Geography From Space

Hong Kong is located off the southeast coast of China bordering the South China Sea. As a result of the Opium Wars of the 19th century, Hong Kong Island was ceded to Britain in 1842 at the Treaty of Nanking, followed by the adjacent Kowloon Peninsula under the Convention of Peking in 1860. In 1898, an additional 573 square kilometers (355 square miles) of islands and mainland area known as the New Territories were leased to Britain from China for 99 years.

The Answer:
Hong Kong

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Image © 1990 CNES/SPOT Image Corp. (Image provided by SPOT Image Corporation, Reston, VA)
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Since WWII (during which the British colony was under Japanese occupation for nearly 4 years), Hong Kong has built a thriving free-market economy. Over 6 million people live in Hong Kong, in a land area roughly 6 times the size of Washington, DC. In 1984, the British and Chinese governments signed an agreement to revert control of Hong Kong back to China on July 1, 1997. This image shows the New Territories at lower left. Two large cities, Shenzhen (China) and Kowloon, are easily discernable as grey/white areas at upper left and bottom middle respectively. Victoria, on the north side of Hong Kong Island is visible at bottom center.