Hong Kong units of measurement

Hong Kong has three main systems of units of measurement in current use: In 1976 the Hong Kong Government started the conversion to the metric system, and as of 2012 measurements for government purposes, such as road signs, are almost always in metric units.

The Chinese system's most commonly used units were 里 (li), 丈 (tseung/cheung), 尺 (tsek/chek), 寸 (tsun/chun), 分 (fen/fan) in descending scale order.

The legal units for trade include 尺, 寸 and 分 only, but they are no longer in daily use, with the words 尺 and 寸 commonly understood as the imperial measure foot (Chinese: 呎) and inch (Chinese: 吋) which are pronounced the same.

Rulers and tapes on the market normally have dual markings in centimetres and feet and inches, which are both commonly used for body measurements.

All the imperial speed limit signs were replaced within 3 days in 25 August 1984 to 27 August 1984 upon enactment of new traffic law, with a temporary territory-wide speed limit of 50 km/h in force within that 3 days, while all remaining road signs were gradually replaced within the following 3 years.

[3] As a result, speed limit signs in Hong Kong now look identical to those in the UK, but with different meanings.

[4] Although this system is no longer in official use today, they are still commonly used for describing locations on the Castle Peak Road, with the Chinese character 咪, being a phonetic transcription of "mile", used instead of 哩 or 英里, and sometimes form the official address of establishments en-route (for example, the address of Kadoorie Beach is 18¾ milestone, Castle Peak Road (Chinese: 青山公路18¾咪)).

The shopping mall of CDW Building was renamed 8½ Chinese: 8咪半 after refurbishment in 2016 based on the old milestones.

Precious metals (gold, silver and platinum) are traded in the Chinese troy weight system, which differs from other goods.

[13] In Hong Kong, neither the mau nor the dau chung is a statutory unit allowed for use in trade;[14] however, the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department continues to use the dau chung for some administrative purposes, defining it as equivalent to 7,260 square feet (674 m2).