The brachyuran crab fauna of subtropical Hong Kong is documented and an updated catalogue presented of all known species. Starting with the milestone studies by William Stimpson in the 1850s, many generations of workers have since added to the knowledge of this fauna. In the previous summary of the fauna by Chia-Jui Shen in 1940, 187 species were reported. Eight decades later, we now report 382 species from 27 superfamilies and 49 families, of which 22 species are new records. The present paper also reviews the history of carcinology in Hong Kong. The taxonomy of each species is treated, and acomplete scientific bibliography is presented as far as possible.