1.
Tsim Sha Tsui
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Tsim Sha Tsui, often abbreviated as TST, is an urban area in southern Kowloon, Hong Kong. The area is part of the Yau Tsim Mong District. Tsim Sha Tsui East is a piece of land reclaimed from the Hung Hom Bay now east of Tsim Sha Tsui, the area is bounded north by Austin Road and in the east by Hong Chong Road and Cheong Wan Road. Geographically, Tsim Sha Tsui is a cape on the tip of the Kowloon Peninsula pointing towards Victoria Harbour, several villages had been established in this location before Kowloon was ceded to the British Empire in 1860. Tsim Sha Tsui in Chinese means sharp sand mouth and it was also known as Heung Po Tau, i. e. a port for exporting incense tree. Tsim Sha Tsui is a major tourist hub in metropolitan Hong Kong, with many high-end shops, many of Hong Kongs museums are located in the area. Before any land reclamation, Tsim Sha Tsui consisted of two parallel capes with a bay in between in the south, the bay between the capes extended as far north as the present-day Mody Road. Today, Canton Road marks the edge of Tsim Sha Tsui. The area is hilly, although many hills were levelled for reclamation, before Kowloon was ceded to Britain in 1860, many villages were present in the area. Incense trees from New Territories were gathered at some quays in Tsim Sha Tsui and it was thus known as Heung Po Tau, the fragrant quay. In 1888, the Star Ferry offered regular transport between Central and Tsim Sha Tsui, and the area has flourished ever since, the place has an international reputation for the large number of tiger sharks resident in the waters close by. Tsim Sha Tsui was a city exclusive for westerners in that era. In the early 20th century, Chinese people were allowed to live in the area to more people to trade in the colony. Garden houses were replaced with crowded residential blocks, wharves and godowns were built along the west shore. Major developers like Hormusjee Naorojee Mody and Catchick Paul Chater actively participated in the development of Tsim Sha Tsui, the Kowloon–Canton Railway commenced service on 1 October 1910. Kowloon Station in Tsim Sha Tsui was built on the new southern reclamation from 1913 to 1915, the rails extended along the western reclamation parallel to Chatham Road, with old Hung Hom Station near the Gun Club Hill Barracks at the junction of Chatham Road and Austin Road. Another major road, Salisbury Road, was completed in approximately the same period, the landmark Peninsula Hotel was built on the reclamation in 1928, opposite to the station. The Kowloon Station was relocated to a new Hung Hom Station in 1978, the whole station and rails were demolished except the landmark Clock Tower
2.
Victoria Harbour
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Victoria Harbour is a natural landform harbour situated between Hong Kong Island and Kowloon in Hong Kong. The harbours deep, sheltered waters and strategic location on the South China Sea were instrumental in Hong Kongs establishment as a British colony, throughout its history, the harbour has seen numerous reclamation projects undertaken on both shores, many of which have caused controversy in recent years. Environmental concerns have been expressed about the effects of these expansions, in terms of water quality and it has also been proposed that benefits of land reclamation may be less than the effects of decreased harbour width, affecting the number of vessels passing through the harbour. Nonetheless Victoria Harbour still retains its role as a port for thousands of international vessels each year. Long famous for its views, the harbour is a major tourist attraction of Hong Kong. Lying in the middle of the dense urban region, the harbour is the site of annual fireworks displays. During the Taiping Rebellion, armed rebels paraded the streets of Hong Kong, on 21 December 1854, the Hong Kong police arrested several armed rebels who were about to attack Kowloon City. On 23 January 1855, a fleet of Taiping war boats was on the verge of a battle against Chinese imperial war boats defending the harbour. The Chinese defenders were ordered away by the British colonial authorities and these incidents caused rising tension that would eventually lead to the Arrow War. The harbour was originally called Hong Kong Harbour, but was renamed as Victoria Harbour. The subject of pollution came to the fore in the 1970s with the growth of the manufacturing sector. The water club races were stopped in 1973 due to pollution in the harbour, studies also showed excessive nitrogen input from discharges of the Pearl River Delta into the harbour for decades. After completion of the Central and Wan Chai Reclamation Feasibility Study in 1989 and it consists of three district development cells separated by parks, namely, Central, Tamar and Exhibition. The latest proposed reclamation, extending along the waterfront from Sheung Wan to Causeway Bay, faced public opposition, I believe an insightful and visionary chief executive would support our stance and work with us to protect the harbour. Reclamation work also led to the demolition of Queens Pier and Edinburgh Place Ferry Pier, structures of historic significance, Victoria Harbour covers an area of about 41.88 km2 as of 2004. The eastern boundary is considered to be the line formed between the westernmost extremity of Siu Chau Wan and A Kung Ngam. Among the best places to view the harbour are the Peak Tower atop Victoria Peak, rides on the Star Ferry, particularly the route between Central and Tsim Sha Tsui, are another popular way to view the harbour and cityscape. As the natural centre of the territory, the harbour has played host to major public shows
3.
Traditional Chinese characters
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Traditional Chinese characters are Chinese characters in any character set that does not contain newly created characters or character substitutions performed after 1946. They are most commonly the characters in the character sets of Taiwan, of Hong Kong. Currently, a number of overseas Chinese online newspapers allow users to switch between both sets. In contrast, simplified Chinese characters are used in mainland China, Singapore, the debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters has been a long-running issue among Chinese communities. Although simplified characters are taught and endorsed by the government of Mainland China, Traditional characters are used informally in regions in China primarily in handwriting and also used for inscriptions and religious text. They are often retained in logos or graphics to evoke yesteryear, nonetheless, the vast majority of media and communications in China is dominated by simplified characters. Taiwan has never adopted Simplified Chinese characters since it is ruled by the Republic of China, the use of simplified characters in official documents is even prohibited by the government in Taiwan. Simplified characters are not well understood in general, although some stroke simplifications that have incorporated into Simplified Chinese are in common use in handwriting. For example, while the name of Taiwan is written as 臺灣, similarly, in Hong Kong and Macau, Traditional Chinese has been the legal written form since colonial times. In recent years, because of the influx of mainland Chinese tourists, today, even government websites use simplified Chinese, as they answer to the Beijing government. This has led to concerns by residents to protect their local heritage. In Southeast Asia, the Chinese Filipino community continues to be one of the most conservative regarding simplification, while major public universities are teaching simplified characters, many well-established Chinese schools still use traditional characters. Publications like the Chinese Commercial News, World News, and United Daily News still use traditional characters, on the other hand, the Philippine Chinese Daily uses simplified. Aside from local newspapers, magazines from Hong Kong, such as the Yazhou Zhoukan, are found in some bookstores. In case of film or television subtitles on DVD, the Chinese dub that is used in Philippines is the same as the one used in Taiwan and this is because the DVDs belongs to DVD Region Code 3. Hence, most of the subtitles are in Traditional Characters, overseas Chinese in the United States have long used traditional characters. A major influx of Chinese immigrants to the United States occurred during the half of the 19th century. Therefore, the majority of Chinese language signage in the United States, including street signs, Traditional Chinese characters are called several different names within the Chinese-speaking world
4.
Simplified Chinese characters
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Simplified Chinese characters are standardized Chinese characters prescribed in the Table of General Standard Chinese Characters for use in mainland China. Along with traditional Chinese characters, it is one of the two character sets of the contemporary Chinese written language. The government of the Peoples Republic of China in mainland China has promoted them for use in printing since the 1950s and 1960s in an attempt to increase literacy and they are officially used in the Peoples Republic of China and Singapore. Traditional Chinese characters are used in Hong Kong, Macau. Overseas Chinese communities generally tend to use traditional characters, Simplified Chinese characters may be referred to by their official name above or colloquially. Strictly, the latter refers to simplifications of character structure or body, character forms that have existed for thousands of years alongside regular, Simplified character forms were created by decreasing the number of strokes and simplifying the forms of a sizable proportion of traditional Chinese characters. Some simplifications were based on popular cursive forms embodying graphic or phonetic simplifications of the traditional forms, some characters were simplified by applying regular rules, for example, by replacing all occurrences of a certain component with a simplified version of the component. Variant characters with the pronunciation and identical meaning were reduced to a single standardized character. Finally, many characters were left untouched by simplification, and are identical between the traditional and simplified Chinese orthographies. Some simplified characters are very dissimilar to and unpredictably different from traditional characters and this often leads opponents not well-versed in the method of simplification to conclude that the overall process of character simplification is also arbitrary. In reality, the methods and rules of simplification are few, on the other hand, proponents of simplification often flaunt a few choice simplified characters as ingenious inventions, when in fact these have existed for hundreds of years as ancient variants. However, the Chinese government never officially dropped its goal of further simplification in the future, in August 2009, the PRC began collecting public comments for a modified list of simplified characters. The new Table of General Standard Chinese Characters consisting of 8,105 characters was promulgated by the State Council of the Peoples Republic of China on June 5,2013, cursive written text almost always includes character simplification. Simplified forms used in print have always existed, they date back to as early as the Qin dynasty, One of the earliest proponents of character simplification was Lubi Kui, who proposed in 1909 that simplified characters should be used in education. In the years following the May Fourth Movement in 1919, many anti-imperialist Chinese intellectuals sought ways to modernise China, Traditional culture and values such as Confucianism were challenged. Soon, people in the Movement started to cite the traditional Chinese writing system as an obstacle in modernising China and it was suggested that the Chinese writing system should be either simplified or completely abolished. Fu Sinian, a leader of the May Fourth Movement, called Chinese characters the writing of ox-demons, lu Xun, a renowned Chinese author in the 20th century, stated that, If Chinese characters are not destroyed, then China will die. Recent commentators have claimed that Chinese characters were blamed for the problems in China during that time
5.
Standard Chinese
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Its pronunciation is based on the Beijing dialect, its vocabulary on the Mandarin dialects, and its grammar is based on written vernacular Chinese. Like other varieties of Chinese, Standard Chinese is a language with topic-prominent organization. It has more initial consonants but fewer vowels, final consonants, Standard Chinese is an analytic language, though with many compound words. There exist two standardised forms of the language, namely Putonghua in Mainland China and Guoyu in Taiwan, aside from a number of differences in pronunciation and vocabulary, Putonghua is written using simplified Chinese characters, while Guoyu is written using traditional Chinese characters. There are many characters that are identical between the two systems, in English, the governments of China and Hong Kong use Putonghua, Putonghua Chinese, Mandarin Chinese, and Mandarin, while those of Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia, use Mandarin. The name Putonghua also has a long, albeit unofficial, history and it was used as early as 1906 in writings by Zhu Wenxiong to differentiate a modern, standard Chinese from classical Chinese and other varieties of Chinese. For some linguists of the early 20th century, the Putonghua, or common tongue/speech, was different from the Guoyu. The former was a prestige variety, while the latter was the legal standard. Based on common understandings of the time, the two were, in fact, different, Guoyu was understood as formal vernacular Chinese, which is close to classical Chinese. By contrast, Putonghua was called the speech of the modern man. The use of the term Putonghua by left-leaning intellectuals such as Qu Qiubai, prior to this, the government used both terms interchangeably. In Taiwan, Guoyu continues to be the term for Standard Chinese. The term Putonghua, on the contrary, implies nothing more than the notion of a lingua franca, Huayu, or language of the Chinese nation, originally simply meant Chinese language, and was used in overseas communities to contrast Chinese with foreign languages. Over time, the desire to standardise the variety of Chinese spoken in these communities led to the adoption of the name Huayu to refer to Mandarin and it also incorporates the notion that Mandarin is usually not the national or common language of the areas in which overseas Chinese live. The term Mandarin is a translation of Guānhuà, which referred to the lingua franca of the late Chinese empire, in English, Mandarin may refer to the standard language, the dialect group as a whole, or to historic forms such as the late Imperial lingua franca. The name Modern Standard Mandarin is sometimes used by linguists who wish to distinguish the current state of the language from other northern. Chinese has long had considerable variation, hence prestige dialects have always existed. Confucius, for example, used yǎyán rather than colloquial regional dialects, rime books, which were written since the Northern and Southern dynasties, may also have reflected one or more systems of standard pronunciation during those times
6.
Pinyin
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Pinyin, or Hànyǔ Pīnyīn, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese in mainland China, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan. It is often used to teach Standard Chinese, which is written using Chinese characters. The system includes four diacritics denoting tones, Pinyin without tone marks is used to spell Chinese names and words in languages written with the Latin alphabet, and also in certain computer input methods to enter Chinese characters. The pinyin system was developed in the 1950s by many linguists, including Zhou Youguang and it was published by the Chinese government in 1958 and revised several times. The International Organization for Standardization adopted pinyin as a standard in 1982. The system was adopted as the standard in Taiwan in 2009. The word Hànyǔ means the language of the Han people. In 1605, the Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci published Xizi Qiji in Beijing and this was the first book to use the Roman alphabet to write the Chinese language. Twenty years later, another Jesuit in China, Nicolas Trigault, neither book had much immediate impact on the way in which Chinese thought about their writing system, and the romanizations they described were intended more for Westerners than for the Chinese. One of the earliest Chinese thinkers to relate Western alphabets to Chinese was late Ming to early Qing Dynasty scholar-official, the first late Qing reformer to propose that China adopt a system of spelling was Song Shu. A student of the great scholars Yu Yue and Zhang Taiyan, Song had been to Japan and observed the effect of the kana syllabaries. This galvanized him into activity on a number of fronts, one of the most important being reform of the script, while Song did not himself actually create a system for spelling Sinitic languages, his discussion proved fertile and led to a proliferation of schemes for phonetic scripts. The Wade–Giles system was produced by Thomas Wade in 1859, and it was popular and used in English-language publications outside China until 1979. This Sin Wenz or New Writing was much more sophisticated than earlier alphabets. In 1940, several members attended a Border Region Sin Wenz Society convention. Mao Zedong and Zhu De, head of the army, both contributed their calligraphy for the masthead of the Sin Wenz Societys new journal. Outside the CCP, other prominent supporters included Sun Yat-sens son, Sun Fo, Cai Yuanpei, the countrys most prestigious educator, Tao Xingzhi, an educational reformer. Over thirty journals soon appeared written in Sin Wenz, plus large numbers of translations, biographies, some contemporary Chinese literature, and a spectrum of textbooks
7.
Cantonese
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Cantonese, or Standard Cantonese, is a variety of Chinese spoken in the city of Guangzhou in southeastern China. It is the prestige variety of Yue, one of the major subdivisions of Chinese. In mainland China, it is the lingua franca of the province of Guangdong and some neighbouring areas such as Guangxi. In Hong Kong and Macau, Cantonese serves as one of their official languages and it is also spoken amongst overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia and throughout the Western World. When Cantonese and the closely related Yuehai dialects are classified together, Cantonese is viewed as vital part of the cultural identity for its native speakers across large swathes of southeastern China, Hong Kong and Macau. Although Cantonese shares some vocabulary with Mandarin, the two varieties are mutually unintelligible because of differences in pronunciation, grammar and lexicon, sentence structure, in particular the placement of verbs, sometimes differs between the two varieties. This results in the situation in which a Cantonese and a Mandarin text may look similar, in English, the term Cantonese is ambiguous. Cantonese proper is the variety native to the city of Canton and this narrow sense may be specified as Canton language or Guangzhou language in English. However, Cantonese may also refer to the branch of Cantonese that contains Cantonese proper as well as Taishanese and Gaoyang. In this article, Cantonese is used for Cantonese proper, historically, speakers called this variety Canton speech or Guangzhou speech, although this term is now seldom used outside mainland China. In Guangdong province, people call it provincial capital speech or plain speech. In Hong Kong and Macau, as well as among overseas Chinese communities, in mainland China, the term Guangdong speech is also increasingly being used among both native and non-native speakers. Due to its status as a prestige dialect among all the dialects of the Cantonese or Yue branch of Chinese varieties, the official languages of Hong Kong are Chinese and English, as defined in the Hong Kong Basic Law. The Chinese language has different varieties, of which Cantonese is one. Given the traditional predominance of Cantonese within Hong Kong, it is the de facto official spoken form of the Chinese language used in the Hong Kong Government and all courts and it is also used as the medium of instruction in schools, alongside English. A similar situation exists in neighboring Macau, where Chinese is an official language along with Portuguese. As in Hong Kong, Cantonese is the predominant spoken variety of Chinese used in life and is thus the official form of Chinese used in the government. The variant spoken in Hong Kong and Macau is known as Hong Kong Cantonese, Cantonese first developed around the port city of Guangzhou in the Pearl River Delta region of southeastern China
8.
Jyutping
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Jyutping is a romanisation system for Cantonese developed by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong, an academic group, in 1993. Its formal name is The Linguistic Society of Hong Kong Cantonese Romanisation Scheme, the LSHK promotes the use of this romanisation system. The name Jyutping is a contraction consisting of the first Chinese characters of the terms Jyut6jyu5, only the finals m and ng can be used as standalone nasal syllables. ^ ^ ^ Referring to the pronunciation of these words. There are nine tones in six distinct tone contours in Cantonese, however, as three of the nine are entering tones, which only appear in syllables ending with p, t, and k, they do not have separate tone numbers in Jyutping. Jyutping and the Yale Romanisation of Cantonese represent Cantonese pronunciations with the letters in, The initials, b, p, m, f, d, t, n, l, g, k, ng, h, s, gw, kw. The vowel, aa, a, e, i, o, u, the coda, i, u, m, n, ng, p, t, k. But they differ in the following, The vowels eo and oe represent /ɵ/ and /œː/ respectively in Jyutping, the initial j represents /j/ in Jyutping whereas y is used instead in Yale. The initial z represents /ts/ in Jyutping whereas j is used instead in Yale, the initial c represents /tsʰ/ in Jyutping whereas ch is used instead in Yale. In Jyutping, if no consonant precedes the vowel yu, then the initial j is appended before the vowel, in Yale, the corresponding initial y is never appended before yu under any circumstances. Jyutping defines three finals not in Yale, eu /ɛːu/, em /ɛːm/, and ep /ɛːp/ and these three finals are used in colloquial Cantonese words, such as deu6, lem2, and gep6. To represent tones, only tone numbers are used in Jyutping whereas Yale traditionally uses tone marks together with the letter h. Jyutping and Cantonese Pinyin represent Cantonese pronunciations with the letters in, The initials, b, p, m, f, d, t, n, l, g, k, ng, h, s, gw, kw. The vowel, aa, a, e, i, o, u, the coda, i, u, m, n, ng, p, t, k. But they have differences, The vowel oe represents both /ɵ/ and /œː/ in Cantonese Pinyin whereas eo and oe represent /ɵ/ and /œː/ respectively in Jyutping. The vowel y represents /y/ in Cantonese Pinyin whereas both yu and i are used in Jyutping, the initial dz represents /ts/ in Cantonese Pinyin whereas z is used instead in Jyutping. The initial ts represents /tsʰ/ in Cantonese Pinyin whereas c is used instead in Jyutping. To represent tones, the numbers 1 to 9 are usually used in Cantonese Pinyin, however, only the numbers 1 to 6 are used in Jyutping
9.
Central business district
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A central business district is the commercial and business centre of a city. In larger cities, it is synonymous with the citys financial district. Both the CBD and the city centre or downtown may also coincide with the central activities district, a citys CBD is usually typified by a concentration of retail and office buildings. The CBD usually has a density higher than the surrounding districts of the city. The CBD is often also the city centre or downtown, Mexico City also has a historic city centre, the colonial-era Centro Histórico, along with two CBDs, the mid-late 20th century Paseo de la Reforma - Polanco, and the new Santa Fe. The shape and type of a CBD almost always reflect the citys history. Cities with maximum building height restrictions often have a historic section quite apart from the financial. It has been said that downtowns are therefore distinct from both CBDs and city centres. CBDs usually have very small resident populations, for example, the population of the City of London declined from over 200,000 in the year 1700 to less than 10,000 today. In some instances, however, CBD populations are increasing as younger professional, the Buenos Aires Central Business District, is the main commercial centre of Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina. The actual area was the point of first European settlement and its north-south axis runs from Monserrat in the south to Retiro railway station in the north. Its east-west axis runs from Buenos Aires Ecological Reserve and Puerto Madero, the district is the financial, commercial, and cultural hub of Argentina. Its port is one of the busiest in South America, navigable rivers by way of the Río de la Plata connect the port to northeast Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, and Paraguay. As a result, it serves as the hub for a vast area of the southeastern region of the South American continent. Tax collection related to the port has caused political problems in the past. The Buenos Aires Human Development Index is likewise high by international standards, the term is used to refer to the business and financial area of a state capital city such as the Sydney CBD, Melbourne CBD, Brisbane CBD, Perth CBD and Adelaide CBD. The city centres of some cities, such as Townsville, Bendigo. More recently, in cities the city centre, which may or may not be distinct from the CBD, is increasingly separately identified
10.
Hong Kong
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Hong Kong, officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the Peoples Republic of China, is an autonomous territory on the Pearl River Delta of East Asia. Macau lies across the delta to the west, and the Chinese province of Guangdong borders the territory to the north. With a total area of 1,106 square kilometres. Hong Kong was later occupied by Japan during World War II until British control resumed in 1945, under the principle of one country, two systems, Hong Kong maintains a separate political and economic system from China. Except in military defence and foreign affairs, Hong Kong maintains its independent executive, legislative, in addition, Hong Kong develops relations directly with foreign states and international organisations in a broad range of appropriate fields. Hong Kong is one of the worlds most significant financial centres, with the highest Financial Development Index score and consistently ranks as the worlds most competitive and freest economic entity. As the worlds 8th largest trading entity, its legal tender, Hong Kongs tertiary sector dominated economy is characterised by simple taxation with a competitive level of corporate tax and supported by its independent judiciary system. However, while Hong Kong has one of the highest per capita incomes in the world and it has a very high Human Development Index ranking and the worlds longest life expectancy. Over 90% of the population use of well-developed public transportation. Seasonal air pollution with origins from neighbouring areas of Mainland China. Hong Kong was officially recorded in the 1842 Treaty of Nanking to encompass the entirety of the island, before 1842, the name referred to a small inlet—now Aberdeen Harbour, literally means Little Hong Kong)—between Aberdeen Island and the southern coast of Hong Kong Island. Aberdeen was a point of contact between British sailors and local fishermen. Detailed and accurate romanisation systems for Cantonese were available and in use at the time, fragrance may refer to the sweet taste of the harbours fresh water estuarine influx of the Pearl River or to the incense from factories lining the coast of northern Kowloon. The incense was stored near Aberdeen Harbour for export before Hong Kong developed Victoria Harbour, the name had often been written as the single word Hongkong until the government adopted the current form in 1926. Nevertheless, a number of century-old institutions still retain the form, such as the Hongkong Post, Hongkong Electric. As of 1997, its name is the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the Peoples Republic of China. This is the title as mentioned in the Hong Kong Basic Law. Hong Kong has carried many nicknames, the most famous among those is the Pearl of the Orient, which reflected the impressive nightscape of the citys light decorations on the skyscrapers along both sides of the Victoria Harbour
11.
Central and Western District
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The Central and Western District located on northern part of Hong Kong Island is one of the 18 administrative districts of Hong Kong. It had a population of 251,519 in 2011, the district has the most educated residents with the second highest income and the third lowest population due to its relatively small size. Central is the business district and the core urban area of Hong Kong. Western District covers Shek Tong Tsui, Kennedy Town and Sai Ying Pun, and was part of the City of Victoria, Central District, as Victoria City, was the first area of planned urban development in Hong Kong during the colonial era. The British held a sale in June 1841, six months after the flag was raised at Possession Point. A total of 51 lots of land were sold to 23 merchant houses to build offices and warehouses, the property buyers included Dents, Jardines, Russells and Olyphants. At the time, the two roads Albany Nullah and Glenealy Nullah were mainly used by the British, the streets later became known as Government Hill. In 1857, the British government expanded Victoria City and divided it into seven districts and those located in present-day Central and Western are, Sai Ying Pun, Sheung Wan, Tai Ping Shan, Central. The area was essentially a European area until 1860 when Chinese merchants begin buying up European properties around Cochrane, Wellington, the Central district was the principal European business district, hence the arrival of the first major bank HSBC. The Western district was the centre for Chinese businesses. When property values in the rose, a meeting was held in February 1866 to establish a District Watch Force to police. In 1880, Shek Tong Tsui was established, followed by Kennedy Town in the 20th century, by the 1890s the majority of Hong Kongs population was concentrated in the district with about 200,000 residents, mostly in Victoria City. The corresponding body for the district is Central and Western District Council, District council elections are held every four years, the last one was held on November 7,2011, for terms beginning January 1,2012. 15 constituency members are elected while 4 are appointed by the government, the constituency areas are smaller than the commonly used geographic areas, which are in turn based on the old 1857 and 1880 divisions. In Hong Kongs 2011 Census the district population was 251,519, down four percent from 261,884 in the 2001 census, among the 18 districts, Central and Western has the second highest median household income in the territory. In terms of size of households, it is third smallest at 2.8 persons, behind only Wan Chai and Yau Tsim Mong District. Central and Western District has an ethnically diverse population. 83% of the residents are Chinese, and the largest ethnic groups are Filipinos
12.
Hong Kong Island
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Hong Kong Island is an island in the southern part of Hong Kong. It has a population of 1,289,500 and its density is 16, 390/km². The island had a population of about 3,000 inhabitants scattered in a dozen fishing villages when it was occupied by the United Kingdom in the First Opium War, the Central area on the island is the historical, political and economic centre of Hong Kong. The northern coast of the forms the southern shore of the Victoria Harbour. The island is home to many of the most famous sights in Hong Kong, such as The Peak, Ocean Park, many historical sites, the mountain ranges across the island are also famous for hiking. The northern part of Hong Kong Island, together with Kowloon and Tsuen Wan New Town and their combined area is approximately 88.3 square kilometres and their combined population is approximately 3,156,500, reflecting a population density of 35, 700/km². The island is referred to locally as Hong Kong side or Island side. This style was applied to many locations but is now only heard in this form and Kowloon side. Hong Kong Island comprises the following suburbs/localities of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Island is not part of the Islands District, Hong Kong island became a colony of the British Empire when their forces defeated the Chinese in the First Opium War. The island was populated by only a few thousand people when British empire colonized it, the Second World War was a dark period for Hong Kong. In the 1930s, the British anticipated a Japanese attack on Hong Kong, as Wong Nai Chung Gap was a strategic important place of defence, large-scale defensive works were constructed there, including anti-aircraft batteries, howitzers, and machine gun nests. The Battle of Hong Kong began on 8 December 1941, British, Canadian, Indian armies and the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Forces resisted the Japanese invasion commanded by Sakai Takashi, which began eight hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor. However, the Japanese were able to control of the Hong Kong skies on the first day of attack. The defenders retreated from the Gin Drinkers Line and consequently from Kowloon under heavy aerial bombardment, on 18 December, the Japanese had conquered North Point, reaching Wong Nai Chung Gap on the next day. However, Allied forces there were defeated by the Japanese on 23 December. As Wan Chai Gap had also fallen that day, the British had no choice. Hong Kong was surrendered on 25 December 1941, thereafter often called Black Christmas by locals. The Governor of Hong Kong, Mark Young, surrendered in person at the temporary Japanese headquarters, on the floor of the Peninsula Hotel
13.
Kowloon Peninsula
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The Kowloon Peninsula is a peninsula that forms the southern part of the main landmass in the territory of Hong Kong. The Kowloon Peninsula and the area of New Kowloon are collectively known as Kowloon, geographically, the term Kowloon Peninsula may also refer to the area south of the mountain ranges of Beacon Hill, Lion Rock, Tates Cairn, Kowloon Peak, etc. The peninsula covers five of the eighteen districts of Hong Kong, Kowloon Bay is located at the northeast of the peninsula. The main rock type of the consists of a medium grained monzogranite with some fine granite outcrops. Early maps and photographs show flat, low-lying land behind the beach of Tsim Sha Tsui Bay with an area, Kowloon Hill. The peninsula has been expanded through land reclamation from the sea. In the south and west most of the reclamation was carried out before 1904, Reclamation in several other small areas along the main Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront was completed by 1982. The West Kowloon Reclamation was formed as part of the Airport Core Programme, before the actual Kowloon boundaries were established, the Kowloon Peninsula served as one of the first destinations for escape during Chinas dynastic times. In 1287, the last emperor of the Song Dynasty, Emperor Bing was fleeing from the Mongol leader Kublai Khan, taking refuge in a cave in the Kowloon peninsula, the inscription wrote Sung Wong Toi or Song Emperors Pavilion. In the 17th century, after the fall of the Ming Dynasty, Kowloon Peninsula had a population of 800 when it was ceded to the British empire in 1860. In 1898 a resolution was passed by the Colonial Hong Kong Legislative Council to preserve the land where some of the caves stand, boundary Street Islands and peninsulas of Hong Kong Kowloon List of buildings, sites and areas in Hong Kong New Kowloon
14.
Victoria, Hong Kong
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Victoria, officially the City of Victoria, was one of the first urban settlements in Hong Kong after it became a British colony in 1842. It was initially named Queenstown but was known as Victoria. It served as the de facto capital of Hong Kong during the British colonial period, present-day Central is at the heart of Victoria City. Although the city expanded over much of what is now Kennedy Town, Sheung Wan, and Wan Chai, however, the name is still used in places such as Victoria Park, Victoria Peak, Victoria Harbour, Victoria Prison, and a number of roads and streets. It is also retained in the names of organisations such as the Victoria City District of the Hong Kong Scout. The name Victoria District Court had been used into the 1980s, the city is centred in present-day Central, and named after Queen Victoria in 1843. All remain, except for the one in Magazine Gap Road, in 1857, the British government expanded the scope of Victoria City and divided it into four wans. The four wans are Sai Wan, Sheung Wan, Choong Wan or Chung Wan, except Ha Wan, Sai Wan, Sheung Wan and Choong Wan retain the same name in Chinese today. The four wans are further divided into nine yeuks, the coverage also included parts of East Point and Happy Valley. In 1903, boundary stones were established to mark the Citys boundary, the stones spread from Causeway Bay to Kennedy Town. In the 1890s the capital city extended four miles west to east along the coastal strip, buildings were made of granite and brick. Buses and the new tramway would become the form of transportation in the area
15.
Government Hill
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The Government Hill is a hill in Central, Hong Kong, bounded by upper section of Upper Albert Road on the south, Queens Road Central north, Garden Road east, and Glenealy, west of Hong Kong Island. The hill has been the centre of Hong Kong since the early days of British colonial rule. The Government House, residence of chief executive and colonial governor, st. Johns Cathedral of the Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui, the Anglican Church in Hong Kong, is also on the Government Hill. Adjacent to it is the Court of Final Appeal, inside the Former French Mission Building, beside the already crowded central business district, the hill is free from skyscrapers and preserved many century-old trees. Higher up the hill in the south is Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens, in 2011, an application was made to the Town Planning Board to rezone the area as Historic, and cap the building heights to the height of the existing buildings. Parliament Hill, Ottawa Parliament Hill, London Queens Park, Toronto Capitol Hill, Washington, capital Hill, Canberra Hong Kong portal Our Government Hill
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Victoria Peak
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Victoria Peak is a mountain in the western half of Hong Kong Island. It is also known as Mount Austin, and locally as The Peak, with an elevation of 552 m, it is the highest mountain on Hong Kong island, ranked 31 in terms of elevation in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. The summit 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 that offers views over Central, Victoria Harbour, Lamma Island, the sixth Governor of Hong Kong, Sir Richard MacDonnell had a summer residence built on the Peak circa 1868. Those that built houses named them whimsically, such as The Eyrie, and these original residents reached their homes by sedan chairs, which were carried up and down the steep slope of Victoria Peak. This limited development of the Peak until the opening of the Peak Tram funicular in 1888, the boost to accessibility caused by the opening of the Peak Tram created demand for residences on the Peak. Between 1904 and 1930, the Peak Reservation Ordinance designated the Peak as a residential area reserved for non-Chinese. They also reserved the Peak Tram for the use of passengers during peak periods. The Peak remains a residential area, although residency today is based on wealth. The Peak is home to species of birds, most prominently the black kite. With some seven million every year, the Peak is a major tourist attraction of Hong Kong. It offers spectacular views of the city and its waterfront, the viewing deck also has coin-operated telescopes that the visitors can use to enjoy the cityscape. 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 is also accessible by taxi and private car via the circuitous Peak Road, the nearest MTR station is Central. Victoria Peak Garden is located on the site of Mountain Lodge, the Governors old summer residence and it can be reached from Victoria Gap by walking up Mount Austin Road, a climb of about 150 metres. There are several restaurants on Victoria Peak, most of which are located in the two shopping centres, however, the Peak Lookout Restaurant, is housed in an older and more traditional building which was originally a spacious house for engineers working on the Peak Tramway. It was rebuilt in 1901 as an area for sedan chairs. In addition to being a major tourist attraction for Hong Kong, at the peak of The Peak, properties are more expensive than anywhere else in the world
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Central and Wan Chai Reclamation
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Central and Wan Chai Reclamation is a project launched by the government of Hong Kong since the 1990s to reclaim land for different purposes. The project was first mentioned in the 1985 planning strategy by the Government, the Government then completed a feasibility study in 1989, followed by endorsement of the then Land Development Policy Committee on the project. The proposed reclamation extends along the waterfront from Sheung Wan to Causeway Bay, the project is divided into five phases. It also provided land for new piers, replacements of other facilities affected by reclamation, works started in 1993 and were completed in June 1998. This phase of reclamation is part of the Airport Core Programme, upon completion of the project, the coastline of Central was extended up to 350 metres beyond the original coastline. The Central Reclamation Phase 2 reclaimed 5.3 hectares of land at the former Tamar naval base, the reclamation formed land for the Tamar Site, and also five commercial development sites. Works started in December 1994 and were completed in September 1997 and it has been proposed that a new complex housing the headquarters of the Government and the Legislative Council be built on the reclaimed land. It was originally planned to reclaim 32 hectares of land, but has reduced to 18 due to public opposition. Above-ground construction is scheduled to be completed in 2011, the underground Central-Wan Chai Bypass is scheduled for completion in 2017. The island configuration is to ensure water quality in the vicinity remained at satisfactory levels after reclamation was completed. Works commenced in March 1994 and were completed in July 1997, Wan Chai Development Phase II extends along the waters edge from the Central Reclamation Phase III to Causeway Bay. Construction work commenced in 2009 and is planned to be completed in 2017, the works involve the temporary reclamation – for a period of several years – of Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter and the former public cargo working area. It undertook to keep the temporary reclamation to the minimum and to reinstate the seabed after completion of the construction works, not everyone welcomed with the reclamation plan warmly. Some Hong Kong residents thought the action was totally unnecessary, it did nothing good, instead of building a bypass, the opponents urge the government to start an electronic road toll scheme in the community. On 5 October 2003, over 1,000 protesters dressed in blue marched on the Central Government Offices calling for a halt to work in the harbour. They also promised to follow up with a three-pronged protest next month using land, sea, the government had lost the first round of a court battle, but then appealed against the decision. The government resumed work to reclaim 230,000 m² of the harbour after the society failed in its bid to get hold of an order to provisionally halt work ahead of Decembers judicial review. Both have become potent symbols for environmentalists, who have staged protests, the SPH requested judicial reviews on the Reclamation, on 27 February 2003 and 25 September 2003 respectively
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General Post Office, Hong Kong
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The General Post Office is the headquarters of Hongkong Post. Built in 1976, it is located at Connaught Place, Central, the office was adjacent to the former Star Ferry Pier, and it is adjacent to Jardine House and the International Finance Centre. The current building occupied a seafront location until 2007, since when reclamation works have led to it becoming inland, the GPO has been moved three times after several reclamations as it was essential to locate the office near the shore for receiving letters from ocean liners. Past locations of the GPO were, 1841–1846, Above St. were transformed into Government Treasury, Supreme Court and this land was auctioned in 1921, when it achieved a price of HK$50 per square foot. The resulting China Building was completed in 1924, reclamations had taken place in the meantime in the late 1890s, and the first General Post Office was relocated in 1911 into new premises on the newly reclaimed section of Pedder Street. It was a typical Edwardian municipal construction of granite and red brick and this old General Post Office building was demolished in 1976, and was functionally relocated to Connaught Place to make way for the construction of the Central station of the MTR below ground. Below the building is the interchange of Hong Kong Station and Central Station of MTR, world-Wide House, an office block, was constructed above ground. Joseph Ting, former curator of the Hong Kong Museum of History. The building was constructed on reclaimed land, in 1967, the Government had planned for a 30 storey block, with 5 floors for the GPO, and 25 for government offices. The site directly to its south was secured by Hongkong Land at a record price, the GPO was designed by architect K. M. Tseng, as a 5 storey building, and the foundation to support another 2, up to the maximum permitted height of 120 feet. The building houses the first central vacuum-cleaning system in Hong Kong, without the need to change bags
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Hong Kong City Hall
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Hong Kong City Hall is a building located at Edinburgh Place, Central, Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong. Instead, it is a complex providing municipal services, including performing venues and libraries, the City Hall is managed by the Governments Leisure and Cultural Services Department. The Urban Council managed the City Hall and held its meetings there prior to its dissolution in December 1999, prior to its dissolution the UrbCo served as the municipal council for Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. The UrbCo had its meeting chamber in the Low Block of the City Hall, Hong Kongs first City Hall, which existed from 1869 to 1933, occupied the current sites of the HSBC Hong Kong headquarters building and the Bank of China Building. The current site of the HSBC Hong Kong headquarters building was occupied in part by the old City Hall, the City Hall was built on Government land, and funds were raised for its construction, which started in 1866, from public subscriptions. The two-storey hall was designed by Me A. Hermite, a French architect, in a Renaissance style, with cupolae, the facilities available for use by the local community included a theatre, library, museum and assembly rooms. A fountain, sponsored by Dent & Co. was located at the front of the Hall, the building was inaugurated by HRH Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh on 28 June 1869 on his visit to the colony. The land was acquired by the Hong Kong Bank in 1933 for its third generation headquarters, the remaining part was demolished in 1947 to make way for the Bank of China Building. The second and current City Hall complex was built in the late 1950s on a 10,000 square metres plot of land on the newly reclaimed seafront, about 200 metres from the first generation building. The foundation stone laying took place on February 25,1960 with then Governor Robert Brown Black. The City Hall was placed under the responsibility of the Urban Council and it has been listed as a Grade I historic building since 2009. It was designed between 1956 and 1958 by British architects Ron Phillips and Alan Fitch, with its clean lines and stark geometric forms, the new Hall is an example of the International style fashionable at the time. The structure was constructed using steel and concrete, and much of the equipment was of steel, glass, the two separate blocks and gardens were laid out as a cohesive whole, along a central axis. The entrance to the block of the City Hall formed an axis with Queens Pier to lend a sense of occasion to visiting dignitaries. One major consideration was juxtaposing the city bustle whilst maximising public access to the surrounding area, thus, the out-sized public areas of the Memorial Gardens and the piazza in front were conceived as a natural extension to promote the freedom of movement and a sense of unlimited space. City Halls Concert hall and theatre have been an important home to the arts in Hong Kong since its inauguration. The conference room of the former Urban Council was also at the building of the City Hall. The High block once housed Hong Kongs principal public library, until a new Central library was opened in 2001, the Hong Kong Museum of History relocated in 1975, and the Hong Kong Museum of Art also moved out of City Hall in 1991
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Island Line (MTR)
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The Island Line is one of eleven lines of the MTR, the mass transit system in Hong Kong. It runs from Kennedy Town in the Central and Western District to Chai Wan in the Eastern District, the line first opened on 31 May 1985. It currently travels through 16.3 kilometres in 34 minutes along its route, the line is indicated by the colour blue on the MTR map. The Hong Kong Government authorised the construction of the 13.1 km long Island Line in December 1980, on 31 May 1985 the Island Line opened with services operating between Admiralty and Chai Wan stations in six-car trains. On 23 May 1986, the Island Line was extended to Central Station, both Admiralty and Central stations became interchange stations with the Tsuen Wan Line. As part of extension, each train was extended to eight cars in length. On 4 August 2002, both stations became interchange stations with the new Tseung Kwan O Line which had taken over the harbour crossing section from the Kwun Tong Line. In 2002, the MTRC announced that it would use HK$300 million to construct the West and South Island Lines, no sooner, in May 2002, the first proposal from the MTRC detailed a western extension of the existing Island Line towards Kennedy Town. However, the current plan for the new lines to the Southern District would require parts of the Western extension in order for it to be completed. New intermediate stations at Sai Ying Pun and the University of Hong Kong also opened as part of the extension, however, construction delayed the opening of Sai Ying Pun station to 29 March 2015. The Island Line resembles the deep-level lines of the London Underground, as most of the route and stations along the line are deep underground and consist of cylindrical tunnels. This is the result of a lack of land, as the construction plans for the line required it to be built under major roads. The route of the underground section of the line is also served by local trams at surface level. Because of the depth of the line, most underground stations on this line have curved walls on the platforms, because most stations were built under roads, most of the platforms are curved, resulting in large platform gaps. The few stations where the platforms are otherwise relatively straight are those on the West Island Line as well as North Point, Quarry Bay, Tai Koo, Heng Fa Chuen and Chai Wan. All Island Line stations except Heng Fa Chuen and Chai Wan have their Chinese station names written in Chinese calligraphy as part of the stations livery. This explains why Heng Fa Chuen and Chai Wan stations do not have calligraphy forming part of its livery and this feature is also shared amongst some newer MTR stations such as those on the Tseung Kwan O Line and Lam Tin Station on the Kwun Tong Line. Also, due to problems, the platforms of Wan Chai, Causeway Bay, Tin Hau
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MTR
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The Mass Transit Railway is the rapid transit railway system of Hong Kong. Opened in 1979, the system now includes 218.2 km of rail with 161 stations, operated by the MTR Corporation Limited, the MTR is one of the most profitable metro systems in the world, with a high farebox recovery ratio of 186%. Under the governments rail-led transport policy, the MTR system is a mode of public transport in Hong Kong. It consistently achieves a 99. 9% on-time rate on its train journeys, as of 2014, the MTR has a 48. 1% market share of the franchised public transport market, making it the most popular transport option in Hong Kong. The integration of the Octopus smart card fare-payment technology into the MTR system in September 1997 has further enhanced the ease of commuting on the MTR, construction started soon after the release of the study, and the first line opened in 1979. The MTR was immediately popular with residents of Hong Kong, as a result, there are continual debates regarding how and where to expand the MTR network. As a successful operation, the MTR has served as a model for other newly built systems in the world. During the 1960s, the government of Hong Kong saw a need to accommodate increasing traffic as Hong Kongs economy continued to grow strongly. In 1966, British transportation consultants Freeman, Fox, Wilbur Smith & Associates were appointed to study the system of Hong Kong. The study was based on the projection of the population of Hong Kong for 1986, on 1 September 1967, the consultants submitted the Hong Kong Mass Transport Study to the government, which recommended the construction of a 40-mile rapid transit rail system in Hong Kong. The study suggested that four rail lines be developed in six stages, detailed positions of lines and stations were presented in the study. These four lines were the Kwun Tong Line, Tsuen Wan Line, Island Line, the study was submitted to the Legislative Council on 14 February 1968. The consultants received new data from the 1966 by-census on 6 March 1968, a short supplementary report was submitted on 22 March 1968 and amended in June 1968. The by-census indicated that the projected 1986 population was reduced by more than one million from the estimate to 5,647,000. The dramatic reduction affected town planning, the population distribution was largely different from the original study. The projected 1986 populations of Castle Peak New Town, Sha Tin New Town, and, to an extent, Tsuen Wan New Town, were revised downward. In this updated scenario, the reduced the scale of the recommended system. The other lines would be placed in the list of extensions and this report led to the final study in 1970
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Hong Kong/Central travel guide from Wikivoyage
Media related to Central, Hong Kong at Wikimedia Commons
