkong Post is a government department of Hong Kong responsible for postal services, though operated as a trading fund. Founded in 1841, it was known as Postal Department or Post Office before the handover of Hong Kong in 1997. It has been a sub-member of the Universal Postal Union since 1877, and is a separate entity from China Post.
Postal codes in the People's Republic of China are postal codes used by China Post for the delivery of letters and goods within mainland China.
A postal address in Ireland is a place of delivery defined by Irish Standard (IS) EN 14142-1:2011 and serviced by the universal service provider, An Post. Its addressing guides comply with the guidelines of the Universal Postal Union (UPU), the United Nations-affiliated body responsible for promoting standards in the postal industry, across the world.
The handover of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China was at midnight on 1 July 1997. This event ended 156 years of British rule in the former colony, which began in 1841. Hong Kong was established as a special administrative region of China (SAR) for 50 years, maintaining its own economic and governing systems from those of mainland China during this time, although influence from the central government in Beijing increased after the passing of the Hong Kong national security law in 2020.
The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Passport is a passport issued only to permanent residents of Hong Kong who also hold Chinese citizenship. In accordance with the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, since the transfer of sovereignty on 1 July 1997, the passport has been issued by the Immigration Department of the Government of Hong Kong under the authorisation of the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China. As the official languages of Hong Kong are Chinese and English, the passport is printed bilingually in both Chinese and English. In addition, unlike Chinese passport which can be issued by Chinese consulates abroad, the Immigration Department is the only issuing authority for HKSAR passports.
The handover of Macau from the Portuguese Republic to the People's Republic of China was at midnight on 20 December 1999. This event ended 442 years of Portuguese rule in the former settlement, which began in 1557.
The State Post Bureau is the government agency that regulates China Post, the postal service of the People's Republic of China. The agency used to report to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and is now under the administration of the Ministry of Transport. The bureau is headed by the Director-General. The current Director-General is Ma Junsheng.
Relations between the government of Hong Kong and the Republic of China (Taiwan) encompass both when the Republic of China controlled mainland China, and afterwards, when the Republic of China fled to Taiwan.