• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Hong Kong Naval Base
22°18'N 114°08'E

Hong Kong is fortunate in having a sheltered natural harbor, which provides good access and a safe haven for vessels calling at the port from around the world. The port has always been a key factor in the development and prosperity of Hong Kong, which is strategically located on the Far East trade routes and is in the geographical centre of the now fast-developing Asia-Pacific Basin.

In April 2019 former leader of the 2014 Occupy Central democracy movement in Hong Kong has launched a legal challenge to plans by China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) to build a naval dock right next to the central business district. Lester Shum applied for a judicial review at the Hong Kong High Court following a zoning decision by the city's government that would see PLA warships berthed at the heart of the city, where the army has previously played a very low-key role.

The dock will be administered by the PLA and covered by military law. The government had earlier promised the people of Hong Kong that the planned new harbor-front area would be solely for public use. Planning authorities approved the application for rezoning in 2014, and rezoned a 150-meter-long open area measuring some 0.3 hectares along the Central waterfront for military purposes. The government's security bureau has said that just four buildings in the terminal will be restricted military zones, while the remaining areas will be open to the public, subject to defense needs.

The government planne to submit legislative amendments enabling the rezoning to the Legislative Council (LegCo), before formally handing over the land to the PLA. Hong Kong Security Secretary John Lee defended the need for a military dock in Central in LegCo, saying that military attacks can happen at any time and that the PLA therefore needs to be on the alert, citing the 1941 attack by Japanese forces on Pearl Harbor during World War II.

Hong Kong is the busiest and most efficient international container port in the world which handled 19.1 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of containers in 2002. The port is served by some 80 international shipping lines providing over 400 container liner services per week connecting to over 500 destinations worldwide.

In 2002, the Kwai Chung container terminals' throughput amounted to 12 million TEUs, representing 62% of the port's total container throughput. The remaining 38% was handled at mid-stream sites, River Trade Terminal, PCWAs, buoys and anchorages, and other wharves.

Container terminals (CTs) are situated in Kwai Chung basin. There are eight terminals under the operation of four different operators, namely Modern Terminals Ltd (MTL), Hongkong International Terminals Ltd (HIT), COSCO-HIT and CSX. They occupy 217 hectares of land, providing 18 berths and 6,592 metres deep water frontage.

A new container terminal, CT9, situated on the southeast of Tsing Yi Island opposite to the existing terminals is currently under construction. The first two berths have been put into operation in July and October 2003 and the whole terminal will be completed by 2005. When the third berth is completed in early 2004, a new operator Asia Container Terminal Ltd (ACT) will commence its operation, bringing the number of terminal operators to five. The CT9 will take up 68 hectares of land, providing six berths of 1,940 metres of waterfrontage and alongside water depth of 15.5 metres.

The operation of mid-stream sites in Hong Kong mainly involves the loading and unloading of ocean and river cargoes from barges to trucks/lorries and vice versa. Currently, these sites are situated at 12 different locations occupying a total land area of 30 hectares and waterfrontage of 3,337 metres. They are either under long-term or short-term tenancies.

The operation of the River Trade Terminal in Hong Kong involves the consolidation of containers, break bulk and bulk cargo shipped between the Hong Kong port and ports in the Pearl River Delta. The terminal is located near Pillar Point in Tuen Mun and is being operated by the River Trade Terminal Company Ltd. The terminal was fully completed in November 1999, operating with some 65 hectares of land and 3,000 metres of quay.

The operation of Public Cargo Working Areas (PCWAs) involves the short-term allocation of berths and waterfront working areas for the purpose of handling general cargo, bulk and containerised cargo transferred from lorries to barges and vice versa. PCWAs are currently situated at eight different locations, comprising a combined total quay length of some 7,020 metres. They are managed by the Marine Department of HKSARG.

In Hong Kong, there are two types of Government Mooring Buoys (GMB) serving ocean-going vessels calling on the Hong Kong port:-

• Class A GMBs - for vessels up to 183m in length with drafts between 6.2m and 10.8m; and
• Class B GMBs - for vessels up to 137m in length with drafts between 4.8m and 9.7m.

GMBs allow ocean going vessels to moor in the stream while transferring their cargo to and from barges secured to the ships' sides. GMBs also function as typhoon moorings for vessels during extreme weather conditions and other non-cargo handling shipping activities such as embarkation of cruise passengers.

In Hong Kong, cargo handling can take place at the anchorages. There are 11 such anchorages with 3,090 hectares, of which 1,473 hectares are deepwater cargo-handling anchorages and 1,617 hectares are shallow water cargo-handling anchorage.

In 2002, a total of 3.3 million TEUs of containers and 19.6 million tonnes of non-containerised cargo were handled at the buoys and anchorages.

Port back-up (PBU) activities are an integral part of the overall port operation in Hong Kong. PBU uses are those port-related activities which are essential to the operation of port activities but do not need to be located within the confines of the port. These uses include container depots, container yards, container vehicle parks and container vehicle repair workshops.

Currently, there are about 380 hectares of land being used for PBU purposes and these PBU facilities are mainly located in the New Territories (e.g. Yuen Long, Lok Ma Chau).

Within Hong Kong, there are 14 typhoon shelters providing a total of 414 hectares of sheltered space for the protection of local vessels and river trade vessels during typhoons and inclement weather conditions. The use of typhoon shelters by vessels is subject to maximum length restrictions of 30 metres or 50 metres.

The port industry in Hong Kong is supported by two types of ship repair facility : small repair yards serving the local shipping fleet, and floating docks and ship repair yards which serve much larger ocean-going vessels.

While local ship repair yards are spread across 11 different districts within Hong Kong, the three floating docks are located off the coast of north Lantau Island and west Tsing Yi Island.

Responsibility for administering the port is vested in the Director of Marine. The Port Operations Committee advises him on all matters affecting the efficient operations of the port of Hong Kong, except those under the purview of the Pilotage Advisory Committee and the Provisional Local Vessels Advisory Committee. The Hong Kong Port and Maritime Board advises the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) on matters related to port planning and development as well as promotion of Hong Kong as an international maritime centre.

The Marine Department ensures that conditions exist to enable ships to enter the port, work their cargoes and leave as quickly and as safely as possible. It is concerned with many aspects of safety standards for all classes and types of vessels, from the largest oil-carrying tankers to the smallest passenger-carrying sampans. It also maintains aids to navigation and mooring buoys for sea-going ships, manages two cross-boundary ferry terminals and administers eight public cargo-working areas.