Page 3 - Hong Kong Destination Guide PRINT

HISTORY PRE-COLONIAL HONG KONG Dotted around Hong Kong are at least eight prehistoric - probably Neolithic - rock carvings. Many archaeological digs also have confirmed human settlement thousands of years ago. The earliest inhabitants were Yueh tribe's people, whose boat-people communities floated in Hong PAGE 3 Kong's many sheltered, sandy bays. Today's Tanka fishing communities Population | Time | Visas are thought to be their descendants. Insurance | History PAGE 4 The area around Hong Kong was absorbed by China about 2,000 years History & Government POPULATION ago. Imperial Chinese records of a millennium ago refer to Tuen Munnow a major New Territories New Town development. It was a PAGE 5-9 The population of Honk Kong is Island Areas 7.1 million, of which 95% are garrison town, as was Tolo Harbor's Tai Po, now the location of another New Town. The troops' main function was to guard the pearls which Chinese. PAGE 9 were harvested from Tolo Harbor by aboriginal Tanka divers. Language TIME PAGE 10 Observed at UTC+8 all year About 1,000 years ago, as a result of invasions and dynastic unrest in Climate & Weather China, various northern Cantonese families began to move in to what is round. The Hong Kong now Hong Kong. The dominant settle families, known as the "Five Great PAGE 11 Observatory is the official. Clans", are still major landowners. The Land VISAS PAGE 12 Eventually, the fertile plains of the New Territories became an extensively Currency | Credit Cards A passport with a minimum of six cultivated outpost of the province of Canton (now known as Changing Money | Tipping months validity remaining and Guangdong). Other migrants included the Hoklo fishing people from evidence of onward/return PAGE 13 eastern Guangdong province. transportation by sea/air are Etiquette | Health & required. A visa is not required for Vaccinations In the 17th century, China's new rulers - the Manchus' Qing dynasty - tourist visits of up to 90 days by U.S. PAGE 14 citizens. enforced an evacuation policy along the southern coastline, an area which Communications | What to Pack included Hong Kong, to suppress rebellion and piracy. After a few years, when the policy was rescinded, a new wave of settlers from the north PAGE 15 INSURANCE arrived in the under-populated territory; they were the Hakka (or "guest") Shopping | Customs You should not assume your U.S. people. Like the longer established Cantonese clans which controlled the Bartering or other existing health insurance market towns, they were primarily farmers. Apart from growing rice, the PAGE 16-17 will cover you while traveling non-seafaring people of Hong Kong cultivated incense, tea and Food & Drinks abroad. Since the standard of pineapples, and also panned for salt and produced lime. emergency treatment is not PAGE 18 always as high as in the West, it is Consequently, Hong Kong contains many long-established fishing Culture & The Arts | Religion advisable for travelers to take out communities and hundreds of small, centuries-old villages, many still an additional travel policy that protected by defensive walls, moats, and gatehouses. There are also includes evacuation in addition to hundreds of ancient Chinese temples, dedicated to Taoist and Buddhist their normal medical insurance. deities, and many clan ancestral halls and other historical monuments and relics. In 1949, the communist People's Republic of China was created and Hong Kong became a haven for millions of refugees. Mostly Cantonese, they also included many entrepreneurs and professionals from Shanghai and elsewhere who continued to maintain the old Chinese beliefs, traditions and lifestyles.