This week we visit Hong Kong. But first, the latest news from Thai Airways International:
11 October 2002 --- Thai Airways International held a press conference to introduce six new destinations:
Searching for information on Hong Kong was something of a surprise. There are lots of commercial pages, travel agents, companies and government statistics but very little in the way of real independent information presented in an interesting way. However, we found a few and the first is this site from marimari.com.
The information is presented in a clear, easy to navigate, style and is resonably comprehensive although a bit dry for my taste. The categories covered are:
I like the opening paragraph: http://www.marimari.com/content/hong_kong/popular_places/hongkong_islands/main.html See information about the marimari.com site
Lonely Planet guides can always be relied upon to provide useful information, and the Hong Kong guide is no exception. They sum up the city as "a city geared not only to making money but feeling good about it. At night, it's like looking down into a volcano."
The short history section is sobering reading in today's political climate - the west's tactics to protect its economic interests are not always in keeping with the standards we profess to hold dear. With the amount of information that Lonely Planet have to offer, you may decide it's better to buy the book, but if you simply want to browse and get an idea of what Hong Kong is about, you can do so on: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/destinations/north_east_asia/hong_kong/index.htm
Said to have a hundred years history, every year in May all people on the island of Cheun Chao must keep to a vegetarian diet for three days; on the last day a procession is held. Prior to 1978, at midnight the young men of the island climbed to the top of bamboo towers and threw buns all over the crowd. However, after the collapse of one of the towers in 1978 this custom was stopped. Nevertheless, the event is great fun and this site presents an outstanding collection of photos and videos to bring the excitement and noise of the procession to your screen. Turn up the volume and take a look at:
http://www.cheungchau.org/
Hidden carefully within the extremely dry Hong Kong SAR Government Information Centre is the Tourism Commission Visual Library. Nothing to enthuse ecstatically about, but it does contain a series of photo strips based on various districts and themes which give a good flavour of the area. As with many of these government sponsored sites around the world, they assume we all have the latest high speed connection and powerful PCs, so it may be a bit slow to load. Take a look for yourself on:
http://www.info.gov.hk/tc/sitemap/index.htm
Of the many books on Hong Kong, we would recommend thoroughly these two which are available from Amazon Books:
There is excellent hotel accommodation available in Hong Kong at international standards. However, you don't need to pay international prices. There are substantial discounts available if you know where to look. Our research suggests that the best deals are usually available from the Agoda reservations system which you can find on:
Back issues of this newsletter are available. You can find them on:
http://www.connectedglobe.com/thaiairnews/ The countries covered in other issues are:
Far East Air Fare deals from ConnectedGlobe
There are some excellent prices to be found on flights to Hong Kong. For flights originating anywhere in the world use
the ConnectedGlobe fare finder page.
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