Hong Kong History

The Discover Hong Kong package tours Hong Kong Tourism website has a little history of the region - one of the world's most important cities despite the fact that Hong Kong was nothing more than a bunch of fishing villages only 160 years ago. Unlike other key world commerce capitals like New York, Paris, London, Beijing, etc, Hong Kong is relatively new and also sprung into being largely as the result of trade - often illegal - between China and the sprawling British Empire. In fact Hong Kong was under British control and protection until 1997 when the islands became a semi autonomous regio of China.

Although I lost most of my pictures from a Hong Kong visit in April here are a few Hong Kong Pictures mixed in with my China set.

Shanghai McDonalds, China

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Originally uploaded by JoeDuck

Heading to Shanghai for business or as part of your Bejing Olympics China touring? Sky West Magazine has a nice printable file with a very quick Shanghai introduction:
http://delta-sky.com/ginc/sas/pdf/Sky08_Shanghai.pdf

Surprisingly to me, the big cities in China were very accessible and pretty easy to navigate after a day of orientation. This is especially true for Shanghai and Hong Kong, which front waterways and have huge buildings that give you a great orientation feature.

This picture was on Nanjing Road, one of Shanghai's popular shopping areas which intersects with the Bund on the river.

In Shanghai the "Bund" is the old district along the river, developed during British domination some 100 years ago. Across the water is the Pudong Area which is the hopping new business district, complete with several of the world's tallest buildings such as the Jin Mao Building, Pearl Tower, and World Financial Center.

Peking Duck, Beijing

Peking Duck, Beijing
Originally uploaded by JoeDuck

Peking was a Western description of Beijing. For most cities in China it is almost required form to use the Chinese naming system which is quite interesting as it often uses combination words that have a word for a compass direction and physical features like rivers and mountains:

http://www.washburn.edu/cas/history/stucker/ChGeogMeaning.html

Peking duck is the signature specialty of Beijing. The duck is carved carefully, some fat removed, then reassembled for serving. For a small extra charge the remaining parts are deep fried - bone and all - and served as a separate dish.

Forbidden City Guard, China

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Originally uploaded by JoeDuck

An armored Lioness plays with her cub and guards one of the buildings in the Forbidden City, Beijing's amazing historic palace grounds opposite Tiananmen Square. Many Dynasties lived, loved and died inside the massive walls of the city in the heart of Beijing. The last emperor lived here until he was deposed by the nationalists under Sun Yat Sen, the father of modern China. Fanciful bronze creatures like this lion with her mate on the opposite side of the stairway were common inside the palace grounds.