Photos Of Hong Kong
Hong Kong is renowned for its expansive skyline and natural setting, its identity as a cosmopolitan centre where the East meets the West is reflected in its cuisine, cinema, music and traditions. With a population of 7 million people but land area of 1,108 km2, Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. The population consist 95% of Chinese people and 5% of people of other ethnicities.
As much of Hong Kong’s terrain is hilly to mountainous with steep slopes, less than 25% of the territory’s landmass is developed, and about 40% of the remaining land area is reserved as country parks and nature reserves. The city has many bays, rivers and beaches due to its long. irregular and curvaceous coastline.
Despite Hong Kong’s reputation of being intensely urbanized, the territory has made much effort to promote a green environment. Hong Kong suffers from increasing pollution compounded by its tall buildings and geography and therefor the city shows a growing awareness of the environment.
The Climate
Situated just south of the Tropic of Cancer, Hong Kong’s climate is humid subtropical climate. The most pleasant seasons are spring, although changeable, and autumn, which is generally sunny and dry. Hong Kong averages 1,948 hours of sunshine per year, while the highest and lowest ever recorded temperatures at the Hong Kong Observatory are 36.1 °C and 0°C , respectively.
Summers
Although summers are known for its occasional showers and thunderstorms, it is usually hot and humid. It is also the time when typhoons are most likely, sometimes resulting in flooding or landslides.
Winters
The winter usually starts out to be sunny and only becomes cloudier towards February with occasional cold fronts and strong, cool winds from the north.
The Economy
Hong Kong is seen as one of leading financial centers of the world and they have the Hong Kong dollar as their currency. Hong Kong imports most of its food and raw materials because it has little arable land and few natural resources. The exports of Hong Kong consist mostly of re-exports of products made outside of the territory. At the end of 2007, there were 3.46 million people employed full-time, with the unemployment rate averaging 4.1%.
The Architecture
Hong Kong has 7650 skyscrapers, making it one of the cities with the greatest number of skyscrapers in the world. The city has been rated as having the best skyline in the world. The lack of available sprawl space in the urban area results in the high density and tall skyline of the city. This lack of space causing demand for dense, high-rise offices and housing, has resulted in 36 of the world’s 100 tallest residential buildings being in Hong Kong. This makes it the world’s most vertical city and has more people living and working above the 14th floor than anywhere else in the world. The International Commerce Centre is 484m high and is the highest building in Hong Kong at this stage.
Getting to Hong Kong
Visitors from South Africa can go to BestFlights.co.za to book flights to Hong Kong
Transport in Hong Kong
Hong Kong has a highly developed public and private transport network. With more than 11 million daily travels on public transport, the city has the highest percentage of use of public transport in the world.
People in Hong Kong make use of the Octopus card payment system that can be used to pay for fares on railways, ferries, buses and for parking as well as purchases at supermarkets, convenience stores and fast food restaurants.
A tramway system covers the northern parts of Hong Kong Island and is the only tram system in the world run exclusively with double deckers. Single-decker buses are only used for routes with lower demand or roads with lower carrying capacity. {Public light buses run the length and breadth of Hong Kong.}
For a panoramic view of Hong Kong’s skyline, the Star Ferry services operates four lines across Victoria Harbour for its 53 000 daily passengers.
The Peak Tram is used to get up and down Hong Kong’s steep, hilly terrain.
Hong Kong International Airport is a leading air passenger gateway and one of the world’s busiest airports, serving more than 47 million passengers and handling 3.74 million tons of cargo in 2007.