Portal:Hong Kong

The Hong Kong Portal

Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated regions in the world and famous for its energetic metropolitan area. It has a population of 7 million and has been continuously occupied for over 5 millennia. The modern city was founded by the United Kingdom, and became a British crown colony in 1842.

Despite its high population density, only about 17% of its land is built up, and greenery is everywhere. It is a place of contrasts - frenetically urban adjacent to pristine greenery; extremely rich next to dirt poor; Western culture and Chinese culture. Victoria Harbour is world famous for its splendid nightview from the Peak. The central business district is heavily urbanised with skyscrapers all around, but the country parks and beaches are just kilometres away. Traditional towns and villages, as well as natural reserves, are common in the suburban and rural New Territories, including the outlying islands. Public transport is very efficient, convenient, comfortable and reliable.

Hong Kong is currently a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China, with its own government, judicial system, stamps, passports, customs policy, immigration control, currency etc. The rule of the road is different from the rest of China, and it has its own delegations to various international organisations and sport events.

Hong Kong is officially bilingual, with English widely spoken in business and education. The majority of the population speak Cantonese as mother tongue, with a few speaking Mandarin and other European and Asian languages. English and Chinese are used in all official matters. The popular culture of Hong Kong is best represented by cuisine, pop music and films. Christianity, Taoism, Buddhism, Islam are all common. Focusing on trade, tourism, banking and finance, Hong Kong is one of the wealthiest economies in the world.

Selected article

Ocean Park Hong Kong is a theme park in the Southern District of Hong Kong Island. The marine-themed amusement park covers the area of Wong Chuk Hang and Nam Long Shan, and is located in Hong Kong. Public can go to Ocean Park by taxi or Citybus. The park, ranked seven in 'The World’s Most Popular Amusement Parks’ by Forbes in June 2006, had 4.38 million visitors in the fiscal year 2005/2006. It covers an area of 870,000 square metres. The different parts of the park are connected by a gondola lift system (or cable car system), as well as the world's second longest outdoor escalator.

The theme park currently has over 14 rides and other attractions such as aquariums. Besides housing two roller coasters, Ocean Park also features a Giant panda exhibit, a jelly fish and shark aquarium, as well as a four-story aquarium displaying more than 2000 fishes. The official mascot of Ocean Park is "Whiskers"—a waving sealion. Besides being an amusement park, Ocean Park Hong Kong also operates observatories, well developed laboratories, an education department and a Whales And Dolphins Fund. Ocean Park Hong Kong was the first institution in the world to have success in artificial insemination of bottle nose dolphins, and developed numerous new breeds of goldfish.

Selected biography

Andy Lau Tak-Wah (born 27 September 1961) is a Hong Kong Cantopop star, movie actor and producer. He has been one of Hong Kong's most commercially successful film actors since the 1990s.

The first lead role that made his initial popularity was the TVB series Hunting in 1982. In the same year, Andy acted in his first movie Once Upon a Rainbow. Later in 1983, his role as Yang Guo in the popular wuxia TV serial The Return of the Condor Heroes landed him his first leading role in a Shaw Brothers' film called On the Wrong Track.

Lau has since appeared in more than 100 films and 300 mini series with Hong Kong's TVB channel, and has a huge fan base throughout Asia with the success of both his onscreen performance and his musical career. Andy Lau is best known for his (often) recurring roles as a "Heroic Gangster."

Selected picture for November

Portal:Hong Kong/Selected picture/2009/November

Did you know...

• ...that Water caltrop is eaten in Hong Kong?
• ...that Tung shing is a book published in Guangzhou and also Hong Kong?
• ...that the Chief Secretary position was called "Colonial Secretary" before 1976?
• ...that Portland Street is widely considered the city's most famous red-light district?
• ...that Cyberport is a state-of-the-art broadband network building?

Tasks you can do

• Please visit the Hong Kong Wikipedians' discussion board and help to write new Hong Kong-related articles, and expand and improve existing ones.
• Visit Wikipedia:WikiProject Hong Kong/Assessment, and help out by assessing unrated Hong Kong articles.
• Add the Project Banner to Hong Kong articles around Wikipedia.
• Help nominate and select new content for the Hong Kong portal.
• Clean up all MTR station pages. They are literally all over the place. Merger information is incomplete. Line pages are a mess too. Two model pages are Tsing Yi Station and Sheung Shui Station. They have a feature special to the station, Station layout, exit, and connections, as well as neighbouring stations.

Related projects

Hong Kong topics