evidence: The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (香港特別行政區, 香港特别行政区), commonly known as Hong Kong[8] (香|香 港|港), is one of the two special administrative regions of the People's Republic of China, along with Macau. Comprising more than 260 islands, the territory is located on the eastern side of the Pearl River Delta, bordering Guangdong province in the north and facing the South China Sea in the east, west and south. Hong Kong was a crown colony of the United Kingdom from 1842 until the transfer of sovereignty to the People's Republic of China in 1997. Hong Kong was declared a free port to serve as an entrepôt of the British Empire, and grew rapidly into a center for international trade. Between December 25, 1941, and the end of World War II, Hong Kong was under Japanese control. Rapid industrialization between 1960s and 1990s made Hong Kong one of the four Asian Tigers of economic growth. Driven by exports, the economy grew at an average annual rate of 8.9 percent in the 1970s. Many of the manufacturing operations moved to mainland China during the 1980s and Hong Kong became a global financial center, with industry now constituting just 9 percent of the economy. Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated countries/dependencies in the world, with an overall density of more than 6,200 people per km². The Sino-British Joint Declaration and the Basic Law of Hong Kong stipulate that Hong Kong operate with a high degree of autonomy until at least 2047.