Little is known about the disease profiles in Chinese living in an urbanized community like Hong Kong. Accordingly, the discharge summaries of 561 acute hospital medical admissions were reviewed and the primary diagnoses (the main reason for admission or the most important clinical problem) were coded according to the International Classification of Diseases. Our data indicate that cardiovascular diseases are the most important cause of acute medical admissions and mortality and that gastrointestinal hemorrhage is very common amongst the Chinese in Hong Kong.