The Islands of Hong Kong

Hong Kong Island is separated from the mainland on its north side by a strait ½ to 3 miles wide, which comprises the harbor. Victoria, the capital city of the former colony, lies on the north side of the island, and on the mainland opposite lays the city of Kowloon. The harbor of Hong Kong has been the biggest and busiest port in Asia, but nowadays it has been surpassed in volume and size by the ports of Singapore and Shenzhen. None the less, still 220,000 ships visit this never sleeping city to load and offload their cargoes and passengers. There are 234 outlying islands that make up Hong Kong, many of them little more than uninhabited rocks. However, Cheung Chau (1 square mile, 2.5 square kilometers) has 22,000 residents and is fast developing into a mini Honolulu, although there is no motorized traffic. In 1842 Hong Kong became a dependant territory of the Empire of Great Britain. This occupation came as a result of the refusal of the emperor of China to receive the British opium ships and their cargo. In 1898, China and Great Britain signed a treaty where the region of Hong Kong was leased for a period of 99 years. During this period, Hong Kong grew to become one of the most prosperous and free economies in the world. Even now that Hong Kong is part of China again, it remains to have a large autonomy and is not considered to be part of mainland China. In December 1984, the British agreed to hand over the entire colony when the lease on the New Territories ran out in 1997, rather than hang on to a truncated colony consisting of Kowloon and Hong Kong Island. The agreement theoretically allows Hong Kong to retain its pre-1997 social, economic and legal systems for at least 50 years after 1997. As the handover approached, controversies raged over the building of Hong Kong’s expensive new airport and the amount of democracy the Chinese were willing to accept. Chinese Superstitions One of the most prevalent superstitions in Hong Kong is the belief in the power in numbers. In the Cantonese language, many words share the same pronunciation as numbers. The number three sounds similar to ‘life’, nine sounds like ‘eternity’, and the number eight like ‘prosperity’. Lowest on the list is four, which has the same pronunciation as the word for ‘death’. Thus companies or homebuyers will shell out extra money for an address that contains one or more number eights. Each year the Hong Kong government draws in millions of dollars for charity by auctioning off automobile license plates, which feature lucky numbers. The Bank of China Tower opened on 08/08/88 - a rare union of the prosperous numbers. Couples rush to be married if there is an eight in the date, so August is a busy month! A few buildings around the city are missing their 4th or 14th floors, but overall people seem able to live with the number four, despite its ominous overtones. Some foods are also luckier than others. On birthdays, celebrants may eat noodles, as the long strands symbolize longevity. Sea moss, which in Cantonese has the same sound as ‘prosperity’, is always an auspicious ingredient. Peach juice is believed to be a life-giving elixir, while garlic and ginger can protect one against evil. A Hong Kong Wonder No visitor to Hong Kong should miss the longest escalator in the world, the Central-Mid-Levels Escalator and Walkway System. It consists of three moving walkways and 20 elevated walkways that can be reversed; they run down in the morning and up the rest of the day and evening to handle commuter traffic flow.