Hong Kong

Hong Kong consists of the Hong Kong Island but also Kowloon and the New Territories that are actually located on the Chinese mainland. Furthermore, there are thousands of other islands with Lantau as the biggest one.

Hong Kong used to be a British colony between the years 1842 to 1997. Now it belongs to China, although they have been allowed to continue to be quite independent from mainland China until the year 2047.

In Hong Kong they speak Cantonese, but most also master Mandarin since that is the official dialect of China. It gets better; everyone speak English! At least those who work in shops, restaurants or any similar profession. That is, everyone that you are likely to talk to as a tourist, can speak English.

The currency in Hong Kong is the Hong Kong dollar, and the exchange rate is currently (February 2009) 1 HKD = 0.13 USD, or 1 USD = 7.75 HKD.

As a fairly experienced Beijing-traveler, I felt a great feeling of relief after a few hours in Hong Kong. Nobody stared at me. People queued up in a straight line, rather than one big chaotic bunch. Few tried to cut in line. No one smoked indoors. It was clean on the streets and on the roads everyone seemed to follow the rules quite okay. It felt just like an unusually orderly western city, despite the fact that Hong Kong now actually belongs to China.

Weather

We visited Hong Kong in early October and it was about 30-33 degrees Celsius (86-91 degrees Fahrenheit) every day. At midnight it was just a couple of degrees cooler. Personally, I like it but if you want to avoid the heat, you should visit Hong Kong during the winter months instead. The temperature rarely drops below 15-20 degrees Celsius (59-68 Fahrenheit). The summer should be avoided if you do not like the heat and a lot of rain.

Read more about Hong Kong

There are more articles about Hong Kong, please read the following:

Attractions in Hong Kong

Shopping in Hong Kong

Food in Hong Kong

Transportation in Hong Kong