Hong Kong became a Britishcolony in 1842. Victoria City or the City of Victoria was one of the first British urban settlements in Hong Kong. It was located in present-day Central area, and was named after Queen Victoria, the then Queen of the United Kingdom in 1843.
The City originally covered the present-day Central, Admirality and part of Sheung Wan on the Hong Kong Island. In 1857, the British government expanded the scope of Victoria City and divided it into four "wans". The four wans are Sai Wan (present-day Kennedy Town and Sai Ying Pun, Sheung Wan (present-day Sheung Wan), Choong Wan or Chung Wan (present-day Central) and Ha Wan (present-day Wanchai). The four wans (read: rings) are further divided into nine "yeuks" (read: districts).
In 1903, six boundary stones were established to mark the City's boundary. These boundary stones are still preserved today. The coverage of the then City included parts of Causeway Bay (north of Causeway Road) and Happy Valley (West of Wong Nei Chong Road on the east side of the Racecourse).
Victoria City is technically the capital of Hong Kong, however, the name is rarely used today.
See also
History of Hong Kong
List of buildings, sites and areas in Hong Kong
Victoria, for a list of places and people called Victoria
Article on history of Hong Kong (http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:kZhFEpYoYxIJ:cd.ed.gov.hk/pshe/tc/chihistory/downloads/CH_S1-3_Pkg5_07.doc+%22victoria+city%22++hong+kong+1857&hl=en) (in Chinese)
Photos of the 1903 boundary stones (http://www.hk-place.com/db.php?post=d007004)
A article on the "four wans and nine yeuks" in Chinese (http://www.cwfestival.org/images/pdf/history/032.pdf) (pdf format)
Another article on "four wans and nine yeuks" (http://szlib.szptt.net.cn/hk97/j2a.htm) (in Simplified Chinese)
HongKong is on the eastern side of the Pearl River Delta on the southeastern coast of China, facing the South China Sea in the south, and bordering Guangdong Province in the north.
The liberation of HongKong in 1945 was celebrated at the Cenotaph in Victoria with the raising of the Union Flag and the Flag of the Republic of China.
HongKong is 60 kilometres (37 miles) east of Macau, on the opposite side of the Pearl River Delta and borders the city of Shenzhen in Guangdong Province.
HongKong Island (香港島, colloquially the Island side) is the island where the colonial settlement of the HongKong territory, Victoria City, was founded.
HongKong Island is the second largest island of the territory, the largest being Lantau Island.
HongKong Island is connected to the Kowloon Peninsula on the mainland by two road-only tunnels (the Cross-Harbour_Tunnel and Eastern Harbour Tunnel), two MTR metro tunnels and one combined road and MTR rail link tunnel, the Western Harbour Crossing (in separate conduits running side by side).
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