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
23.
Henderson Land Development
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Henderson Land Development Co. Ltd. is a listed property company and a constituent of the Hang Seng Index. It is the third largest Hong Kong real estate developer by market capitalisation, the company is controlled by Dr Lee Shau Kee, who speaks for approximately 70. 17% of the share capital as at June 2015. Founded by Li Shau-kee, the company was public in 1981 by Sun Hung Kai Securities. The final HK$2 instalment would be due at the year end, in 2006, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange found that Henderson had breached the foreign-exchange regulations in the amount of HK$565 million. On 4 December 2006, the company was issued with a fine of 2.33 million yuan, the companys stakes in its principal associates as at 31 December 2014 were Towngas, Miramar Hotel and Investment Co, Ltd and Hong Kong Ferry. Its shares have been trading at below NAV. In November 2002, the company attempted to buy out minority shareholders by making an offer of HKD7.60. The buyout offer fell when it was opposed by more than 14% of the holders of the outstanding shares. In November 2005, it made another attempt when it offered one share for every 2.6 share in HI, the revised deal valued HI at an 18% discount to its net asset value. The company had persuaded shareholder Templeton Investment to back the buyout, nevertheless, this second offer was again rejected, more narrowly this time, by 10. 94% of the minority vote. This was in excess of the statutory blocking vote of 10%, when trading in both companies shares were suspended on 26 March, there was speculation that the Company would launch another buyout attempt after the expiry of the one year legal moratorium. HI would make a distribution of HK$5 per HI after the sale. Net of the HKD10.35 billion special distribution for its 73. 5% stake, on 3 October 2007, the company proposed to pay market value only to gain control of Towngas. It would acquire the 39.06 percent stake in Towngas held by subsidiary Henderson Investment for HK$42.86 billion in cash and convertible notes. Minority shareholders of Henderson Investment, who together hold 30. 73%, would receive 204.1 million Henderson Land shares and HK$1.19 billion in cash. Webb further criticised the nature of the offer as a back-door privatisation of Henderson Investment, on 7 November, Henderson sweetened the offer to appease minority shareholders by increasing the cash portion to HK$2.24 per share. On 7 December 2007, Henderson secured shareholders support for the usurpation, on 8 December 2006, the company spun off and listed 12 office and 8 retail properties in Hong Kong into a Real Estate Investment Trust, Sunlight. However, the fell by 6. 5% on its market début on 21 December
24.
New World Development
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New World Development Company Limited, is based in Hong Kong focusing on property, infrastructure and services, department stores and hotels. It was established in 1970 by Cheng Yu-tung, the company is publicly listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange since 23 November 1972 and is a constituent stock of Hong Kong Hang Seng Index. Over the last four decades, the group has also participated in various businesses in Mainland China. Its notable subsidiaries include the Rosewood Hotel Group, formerly New World Hospitality, the groups existing investments in Mainland China has exceeded US$16.5 billion, spreading across four municipalities and over 19 provinces. May 1970 New World Development Company Limited is established to venture into property development, Dr Ho Sin Hang is elected Chairman of the Company, while Dr. Cheng Yu Tung is appointed Director and General Manager. Chow Tai Fook Enterprises Limited is the Companys largest shareholder, oct 1972 NWD is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, raising over HK$193 million. Oct 1986 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II officiates at the stone laying ceremony of the HKCEC on 21 October. Feb 1992 New World Development is set up, oct 1995 New World Infrastructure Limited is formed to consolidate all of NWDs infrastructure projects in Hong Kong and Mainland China. NWI is listed on HKSE in October, apr 1997 New World Services Limited is established to consolidate all the services-related businesses within the group. Jul 1999 New World China Land Limited is formed to consolidate all of NWDs property projects in Mainland China, jan 2003 The reorganisation of New World Group was completed. Feb 2003 Consolidated shares under newly named NWS Holdings Limited began trading on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited, jul 2007 New World Department Store China Limited is listed on HKSE. Dec 2010 The Guangzhou Dongxin Expressway, in which NWS Holdings holds 40. 8% equity interest, is opened on 31 December 2010. Aug 2011 New World Group announces its support to New World Harbour Race. Dec 2011 NWDS sets up Mianyang New World Department Store, its first store in Mianyang City, dec 2013 NWS Holdings Limited acquires equity shares in Beijing Capital International Airport to become its second largest shareholder. The total consideration for the sale and transfer of the Hotels is HK$18,500 million, the Groups two listed companies are NWS Holdings Limited and New World Department Store China Limited. New World China Land Limited is wholly owned by the Group, as at 31 December 2014, the group had a landbank of around 9.25 million sq ft, of which around 5.3 million sq ft was residential property. The group had a total of approximately 18.3 million sq ft of land reserve pending for conversion. One such project, the Hung Hom Peninsula, was sold for a land premium of HK$864 million to New World Development
25.
Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd.
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Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd. is a listed corporation based in Hong Kong. The company is controlled by the Kwok family trust set up by Kwok Tak Seng and it is reputed to be the second most valuable real estate company in the world. It is controlled in large by the Kwok brothers, the company was one of many non-British owned companies that overtook the British trading companies or hongs that dominated the financial order in Hong Kong prior to 1997. The company was founded in 1963 by the elder Kwok, together with Fung King-hei and Lee Shau Kee, in 1973, SHKP acquires Hong Yip Service Company Limited. In 1977, SHKP moved its office to Connaught Centre. In 1978, SHKP establishes Kai Shing Management Services Limited, in 1978, SHKP put on sale the first multi-block residential estate, Tsuen Wan Centre. Also in 1978, SHKP became one of the 33 constituent stocks listed of the Hang Seng Index, in 1979, SHKP establishes Sun Hung Kai Properties Insurance Limited In 1981, SHKP acquired interest in Kowloon Motor Bus, a public transport provider. The corporation moved its headquarters to Sun Hung Kai Centre, on an area of newly-reclaimed land in Wan Chai, in 1991, SHKP acquired Wilson Parking. In 1992, SHKP finished construction of Central Plaza in Wan Chai, in the same year the company diversified into mobile telephony with the establishment of SmarTone, now one of Hong Kongs dominant mobile providers. This subsidiary was listed in Hong Kong in 1996, in 1993, SHKP acquired World Trade Centre, Causeway Bay. From the mid-1990s the company undertook property development related to the new airport railway, in 1999, Completion of Shanghai Central Plaza commercial building. In 2000, SHKP wins tender for Kowloon Station Development Packages 5,6 &7 – now the International Commerce Centre complex, in 2000, SUNeVision Holdings Limited, a subsidiary of SHKP, is listed on the Growth Enterprise Market of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong. In 2001, SHKP establishes luxury residential leasing division Signature Homes, in 2003, the first phases of YOHO Town in Yuen Long went on sale. The same year, the signed a land-use transfer agreement with Shanghai Lujiazui Finance. In 2005, SHKP opens APM, Hong Kongs first late-night retail centre, in 2005, SHKP acquires Seiyu Company Limited. In 2009, Ma Wan Park Noahs Ark opens, the first Christian theme park in Hong Kong, in 2010, SHKP finishes construction of ICC at Kowloon Station, the tallest building in Hong Kong at the time of completion. In 2013, SHKP successfully acquires commercial site with 7.6 million square feet of floor area in Shanghai Xujiahui district. In 2015, SHKP becomes Title and Charity Sponsor of the first Hong Kong Cyclothon, in 2016, SHKP donates land in Yuen Long to Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui for the construction of an integrated service centre
26.
Swire Properties
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Swire Properties Limited is a property developer, owner and operator of mixed-use, principally commercial properties in Hong Kong and Mainland China. Founded and headquartered in Hong Kong in 1972, Swire Properties is listed on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong and, with its subsidiaries, the company is a subsidiary of publicly listed Swire Pacific. In 1975, Taikoo Shing, built on the former Taikoo Dockyard, Tung Ting Mansion, the first block of Taikoo Shing, was offered for sale in January 1976. In the following year, Taikoo Sugar Refinery Compound was renamed to the Taikoo Trading Estate, Swire Properties was briefly listed for the first time on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong in 1977. Its shares were traded on the London Stock Exchange. In 1976, Swire Properties decided to invest in US by acquiring interests in Berkeley Hambro Inc, two years later, Swire Properties acquired interests in a joint venture with a Florida Cheezem Development Corporation Limited, to develop a 33. 6-acre site on Claughton Island, Miami. Claughton Island was later renamed Brickell Key, in 1985 to 1986, Swire Properties purchased the former Victoria Barracks in Admiralty and land surrounding it. The land was redeveloped into Pacific Place, which was a hub consisting of a shopping mall. Pacific Place was fully completed in 1991, an office tower extension, Pacific Place Three, was completed in 2004. In 1999, StarCrest, a residential project adjacent to the Pacific Place hub, was completed, in 1998, Festival Walk was completed, which offered retail space spanning seven levels, an office tower and a public transportation terminus. In 2011, Swire Properties sold its 100% interest in Festival Walk to Mapletree, the property transaction was the most expensive ever conducted in Hong Kong’s history. In 1999, Swire Properties completed Citygate in Tung Chung, Lantau, as well as Tung Chung Crescent and Seaview Crescent, in 2006, the retail mall of Citygate was renamed Citygate Outlets, Hong Kong’s first outlet shopping mall. In 2007, Swire Properties acquired the Beijing Sanlitun project, which comprises a mixed commercial scheme comprising retail development. The southern portion of Sanlitun Village was also opened the following year, the northern portion of Sanlitun Village was opened in 2010, marking the official launch of the entire Sanlitun Village development. It was later renamed Taikoo Li Sanlitun, in 2011, TaiKoo Hui was opened in Guangzhou, and INDIGO was opened in Beijing. Sino-Ocean Taikoo Li Chengdu was officially launched in 2015, in 2010, Swire Properties attempted to split from Swire Pacific and undergo an IPO, but in the end postponed due to adverse economic situation. In 2012, Swire Properties was successfully listed by way of introduction on the Main Board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong and its stock code is 1972 and its shares began trading on 18 January. Swire Properties’ investment portfolio comprises office and retail properties, serviced apartments, hotels, Swire Properties investment portfolio in Hong Kong totals over 15.9 million sq ft of gross floor area. Taikoo Place, Cityplaza, Pacific Place and Citygate Outlets are the companys key holdings
27.
MTR Corporation
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MTR Corporation Limited is a company listed on the Hong Kong Exchange, and a component of Hang Seng Index. MTR runs Hong Kongs Mass Transit Railway, and is also a property developer. It also invests in railways in different parts in the world, and has obtained contracts to operate rapid transit systems in London, Stockholm, Beijing, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Melbourne, and Sydney. The Mass Transit Railway Corporation was established in 1975 as a statutory corporation to build. On 30 June 2000 the MTRC was succeeded by the MTR Corporation Limited, as with the MTRC, the MTRCLs principal business is to operate the mass transit railway system. Following a successful public offering, the MTRCL was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on 5 October 2000. On 11 September 2000, the Financial Secretary of the Hong Kong Government, Mr Donald Tsang, the offering was for one billion shares, but this was increased to 1.15 billion due to high demand. On 5 October 2000, the company was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange with 600,000 shareholders, in June 2001, MTR was added to the Hang Seng Index. At the time of the public offering, the company was operating with a budget surplus of HK$360 million. The MTR has continued to be one of the few public transport systems in the world. There had been discussion of merging the Kowloon–Canton Railway Corporation, which was also government-owned. The MTRCL backed such a merge while the KCRC opposed the plan, in March 2004, the Hong Kong Government officially encouraged the two companies to merge. On 11 April 2006, the Hong Kong Government officially announced the details of the proposed merger, in addition, MTRCL would make a payment of $7.79 billion for the acquisition of property and other related commercial interests. The railway lines the KCRC operated were less profitable than the MTRC, and it was widely considered that the Governments choice was to avoid being criticised for selling assets of the KCRC, which it wholly owned to MTRCL at an underpriced level. Leasing the operation right of the KCR system to the MTRCL could avoid actually selling the KCRC, on 2 December 2007, the Chinese name of the MTRCL was changed to 香港鐵路有限公司 after being granted the Service Concession while the English name will remain unchanged. The KCRC is now a company of the KCR system. The merger was approved by shareholders of the MTRCL on 9 October 2007, the merger is effective for 50 years. All adult Octopus Card holders would be the first to benefit from the merger, student and Concessionary Octopus holders would also benefit from the merger by further reducing $0.1 from their 50% off fares
28.
HKR International
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It is a corporate conglomerate, active in land development, hotel and other investments in Hong Kong, the Peoples Republic of China and the rest of the Asia-Pacific. Its current Chairman is Cha Mou Sing Payson, the company is incorporated in the Cayman Islands and is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange since 1987. It became a constituent of the Hang Seng Midcap 50 Index in 1996 and is currently a constituent of the 200-stock Hang Seng Composite Index, Beaufort Holdings Limited Beaufort Sentosa Development Pte Ltd Broad Base International Limited Clarity Aesthetic Center, Inc. GenRx Holdings Limited Grace Ivory Co. Ltd, great Wisdom Holdings Limited Hanbright Assets Limited Healthway Philippines Inc. HK Resort International Limited HKR Asia-Pacific Pte Ltd 香港興業亞太有限公司 HKR China Limited HMC Inc
29.
Cheung Kong Holdings
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Cheung Kong Limited, was a multinational conglomerate, based in Hong Kong. It was one of Hong Kongs leading multi-national conglomerates, the company merged with its subsidiary Hutchison Whampoa on 3 June 2015, as part of a major reorganisation, to become part of CK Hutchison Holdings. The Chairman of Cheung Kong Holdings is Li Ka Shing, while his son, Victor Li, is Managing Director. Li Ka Shing founded Cheung Kong Industries in 1950s as a plastics manufacturer, under his leadership, the company grew rapidly and eventually evolved into a property investment company. Cheung Kong Limited was established in 1971, the Cheung Kong Group was one of the largest developers of residential, office, retail, industrial and hotel properties in Hong Kong. With its long history of property development expertise and residential estates, Cheung Kong Holdings has built many of Hong Kongs most notable landmark buildings and complexes. As part of the reorganisation of the group, a new company composed of the property assets was spun-off in June 2015 as Cheung Kong Property Holdings. The market capitalisation of the Cheung Kong Groups Hong Kong listed companies amounted to HK$1,148 billion as at 31 January 2015, the Group operates in over 50 countries and employs over 240,000 staff worldwide. Hutchison Whampoa Limited SEHK,0013 Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings Limited SEHK,1038 Power Assets Holdings Limited SEHK,0006 CK Life Sciences Intl, Cheung Kong Group became one of the largest developers in Hong Kong with a long history of property development. About one in twelve of the residences in Hong Kong were developed by the company. The company and Sun Hung Kai Properties together became increasingly dominant in the development of new homes, accounting for 70% of the market in 2010. Its board of directors includes Wong Yuchin, Victor Li Tzar-kuoi, elder son of Li Ka-shing, Canning Fok, Simon Murray, in January 2015, Li Ka Shing confirmed the business would be restructured and its property business spun-off as a separately listed company, Cheung Kong Property. Under the plans, Cheung Kong Holdings will purchase the shares in Hutchison Whampoa that it not already own. The new holding company was established on 18 March 2015, based in the Cayman Islands, Hutchison Whampoa was delisted on 3 June 2015, on the same day that a new company comprising the groups existing property assets, Cheung Kong Property Holdings, began trading. The company operates mobile telephone services under the 3 brand in 10 countries, CK Hutchisons telecommunications subsidiaries in Hong Kong and Australia are listed companies, the company holds 66. 09% and 87. 87% stakes in these respectively. The Chairman of Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings Limited is Victor Li Tzar Kuoi, CKI is the largest diversified infrastructure company listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. CK Hutchison holds a 75. 67% stake in the company, the Chairman of Power Assets Holdings Limited is Canning Fok Kin-ning. The listed Hongkong Electric group of companies are The Hongkong Electric Company Limited, Hongkong Electric International Limited, Associated Technical Services Limited, the Hongkong Electric Company Limited mainly concentrates on generation and supply of electricity on Hong Kong Island and Lamma Island
30.
Hutchison Whampoa Limited
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Hutchison Whampoa Limited is an investment holding company based in Hong Kong. It was a Fortune Global 500 company and one of the largest companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, HWL was an international corporation with a diverse array of holdings which included the worlds biggest port and telecommunication operations in 14 countries and run under the 3 brand. Its business also included retail, property development and infrastructure and it was 49. 97% owned by the Cheung Kong Group. On 3 June 2015, the merged with the Cheung Kong Group as part of a major reorganisation of the groups businesses. The combined business was renamed CK Hutchison Holdings Limited, Hutchison Whampoa originated as two separate companies, both founded in the 19th century. Hong Kong and Whampoa Dock was established in 1863, by British merchant John Duflon Hutchison, although Hutchison Whampoa had a large portfolio of valuable real estate interests, in docks and retail ventures, the company eventually ran into trouble. It was rescued by The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, with HSBC taking a 22% stake in the company, on 25 September 1979, at the close of trade in London, HSBC announced that it was selling its stake in Hutchison Whampoa to Cheung Kong for HK$639 million. In March 2011, Hutchison Port Holdings Trust announced that the company would IPO through Singapore Exchange for about US$5.4 billion and this would be the largest offering in South East Asia and surpass Petronas Chemicals offering of about $4.1 billion. In January 2015, Li Ka-shing entered into talks with Telefónica to buy its British mobile division O2 for around $15.4 billion, the merger is part of a larger reorganisation of Lis businesses, which will involve the spin-off of property assets into Cheung Kong Property. The new holding company has incorporated in the Cayman Islands. HWL operated in 54 countries and employed around 230,000 staff worldwide, the company had six core businesses, most of which transferred to CK Hutchison, Hutchison Port Holdings operates across Europe, the Americas, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. It operates in five of the seven busiest container ports in the world, Hutchison Whampoa operates container terminals in Panama, as well as Mexico and other parts of the Americas. From office buildings in Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, to residential properties in the United Kingdom, Hutchison Whampoa Property develops. Together with Cheung Kong Holdings, HWL has set up a company, Harbour Plaza Hotel Management to operate. Watson is the worlds largest health and beauty retailer, Cheung Kong Infrastructure, HWLs infrastructure arm, is a diversified infrastructure company with businesses in transportation, energy, infrastructure materials, water plants and related operations. HWL was a shareholder of Husky Energy, one of Canadas largest energy and energy related companies. It also owns 60. 4% of Hutchison Asia Telecommunications, which provides mobile phone networks, the companys subsidiary 3 Group Europe owns its 3 branded businesses in Europe. Another 1% of HAT is owned directly by Cheung Kong Holdings, additionally, HWL is an official backer of the. mobi top level domain created specifically for the mobile internet and has launched the mobile portal Three. mobi under its 3 brand
31.
Public housing estates on Lantau Island
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This is a list of public housing estates on Lantau Island, Hong Kong. Fu Tung Estate is located near Tung Chung Station, built on the reclaimed land of North Lantau New Town Phase 1 project, it is the first public housing estate in Tung Chung. It consists of 3 residential buildings completed in 1997, Yu Tung Court is a Home Ownership Scheme court in Tung Chung, located near Fu Tung Estate and Tung Chung Station. Built on the land of North Lantau New Town Phase 1 project, it is the first. It has a total of 5 blocks built in 1997, together with Yu Tung Estate, Yat Tung Estate is located in Tung Chung. Residents of Yat Tung Estate have appealed to the government to extend the Tung Chung Line to Yat Tung to ease their transportation problems, Yat Tung Estate currently has 40,000 residents. They claimed that when moved in 11 years ago, the Housing Bureaus documents indicated a MTR station at the estate. The residents currently have to take a 10-minute bus journey to Tung Chung Station, the proposed Tung Chung West Station would be located adjacent to Yat Tung Estate. It is tentatively slated to open between 2020 and 2024, Yat Tung Estate Yat Tung Estate The Hong Kong Housing Authority established the Tung Chung Artwalk at Yat Tung Estate, so as to promote public art at public housing estates. It is the first public housing estate to have a public art scheme launched by the Hong Kong Housing Authority. Sixteen works of art selected from 316 outstanding submissions for the competition New Face of Heritage were firstly displayed in the estate in 2002 while another 10 artworks were added in 2006, Lung Hin Court is a Home Ownership Scheme court in Tai O. It is located in on the land in east Tai O. The court is the Phase 2 development of Lung Tin Estate and it was originally planned for rehousing people affected by the Tai O development, but it was transferred to HOS units in 1999 since the clearance scale was largely reduced. Lung Tin Estate is the sole Hong Kong Housing Authority public rental estate in south Lantau Island. It is located in on the land in east Tai O. Ngan Wan Estate is located in Ngan Kwong Wan Road, Mui Wo. It consists of 4 residential blocks completed in 1988, public housing in Hong Kong List of public housing estates in Hong Kong
32.
Home Ownership Scheme
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The Home Ownership Scheme is a subsidized-sale programme of public housing in Hong Kong managed by the Hong Kong Housing Authority. As an ancillary scheme, the Housing Authority also entered into arrangements with private developers to provide property for sale under the Private Sector Participation Scheme. In 2003, falling real estate values led the government to pause the construction of new Home Ownership Scheme estates indefinitely. A Home Purchase Loan Scheme was introduced with, initially, a quota of 2,000 loans of HK$50,000 interest-free to make the downpayment on their new private-sector homes. In December 1991, there was a rush to buy 6,452 Housing Authority properties in 17 projects. Flats were to be sold at a discount of 40%, the most attractive for several years, in 2000, the scheme was caught up in a short-piling scandal which resulted in the resignation of Housing Authority Chief Rosanna Wong, and a censure for Housing Director Tony Miller. The construction of 2 blocks of Yu Chui Court in Sha Tin was delayed as it had to be demolished, the Wai Kee Group was implicated, and some of its companies were delisted from Government projects following the publication of the Strickland Report. Public housing units in Home Ownership Scheme housing estates are subject to restrictions of the Housing Ordinance. The Home Ownership Scheme Secondary Market is only open to eligible low-income residents, owners who have sold their HOS public housing units will no longer be eligible for any form of public housing. In 2002, developers complained of weakness in property prices, claiming the housing marketplace was largely distorted by excessive unfair competition from such as the HOS. It was pointed out that a public rental tenant moving into a second-hand Home Ownership Scheme flat would receive three lots of subsidies, Government halted the PSPS, developments which were in progress at the time were either transformed into public housing, or sold off to private developers. Construction of new HOS estates was suspended in November 2002, in an unprecedented about-turn, the developers withdrew the plan on 10 December 2004. List of Home Ownership Scheme courts in Hong Kong Information by Hong Kong Housing Authority History of Home Ownership Scheme, City University of Hong Kong website Hong Kong Place, part I, part II
33.
Yat Tung Estate
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This is a list of public housing estates on Lantau Island, Hong Kong. Fu Tung Estate is located near Tung Chung Station, built on the reclaimed land of North Lantau New Town Phase 1 project, it is the first public housing estate in Tung Chung. It consists of 3 residential buildings completed in 1997, Yu Tung Court is a Home Ownership Scheme court in Tung Chung, located near Fu Tung Estate and Tung Chung Station. Built on the land of North Lantau New Town Phase 1 project, it is the first. It has a total of 5 blocks built in 1997, together with Yu Tung Estate, Yat Tung Estate is located in Tung Chung. Residents of Yat Tung Estate have appealed to the government to extend the Tung Chung Line to Yat Tung to ease their transportation problems, Yat Tung Estate currently has 40,000 residents. They claimed that when moved in 11 years ago, the Housing Bureaus documents indicated a MTR station at the estate. The residents currently have to take a 10-minute bus journey to Tung Chung Station, the proposed Tung Chung West Station would be located adjacent to Yat Tung Estate. It is tentatively slated to open between 2020 and 2024, Yat Tung Estate Yat Tung Estate The Hong Kong Housing Authority established the Tung Chung Artwalk at Yat Tung Estate, so as to promote public art at public housing estates. It is the first public housing estate to have a public art scheme launched by the Hong Kong Housing Authority. Sixteen works of art selected from 316 outstanding submissions for the competition New Face of Heritage were firstly displayed in the estate in 2002 while another 10 artworks were added in 2006, Lung Hin Court is a Home Ownership Scheme court in Tai O. It is located in on the land in east Tai O. The court is the Phase 2 development of Lung Tin Estate and it was originally planned for rehousing people affected by the Tai O development, but it was transferred to HOS units in 1999 since the clearance scale was largely reduced. Lung Tin Estate is the sole Hong Kong Housing Authority public rental estate in south Lantau Island. It is located in on the land in east Tai O. Ngan Wan Estate is located in Ngan Kwong Wan Road, Mui Wo. It consists of 4 residential blocks completed in 1988, public housing in Hong Kong List of public housing estates in Hong Kong
34.
Citygate
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Citygate is a commercial complex at the town centre of Tung Chung, Lantau Island, Hong Kong. It comprises a shopping centre called Citygate Outlets, a tower. When it first opened for business in 2000, the shopping centre component was simply known as Citygate, following a major shift in market position, the mall renamed itself Citygate Outlets in August 2006. Construction commenced in 1995, and was completed in 1999, the entire complex is built on reclaimed land. Phase I of the Citygate shopping centre opened in April 2000 with a 13,680 square metres ParknShop as its anchor tenant. It was developed, and is owned by, Newfoundworld Retail Limited, a consortium of Swire Properties, Hang Lung Development, Henderson Land, New World Development. Each company owns a 20% stake in the venture, the Citygate Outlets shopping centre is managed by Swire Properties Management Limited. The 440-room Novotel Citygate hotel, managed by AccorHotels, opened in April 2006 and it targets business travelers, housing a business centre as well as conference facilities. Citygate Outlets is in Tung Chung, above Tung Chung MTR Station, the mall is also next door to Tung Chung bus terminus, and is directly connected to the Novotel Citygate Hong Kong hotel. Hong Kong International Airport is 10 minutes away by bus, Citygate Outlets has almost half a million square feet of retail space,75 shops and 14 restaurants, a 6-screen multiplex cinema, a 3-suite spa centre, and Asia’s largest outdoor kinetic fountain. The Citygate complex also includes 160,000 square feet of office space, the 440-room Novotel Citygate Hong Kong hotel is also connected to the mall. Citygate Outlets has made use of glass and natural light. The mall features two sky-lit atriums, located at the northern and southern ends of the complex and these two atriums are connected to one another by walkways. The mall comprises five storeys, two of which are basement levels, there is a large restaurant-in-restaurant called foodrepublic on the mall’s topmost level. Unusually for Hong Kong, Citygate Outlets includes a large open-air piazza called The Square, Asia’s largest outdoor kinetic fountain is located here, and the space is often used for artistic performances, open-air exhibitions and special events. The shopping centre spans the North Lantau Highway, residents of the eastern half of Tung Chung must therefore walk through the shopping centre on their way to and from the railway station. Citygate Outlets also features a spa, multi-screen cinema, trendy restaurants, there is a branch of Food Republic at L2 of Citygate. In 2007, Citygate Outlets won a Silver in the International Council of Shopping Centre MAXI Awards and it was the first time that a mall in Asia won an ICSC MAXI Award
35.
Kowloon
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Kowloon is a transliteration of 九龍. Kowloon is an area in Hong Kong comprising the Kowloon Peninsula. It had a population of 2,019,533 and a density of 43. The peninsulas area is approximately 47 km2, the part of Kowloon south of Boundary Street, together with Stonecutters Island, was ceded by Qing China to the United Kingdom under the Convention of Peking of 1860. For many years the area remained undeveloped, used by the British mainly for tiger-hunting expeditions. The part of Kowloon north of Boundary Street was leased by the British as part of the New Territories under the 1898 Second Convention of Peking for 99 years. Within New Kowloon is Kowloon City, which refers to an area of Hong Kong where the Kowloon Walled City used to be located, the Kowloon Walled City itself was demolished in 1993. The same area was called Guanfuchang during the Song dynasty, statutorily, Kowloon is used to refer to the area south of Boundary Street and the Stonecutters Island. New Kowloon has also remained part of the New Territories, in modern-day culture, New Kowloon is not regarded as part of the New Territories but as an integral part of the Kowloon urban area whether north or south of Boundary Street. As a result, compared to Hong Kong Island, Kowloon has a lower skyline. The area of reclaimed land known as West Kowloon was once home to a dockyard for the Royal Navy, a 13-foot high stone wall was built in 1847 around Kowloon. The 1911 census recorded a population of 7,306, with most being Hakka, the invasion of China by Japan in 1937 caused the population of Kowloon to explode. Between 1937 and 1939,750,000 refugees arrived in Kowloon and nearby areas, as of 2011,2,108,419 people lived in Kowloon. 94. 2% of Kowloons residents are of Cantonese ethnicity, the largest ethnic minority groups are Indonesians, Filipinos, Indians, Nepalese, and Whites. 86% of Kowloons residents use Cantonese as their language, while 2. 3% use English and 1. 2% use Mandarin. Kowloon West includes Yau Tsim Mong, Sham Shui Po and Kowloon City
36.
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
37.
Tsing Yi
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Tsing Yi, sometimes referred to as Tsing Yi Island, is an island in the urban area of Hong Kong, to the northwest of Hong Kong Island and south of Tsuen Wan. With an area of 10.69 km², the island has extended drastically by reclamation along almost all its natural shore, three major bays or harbours, Tsing Yi Lagoon, Mun Tsai Tong and Tsing Yi Bay in the northeast, have been completely reclaimed for new towns. The island is in the northwest of Victoria Harbour and part of its coastline is subject to the Protection of the Harbour Ordinance, Tsing Yi iterally means green clothes, but is also a kind of fish, probably blackspot tuskfish, once abundant in nearby waters. People named the island after the fish, Tsing Yi Tam or Tsing Yi Tam Shan also appeared on some early Chinese maps. The island was known as Chun Fa Lok once upon a time. Now, Chun Fa Lok is still a name or a former village on the southeast corner of the island. A government document in the Ming Dynasty named the water near Chun Fa Lok Chun Fa Yeung, the Ming navy defeated once pirate fleets there. In some historical sources, Tsing-I Island is used instead of Tsing Yi Island, Tsing Yi Town, together with Kwai Chung Town, is part of Tsuen Wan New Town in the Kwai Tsing District in the New Territories. Although Tsing Yi Island is a de facto outlying island, it is not accordingly included in the Islands District, historically, Tsing Yi Island, with Kwai Chung, were usually in the same administration unit as Tsuen Wan because of their proximity and close-knit neighbourhood. Unlike Kwai Chung, however, whose villages are part of Tsuen Wan Rural Committee, Tsing Yi Island has its own, there were about 4,000 people on the island when the British took the New Territories around 1898. In the following one hundred years, the population has grown to nearly 50 times this size, in an estimation in 2007, there are about 200,400 people. It is expected to grow to 203,300 in the near future, most of the population live in Tsing Yi Town. Tsing Yi Island is an island with Tsing Yi Peak in the south. Small plain can be found surrounding the former Tsing Yi Lagoon in island northeast, the rocks on the island are mainly granite and were exposed due to extensive housing, industrial and infrastructure construction. Although the island is not fallen in the administration of country park, the Tsing Yi Peak climbs to 334 m and is a barrier separating industrial west and residential east. The hilly area of the island largely remains intact and is designated as a green belt, in 1997 a once lost endemic plant, Hong Kong croton, was found in the woodland beneath the highest peak, Tsing Yi Peak, on the island. In the early days, the inhabitants on the island were mostly farmers, the major population concentrated in the northeast portion of the island. Farmers grew rice, vegetables and pineapples, while fishermen lived in huts connected by walkways in the small harbour of Tsing Yi Tong which stretched far back into the island
38.
Kwai Tsing District
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Kwai Tsing is one of the 18 districts of Hong Kong. It consists of two parts - Kwai Chung and Tsing Yi Island, Kwai Tsing is part of the New Territories. It had a population of 477,092 in 2001, the district has the third least educated residents and their income is below average. Kwai Tsing did not exist as a district when Hong Kongs District Boards were formed in the early 1980s. It remained as a part of Tsuen Wan district until 1985, the newly created district was known as Kwai Chung and Tsing Yi District until 1988, when its name was shortened to Kwai Tsing District. The internationally famous container terminals can be found within the district, the Tsing Ma Bridge, leading to the Hong Kong International Airport through the North Lantau Highway, starts at the northwestern end of Tsing Yi Island. Over 75% of the residents live in public housing. During the eighth year of Emperor Kangxi, the Qing Government forced the Hong Kong, after this move inland policy ceased, a large number of Hakka people in this period China moved to the new County and southeast coastal areas. Kwai Tsing District is traditionally speak Hakka areas, because the inhabitants of the villages in this area mainly in Hakka Family. Territories village official Fu Company Qing Dynasty Emperor Kangxi compiled by Wang Tsung-hee in Xinan County Metropolitan in the records there, Chung child, the district is part of Tsuen Wan New Town. Unlike other new towns in Hong Kong, the district has no town core in the course of development. Cores emerge only after Metroplaza in Kwai Fong and Maritime Square in Tsing Yi was built, industry is an integral part of the district. Both light and heavy industries share substantial land in the district, public housing estates were built throughout the district. Many schools have been established by charities and religious organisations. Some have provided training for industries in Hong Kong while some have become liberal schools. As the community has aged, the number of school children declined after the 2000s, secondary schools in 2006, Buddhist Sin Tak College Buddhist Yip Kei Nam Memorial College Caritas St. C. Gaw Memorial College The usual forms of transportation in the district are buses, minibuses, the MTR Tsuen Wan Line has four stations on three lines running through the district, Lai King is the southernmost, and the interchange between Tsuen Wan and Tung Chung lines. The Tsuen Wan Line then runs through two stations before exiting the district for Tsuen Wan, Tung Chung Line diverges to the west to Tsing Yi Island and have a station, Tsing Yi, there
39.
Tung Chung Station
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Tung Chung is a station on the Tung Chung Line of the MTR rapid transport system in Hong Kong. As the western end of the Tung Chung Line, it is also a point of those wishing to use the Ngong Ping Cable Car. As with all other MTR stations, Tung Chung has a colour scheme used throughout the station. Architecture firm Aedas was the architect for this station, Tung Chung is only one of two stations on the Tung Chung Line not shared with another line, the other being Olympic. Tung Chung station is located in the neighbourhood of the name on the northern shore of Lantau Island. The surrounding area is residential in nature, with the majority of buildings in the stations catchment area being residential towers. Both platforms share the island platform underground. A First Train indicator is provided along the platform indicating to passengers which train to board, the Tung Chung station concourse is on ground level. There are 4 exits in total, and 2 are on each end of the concourse, a Lantau taxi stand at Exit D provides taxi services to Lantau Island. Opened on 18 September 2006, the MTR-owned Ngong Ping Cable Car connects Tung Chung with Ngong Ping, the Tung Chung Cable Car Terminal is about 200 metres away from Exit B of Tung Chung station
40.
Tung Chung Battery
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Tung Chung Battery is a former artillery battery located on Lantau Island in Hong Kong. Named after the district it is situated in, it was built in 1817. It was rediscovered in 1980 and is a monument of Hong Kong. Construction of the Tung Chung Battery was completed in 1817, located a kilometre north of the Tung Chung Fort, its purpose was to protect Tung Chung Bay from pirates that threatened the coasts and seas of southern China. At the time, China did not have a large navy, the coastal fortification consisted of two coastal artillery cannon emplacements that guarded the Bay, along with seven guard houses. The site of the battery was chosen because it was located on a cliff that overlooked the water and this provided excellent views of the sea and a clear vantage point in case of a potential naval attack. The construction of the battery was recorded in the Guangdong Annals, after having been buried underneath thick foliage for approximately a century, the battery was rediscovered in 1980. All that remained was an L-shaped wall that contained a platform, according to the Antiquities and Monuments Office. After the discovery, the government undertook restoration work on the historic site, the battery was declared a monument on November 11,1983. In November 1997, the site was included in the AMOs celebration tour of sites in North Lantau as part of the Year of Heritage. The festivities culminated in a traditional Cantonese opera performed at the Tung Chung Fort. Due to the amount of development that has taken place, the battery now faces towards Hong Kong International Airport, instead of Chek Lap Kok island, military of Hong Kong Tung Chung Fort March 2009 picture of Tung Chung Battery Environmental Protection Department
41.
Po Lin Monastery
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Po Lin Monastery is a Buddhist monastery, located on Ngong Ping Plateau, on Lantau Island, Hong Kong. The monastery was founded in 1906 by three monks visiting from Jiangsu Province on the Chinese mainland and was known simply as The Big Hut. It was renamed to its present name in 1924, the main temple houses three bronze statues of the Buddha – representing his past, present and future lives – as well as many Buddhist scriptures. Tian Tan Buddha, a giant Buddha statue completed in 1993, is an extension of the monastery, the Ngong Ping 360, consisting of the Ngong Ping village and a gondola lift running between Tung Chung and Ngong Ping, was built near to the Po Lin Monastery. The monastery boasts many prominent architectural structures, such as the Main Shrine Hall of Buddha and this monastery is also noted for making wooden bracelets that are only sold near the Tian Tan Buddha statue. In 1918, three nuns ordained at this monastery established a nunnery called Chi Chuk Lam on Lantaus Lower Keung Hill. The nunnery is dedicated to Guanyin, the Goddess of Mercy, there were about 20 jushi and nuns residing there in the 1950s, but now only an elderly abbess remains. Buddhist Fat Ho Memorial College Official website
42.
Ngong Ping 360
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The Ngong Ping 360 is an aerial tramway on Lantau Island in Hong Kong. Intended to improve tourism to the area, the tramway was previously known as Tung Chung Cable Car Project before acquiring the Ngong Ping 360 brand in April 2005. Ngong Ping 360 connects Tung Chung, on the north coast of Lantau and itself linked to central Hong Kong by the Tung Chung Line and this is home to the Po Lin Monastery and the Tian Tan Buddha, both already significant tourist attractions in their own right. Before Ngong Ping 360s opening, the access was via a mountain road. Ngong Ping 360 is owned by the MTR Corporation, the operator of Hong Kongs rail system and it was built by Leitner Ropeways and was originally operated by Skyrail-ITM. Skyrail-ITM was removed from the project after a following a incident in June 2007. It is now operated by a directly owned subsidiary of the MTR Corporation, the Tourism Commission declared the objective of the project was to increase the range of attractions to visitors to enhance Hong Kongs position as a leading tourist destination in the region. Target timing was to identify a successful proponent by the end of 2001, construction of the cable car project started at the beginning of 2004. The entire system was halted by the safety system, leaving 500 volunteers trapped for two hours. As a result, Skyrail-ITM postponed the day to fix the technical problems, tests. After two months of improvement works and repair for the damages made by Typhoon Prapiroon in August 2006, the project director at MTR Corp and senior executives of Skyrail were at the soft opening of the facility on 18 September. In keeping with feng shui traditions, Skyrail-ITM sold just 1,688 tickets for the days run on 18 September at HK$88 each. Henry Tang officiated at the opening of the attraction on 9 November 2006. After the commencement of service, system failures still occurred occasionally, between its opening on 18 September and 27 October, eight service suspensions were recorded, prompting a legislative panel to challenge the operators continued operation. Skyrail-ITM was removed as operator, fined HK$5,000, the line remained out of service until 23 December when it underwent one week of trial run involving 40,000 visitors riding for free. It reopened officially on 31 December 2007, in April 2009, the company introduced its premium rate Crystal Cabin service, using glass-bottom cabins. On 25 January 2012, Ngong Ping 360 was hit by a fault which was caused by a pulley which wasnt running smoothly. It said all passengers who were stranded had been brought to safety, Ngong Ping Cable Car is a 5. 7-kilometre long bi-cable gondola lift system linking between Tung Chung and Ngong Ping
43.
Tung Chung Fort
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Tung Chung Fort is a fort located near Tung Chung, on Lantau Island, in Hong Kong. Close to Tung Chung Road, the fort is surrounded by the villages of Sheung Ling Pei and it has a companion Tung Chung Battery on the coast. Tung Chung Fort was originally built in the Shun Hei era of the Southern Song dynasty, smugglers on Lantau Island smuggled salt from the island to Canton City and attacked the government of the city. The government sent a navy led by King Leok Chin to fight against the smugglers, three hundred soldiers were stationed in Tung Chung and built the Tung Chung Fort. After three years of peace, the soldiers were called back and 150 of them were transferred to build Kowloon Walled City, in which they later stayed. During the Qing dynasty, many pirates, including the well known Cheung Po Tsai, chose the bay of Tung Chung as their base, the Qing Government recovered the fort after the surrender of Cheung Po Tsai. In 1832 the fort was rebuilt and garrisoned by the Right Battalion of Tai Peng to defend the coast from pirates until the lease of New Territories to Britain in 1898, during World War II, the Japanese army occupied the fort. Tung Chung Fort went through several transformations later and it served as a police station and then as Wa Ying College. Now, it is the base for the Rural Committee Office, in 1979, it was declared a monument and was refurbished in 1988. There are six still intact old muzzle-loading cannons, each resting on a cement base with enclosures made of granite blocks, three arched gateways, each engraved with a Chinese inscription, are spaced along the walls. The fort can be reached from Mui Wo bus terminal by taking the no.3 bus to the Tung Chung terminus, the fort can also be reached by taking the no.13 or 14 bus and MTR. Permission is required to drive into the park, Tung Chung Battery List of buildings and structures in Hong Kong List of forts Tung Chung Fort Tung Chung Fort
44.
Piracy
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Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship- or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable items or properties. Those who engage in acts of piracy are called pirates, the earliest documented instances of piracy were in the 14th century BC, when the Sea Peoples, a group of ocean raiders, attacked the ships of the Aegean and Mediterranean civilizations. Narrow channels which funnel shipping into predictable routes have long created opportunities for piracy, as well as for privateering and commerce raiding. Historic examples include the waters of Gibraltar, the Strait of Malacca, Madagascar, the Gulf of Aden, a land-based parallel is the ambushing of travelers by bandits and brigands in highways and mountain passes. While the term can include acts committed in the air, on land, or in major bodies of water or on a shore. It does not normally include crimes committed against people traveling on the vessel as the perpetrator. Piracy or pirating is the name of a crime under customary international law. They also use larger vessels, known as ships, to supply the smaller motorboats. The international community is facing challenges in bringing modern pirates to justice. In the 2000s, a number of nations have used their naval forces to protect ships from pirate attacks. The English pirate is derived from the Latin term pirata and that from Greek πειρατής, brigand, in turn from πειράομαι, I attempt, from πεῖρα, attempt, the meaning of the Greek word peiratēs literally is one who attacks. The word is cognate to peril. The term is first attested to c, spelling was not standardised until the eighteenth century, and spellings such as pirrot, pyrate and pyrat were used until this period. It may be reasonable to assume that piracy has existed for as long as the oceans were plied for commerce, the earliest documented instances of piracy are the exploits of the Sea Peoples who threatened the ships sailing in the Aegean and Mediterranean waters in the 14th century BC. In classical antiquity, the Phoenicians, Illyrians and Tyrrhenians were known as pirates, the ancient Greeks condoned piracy as a viable profession, it apparently was widespread and regarded as an entirely honourable way of making a living. References are made to its perfectly normal occurrence many texts including in Homers Iliad and Odyssey, by the era of Classical Greece, piracy was looked upon as a disgrace to have as a profession. In the 3rd century BC, pirate attacks on Olympos brought impoverishment, among some of the most famous ancient pirateering peoples were the Illyrians, a people populating the western Balkan peninsula. Constantly raiding the Adriatic Sea, the Illyrians caused many conflicts with the Roman Republic and it was not until 229 BC when the Romans finally decisively beat the Illyrian fleets that their threat was ended
45.
Cheung Po Tsai
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Cheung Po Tsai was a 19th-century Chinese pirate. He was also known as Cheung Po/Chang Pao/Zhang Bao, several places in Hong Kong are linked to Cheung Po Tsai, Cheung Po Tsai Cave, on Cheung Chau island. It is a cave, said to be the place where he stored his prizes. Cheung Po Tsai built several temples dedicated to the goddess Tin Hau and seafaring activities on Ma Wan, Cheung Chau, and Stanley. A famous pirate in Hong Kong, he was a son of a Tanka fisherman who lived in Xinhui of Jiangmen but was kidnapped by the pirate Cheng I and he was adopted by the kidnappers as their son. Cheung Po later took over the business from his adoptive parents. Cheung Po Tsai was active along the Guangdong coastal area during the Qing Dynasty and his followers are said to have reached 50, 000+ and his fleet said to have possessed 600 ships. His piracy mate was Cai Qian and the two worked together until Cai Qian was destroyed by the Qing government, making Cheung decide to surrender. Cheung Po capitulated to the Chinese government in 1810 and became a captain in the Qing imperial navy, receiving the rank of navy colonel and he spent the rest of his life helping the government fight other pirates. The 1973 Hong Kong action film The Pirate has Cheung Po Tsai as its lead character, the 1983 Hong Kong action film Project A depicts a character based on Cheung Po Tsai. The lead villain, San Po is a pirate with similar characteristics, Project As time period is a composite of several in Hong Kongs history. The 1994 Hong Kong action film Once Upon a Time in China V has Cheung Po Tsai as one of the main villains opposing the protagonist Wong Fei-Hung. As the movie takes place shortly after the Boxer Rebellion, however. The movie Pirates of the Caribbean, At Worlds End depicts a pirate named Sao Feng as a member of the Brethren Court and this character is based on Cheung Po Tsai, although the film is set many years before he lived. The Amazing Race 17 visited the cave during Leg 10 Episode 10 in Hong Kong, in the anime One Piece, one of the characters, Scratchman Apoo, is influenced by Cheung Po Tsai. The Aqua Luna junk ship is named after Cheung Po Tsai, Pirates of the South China Coast Murray, Dian H. Pirates of the South China Coast, 1790-1810, Cheung Po Tsai Cave at discoverhongkong. com Pictures of the cave
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Opium
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Opium is the dried latex obtained from the opium poppy. The latex also contains the closely related opiates codeine and thebaine, the word meconium historically referred to related, weaker preparations made from other parts of the opium poppy or different species of poppies. The production of opium has not changed since ancient times, through selective breeding of the Papaver somniferum plant, the content of the phenanthrene alkaloids morphine, codeine, and to a lesser extent thebaine has been greatly increased. For the illegal trade, the morphine is extracted from the opium. It is then converted to heroin which is two to four times as potent, and increases the value by two to four times, the reduced weight and bulk make it easier to smuggle. Evidence from ancient Greece indicate that opium was consumed in several ways, including inhalation of vapors, suppositories, medical poultices, Opium is mentioned in the most important medical texts of the ancient world, including the Ebers Papyrus and the writings of Dioscorides, Galen, and Avicenna. Widespread medical use of unprocessed opium continued through the American Civil War before giving way to morphine and its successors, Opium has been actively collected since prehistoric times. Though western scholars typically estimate this to be around 1500 BCE, Indian scholars maintain that the verses and the history contained in them have been orally transmitted thousands of years before. A common name for males in Afghanistan is Redey, which in Pashto means poppy and this term may be derived from the Sanskrit words rddhi and hrdya, which mean magical, a type of medicinal plant, and heart-pleasing, respectively. The upper Asian belt of Afghanistan, Pakistan, northern India, numerous finds of P. somniferum or P. setigerum from Bronze Age and Iron Age settlements have also been reported. The first known cultivation of poppies was in Mesopotamia, approximately 3400 BCE, by Sumerians, who called the plant hul gil. Tablets found at Nippur, a Sumerian spiritual center south of Baghdad, described the collection of juice in the morning. Opium production continued under the Babylonians and Egyptians, Opium was used with poison hemlock to put people quickly and painlessly to death, but it was also used in medicine. The Ebers Papyrus, c. 1500 BCE, describes a way to stop a child using grains of the poppy plant strained to a pulp. Spongia somnifera, sponges soaked in opium, were used during surgery, the Egyptians cultivated opium thebaicum in famous poppy fields around 1300 BCE. Opium was traded from Egypt by the Phoenicians and Minoans to destinations around the Mediterranean Sea, including Greece, Carthage, and Europe. By 1100 BCE, opium was cultivated on Cyprus, where surgical-quality knives were used to score the poppy pods, and opium was cultivated, traded, Opium was also mentioned after the Persian conquest of Assyria and Babylonian lands in the 6th century BCE. From the earliest finds, opium has appeared to have ritual significance, and anthropologists have speculated ancient priests may have used the drug as a proof of healing power
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Declared monuments of Hong Kong
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Declared monuments of Hong Kong are places, structures or buildings legally declared to receive the highest level of protection. In Hong Kong, declaring a monument requires consulting the Antiquities Advisory Board, as of 20 May 2016, there were 114 declared monuments in Hong Kong. Under Antiquities and Monuments Ordinance, some buildings are classified as Grades I, II and III historic buildings. There was no link between graded buildings and monuments. As of July 2007,607 buildings had been graded,54 of these, as of August 2007, of 151 buildings classified as Grade I, only 28 pre-war buildings have been declared monuments since 1980. On 26 November 2008, the Antiquities Advisory Board announced that the declaration of monuments would be related to the grading of historic buildings, as of February 2013, there were 101 declared monuments, of which 57 were owned by the Government and the remaining 44 by private bodies. The Antiquities Authority may declare a building facing a risk a proposed monument. A Declaration of proposed status is valid for twelve months and may be extended, however the affected owner may object to the proposed status. Five buildings were declared proposed monuments between 1982 and 2012, Ohel Leah Synagogue, Morrison Building, Jessville, King Yin Lei and Ho Tung Gardens
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