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The article considers the process of Hong Kong's administrative system formation after its placement under the administration of the British Empire in 1842. A brief description of the local Chinese and expatriate communities is given and the character of their interaction is identified. The transformations of Hong Kong's administrative system at the various stages of its formation are analyzed and its qualitative characteristic is given. The significant language and other barriers to the establishing of interaction between colonial administration and the Chinese community and inefficiency of the administrative control pattern in the 1840-50s are identified. Inefficiency of this pattern is considered as a prerequisite for its development by establishing of the new scheme of civil servants' selection with the aim of teaching them Chinese language and creation of the team of interpreters ready to communicate with the local Chinese. The abovementioned scheme turned out to be efficient and practically laid the foundation for creating Hong Kong's administrative system. The author comes to the conclusion that the new scheme trained specialists made an important contribution to the development of Hong Kong, which from the periphery of the Qing Empire was transformed to the autonomous outpost of the British Empire.

The article considers development of the tourist sector in Hong Kong and Macao in historical perspective, analyzes factors that influence the tourist potential of these South China regions. A brief characteristic of Hong Kong and Macao SARs' tourist industry is given, local authorities policy on development and promotion of the two regions as a tourist destination, as well as primary results of the policy, are considered. Some similarity between the two regions in terms of location, natural and material resources is emphasized. By contrast, the authors point out fundamental differences of historical, cultural and political-economic development of the former European colonies and define them as a significant factor which determines the potential of their tourist development. The authors come to the conclusion about the much higher tourist potential of Hong Kong compared to Macao's at the current stage. It appears that ensuring growth of the Macao's tourist potential in the near future demands changing of paradigm of its economic development which should be based on rational short-term planning.

The article formulates and analyses factors of forming of Hong Kong's modern political culture with the purpose of uncovering the nature of local antigovernment protests. Considering the mass unrest acts in Hong Kong as a special administrative region of the PRC, social and political aspects are emphasized. The article considers the historical way of forming of Hong Kong's initial population, composed of aboriginals — the Cantonese and aliens from the north — Hakka. Autonomy of ongoing processes in the region is emphasized. The article analyses influence on Hong Kong's society during Britain's colonial rule as a main factor of forming of its modern political culture. The article also considers the nature of Hong Kong's government interaction with its society in 1940-1960s. The article states that at this time the government adhered the concept of minimal colonial state and didn't take meaningful measures to solve the most important social and political problems. The period of 1970s, on the contrary, is defined as a time of fundamental changes in Hong Kong's socio-political structure. This is due to accelerating of modernization processes and Hong Kong's gaining a certain degree of autonomy at this time. The authors conclude that a unique mentality in Hong Kong's society was formed and gives its characteristic, which makes it possible to speak of the features of its political culture.

The article considers the process of forming the modern identity of Hong Kong and proves underlying role of the British influence in this process. It is pointed out that the process goes back to the 19th century, when well-off Chinese started to move to the British Hong Kong in trying to find more comfortable conditions for life and business and reaches its pinnacle in 1970-1980, when Hong Kong not only becomes economically developed but transforms into a factor of cultural influence in the region mainly due to the promotion of its original (civilization-state) pop-culture. It's stated that Hongkongers use cultural and semiotic resources to emphasize specificity of their cultural code. And particularly these kinds of resources played the biggest role in this process. Authors conclude that the British influence was one of the structural factors which determined the nature and contents of Hong Kong's identity. At the same time, they note that the process of its forming is based on evolved for centuries Chinese national tradition which contains self-preserving mechanisms which make it possible for Hongkongers to interpret external cultural drawings in a unique way.