Hong Kong is a special administrative region (SAR) of the People's Republic of China (PRC). It is situated on China's south coast and, enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is known for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour. With a land mass of 1,104 km2 and a population of seven million people, Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. Hong Kong's population is 95 percent ethnic Chinese and 5 percent from other groups.
Hong Kong became a colony of the British Empire after the First Opium War (1839–42). Originally confined to Hong Kong Island, the colony's boundaries were extended in stages to the Kowloon Peninsula in 1860 and then the New Territories in 1898. It was occupied by Japan during the Pacific War, after which the British resumed control until 1997, when China resumed sovereignty. The region espoused minimum government intervention under the ethos of positive non-interventionism during the colonial era. The time period greatly influenced the current culture of Hong Kong, often described as "East meets West", and the educational system, which used to loosely follow the system in England until reforms implemented in 2009.
As one of the world's leading international financial centres, Hong Kong has a major capitalist service economy characterised by low taxation and free trade, and the currency is Hong Kong dollar, it is the eighth most traded currency in the world. The lack of space caused demand for denser constructions, which developed the city to a centre for modern architecture and the world's most vertical city. Hong Kong has one of the highest per capita incomes in the world. The dense space also led to a highly developed transportation network with public transport travelling rate exceeding 90 percent, the highest in the world. Hong Kong has numerous high international rankings in various aspects. For instance, its economic freedom, financial and economic competitiveness, quality of life, corruption exception, Human Development Index, etc., are all ranked highly. According to both UN and WHO estimates, Hong Kong has the longest life expectancy of any country in the world from 2012.
The tourism industry has been an important part of the economy of Hong Kong since it shifted to a service sector model in the late 1980s and early 90s. There has been a sharp increase of tourists from Mainland China, due to the introduction of the Individual Visit Scheme (IVS) in 2003.
Almost any of the districts of Hong Kong can be considered a tourist destination. The following locations are areas generally marked as main attractions:
• Avenue of Stars
• Victoria Peak
• Ladies' Market
• Hong Kong Disneyland Resort
• Ocean Park Hong Kong
• Temple Street
• The Clock Tower
The Avenue of Stars modeled on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, is located along the Victoria Harbour waterfront in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong. It honours celebrities of the Hong Kong film industry. The avenue was open to the general public on 28 April 2004 with an opening ceremony held the previous day, 27 April 2004.It is the efforts of Hong Kong’s movie industry over the past century, many in Asia and farther afield are familiar with the city’s sights before they’ve even set foot here. The Avenue of Stars pays tribute to the names that helped make Hong Kong the ‘Hollywood of the East’, while giving visitors a panoramic view of the city’s most iconic sight: its glorious skyline, dramatically set against the peak. With commemorative plaques, celebrity handprints, descriptive milestones, movie memorabilia, a life-size statue of kung fu action hero Bruce Lee and a bronze rendering of popular cartoon character McDull, the Avenue of Stars fittingly sets the glamour of Hong Kong’s film industry.
Victoria Peak is a mountain in Hong Kong. It is also known as Mount Austin, and locally as The Peak. The mountain is located in the western half of Hong Kong Island. With an altitude of 552 m (1,811 ft), it is the highest mountain on the island proper, but not in the entirety of Hong Kong, an honour which belongs to Tai Mo Shan. The actual summit of Victoria Peak is occupied by a radio telecommunications facility and is closed to the public. However, the surrounding area of public parks and high-value residential land is the area that is normally meant by the name The Peak. It is a major tourist attraction which offers views over Central, Victoria Harbour, Lamma Island and the surrounding islands.
With some seven million visitors every year, the Peak is a major tourist attraction of Hong Kong. It offers spectacular views of the city and its harbours. The number of visitors led to the construction of two major leisure and shopping centres, the Peak Tower and the Peak Galleria, situated adjacent to each other. The Peak Tower incorporates the upper station of the Peak Tram, the funicular railway that brings passengers up from the St. John's Cathedral in Hong Kong's Central district, whilst the Peak Galleria incorporates the bus station used by the Hong Kong public buses and green minibuses on the Peak. There are several restaurants on Victoria Peak, most of which are located in the two shopping centres.
Tung Choi Street is a street situated between Boundary Street and Dundas Street in Mong Kok, Kowloon, Hong Kong. Its southern section, popularly known as Ladies' Market or Ladies' Street is one of the most well-known street markets in Hong Kong, where various kinds of products are available for cheap prices (not just for women, as its name suggests). Its northern section, also somewhat well-known, features a market selling goldfish and is called Goldfish Street or Goldfish Market.
The Hong Kong Disneyland Resort is a resort built by the Government of Hong Kong and The Walt Disney Company in Hong Kong on reclaimed land beside Penny's Bay, at the northeastern tip of Lantau Island, approximately two kilometres from Discovery Bay. Officially opened on September 12, 2005, the resort contains the Hong Kong Disneyland theme park, the Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel,Disney's Hollywood Hotel, and several retail, dining and entertainment facilities covering 1.3 square kilometres (320 acres) of the island.
The Hong Kong Disneyland Resort is the second extension into Asia after the opening of the Tokyo Disney Resort more than 20 years ago. Currently, the Resort is overseen by Managing Director Andrew Kam who reports to Bill Ernest, President and Managing Director, Disney Parks & Resorts, Asia.
Ocean Park Hong Kong, commonly known as Ocean Park, is a marine mammal park, oceanarium, animal theme park and amusement park, situated in Wong Chuk Hang and Nam Long Shan in the Southern District of Hong Kong. Opened in 1977 by the then Governor of Hong Kong Sir Murray MacLehose, Ocean Park has grown to about 35 attractions and rides. The park has won several awards, including The World's Seventh Most Popular Amusement Park and 33rd Most Visited Tourist Attractions in the World by Forbes.
Ocean Park claims that it received 6.95 million visitors in 2011, awarding it the position of the world's 12th most visited theme park by annual attendance. However, reported attendance for the park's fiscal year 2010/2011 is 5.9 million visitors, placing it behind Hong Kong Disneyland's 5.94 million visitors.
Covering an area of 870,000 square metres (210 acres) of land, the park is separated by a large mountain into two areas, The Summit (Headland) and The Waterfront (Lowland) respectively. The areas can be reached by a 1.5 kilometres cable car system, a shuttle bus, or the Ocean Express funicular railway. As the Headland comprises several hills, visitors can also opt to take the world's second longest outdoor escalator.
The theme park currently has 20 rides, including four roller coasters, but also houses 11 animal exhibits, such as a giant panda habitat, a jelly fish and Chinese sturgeon aquarium, as well as a four-story aquarium displaying more than 2,000 fish. Between 1979 and 1997, Ocean Park was most famous for its signature killer whale, Miss Hoi Wai.
Besides being an amusement park, Ocean Park Hong Kong also operates observatories, laboratories, an education department, and a Whalesand Dolphins Fund.
Ocean Park Hong Kong was the first institution in the world to have success in artificial insemination of bottlenose dolphins, and developed numerous new breeds of goldfish.
Temple Street is a street located in the areas of Jordan and Yau Ma Tei in Kowloon, Hong Kong. It is known for its night market and one of the busiest flea markets at night in the territory. The night market is in the Yau Ma Tei, Jordan part of the street and not the Mong Kok part of the street. Popular with tourists and locals alike in the evening, it is common to see the place crowded at dusk. It sells cheap merchandise and food items. The place is sometimes known as Men's Street. The market starts at 2 p.m. in the afternoon, but is lively at dusk daily. Traffic is closed on the street at that time, and visitors swarm into the street. There are more than a hundred stalls with colourful lights in the market. There are carts bulging with goods from clothing to mobile phones and watches. Stalls have items mainly for men, jeans, t-shirts, pants, lighters, shoes, and men's accessories. Cheap merchandise is common in the night market. Cheap second hand goods such as cassettes, video tapes, old newspapers, antiques are also sold there. Like in other night markets in South East Asia, prices can always be negotiated by bargaining.
If one has to buy merchandise in Temple Street, one has to hunt for shops hidden in streets behind the stalls rather than looking in the stall themselves. This is one of the uniqueness of Temple Street Night Market.
The Clock Tower is a landmark in Hong Kong. It is located on the southern shore of Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon. It is the only remnant of the original site of the former Kowloon Station on the Kowloon-Canton Railway. Officially named Former Kowloon-Canton Railway Clock Tower, it is usually referred to as the Tsim Sha Tsui Clock Tower for its location.
Built out of red bricks and granite, the Clock Tower peaks at 44 metres, and is topped by a 7-metre lightning rod. The top of the tower can be reached by a wooden staircase located within. The interior of Clock Tower had previously been open for visit, but is currently closed for maintenance. The clock tower is located near Victoria Harbour at the foot of Salisbury Road. Another landmark, the Tsim Sha Tsui Ferry Pier, is located nearby. The tower has been listed as a declared monument in Hong Kong since 1990.
Hong Kong became a colony of the British Empire after the First Opium War (1839–42). Originally confined to Hong Kong Island, the colony's boundaries were extended in stages to the Kowloon Peninsula in 1860 and then the New Territories in 1898. It was occupied by Japan during the Pacific War, after which the British resumed control until 1997, when China resumed sovereignty. The region espoused minimum government intervention under the ethos of positive non-interventionism during the colonial era. The time period greatly influenced the current culture of Hong Kong, often described as "East meets West", and the educational system, which used to loosely follow the system in England until reforms implemented in 2009.
As one of the world's leading international financial centres, Hong Kong has a major capitalist service economy characterised by low taxation and free trade, and the currency is Hong Kong dollar, it is the eighth most traded currency in the world. The lack of space caused demand for denser constructions, which developed the city to a centre for modern architecture and the world's most vertical city. Hong Kong has one of the highest per capita incomes in the world. The dense space also led to a highly developed transportation network with public transport travelling rate exceeding 90 percent, the highest in the world. Hong Kong has numerous high international rankings in various aspects. For instance, its economic freedom, financial and economic competitiveness, quality of life, corruption exception, Human Development Index, etc., are all ranked highly. According to both UN and WHO estimates, Hong Kong has the longest life expectancy of any country in the world from 2012.
The tourism industry has been an important part of the economy of Hong Kong since it shifted to a service sector model in the late 1980s and early 90s. There has been a sharp increase of tourists from Mainland China, due to the introduction of the Individual Visit Scheme (IVS) in 2003.
Almost any of the districts of Hong Kong can be considered a tourist destination. The following locations are areas generally marked as main attractions:
• Avenue of Stars
• Victoria Peak
• Ladies' Market
• Hong Kong Disneyland Resort
• Ocean Park Hong Kong
• Temple Street
• The Clock Tower
The Avenue of Stars modeled on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, is located along the Victoria Harbour waterfront in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong. It honours celebrities of the Hong Kong film industry. The avenue was open to the general public on 28 April 2004 with an opening ceremony held the previous day, 27 April 2004.It is the efforts of Hong Kong’s movie industry over the past century, many in Asia and farther afield are familiar with the city’s sights before they’ve even set foot here. The Avenue of Stars pays tribute to the names that helped make Hong Kong the ‘Hollywood of the East’, while giving visitors a panoramic view of the city’s most iconic sight: its glorious skyline, dramatically set against the peak. With commemorative plaques, celebrity handprints, descriptive milestones, movie memorabilia, a life-size statue of kung fu action hero Bruce Lee and a bronze rendering of popular cartoon character McDull, the Avenue of Stars fittingly sets the glamour of Hong Kong’s film industry.
Victoria Peak is a mountain in Hong Kong. It is also known as Mount Austin, and locally as The Peak. The mountain is located in the western half of Hong Kong Island. With an altitude of 552 m (1,811 ft), it is the highest mountain on the island proper, but not in the entirety of Hong Kong, an honour which belongs to Tai Mo Shan. The actual summit of Victoria Peak is occupied by a radio telecommunications facility and is closed to the public. However, the surrounding area of public parks and high-value residential land is the area that is normally meant by the name The Peak. It is a major tourist attraction which offers views over Central, Victoria Harbour, Lamma Island and the surrounding islands.
With some seven million visitors every year, the Peak is a major tourist attraction of Hong Kong. It offers spectacular views of the city and its harbours. The number of visitors led to the construction of two major leisure and shopping centres, the Peak Tower and the Peak Galleria, situated adjacent to each other. The Peak Tower incorporates the upper station of the Peak Tram, the funicular railway that brings passengers up from the St. John's Cathedral in Hong Kong's Central district, whilst the Peak Galleria incorporates the bus station used by the Hong Kong public buses and green minibuses on the Peak. There are several restaurants on Victoria Peak, most of which are located in the two shopping centres.
Tung Choi Street is a street situated between Boundary Street and Dundas Street in Mong Kok, Kowloon, Hong Kong. Its southern section, popularly known as Ladies' Market or Ladies' Street is one of the most well-known street markets in Hong Kong, where various kinds of products are available for cheap prices (not just for women, as its name suggests). Its northern section, also somewhat well-known, features a market selling goldfish and is called Goldfish Street or Goldfish Market.
The Hong Kong Disneyland Resort is a resort built by the Government of Hong Kong and The Walt Disney Company in Hong Kong on reclaimed land beside Penny's Bay, at the northeastern tip of Lantau Island, approximately two kilometres from Discovery Bay. Officially opened on September 12, 2005, the resort contains the Hong Kong Disneyland theme park, the Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel,Disney's Hollywood Hotel, and several retail, dining and entertainment facilities covering 1.3 square kilometres (320 acres) of the island.
The Hong Kong Disneyland Resort is the second extension into Asia after the opening of the Tokyo Disney Resort more than 20 years ago. Currently, the Resort is overseen by Managing Director Andrew Kam who reports to Bill Ernest, President and Managing Director, Disney Parks & Resorts, Asia.
Ocean Park Hong Kong, commonly known as Ocean Park, is a marine mammal park, oceanarium, animal theme park and amusement park, situated in Wong Chuk Hang and Nam Long Shan in the Southern District of Hong Kong. Opened in 1977 by the then Governor of Hong Kong Sir Murray MacLehose, Ocean Park has grown to about 35 attractions and rides. The park has won several awards, including The World's Seventh Most Popular Amusement Park and 33rd Most Visited Tourist Attractions in the World by Forbes.
Ocean Park claims that it received 6.95 million visitors in 2011, awarding it the position of the world's 12th most visited theme park by annual attendance. However, reported attendance for the park's fiscal year 2010/2011 is 5.9 million visitors, placing it behind Hong Kong Disneyland's 5.94 million visitors.
Covering an area of 870,000 square metres (210 acres) of land, the park is separated by a large mountain into two areas, The Summit (Headland) and The Waterfront (Lowland) respectively. The areas can be reached by a 1.5 kilometres cable car system, a shuttle bus, or the Ocean Express funicular railway. As the Headland comprises several hills, visitors can also opt to take the world's second longest outdoor escalator.
The theme park currently has 20 rides, including four roller coasters, but also houses 11 animal exhibits, such as a giant panda habitat, a jelly fish and Chinese sturgeon aquarium, as well as a four-story aquarium displaying more than 2,000 fish. Between 1979 and 1997, Ocean Park was most famous for its signature killer whale, Miss Hoi Wai.
Besides being an amusement park, Ocean Park Hong Kong also operates observatories, laboratories, an education department, and a Whalesand Dolphins Fund.
Ocean Park Hong Kong was the first institution in the world to have success in artificial insemination of bottlenose dolphins, and developed numerous new breeds of goldfish.
Temple Street is a street located in the areas of Jordan and Yau Ma Tei in Kowloon, Hong Kong. It is known for its night market and one of the busiest flea markets at night in the territory. The night market is in the Yau Ma Tei, Jordan part of the street and not the Mong Kok part of the street. Popular with tourists and locals alike in the evening, it is common to see the place crowded at dusk. It sells cheap merchandise and food items. The place is sometimes known as Men's Street. The market starts at 2 p.m. in the afternoon, but is lively at dusk daily. Traffic is closed on the street at that time, and visitors swarm into the street. There are more than a hundred stalls with colourful lights in the market. There are carts bulging with goods from clothing to mobile phones and watches. Stalls have items mainly for men, jeans, t-shirts, pants, lighters, shoes, and men's accessories. Cheap merchandise is common in the night market. Cheap second hand goods such as cassettes, video tapes, old newspapers, antiques are also sold there. Like in other night markets in South East Asia, prices can always be negotiated by bargaining.
If one has to buy merchandise in Temple Street, one has to hunt for shops hidden in streets behind the stalls rather than looking in the stall themselves. This is one of the uniqueness of Temple Street Night Market.
The Clock Tower is a landmark in Hong Kong. It is located on the southern shore of Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon. It is the only remnant of the original site of the former Kowloon Station on the Kowloon-Canton Railway. Officially named Former Kowloon-Canton Railway Clock Tower, it is usually referred to as the Tsim Sha Tsui Clock Tower for its location.
Built out of red bricks and granite, the Clock Tower peaks at 44 metres, and is topped by a 7-metre lightning rod. The top of the tower can be reached by a wooden staircase located within. The interior of Clock Tower had previously been open for visit, but is currently closed for maintenance. The clock tower is located near Victoria Harbour at the foot of Salisbury Road. Another landmark, the Tsim Sha Tsui Ferry Pier, is located nearby. The tower has been listed as a declared monument in Hong Kong since 1990.
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