There were no reports of any damage or casualties as a result of the 2.8-magnitude quake, which struck in the middle of the afternoon around 30 kilometres (20 miles) north of Hong Kong, near the Chinese city of Shenzhen.
“Quite a number of local residents from various parts of the territory reported to have felt this tremor,” the Hong Kong Observatory, the city’s meteorological agency, said in a statement.
The quake lasted several seconds, it added.
Hong Kong on average records only one or two locally-felt earthquakes a year, according to the Observatory, although neighbouring mainland China and Taiwan experience tremors that are both far stronger and more frequent.
The Observatory said that no-one was known to have died as a result of an earthquake in the densely-populated city since its records began.