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Visiting Hong Kong

By RomanticHeart | September 1, 2009

Hong Kong has an identity as a cosmopolitan center where the Western and Eastern cuisine, cinema, music and traditions are reflected and the city is renowned for its expansive skyline and natural setting as well. Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated areas in the world with a population of 7 million people and only 1 108 km2 of land. The city’s population is 95% Chinese and 5% people of other ethnicities.

About 40% of Hong Kong’s land area is reserved as nature reserves and country parks, with less than 25% of the territory’s landmass developed. The city has many bays, rivers and beaches due to its long. irregular and curvaceous coastline.

Despite Hong Kong’s reputation of being intensely urbanized, the territory has made much effort to promote a green environment. Awareness of the environment is growing as Hong Kong suffers from increasing pollution compounded by its geography and tall buildings.

The Climate

Situated just south of the Tropic of Cancer, Hong Kong’s climate is humid subtropical climate. The most pleasant seasons are spring, although changeable, and autumn, which is generally sunny and dry. The city averages 1 948 hours of sunshine annually, with the highest recorded temperature of 36.1 °C and the lowest recorded at 0 °C.

Summers

Although summers are known for its occasional showers and thunderstorms, it is usually hot and humid. It is also the time when typhoons are most likely, sometimes resulting in flooding or landslides.

Winters

The winter usually starts out to be sunny and only becomes cloudier towards February with occasional cold fronts and strong, cool winds from the north.

The Economy

Hong Kong is seen as one of leading financial centers of the world and they have the Hong Kong dollar as their currency. Hong Kong imports most of its food and raw materials because it has little arable land and few natural resources. Much of Hong Kong’s exports consist of re-exports, which are products made outside of the territory. At the end of 2007, the city had an unemployment rate of around 4.1% and 3.46 million people being full-time employed.

The Architecture

Hong Kong has the world’s greatest number of skyscrapers, at 7,650. Hong Kong has been rated as the city with the best skyline in the world. The lack of available sprawl space in the urban area results in the high density and tall skyline of the city. This lack of space causing demand for dense, high-rise offices and housing, has resulted in 36 of the world’s 100 tallest residential buildings being in Hong Kong. It has more people living or working above the 14th floor than anywhere else on Earth, making it the world’s most vertical city. The International Commerce Centre is 484m high and is the highest building in Hong Kong at this stage.

Getting to Hong Kong

Visitors from South Africa can go to BestFlights.co.za to book flights to Hong Kong

Transport in Hong Kong

Hong Kong has a highly developed transportation network, encompassing both public and private transport. With more than 11 million daily travels on public transport, the city has the highest percentage of use of public transport in the world.

People in Hong Kong make use of the Octopus card payment system that can be used to pay for fares on railways, ferries, buses and for parking as well as purchases at supermarkets, convenience stores and fast food restaurants.

A tramway system covers the northern parts of Hong Kong Island and is the only tram system in the world run exclusively with double deckers. Routes with lower demand or roads with lower carrying capacity make use of single-decker buses. {Public light buses run the length and breadth of Hong Kong.}

The Star Ferry service operates four lines across Victoria Harbour, providing a panoramic view of Hong Kong’s skyline for its 53,000 daily passengers.

The Peak Tram is used to get up and down Hong Kong’s steep, hilly terrain.

Hong Kong International Airport is a leading air passenger gateway and one of the world’s busiest airports, serving more than 47 million passengers and handling 3.74 million tons of cargo in 2007.