1.
New towns of Hong Kong
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New Towns in Hong Kong are areas that the Hong Kong government started developing in the 1950s, in order to accommodate the booming population. At the first phase of development, the newly developed towns were called satellite town, wah Fu Estate was also built in a remote corner at the southern side of Hong Kong Island, with similar concepts in a smaller scale. Plans to develop new areas were continued in the late 1960s and 1970s, as most flat lands in Kowloon and Hong Kong Island had already been developed, the government proposed to build New Towns in the New Territories, a largely rural area at that time. The first phase of New Town development, which started in 1973, included Tsuen Wan, Sha Tin, with the success and experience in these New Towns, further stages of new town development were launched in subsequent decades. Up until now, nine New Towns have been built and about half of the Hong Kong population reside in these newly developed areas. After building a new town on Lantau Island in the 1990s, for example, Hung Shui Kiu New Town, Kwu Tung North New Town and North Fanling New Town are proposed by the government and currently under public consultation. Land use is planned in new towns and development provides plenty of room for public housing projects. Highways, tunnels, bridges and railways were built to improve the accessibility, the first few New Towns, e. g. The aim became unaccomplishable after most of the industries had moved to Mainland China. However, the population kept booming after the Second World War, the government, for the first time, built public housing to accommodate the victims and found a change in housing policy essential. Thus, in the late 1950s, Kwun Tong became the first developed satellite town, at roughly the same time, the development of Tsuen Wan as a satellite town also began. Wah Fu Estate, which lay to the west of Aberdeen in Pok Fu Lam, was built in a remote corner at the southern side of Hong Kong Island, with a similar concept in a smaller scale. In the late 1960s and the 1970s, another stage of new developments was launched. As most flat lands in Kowloon and Hong Kong Island had already developed, the government proposed to build new towns in New Territories. Kwun Town, as the first satellite town, was not considered as a New Town, as it was part of Kowloon and they were intended to accommodate a few hundred thousands people respectively. Land reclamation was carried out in the areas, so as to provide new lands to the New Towns. These newly developed towns became mature in the 80s, and provided new homes to over a million Hong Kong people, with the success of the first phase, Hong Kong government proposed to build New Towns in other areas in the 70s. The development of Fanling-Sheung Shui New Town, Tai Po New Town, the extension of the Tsuen Wan New Town to Tsing Yi Town also started in the mid-70s, and was regarded as part of the second phase of New Town development
2.
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
3.
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
4.
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
5.
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
6.
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
7.
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
8.
Lantau Island
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Lantau Island is the largest island in Hong Kong, located at the mouth of the Pearl River. Administratively, most of Lantau Island is part of the Islands District of Hong Kong, a small northeastern portion of the island is located in the Tsuen Wan District. With a land mass of 147.16 square kilometres, it is the largest island in Hong Kong, Lantau Island primarily consists of mountainous terrain. Lantau Peak is the highest point of the island and it is the second highest in Hong Kong, after Tai Mo Shan, and is almost twice the height of Victoria Peak. Other mountains include Sunset Peak at 898 m, Lin Fa Shan at 766 m, Nei Lak Shan at 751 m and Yi Tung Shan at 747 m. The largest country park of Hong Kong, Lantau South Country Park is located on the island and these parks cover slightly more than half of the area of Lantau Island. Shek Pik Reservoir is the fourth largest freshwater reservoir in Hong Kong, completed in 1963, it covers an area of 1.01 km2 and has a capacity of 24,500,000 m3. Fan Lau Kok at the end of Fan Lau Peninsula is the southwest end of the territory of Hong Kong, the small island of Peaked Hill, off Tsin Yue Wan, marks the westernmost point on the land of Hong Kong territories. Lantau Island has a low population density, with a population of 45,000. Settlements are scattered throughout the island and each has its own distinctive characteristics, Discovery Bay is a privately owned residential development located on the south-eastern coast of Lantau. It has a current population of around 14,300 residents from over 30 different countries, giving it a reputation as an expatriate enclave. Other settlements include Mui Wo, Tai O, Tong Fuk, Sha Lo Wan villages, Pui O villages, Luk Keng Village, Nim Shue Wan Village, San Shek Wan, the name Lantau Island is based on the old local name of Lantau Peak. Its Chinese name 大嶼山 is sometimes romanized as Tai Yu Shan, the island has been historically known as Tai Hai Shan, Tai Kai Shan, Tai Yi Shan and Tuen Mun Island. Early human artifacts have been discovered on the island and these include rock carvings at Shek Pik, which are thought to date back to the Bronze Age, and a stone circle at Fan Lau which is probably from the Neolithic Age. Both sites are located on the southwestern coast of the island, the island was often shown in navigation maps because of its proximity to a major sea route in South China. In 1276, the Southern Song Dynasty court fled to Guangdong by boat to escape Mongol invaders, the resistance centred on two young princes, Emperor Gongs brothers. The older boy Zhao Shi, was declared emperor at the age of nine, in 1277, the imperial court sought refuge first in Silvermine Bay on Lantau Island (then known as Gangzhou, and later in todays Kowloon City. The older brother became ill, died, and was succeeded by the younger brother Zhao Bing at the age of seven and he died in 1279, and the Song Dynasty ended
9.
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
10.
Ming dynasty
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The Ming dynasty was the ruling dynasty of China – then known as the Empire of the Great Ming – for 276 years following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming, described by some as one of the greatest eras of orderly government, although the primary capital of Beijing fell in 1644 to a rebellion led by Li Zicheng, regimes loyal to the Ming throne – collectively called the Southern Ming – survived until 1683. He rewarded his supporters and employed them as a counterweight against the Confucian scholar-bureaucrats. One, Zheng He, led seven enormous voyages of exploration into the Indian Ocean as far as Arabia, the rise of new emperors and new factions diminished such extravagances, the capture of the Zhengtong Emperor during the 1449 Tumu Crisis ended them completely. The imperial navy was allowed to fall into disrepair while forced labor constructed the Liaodong palisade, haijin laws intended to protect the coasts from Japanese pirates instead turned many into smugglers and pirates themselves. The growth of Portuguese, Spanish, and Dutch trade created new demand for Chinese products and produced an influx of Japanese. This abundance of specie remonetized the Ming economy, whose money had suffered repeated hyperinflation and was no longer trusted. While traditional Confucians opposed such a prominent role for commerce and the newly rich it created, combined with crop failure, floods, and epidemic, the dynasty collapsed before the rebel leader Li Zicheng, who was defeated by the Manchu-led Eight Banner armies who founded the Qing dynasty. The Mongol-led Yuan dynasty ruled before the establishment of the Ming dynasty, consequently, agriculture and the economy were in shambles, and rebellion broke out among the hundreds of thousands of peasants called upon to work on repairing the dykes of the Yellow River. A number of Han Chinese groups revolted, including the Red Turbans in 1351, the Red Turbans were affiliated with the White Lotus, a Buddhist secret society. Zhu Yuanzhang was a peasant and Buddhist monk who joined the Red Turbans in 1352. In 1356, Zhus rebel force captured the city of Nanjing, with the Yuan dynasty crumbling, competing rebel groups began fighting for control of the country and thus the right to establish a new dynasty. In 1363, Zhu Yuanzhang eliminated his archrival and leader of the rebel Han faction, Chen Youliang, in the Battle of Lake Poyang, arguably the largest naval battle in history. Known for its ambitious use of ships, Zhus force of 200,000 Ming sailors were able to defeat a Han rebel force over triple their size, claimed to be 650. The victory destroyed the last opposing rebel faction, leaving Zhu Yuanzhang in uncontested control of the bountiful Yangtze River Valley, Zhu Yuanzhang took Hongwu, or Vastly Martial, as his era name. Hongwu made an effort to rebuild state infrastructure. He built a 48 km long wall around Nanjing, as well as new palaces, Hongwu organized a military system known as the weisuo, which was similar to the fubing system of the Tang dynasty. With a growing suspicion of his ministers and subjects, Hongwu established the Jinyiwei, some 100,000 people were executed in a series of purges during his rule
11.
Qing dynasty
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It was preceded by the Ming dynasty and succeeded by the Republic of China. The Qing multi-cultural empire lasted almost three centuries and formed the base for the modern Chinese state. The dynasty was founded by the Jurchen Aisin Gioro clan in Manchuria, in the late sixteenth century, Nurhaci, originally a Ming vassal, began organizing Banners, military-social units that included Jurchen, Han Chinese, and Mongol elements. Nurhaci formed the Jurchen clans into an entity, which he renamed as the Manchus. By 1636, his son Hong Taiji began driving Ming forces out of Liaodong and declared a new dynasty, in 1644, peasant rebels led by Li Zicheng conquered the Ming capital, Beijing. The Ten Great Campaigns of the Qianlong Emperor from the 1750s to the 1790s extended Qing control into Central Asia, the early rulers maintained their Manchu ways, and while their title was Emperor, they used khan to the Mongols and they were patrons of Tibetan Buddhism. They governed using Confucian styles and institutions of government and retained the imperial examinations to recruit Han Chinese to work under or in parallel with Manchus. They also adapted the ideals of the system in dealing with neighboring territories. The Qianlong reign saw the apogee and initial decline in prosperity. The population rose to some 400 million, but taxes and government revenues were fixed at a low rate, corruption set in, rebels tested government legitimacy, and ruling elites did not change their mindsets in the face of changes in the world system. Following the Opium War, European powers imposed unequal treaties, free trade, the Taiping Rebellion and the Dungan Revolt in Central Asia led to the deaths of some 20 million people, most of them due to famines caused by war. In spite of disasters, in the Tongzhi Restoration of the 1860s, Han Chinese elites rallied to the defense of the Confucian order. The initial gains in the Self-Strengthening Movement were destroyed in the First Sino-Japanese War of 1895, in which the Qing lost its influence over Korea, New Armies were organized, but the ambitious Hundred Days Reform of 1898 was turned back by Empress Dowager Cixi, a conservative leader. Sun Yat-sen and other revolutionaries competed with reformist monarchists such as Kang Youwei, after the deaths of Cixi and the Guangxu Emperor in 1908, the hardline Manchu court alienated reformers and local elites alike. The Wuchang Uprising on October 11,1911, led to the Xinhai Revolution, General Yuan Shikai negotiated the abdication of Puyi, the last emperor, on February 12,1912. Nurhaci declared himself the Bright Khan of the Later Jin state in both of the 12–13th century Jurchen Jin dynasty and of his Aisin Gioro clan. His son Hong Taiji renamed the dynasty Great Qing in 1636, there are competing explanations on the meaning of Qīng. The character Qīng is composed of water and azure, both associated with the water element and this association would justify the Qing conquest as defeat of fire by water
12.
Airport Core Programme
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The Airport Core Programme was a series of infrastructure projects centred on the new Hong Kong International Airport during the early 1990s. The programme was part of the Port and Airport Development Strategy, the cost for the whole project was estimated at over HK$200 billion, and the Chinese Government was concerned about its impact on the financial reserve of the future Hong Kong SAR Government. Several changes were made to the plan, including the shortening of the Tsing Ma Bridge, the project ended up costing HK$160.2 billion. It was the most expensive project in the world, according to the Guinness World Records. It was the biggest infrastructure programme in Hong Kongs history, plans to replace the old Kai Tak Airport were drafted after the Second World War. However, for financial and political reasons, the plan was abandoned in 1951, with the growth of the economy of Hong Kong during the 1970s, the project reemerged for discussion. The Government earmarked Chek Lap Kok, just off the north coast of Lantau Island near Tung Chung, however, the plan was shelved in 1983 for economic reasons, as well as the question of Hong Kongs sovereignty and the impending signing of the Sino-British Joint Declaration. The public was surprised by the huge budget and there were concerns that it would drain much of the public revenue. The programme was completed with the opening of the new Hong Kong International Airport at Chek Lap Kok in July 1998. The programme included, The Hong Kong International Airport is the centrepiece of this massive project, Chek Lap Kok was selected as an optimal site due to its development potential. Construction finally started in 1992 and was planned to finish in mid-1997, chris Patten, the last Governor of Hong Kong, expressed his hope of leaving Hong Kong via the new airport after the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong. The airport finally came into operation on 6 July 1998, at a cost of around US$20 billion, the Airport Railway was built to connect Kowloon Peninsula and Hong Kong Island to the Airport and the planned new towns of Northern Lantau. The railway is operated by the MTR Corporation and has two routes, the Airport Express and the Tung Chung Line which provides a service linking the new town of Tung Chung to the city. These two lines share the same double-tracks for most of their routes, however, the railway was planned to have four tracks along its length. The commuter service offered by the Tung Chung Line also provided relief to the overcrowded Tsuen Wan Line of the MTR, comprising Kap Shui Mun Bridge and Tsing Ma Bridge, the Lantau Link connects Lantau with Tsing Yi, via Ma Wan. It carries both road and railway traffic between the islands and this is the third cross-harbour tunnel for Victoria Harbour. Built under an agreement with the Western Harbour Tunnel Company. With the highest posted speed limit in Hong Kong, this 6-lane motorway links Tung Chung in the west to the Lantau Link in the east, via the north coast of Lantau
13.
Islands of Hong Kong
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Hong Kong comprises the Kowloon peninsula and 263 islands over 500 m2, the largest being Lantau Island and the second largest being Hong Kong Island. Ap Lei Chau is one of the most densely populated islands in the world, Hong Kong Island is historically the political and commercial centre of Hong Kong. It was the site of the settlement of Victoria City. Most of the islands are commonly referred to as the Outlying Islands. Kowloon Peninsula, across Victoria Harbour from Hong Kong Island is another notable commercial centre in Hong Kong and these islands belong to respective districts depending on their locations. Historically, only the south of Boundary Street was ceded to Britain by the Convention of Peking Road in 1860. Nga Ying Chau - now northeast corner of the Tsing Yi Island as a result of land reclamation Pearl Island - Tuen Mun Rumsey Rock - Now part of shore of between Tsim Sha Tsui East and Hung Hom. Stonecutters Island - a former island, now part of the Kowloon peninsula, following land reclamation Tsing Chau and it is the Kwai Chung end of Tsing Yi Bridge. It historically had an area of 8.511 km² and was in 1960 the 4th largest island of Hong Kong, at that time, the airport platform had not yet been built and the area of Tsing Yi increased later as a consequence of land reclamation. The original Chek Lap Kok had an area of 3.02 km²
14.
Land reclamation in Hong Kong
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The reclamation of land from the ocean has long been used in mountainous Hong Kong to expand the limited supply of usable land with a total of around 60 square kilometres of land created by 1996. The first reclamations can be traced back to the early Western Han Dynasty, major land reclamation projects have been conducted since the mid-19th century. One of the earliest and best-known modern projects was the Praya Reclamation Scheme and it was one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken during the Colonial Hong Kong era. In addition, as the city expands, new towns in different decades were mostly built on reclaimed land, such as Tuen Mun, Tai Po, Sha Tin, Ma On Shan, West Kowloon, Kwun Tong and Tseung Kwan O. Much reclamation has taken place in locations on the waterfront on both sides of Victoria Harbour. Hong Kong legislators passed the Protection of the Harbour Ordinance in 1996 in an effort to safeguard the increasingly threatened Victoria Harbour against encroaching land development
15.
Islands District
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The Islands District is one of the 18 districts of Hong Kong. It is part of the New Territories and it had a population of 141,327 in 2011. Hong Kong consists of a peninsula and 236 islands, the Islands District consists of some twenty large and small islands which lie to the south and southwest of Hong Kong. With an area that is 16% of Hong Kong and a population that is 2% of Hong Kong and it is therefore the district with by far the lowest population density of 783 per km². The outlying islands are notable for a relaxed way of life than that of Hong Kong Island. The district has the third youngest residents, many islands of Hong Kong are actually not part of the district. Most notably, Hong Kong Island contains four districts itself, the term Outlying Islands tends to refer to the islands of the Islands District. The northeast point of Lantau and Ma Wan traditionally belong to Tsuen Wan District owing to their administration and transportation dependence of Tsuen Wan, Tsing Yi Island once was administrated by Tsuen Wan District and now by Kwai Tsing District. Whilst the Sai Kung Islands are part of the Sai Kung District, collectively, Mui Wo and Tai O on Lantau, Cheung Chau, Lamma Island and Peng Chau are more populated than the rest of the area of the district. New Lantao Bus Ngong Ping 360 Islands of Hong Kong List of areas of Hong Kong Islands District Council List and map of electoral constituencies http, //www. islandsdc. gov. hk/
16.
Song dynasty
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The Song dynasty was an era of Chinese history that began in 960 and continued until 1279. It succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, coincided with the Liao and Western Xia dynasties and it was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or true paper money nationally and the first Chinese government to establish a permanent standing navy. This dynasty also saw the first known use of gunpowder, as well as the first discernment of true north using a compass, the Song dynasty is divided into two distinct periods, Northern and Southern. During the Northern Song, the Song capital was in the city of Bianjing. The Southern Song refers to the period after the Song lost control of its half to the Jurchen Jin dynasty in the Jin–Song Wars. During this time, the Song court retreated south of the Yangtze, the Southern Song dynasty considerably bolstered its naval strength to defend its waters and land borders and to conduct maritime missions abroad. To repel the Jin, and later the Mongols, the Song developed revolutionary new military technology augmented by the use of gunpowder, in 1234, the Jin dynasty was conquered by the Mongols, who took control of northern China, maintaining uneasy relations with the Southern Song. Möngke Khan, the fourth Great Khan of the Mongol Empire and his younger brother Kublai Khan was proclaimed the new Great Khan, though his claim was only partially recognized by the Mongols in the west. In 1271, Kublai Khan was proclaimed the Emperor of China, after two decades of sporadic warfare, Kublai Khans armies conquered the Song dynasty in 1279. The Mongol invasion led to a reunification under the Yuan dynasty, the population of China doubled in size during the 10th and 11th centuries. The Northern Song census recorded a population of roughly 50 million, much like the Han and this data is found in the Standard Histories. However, it is estimated that the Northern Song had a population of some 100 million people and this dramatic increase of population fomented an economic revolution in pre-modern China. The expansion of the population, growth of cities, and the emergence of a national economy led to the withdrawal of the central government from direct involvement in economic affairs. The lower gentry assumed a role in grassroots administration and local affairs. Appointed officials in county and provincial centers relied upon the gentry for their services, sponsorship. Social life during the Song was vibrant, citizens gathered to view and trade precious artworks, the populace intermingled at public festivals and private clubs, and cities had lively entertainment quarters. The spread of literature and knowledge was enhanced by the expansion of woodblock printing. Technology, science, philosophy, mathematics, and engineering flourished over the course of the Song, although the institution of the civil service examinations had existed since the Sui dynasty, it became much more prominent in the Song period
17.
Macau
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Macau, also spelled Macao, officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the Peoples Republic of China, is an autonomous territory on the western side of the Pearl River Delta in East Asia. Macau is bordered by the city of Zhuhai in Mainland China to the north, Hong Kong lies about 64 kilometres to its east across the Delta. With a population of 650,900 living in an area of 30.5 km2, Macau was administered by the Portuguese Empire and its inheritor states from the mid-16th century until late 1999, when it constituted the last remaining European colony in Asia. Portuguese traders first settled in Macau in the 1550s, in 1557, Macau was leased to Portugal from Ming China as a trading port. The Portuguese Empire administered the city under Chinese authority and sovereignty until 1887, sovereignty over Macau was transferred back to China on 20 December 1999. The Joint Declaration on the Question of Macau and Macau Basic Law stipulate that Macau operate with a degree of autonomy until at least 2049. Macau participates in international organizations and events that do not require members to national sovereignty. Macau is a city in Southern China, known for its casinos. Its gaming revenue has been the worlds largest since 2006, with the heavily dependent on gaming. According to The World Factbook, Macau has the fourth highest life expectancy in the world, the present Chinese name means Inlet Gates. Macau is otherwise known in Chinese as Haojing or Jinghai, the name Macau is thought to be derived from the A-Ma Temple, a temple built in 1448 dedicated to Mazu, the goddess of seafarers and fishermen. It is said that when the Portuguese sailors landed at the coast just outside the temple and asked the name of the place, the Portuguese then named the peninsula Macau. The history of Macau is traced back to the Qin dynasty, the first recorded Chinese inhabitants of the area were people seeking refuge in Macau from invading Mongols during the Southern Song. Under the Ming dynasty, fishermen migrated to Macau from Guangdong, the Macau native people were Tanka boat people. Macau did not develop as a settlement until the Portuguese arrived in the 16th century. In 1513, Jorge Álvares became the first Portuguese to land in China, in 1535, Portuguese traders obtained the rights to anchor ships in Macaus harbours and to carry out trading activities, though not the right to stay onshore. In 1557, the Portuguese established a permanent settlement in Macau, the Portuguese continued to pay an annual tribute up to 1863 in order to stay in Macau. By 1564, Portugal commanded western trade with India, Japan, but their pride was damaged by the indifference with which the Chinese treated them
18.
Kai Tak Airport
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Kai Tak Airport was the international airport of Hong Kong from 1925 until 1998. It is often known as Hong Kong International Airport, Kai Tak, or simply Kai Tak, the History Channel program Most Extreme Airports ranked it as the 6th most dangerous airport in the world. The airport was home to Hong Kongs international carrier Cathay Pacific, as well as regional carrier Dragonair, the airport was also home to the former RAF Kai Tak. Kai Tak was located on the west side of Kowloon Bay in Kowloon, the area is surrounded by rugged mountains. Less than 10 km to the north and northeast is a range of hills reaching an elevation of 2,000 ft, to the east of the runway, the hills are less than 5 km away. Immediately to the south of the airport is Victoria Harbour, when Kai Tak closed, there was only one runway in use, numbered 13/31 and oriented southeast/northwest. The runway was made by reclaiming land from the harbour and was extended several times after its initial construction, the runway was 3,390 m long when the airport closed. At the northern end of the runway, buildings rose up to six stories just across the road, the other three sides of the runway were surrounded by Victoria Harbour. The people watching television in the nearby apartments seemed an unsettling arms length away, the story of Kai Tak started in 1912 when two businessmen Ho Kai and Au Tak formed the Kai Tak Investment Company to reclaim land in Kowloon for development. The land was acquired by the government for use as an airfield after the plan failed. In 1924, Harry Abbott opened The Abbott School of Aviation on that piece of land, in 1928, a concrete slipway was built for seaplanes that used the adjoining Kowloon Bay. The first control tower and hangar at Kai Tak were built in 1935, in 1936, the first domestic airline in Hong Kong was established. Hong Kong fell into the hands of the Japanese in 1941 during World War II, in 1942, the Japanese army expanded Kai Tak, using many Allied prisoner-of-war labourers, building two concrete runways, 13/31 and 07/25. Numerous POW diary entries exist recalling the work and long hours working on building Kai Tak. During the process, the wall of the Kowloon Walled City and the 45-metre tall Sung Wong Toi. A2001 Environmental Study recommended that a new memorial be erected for the Sung Wong Toi rock and other remnants of the Kowloon area before Kai Tak. From September 1945 to August 1946, the airport was a Royal Navy shore base, HMS Nabcatcher, on 1 April 1947, a Royal Navy air station, HMS Flycatcher, was commissioned there. A plan to modify Kai Tak into an airport was released in 1954
19.
Chek Lap Kok
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Chek Lap Kok is an island in the western waters of Hong Kong. The airport is referred to as Chek Lap Kok Airport to distinguish it from the former Hong Kong International Airport. Hong Kong SkyCity, a business and entertainment complex, is located on Chek Lap Kok. It includes AsiaWorld-Expo, a convention and exhibition centre, which opened in 2005, Cathay Pacific City, the head office of Cathay Pacific, and the head offices of Dragonair and Hong Kong Airlines are also located on the airport platform. The name of the island may be derived from the bareness of the island, the island is located north of Lantau Island off Ma Wan Chung and Tung Chung. Before the building of the platform, it was a small and hilly island, about 4 kilometres long. The southern end of the island formed a peninsula, which has been left largely undeveloped. This area is facing Tung Chung and is now named Scenic Hill and it is the site of the Ancient Kiln Park and the Airport Island Angle Station of the Ngong Ping 360 cable car. The island has been inhabited on and off since the Middle Neolithic period 6,000 years ago, during the 19th and 20th centuries, the inhabitants of the island practiced farming, including rice cultivation, and quarrying. Their population was about 200 in the 1950s, raising sharply in the 1960s and it later declined, with some 20 families remaining on the island when the plan for the construction of a new airport was announced in the early 1990s. Archeological surveys and investigations were conducted on the island starting in the late 1970s, a salvage archaeology project started on October 15,1990. The original farming and fishing villages on the island were relocated to Chek Lap Kok Village near Tung Chung on Lantau Island, a Tin Hau Temple had been built in 1823 at the north east of the island. The entire temple was built of granite quarried on the island and it was dismantled in 1991 and rebuilt in 1994 at its present location. Also, Romers Tree Frog, a species of finger-sized frog found only in Hong Kong, was relocated from Chek Lap Kok to new habitats on Lantau Island before construction of the airport
20.
Civil Engineering and Development Department
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The Civil Engineering and Development Department is a department of the Hong Kong government that reports to the Development Bureau. Its duties are primarily the detailed planning and construction of infrastructure to be operated by other departments, the government have committed to landscape every existing slope upgraded under the Landslip Preventive Measures Programme and every newly formed Government slope. The department was formed in 2004 through a merger of the Civil Engineering Department, the TTD was, in turn, formed in 1986 through a merger of the New Territories Development Department and the Urban Area Development Office. The CEDD formerly came under the Environment, Transport and Works Bureau
21.
Sunset Peak, Hong Kong
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Sunset Peak or Tai Tung Shan is the third highest peak in Hong Kong. It is situated on Lantau Island within Lantau South Country Park and Lantau North Country Park, the second highest Lantau Peak is on the western part of the island. Sunset peak is accessible by foot. It can be reached as a trip on section 2 of the 70-km long Lantau Trail. Section 2 is 6.5 km long and goes from Nam Shan, both campsites are served by a number of bus routes going to Mui Wo, Tung Chung, and other destinations on Lantau island. List of mountains, peaks and hills in Hong Kong
22.
Public housing in Hong Kong
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Public housing in Hong Kong is a set of mass housing programmes through which the Government of Hong Kong provides affordable housing for lower-income residents. It is a component of housing in Hong Kong, with nearly half of the population now residing in some form of public housing. The public housing policy dates to 1954, after a fire in Shek Kip Mei destroyed thousands of shanty homes end of 1953, Public housing is mainly built by the Hong Kong Housing Authority and the Hong Kong Housing Society. Many public housing estates are built in the new towns of the New Territories and they are found in every district of Hong Kong except in Wan Chai District. The vast majority of housing is providing in high-rise buildings. On 25 December 1953, a fire in Shek Kip Mei destroyed the makeshift homes of refugees from Mainland China. Some scholars have argued that the government has been overstating the role of the fire in the history of housing in Hong Kong. For example, Faure argues that Grantham was concerned with introducing subsidised housing as early as 1949, the Shek Kip Mei Estate, ready for occupation in 1954, was the first tangible manifestation of this policy. In those early days, housing units were more than small cubicles. However, they were in reality occupied by more than one family. Facilities and sanitation were rudimentary and communal, rents were pitched at between HK$10 and 14, without caps on income. That year, the Resettlement Department was formed, as was the first Housing Authority, out of the Urban Council, the Shek Kip Mei estate has now been extensively redeveloped. In 1963, due to the escalation of squatter numbers, squatters eligibility for public housing was frozen. The Housing Board was set up with the role of coordinating between agencies responsible for domestic housing, all blocks were 16-floor high, and lifts from the ground floor could reach the 8th and the 13th floors. In 1973, the Government of Hong Kong announced a plan for the public provision of housing, to provide everyone in Hong Kong with permanent. The objective was to provide 1.8 million people with satisfactory accommodation, the Government saw as its responsibility to provide accessible housing for the poor – defined as those whose monthly household income was between HK$2,100 and HK$3,150. In 1975, the Government officially opened the Oi Man Estate and this represented an innovation in that the commercial premises would serve the local estate, while paying a rent determined by public tender. Unlike the generations of housing estates which preceded it, there would be designated market stalls, street vendors would be no longer be tolerated
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