Hong Kong (HKG)

This section defines the supported geocoding datasets, operations, and input and output field information for Hong Kong.

Supported Geocoding Datasets

The following table lists the supported geocoding dataset(s) with the available geocoding levels for Hong Kong.

Note: Custom User Dictionaries are not supported.
Geocoding Dataset City Centroid Suburb/Village Centroid Postal Centroid Street Centroid Interpolated Street Address Point-level Address Point of Interest
TomTom, MapKing, traditional Chinese,latinized English Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes No

Supported Operations

The following operations are supported for Hong Kong:
  • Geocoding—Takes one or more addresses as input and returns latitude/longitude coordinates and other information.
  • Reverse Geocoding—Takes one or more latitude and longitude coordinates as input and returns the address of the location.
  • Interactive Geocoding— Returns potential match candidates as the adddress is typed in.
  • Global Key Lookup—Returns geocode candidates when given a unique key as input. USA MLD and AUS GNAF data only.

Input Fields

The input address may contain some or all of the following address elements.

Parameter Type Description
placeName String Specifies the building name, place name, Point of Interest (POI), company or firm name associated with the input address. Optional.
mainAddress String Single Line Input—If no other address field is populated, then the mainAddress entry will be treated as a single line input. Single line input can consist of multiple input address fields ; these should be entered in the typical address order for the country. For more details, refer to the section "Single Line Input" below.

Street Address—If the post address components (city, postalCode, etc.) are provided separately or in the lastLine field, then the contents of mainAddress will be treated as the street address part and can include company name, house number, building names and street names. Optional.

Street Intersection Input—To enter an intersection, specify the two street names separated by a double ampersand (&&).
lastLine String The last line of the address. Optional. For example:

8 Hong Cheung Street
Kwai Chung, New Territories
areaName1 String Specifies the province. Optional.
areaName2 String Not used.
areaName3 String Specifies the city or town. Optional.
areaName4 String Specifies the locality. Optional.
postalCode String Not used - Hong Kong does not have a postal code system.
country String The three-letter ISO 3166-1 Alpha-3 country code. For Hong Kong, the country code is HKG. Required for forward geocoding.

Address Guidelines for Hong Kong

Follow these suggestions to ensure that your input address data is in the best format possible for optimum matching and geocoding. For additional information on Hong Kong addresses, see guidelines on the Hong Kong postal website http://www.hongkongpost.com/eng/publications/guide/content/6.1.pdf.

  • Required fields—Addresses must contain a city. HKG does not consider postal codes in addresses.
  • Thoroughfare types—Thoroughfare types and their common abbreviations are recognized and fully supported in input addresses.
  • Common words and abbreviations—Common words, directionals, house number indicators, and abbreviations used in addresses are supported.
  • Numbers and numeric equivalents—Numbered streets are mapped to the named equivalents.

Single Line Input

Instead of entering each address component in separate fields, you can enter the entire address in the mainAddress input field with the address elements ordered as follows:

[address_number][street_info][areaName4][areaName3]

Where:
  • [address_number] is optional.
  • [street_info] consists of the street name, street type and any pre- or post-directional information (for example, East, West, etc.).
  • [areaName4] is the locality.
  • [areaName3] is the city or town.

For best results, put a comma between the street information and the last address line information.

Custom Options

There are no options specific to Hong Kong.

Output Fields

The following table lists the address fields returned for a candidate located in Hong Kong.

Note: The placeName, addressNumber, unitType and unitValue field values are only returned when a geocoding dataset that supports street address interpolation is installed.
Field Name Description
mainAddressLine The street address which may include company name, house number, building names and street names.
addressLastLine The last line of the address.
placeName The building name, place name, Point of Interest (POI), company or firm name associated with the address.
areaName1 The province.
areaName2 Not used.
areaName3 The city or town.
areaName4 The locality.
postCode1 Not used.
postCode2 Not used.
country The three-letter ISO 3166-1 Alpha-3 country code. For Hong Kong, the country code is HKG.
addressNumber The address number.
streetName The street or road name.
unitType The unit type such as APT, STE, etc.
unitValue The unit value/number, such as "3B".
customFields BUILDING_NAME is a building name without the estate designation. It can be returned in any language.