The Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defence (traditional Chinese: 香港海防博物館) is a museum in Hong Kong, located Lei Yue Mun near Shau Kei Wan on Hong Kong Island.
The total area of the museum is 34,200 square metres. An exhibition entitled "600 years of Coastal Defence" is held permanently in the museum.
The museum was built as a fort by the British in 1887. It was originally built for coastal defence, especially for the east Victoria Harbour, but nowadays it is an exhibition centre. Inside there are castle, defence basement, military vehicle and gun display etc.
On 8 December 1941, the Japanese launched their attacks on Hong Kong. After the fall of the New Territories and Kowloon, the British Forces immediately strengthened the defences at Lei Yue Mun to prevent the Japanese from crossing the Lei Yue Mun Channel from Devil's Peak. The defence forces managed to repulse several raids by the Japanese, but were eventually overwhelmed and the Fort fell into enemy hands on December 19. The Fort no longer bore any defence significance in the post-war period, and became a training ground for the British Forces until 1987 when it was finally vacated.
When Leong was 1/2 month old, her father passed away. After her father's death, her family moved to Macau to earn a living. Leong's family didn't have a pleasant time, as her mother had to work hard to raise both her and her elder sister. It was a depressing time for their family. She was raised in Macau until she was 15 years old. Isabella is of mixed descent, being one third Portuguese, one third English, and one third Chinese.
Faye Wong is a Chinese singer, songwriter, actress and model. She is an icon popular in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan and to some extent in the West.
One of the most distinguished female vocalists in recent Chinese music history, her fan base has grown so large and devoted that media in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and mainland China fans often place the title tiānhòu (天后, literally Heavenly Queen) before her name, while Japanese fans call her "Diva of Asia". An intensely private artist, she is one of the very few singers widely popular on both sides of the Taiwan Straits, despite her apparent nonchalance toward the media.
According to Guinness World Records, Faye Wong had sold 9.7 million copies of her albums as of March 2000, giving her the title of Best Selling Canto-Pop Female.
She has acted in several TV shows and films, most memorably in Wong Kar-wai's Chungking Express, a role that won her "Best Actress" award at the 1994 Stockholm International Film Festival, and in 2046. She is known to many Final Fantasy fans for her Final Fantasy VIII theme "Eyes On Me", and has also been the spokeswoman of brands such as Head & ShouldersPepsi-Cola. Faye Wong has also graced the covers of Vogue Taiwan, Elle and Marie Claire Hong Kong, and has had spreads in Japanese Elle and other major Asian Fashion magazines.
Taxicabs of Hong Kong provide an efficient and convenient taxi system. Most taxis are independently owned and operated, but some are owned by taxi companies, and the drivers are employees.
As of 2003, there were 18,138 taxis in Hong Kong, of which 15,250 were urban taxis, 2,838 were New Territories taxis, and 50 were Lantau taxis. Every day they serve about 1.1 million, 207,900 and 1,400 people respectively.Born in Shanghai, he moved to Hong Kong with his parents at the age of five. Coming from the Mainland and speaking only Mandarin and Shanghainese, he had a difficult period of adjustment to Cantonese speaking Hong Kong, spending hours in movie theatres with his mother. After graduating from Hong Kong Polytechnic College in graphic design in 1980, he enrolled in the Production Training Course organized by Hong Kong Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) and became a full-time television scriptwriter. In the mid-1980s, he became a scriptwriter/director at The Wing Scope Co. and In-gear Film Production Company, the production houses owned by renowned Hong Kong actor /movie producer Alan Tang. Wong's current nostalgic artsy style took shape during his apprenticeship with Alan Tang Kwong-Wing, who invested in the first movie Wong directed, "As Tears Go By" (1988). Wong's career took off when he directed the film "Days of Being Wild" (1990), despite losing Alan Tang millions of invested dollars. Wong subsequently graduated to feature film work. He is credited with about ten scripts between 1982 and 1987, covering an array of genres from romantic comedy to action drama, but claims to have worked to some extent or another on about fifty more without official credit. He considers Final Victory (最後勝利, 1986), a dark comedy/crime story for director Patrick Tam, his best script.
Bee made his break into the Hong Kong entertainment industry in 1973 as a member of the popular 1970s band, the Wynners, sharing vocal duties with Alan Tam. Before joining the Wynners, he was a vocalist and saxophonist on the Hong Kong nightclub circuit, and briefly fronted a band called the Sergeant Majors.
As members of the Wynners went separate ways in the late seventies, Bee embarked on a solo career as an actor in Taiwan, playing lead roles in a number of romantic movies, amongst which were "Good Morning, Taipei" (1979), "Cheerful Wind" (1981) and "The Green, Green Grass of Home" (1983), all written or directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien.
In the eighties Bee moved his base back to Hong Kong, and has since amassed a large number of movie credits, mainly in the genre of romantic comedies. Career highlights include "Let's Make Laugh" (directed by Alfred Cheung, 1983), "Shanghai Blues" (directed by Hark Tsui, 1984), "Fist of Fury 1991" (with Stephen Chow, 1991), "the Chinese Feast" (directed by Hark Tsui, 1995) and "Initial D" (directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak, 2005). In addition, he was credited as the director for "100 Ways to Murder Your Wife" (starring himself, Chow Yun-Fat and Anita Mui, 1986).
Sources, and Tsui himself, differ on whether he was born in Canton (Guangdong) province of China or in Vietnam. He was raised in the Chinese section (Cholon) of Saigon by his Chinese immigrant parents, in a large family with sixteen siblings. Tsui showed an early interest in show business and movies; when he was ten, he and some friends rented an 8 mm camera with which to film the magic show they put on at school. He also drew comic books, an interest that would influence his cinematic style.
He took his secondary education in Hong Kong starting in 1966. He then studied film in Texas, first at Southern Methodist University and then at the University of Texas at Austin, graduating in 1975. He claims to have told his parents he was studying to follow in his father's footsteps as a pharmacist, and that it was here he changed his given name to Hark ("overcoming") (Dannen & Long, 1997).
Eason was sent to England to study at the age of 12. He attended Dauntsey's School in Wiltshire, England and later Kingston University majoring in architecture. Eason returned to Hong Kong before finishing his degree to participate in the 1995 New Talent Singing Competition and subsequently won first place. Immediately after his win, Capital Artists signed him ending his future career as an architect, while launching his music career.
Richard Li Tzar Kai (traditional Chinese: 李澤楷; simplified Chinese: 李泽楷; pinyin: Lǐ Zékǎi) was born on 8 November 1966 in Hong Kong, the younger son of successful entrepreneur Li Ka-Shing and brother of Victor Li.
He is chairman and executive director of PCCW Limited and Pacific Century Group in Hong Kong. He is also chairman of Singapore-based Pacific Century Regional Developments Limited and the non-executive director of the Bank of East Asia.
Rather than enter into his father's business, Richard Li entered into the media business . He cut his deal-making teeth building STAR TV into Asia's first satellite broadcasting service with a loan from his father, Asia's richest man Li Ka-shing. He then sold it to global media tycoon Rupert Murdoch's News Corp for US$950 million in 1995 and turned his attention to the Internet.
He sparked a frenzied buying spree for Hong Kong technology stocks in April 1999 when he announced he would turn sleepy telecommunications equipment distributor "Tricom Holdings" into Asia's premier Internet company under the name PCCW. The stock had recorded a 1,286 percent gain in a single day.
Cheng is the daughter of Hong Kong actor/singer Adam Cheng Siu-chow and comedian Lydia Shum Din-ha. For most of her childhood, she gained media exposure due to her mother. Cheng showed an interest in show business, and when she was 13 she performed a version of Britney Spears' Oops!... I Did It Again, in a Hong Kong charity television program.
Cheng spent much of her childhood in Vancouver, British Columbia, where she attended Crofton House School. She decided to take a break from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, because she decided to pursue a music and acting career in Asia.
Lee Shau Kee (Chinese: 李兆基; pinyin: Lǐ Zhàojī, born January 29, 1928 in Shunde, Guangdong) is a property developer and majority owner of Henderson Land DevelopmentHKSE:0012), a property conglomerate with interests in properties, hotels, town gas and internet services. He is currently the second wealthiest person in Hong Kong and Greater China Region, just after Li Ka Shing. (
According to Forbes' list of billionaires as of 2007, Lee is estimated to be worth $17 billion, ranking him 22nd among the world's richest people.
Since 2006, Lee has accrued substantial profits from his holdings of Mainland-controlled stocks. This return on investment has earned him nicknames including "Hong Kong's Buffett" (香港巴菲特) and "Asia's Master of Stock" (亞洲股神).
The Honourable Sir Li Ka-shing, GBM, KBE (simplified Chinese: 李嘉诚; traditional Chinese: 李嘉誠; pinyin: Lǐ Jiāchéng, Jyutping: Lei5 Gaa1-sing4, Li2 Gia1-sêng5 gdr, born July 29, 1928), is a wealthy businessman from Hong Kong. He is the richest person of Chinese descent in the world, one of the richest and most influential investors in Asia, and the eleventh richest man in the world according to Forbes with an estimated wealth of $26.5 billion on March 5, 2008.[2] Presently, he is the Chairman of Hutchison Whampoa Limited (HWL) and Cheung Kong Holdings in Hong Kong.
Considered one of the most powerful figures in Asia, Li was named "Asia's Most Powerful Man" by Asiaweek in 2001. Forbes Magazine and the Forbes family honored Li Ka-shing with the first ever "Malcolm S. Forbes Lifetime Achievement Award" on September 5, 2006, in Singapore. In spite of his wealth, Li has a reputation for leading a no-frills lifestyle, and is known to wear simple black dress shoes and an inexpensive Seiko wristwatch. Li is also regarded as one of Asia's most generous philanthropists, donating over $1 billion USD to date to charity and other various philanthropic causes.
Li is often referred to as "Superman" in Hong Kong because of his business prowess. His peers in Hong Kong include Lee Shau Kee of the Henderson Land Development, New World Development's Cheng Yu-tung, Kwok family of Sun Hung Kai Properties, and Henry Fok Ying-tung, among others.
Kwok Ping-sheung, Walter born in Hong Kong with family roots in Zhongshan, Guangdong), is the eldest son of Kwok Tak Seng (郭得勝). Together with brothers Thomas and Raymond, they inherited Sun Hung Kai Properties, Hong Kong's largest real estate developer, in 1990 following their father's death.
Walter is the chairman and CEO of that organization, and the brothers share control of the firm. The Kwok brothers are the third wealthiest people in Hong Kong and Greater China Region, just after Li Ka Shing and Lee Shau Kee. Their wealth is estimated to be 15 billion US dollars in Forbes' latest annual list of billionaires.
Kwok fell in love with an ambitious lawyer Ida Tong Kam-hing (唐錦馨), but Kwok's father did not allow Walter to marry her.
His parents introduced him to Lydia Ku, whom he married, but the marriage broke up six months afterwards. Later, he married his present wife, Wendy Lee.
Lydia Shum Din-Ha, also known as Lydia Sum (Chinese: 沈殿霞; July 21, 1945 — February 19, 2008), was a legendary Hong Kong comedienne, MC, and actress known for her portly figure, signature dark rimmed glasses and bouffant hairstyle. She was affectionately known to peers and fans as Fei-fei (肥肥, literally Fat Fat, Fat Sister or Fatty). She appeared in numerous Hong Kong films and was an iconic TVB entertainer over forty years. For a brief spell in the 1990s, Shum left TVB to work at rival ATV.
Shum died on February 19, 2008 from liver cancer, aged 62, following a prolonged bout of complications.
Shum was born in 1945 in Shanghai, China, to Sung Shen Gee (沈賢祺; 1913-1978, with ancestral home in Shanpei, Ningbo) and Sung Tan Sun (沈邱淡素; 1913-2008). She entered the Hong Kong entertainment industry at the age of 13 in 1958. She made her film debut in 1960, joining Shaw Brothers as a teenage actress at the age of 15. She took some time to adjust to Hong Kong as she found the Cantonese cuisine very different from that of her native Shanghai.
Born to Hong Kong actor Patrick Tse (謝賢) and Deborah Lee (狄波拉), Tse was raised in Vancouver, Canada. He was educated at St. George's School, Vancouver, and later attended Hong Kong International School for one year before dropping out at grade 10.
He has dual Canadian-Chinese nationality, with the right of abode in Hong Kong. He has a younger sister Jennifer Tse (謝婷婷) a wife Cecilia Cheung (張拍芝), and a son named Lucas (謝振軒). Throughout his career, he has been a singer, an actor, a director, a producer, and a composer. He is also often referred to as Nic, 霆鋒 (Ting Fung)/檸檬 (Ling Mong or Lemon).
On July 31, 2006, Tse officially admitted dating Cecilia Cheung in an interview with Hong Kong commercial radio station 881/903. In September 2006, Tse showed off his wedding ring at the Hong Kong International Airport, announcing he and Cheung were married in a secret wedding ceremony in the Philippines.
Leslie Cheung Kwok-Wing (September 12, 1956 – April 1, 2003), nicknamed elder brother (哥哥), was an actor and musician from Hong Kong. Cheung was considered as "One of the founding fathers of Cantopop," and "combining a hugely successful film and music career".
In 2000, Cheung was named Asian Biggest Superstar by China Central Television, and voted as The Most Favorite Actor in 100 Years of Chinese Cinema in 2005.
Leslie Cheung Kwok-Wing was born in Kowloon, Hong Kong. His birth name was Cheung Fat-chung (張發宗), which was later changed to Cheung Kwok-Wing. Cheung was the youngest of ten children in a middle-class family. Cheung Wut Hoi - his father was a fairly well-known tailor, whose customers included the American actors William Holden and Cary Grant His parents divorced when he was quite young. While in Hong Kong, Leslie Cheung attended Rosaryhill School (Stubbs Road, Hong Kong).
At the age of 13, he was sent to England as a boarder at Eccles Hall School and faced racial discrimination at the school. He worked as a bartender at his relatives' restaurant and sang during the weekends. It was around this period that he chose his name, "Leslie". According to Cheung, he chose this name because "I love the film Gone with the Wind. And I like Leslie Howard. The name can be a man's or woman's, it's very unisex, so I like it."
Tam started his career with a well known band called the Wynners, which also have a well-known singer Kenny Bee among its members[1]. His vocals stood out and was the lead singer in the band for many years. Dissatisfied with the progress of his career at such an important stage and especially that Kenny Bee had a more illustrious future, he took the brave step to break free from the Wynners' smothering influence and go solo. His first album as a solo artist is 'Naughty Boy' (反斗星) in 1979.[1] An early success would be the song 'Love in Autumn' (愛在深秋) first performed in 1984.
The Wynners were assembled by manager Pato Leung in 1973 out of an earlier incarnation of the group, the Loosers. Bee, who was with the Sergeant Majors before joining the Wynners, was the only one not part of the original lineup.
Good looks and clever management soon made members of the group some of the most popular teen idols in Hong Kong at the time. The group's first studio album, Listen to the Wynners, released in 1974, was a commercial success, as were its followups. Their success in music was also translated to other forms of the popular media, including a television show on TVB , the Wynners Specials (1975), and three feature films, Let's Rock (1975), Gonna Get You (1976) and Making It (1978).
In 1978, members of the group went separate ways to develop their solo careers. Alan Tam and Kenny Bee went on to become two of the most popular stars in Hong Kong in the 1980s.
Never formally disbanded, the Wynners have since reunited on stage every five years to sold-out crowds. Most recently, they held thirteen 33rd anniversary concerts at the Hong Kong Coliseum during the Chinese New Year in February, 2007.
Hong Kong International Airport (IATA: HKG, ICAO: VHHH) is the main airport in Hong Kong. It is colloquially known as Chek Lap Kok Airport, due to the fact that it was built on the island of Chek Lap Kok by land reclamation.
The airport opened for commercial operations in 1998, replacing Kai Tak Airport, and is an important regional trans-shipment centre, passenger hub and gateway for destinations in China, East Asia and Southeast Asia. Despite a relatively short history, Hong Kong International Airport has won several notable international "Best Airport" awards. In 2001-2005 and 2007, it came first in Skytrax's World Airport Awards.
HKIA operates twenty-four hours a day, and is one of the world's busiest airports in terms of international passenger and cargo movement. In 2007, HKIA handled 47 million passengers and 3.7 million tonnes of cargo. It is the primary hub for Cathay Pacific, Dragonair, Hong Kong Express Airways, Hong Kong Airlines, Oasis Hong Kong Airlines and Air Hong Kong.
Tse Yin began his acting career in the 1950s and remained active for the next 40 years. He stopped acting in the 1990s after immigrating to Canada, but returned to acting in 1999. His last film was in 2003 (Colour of the Truth).
Tse was married to Beijing born Taiwanese actress Zhen Zhen in 1974, but they divorced in 1978. His second wife was Hong Kong actress Deborah Lee (狄波拉), whom he had two children (Hong Kong actor-singer Nicholas Tse and Jennifer Tse). Tse and his family lived in Vancouver after his retirement from acting, but his family has since returned to Hong Kong. Tse and Lee divorced in 1996.
The Edison Chen photo scandal was a scandal in early 2008 that received high profile media attention in Hong Kong (later in Asia), and shook the local entertainment industry as well as the general public. It involved the illegal distribution and circulation of thousands of intimate photographs of Hong Kong actor Edison Chen and/or with various actresses, including but not limited to, Gillian Chung, Bobo Chan, and Cecilia Cheung on the Internet.
Despite enlisting the assistance of Interpol, the Hong Kong police have not been able to stem the spread of the photographs. As of 12 February 2008, ten people were arrested in connection with the distribution of the photographs. The police crackdown has instead raised questions over violations of the privacy and free speech rights of Internet users. The manner in which actors, their management, and the police have handled the situation has, in turn, made those arrested into heroes and martyrs for some netizens.
On 21 February, Chen admitted being the author of most of the photographs. However, he also stated that the private photographs had been stolen and published illegally without his consent. Chen vowed to take legal action to stop further proliferation of the photographs in order to protect the victims of the scandal,. He publicly apologised, and also announced that he would "step away indefinitely" from the Hong Kong entertainment industry.
Cheung was born in Hong Kong to a Chinese father and a half Chinese-half British mother. Her parents divorced when she was just a child after which she was sent to Australia to live with her aunt at the age of fourteen. Cheung has an elder half-sister Dai Pek Chi, two younger brothers and also a younger half-brother from her father's side.
In 1998, while helping a hair stylist friend at a catwalk show, she was offered to appear in a TV commercial advertising lemon tea. Later, Cheung made her film debut as a young nightclub hostess in Stephen Chow's The King of Comedy (1999), followed soon after by Fly Me to Polaris (1999). The latter role earned her the award for Best Newcomer at the Hong Kong Film Awards. In the same year, Cheung launched her singing career with her first Cantopop album Any Weather (1999).
For Derek Yee's romantic drama Lost in Time (2003), Cheung won Best Actress at the Hong Kong Film Awards. She played a young woman who lost her fiancé to a traffic accident which left her as a grieving single mother struggling to make ends meet.
In January and February 2008 many explicit photos were found online involving Bobo Chan and Edison Chen. The scandal also involved Gillian Chung, Cecilia Cheung and others.
Choi was born in Vancouver, Canada. She moved with her family to Hong Kong a few years later. She is fluent in English, Cantonese, and Mandarin. Charlene Choi was educated at a number of institutions. After graduating from Rosaryhill School, where many other pop stars had attended, she started working full-time as a model in Hong Kong. She was caught by Emperor Entertainment Group, and was then linked with Gillian Chung to form the C-pop duo Twins.
Aside from her musical career, Choi has become a successful actress in the Hong Kong film industry, frequently co-starring alongside names such as Andy Lau and Eason Chan. Charlene has taken away her cutesy baby face image and switched it to a mature and potential actress. Charlene has proved herself to be a down-to-earth beauty, and to capture the hearts of many people. Charlene wrote an article describing her acting career:
"Earlier before, I have shared with everyone some of my acting experiences. This time, I want to talk about movies. As an artist, whenever I'm working, I have to show the best side and give the best performance to everyone. I have to show the most fit side of me and hence, I'm often in "battling mood". When free, I like to watch slow-pace movies. The too exciting movies I can't stand. I'm the type who can be easily thrown into the world of the movie. Those type of fast-pace movies will end up making me tense and nervous so comedy, romance or humanity issue discussion movies are all more suitable for me."
Gillian Chung is a Hong Kong pop singer and actress. She resides in the affluent Midlevels district in Hong Kong with her younger sister. Chung is a graduate of the Kowloon True Light Middle School and attended RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. While at RMIT, she also worked as a part-time model. She did not finish her studies in RMIT.
In 2001, Chung was approached by Emperor Entertainment Group to form a singing group, Twins, with Charlene Choi, to whom she is not actually related.
Chung made her film debut in U Man which was released in 2002 and has since proven her acting skills in a number of films like Beyond Our Ken which has earned her critical acclaim, being nominated as 'Best Actress' in the Gam Zhi Ging Awards. Outdoing herself in every martial arts sequence, Chung has established herself as the up and coming action star.
In the film Beyond Our Ken released in 2004, Chung played as Chan Wai Ching, a spurned girlfriend of the eponymous Ken. The film managed a box office taking of HK$3,886,355 and it has its World Premiere in Tokyo International Film Festival. In January 2006, the film 49 Days exceeded the HK$10 million mark, earning a spot in one of Hong Kong's best box office films for the year 2006.
Chen was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He was a student at R.C. Palmer Secondary School in Richmond, British Columbia and also attended High School in Hong Kong International School. He was in the same class as fellow pop icon Nicholas Tse in 10th grade.
uen Long District contains largest alluvial plain in Hong Kong, the Yuen Long-Kam Tin plain. With an area of 144 km², the district covers Ping Shan Heung, Ha Tsuen Heung, Kam Tin Heung, Pat Heung, San Tin Heung, Shap Pat Heung, Yuen Long Town and Tin Shui Wai.
Yau Tsim Mong District (Traditional Chinese: 油尖旺區) is one of the 18 districts of Hong Kong. It is located in the west of Kowloon. It had a population of 282,020 in 2001. The district has the third highest population density. Its name is the acronym of three of its areas: Yau Ma Tei, Tsim Sha Tsui, and Mong Kok. It is the core urban area of Kowloon.
Yau Tsim Mong District was formally two districts: Yau Tsim District and Mong Kok District.
Wong Tai Sin District (Traditional Chinese: 黃大仙區) is one of the 18 districts of Hong Kong, and is the only landlocked district of the city. It is located in Kowloon. It had a population of 444,630 in 2001. The district has the least educated residents with the lowest income, the oldest residents and the second highest population density.
The district contains the following areas: Diamond Hill, Wang Tau Hom, Lok Fu, Chuk Yuen, Wong Tai Sin, Tsz Wan Shan, Fung Wong, Choi Hung and Choi Wan, an area that includes several major public housing estates. Over 85% of the district's residents live in public-built housing.
According to archaeologists, fishermen started settling in Tuen Mun since the New Stone Age. As a result, the predominant activities in Tuen Mun were fishing and agriculture during the 20th century. In the 1950s, pirate and smuggling activities were frequent.
Tsuen Wan District (Traditional Chinese: 荃灣區) is one of the 18 districts of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China. It is located in the New Territories and is served by the Tsuen Wan Line of the MTR metro system. It had a population of 275,527 in 2001. Its residents enjoy the highest income in the New Territories.
Tsuen Wan of the district is part of the Tsuen Wan New Town.
The district was set up in 1982 covering the present-day Tsuen Wan District and Kwai Tsing District. Kwai Chung and Tsing Yi District was split in the mid-1980s, and subsequently renamed as Kwai Tsing District.
Tai Po District is one of the 18 districts of Hong Kong. It covers the areas of Tai Po, Tai Po Kau, Ting Kok, Plover Cove and the northern part of Sai Kung Peninsula on both shores of Tolo Channel. It is located in the New Territories.
Like Yuen Long, the area of Tai Po used to be a traditional market town. Tai Po New Town, developed around the area of Tai Po and on reclaimed lands on the estuaries of Lam Tsuen and Tai Po rivers. It had a population of 310,879 in 2001. The district has the third lowest population density.
Sham Shui Po was already a densely populated district in 1950s and 1960s. It is heavily poverty-stricken, having the lowest median monthly domestic household income among the 18 districts. It has the highest percentage of elderly over 65 years. The percentage of new immigrants is also very high.
The Sha Tin District covers approximately 60 km² (37 sq. mi), including the Sha Tin New Town and several country parks. Built mostly on reclaimed land in Sha Tin Hoi, the well-developed Sha Tin New Town comprises mainly residential areas along the banks of the Shing Mun River Channel. In the early 1970s it was a rural township of about 30,000 people. After Sha Tin's first public housing estate, Lek Yuen Estate, was completed in 1976, the settlement began to expand. Today, about 65% of the district's population live in public rental housing, housing under Hong Kong's Tenants Purchase Scheme, or Home Ownership Scheme (HOS). Sha Tin has now become a major new community, including an extension at Ma On Shan, of about 640,000 people today. The total development area of the new town in Sha Tin and Ma On Shan is about 20 km² (8 sq. mi).
Sai Kung District covers approximately 126 km² and as of 2001, it had a population of 327,689 in 2001, most of it in Tseung Kwan O.
In contrast to the densely populated areas of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon, Sai Kung District's heartland is a coastal area characterised by beautiful scenery, charming small villages and stunning seascapes. The area is known for its pristine beaches and quiet living. Inasmuch as it remains only partly urbanized, many people describe Sai Kung as the "last back garden" of Hong Kong.
Kwun Tong (Traditional Chinese: 觀塘區; Jyutping: gwun1 tong4 keoi1; Cantonese IPA: /kwun55 tʰɔŋ11 kʰœy55/) is one of the 18 districts of Hong Kong. It is located in Kowloon. It had a population of 562,427 in 2001. The district has the third highest population while the income is below average.
It is the most densely populated district, with 55,000 per km², but it is also one of the largest industrial areas in Hong Kong. Pollution, poverty and aging population are the concerns. According to statistic figure of 2001, the proportion of poor people and elder people in this district is 22.6% and 15.5% respectively. Besides, the number of poor people living in this district is 124,803, which is the highest in Hong Kong.
Kwai Tsing (Traditional Chinese: 葵青區, Jyutping: kwai4 cing1 keoi1, pinyin: kuí qīng qū) 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 standalone district when Hong Kong's 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 (葵涌及青衣區) until 1988, when its name was shortened to Kwai Tsing District.
The internationally famous container terminals can be found within the district, along the shores of Rambler Channel between Kwai Chung and Tsing Yi Island. 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.
Wan Chai, is an area situated at the western part of the Wan Chai District, in northern Hong Kong Island, in Hong Kong, China. It is bounded by Canal Road in the east, Arsenal Street in the west and Bowen Road in the south. The area north of Gloucester Road is often called Wan Chai North.
Wan Chai is one of the busiest commercial areas in Hong Kong with many small- and medium-sized companies gathering, likewise various shopping centres and restaurants serving cuisines of different countries. Wan Chai North features office towers, parks, hotels and a world-class conference centre. The locality is also a highly-populated yet ever-aging residential zone, facing an urban decaydistrict regeneration in recent years.
Central Plaza (Traditional Chinese: 中環廣場), located in Wan Chai, is the second tallest skyscraper in Hong Kong. With a height of 374 m, Central Plaza is only surpassed by 2 IFC (415 m) in Central. It used to be the tallest building in Asia from 1992 to 1996, until the Shun Hing Square in Shenzhen, People's Republic of China, was built. The 78-storey building was completed in August 1995. The building surpassed the Bank of China Tower as the tallest building in Hong Kong until the completion of 2IFC.
Central Plaza was also the tallest reinforced concrete building in the world, until it was surpassed by CITIC Plaza, Guangzhou. The building uses a triangular floor plan. On the top of the tower is a four-bar neon clock that indicates the time by displaying different colors in 15 minute intervals, blinking at the change of the quarter.
The Bank of China Tower (abbr. BOC Tower; Traditional Chinese: 中銀大廈) is one of the most recognized skyscrapers in Central, Hong Kong. It houses the headquarters for the Bank of China (Hong Kong) Limited.
Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning Chinese American architect I. M. Pei, the building is 315 meters (1,034 feet) high with two masts reaching 369 meters (1,209 feet) high. The 70 story building was built in 1989 and is located near Central MTR station. This was the tallest building in Hong Kong and Asia from 1989 to 1992, and it was the first building outside the United States to break the 305 m (1,000 foot) mark. That also means it was the tallest outside America from its completion year, 1990. It is now the third tallest skyscraper in Hong Kong, after Two International Finance Center and Central Plaza.
The structural expressionism adopted in the design of this building resembles growing bamboo shoots, symbolising livelihood and prosperity. The whole structure is supported by the five steel columns at the corners of the building, with the triangular frameworks transferring the weight of the structure onto these five columns.