Hong Kong?
Weren’t they once a British colony?
Damn shame we lost it.
Jolly-good dim sum!
Isn’t that the place that’s kind of part of China, but also not really?
They have oil, right?
Didn’t they once have an airport in the middle of the city, and have to blow up a
mountain to build a new one?
As you can probably imagine, Hong Kong is a very well-known city around the world.
This little territorial anomaly in southern China is a whole host of activity throughout
the region, and is virtually the definition of the term “urban”.
It’s certainly no Luxembourg, but I’m here, so I’m going to make a video about
it, and all those things in the intro.
Well, maybe except the oil.
Hong Kong was once a British colony, and to this day retains many clear reminders of its
colonial past.
As in, it has double-decker bus services… which drive on the left side of the road,
you plug everything into the wall with Type G plug outlets, people who speak English but
not Cantonese should have no trouble getting around, and basically everything is named
after Queen Victoria.
Hong Kong was administered as a British colony for over 100 years, and grew especially rich
throughout the 50’s and 60’s as a trading port in southeastern China, as basically the
one place in China where people could conduct business.
However, while the British truly colonized Hong Kong Island and part of the Kowloon Peninsula,
the New Territories were only leased until the year 1997, by which time it had to be
handed over to the People’s Republic of China, though the British and Chinese negotiated
a special deal that allowed Hong Kong a fifty-year period to essentially adapt to being part
of China, as life in Hong Kong had grown to be completely different from life in the People’s
Republic of China.
But is Hong Kong Chinese?
Well, yes and no.
Officially, it is part of the People’s Republic of China, known officially as the Hong Kong
Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China, but in practice you probably
wouldn’t think so.
Hong Kong has separate government and police, and a separate immigration policy, which is
a bit more friendly to westerners.
PRC citizens even need a special permit to go to Hong Kong, weirdly enough.
Hong Kong citizens even have their own passports, which grant them different visa-free travel
privileges from those living on the mainland.
Not to mention that none of your favorite websites, like YouTube or Twitter, are banned
here.
However, independent as it may seem and function, it is still under the overarching control
of Beijing.
Hong Kongers may elect their governor, but only from a pool of candidates approved by
the Chinese government, which has triggered some protests recently.
Also, Hongkongers don’t generally appreciate it if you call them Chinese (which is why
I’m saying this segment in a less public area).
Stepping back out of politics before everything goes haywire in the comments, Hong Kong even
has its own currency, the Hong Kong Dollar.
The HKD is completely separate from the Chinese Yuan renminbi, though both currencies are
actually pegged to the US Dollar, so perhaps they’re not all that different.
However, the Hong Kong Dollar actually has a different design on its bills, depending
on who you got them from.
Seriously, they’re issued by three different commercial banks: the Hongkong and Shanghai
Banking Corporation (HSBC), Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong), and the Bank of China (Hong
Kong).
They’re all the same currency though, just in different designs.
However, this is only true for the HK$20, HK$50, HK$100, HK$500, and HK$1000 banknotes,
as the HK$10 bill and all the coins are issued by the Hong Kong government itself.
While Hong Kong is very English-friendly, it is important to remember that Hong Kong
is Chinese-first, English-second, and while it is possible to get around with Mandarin,
your best bet is to at least learn some basic phrases in Cantonese.
Many people here actually might not speak much English, and even if they do, it‘s
still always polite to learn a bit of their language.
Words like ng-goi or do-jeh go a long way.
Of course, since Hong Kong is a series of very mountainous islands crammed in by the
Chinese border, there isn’t all that much room for them to build essential stuff, like
housing.
So where do they house their 7 million people?
Straight up.
Hong Kong has never hosted the tallest building in the world, but it does have the most skyscrapers
in the world, with 303 buildings at a height greater than 150 meters, with the tallest
being the 484-meter International Commerce Centre.
For comparison, the second-place contender, New York, has only 237 skyscrapers, with their
tallest being the new 416-meter One World Trade Center.
With that in mind, perhaps it’s also not surprising that Hong Kong is the most expensive
real estate market in the world, and those who can’t pay for a proper apartment, well,
I’d recommend you check out this episode of Vox Borders.
Despite its really specific circumstance, Hong Kong actually has a twin city right next
door, in the form of Macau.
Macau was a Portuguese colony up until the year 1999, and was largely overshadowed by
Hong Kong.
However, Macau’s economy has also grown, instead becoming basically the Las Vegas of
Asia, except for the fact that it brings in even more revenue, and has knock-offs of famous
buildings in Vegas.
Seriously, there’s an entire Venetian casino in Macau!
If you’re arriving in Hong Kong, you will most likely be arriving in Hong Kong Chek
Lap Kok International Airport if you’re travelling by air.
There is another airfield at Shek Kong, but that’s a military airport, so you’ll be
almost certainly flying into Chek Lap Kok.
However, until one fateful night in 1998, Hong Kong International Airport once referred
to Kai Tak Airport in Kowloon Bay.
Kai Tak Airport was built in 1925, and eventually became surrounded by skyscrapers, meaning
that Hong Kong effectively outgrew its old airport.
The new airport was built by completely levelling Chek Lap Kok and Lam Chau islands, and filling
in the space in between, due to the aforementioned lack of space for many things in the area.
I mean, it’s not like they could have built it vertically, airports kind of have to be
flat.
This new airport proved to be a huge engineering project, but it turned out way better for
the territory, as planes now take off and land over the world’s most controversial
sea, not the tops of buildings.
You can even catch a ferry to Macau or the mainland from the airport, just in case Hong
Kong wasn’t actually your final destination.
The ferries operate internationally, meaning customers aren’t technically in Hong Kong
as they ride the ferries, making everything quite a bit easier for those who don’t want
to go through Hong Kong customs.
Today, the land left behind by the old airport is at least planning to be used for office
spaces, but they’re still working on that.
So if you’ve never been to Hong Kong, and are maybe either thinking of going or aren’t
sure whether or not you’ll want to go, I’d say go!
Hong Kong is a very exhilarating city that, in my opinion, perfectly combines the historical
and the futuristic, as well as the chaotic and the tranquil.
Hong Kong is a city bursting at the seams with life, and it’s something I highly suggest
you see in person, especially as a kind of set of training wheels for going to East Asia.
Thank you as always for watching.
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