| Hong Kong became a colony of the
British Empire
after the
First Opium War
(1839–42). Originally confined to
Hong Kong Island,
the colony's boundaries were extended in stages to the
Kowloon Peninsula
in 1860 and then the
New Territories
in 1898. It was
occupied by Japan
during the
Pacific War,
after which the British resumed control until 1997, when
China resumed sovereignty.
The region espoused minimum government intervention
under the ethos of
positive non-interventionism
during the colonial era. The time period greatly influenced the current
culture of Hong Kong,
often described as "East meets West",
and the
educational system,
which used to loosely follow the system in England until reforms
implemented in 2009.
Under the principle of "one
country, two systems", Hong Kong has a
different political system from
mainland China.
Hong Kong's
independent judiciary
functions under the
common law
framework. The
Basic Law of Hong Kong,
its constitutional document, which stipulates that Hong Kong shall have
a "high degree of autonomy" in all matters except foreign relations and
military defence, governs its
political system
[Wikipedia] |
| On our way back from Australia, we opted to have a
stopover for three nights in a very elegant hotel about 1.5 kilometres
from the centre of Kowloon. we had had a rather nice Mercedes Limo pick
us up and drop us at the hotel.
After a few hours rest we were on the tourist trail
looking for the iconic Star ferry boats to take us across to Hong Kong
proper for $2.5. That was what Jean paid, I cashed in on my OAP status
and went free through the yellow channel.
It is a city of visual and auditory overload. So much
going on everywhere, people, skyscrapers and many more being built. The
noise of the city was not actually relaxing in any way, until we found
the public park. More of that later. |
|
