The heart of the metropolis is the capital on Hong Kong Island, Victoria, which climbs almost vertical streets halfway up Victoria Peak. Rising to a height of 556m, the top of the peak has most of the territory's few detached houses and mansions. The island shelters the harbour from the South China Sea. Major government buildings and the headquarters of banks and commercial trading houses, are located at the foot of the peak on Central Hong Kong Island, on land largely reclaimed from the harbour. The major commercial centre is the city of Kowloon, directly across the harbour.
Most industrial property is in skyscrapers in the New Territories to the north.
Except for the huge island of Lantau, most of the remaining islands are small and sparsely populated. A few have bedroom communities whose inhabitants take ferries to work on Hong Kong or Kowloon. A large floating population of boat dwellers docks in the territory's typhoon shelters. Steep terrain has forced about 90 percent of Hong Kong's population to congregate in just 15 percent of the land area, creating the highest population density in the world. With no place to expand but upward, Hong Kong has some of the world's tallest buildings outside New York City.