Hong Kong and Taiwan Relations

HK and Taiwan haven't always had a great relationship as both HK and Taiwan are big contributers to the worlds economy. Just recently Taiwan lost one of its allies, Gambia, there was fear that Hong Kong would bring in Gambia to improve its economy even though Taiwan and Hong Kong have an agreement not to steal each others allies as it might cause problems. In recent years they have created seperate councils in order to establish better relations, Hong Kong-Taiwan Economic and Cultural Co-operation and Promotion Council (ECCPC) and the Taiwan-Hong Kong Economic and Cultural Co-operation Council (THEC). In their recent meeting they exhanged some ideas for building up tourism, having cruises that go from Hong Kong to Taiwan. On the cultural side, Hong Kong will have had its first "Hong Kong week" in Taipei.



Source: http://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/201309/27/P201309270743.htm

Macau

Macau was under Portuguese rule before being handed over to China in 1999 and now a Special Administrative Region. In recent years it has become one of the richest cities and also the worlds largest gambling center. Much of its economy relies on gambling for its revenue. Many people from the mainland of China visit Macau every year to gamble because gambling isn't permitted in China. It attracts around 6x more people than Las Vegas does annually. Because Macau relies so much on its tourist for revenue because of its casinos, if casinos were to be allowed in China, Macau would be in trouble. If their casino industry goes down, it might bring down all of Macau. It is known as the Chinese Las Vegas.

Chapter 10: Urban China

Hong Kong is a city in China that is very urbanized. It is very up to date, tall building, bright lights, and the very populated streets. It is filled with different types of transportation options from buses and taxis to trams and railways, it has the feel to a New York like city. With such heavy population their is very high traffic in the streets and also expensive to live their. Many of the people that live in Hong Kong choose to rent rather than to buy. Hong Kong is just a main attraction because it has anything you need from transportation to tourist attractions. The following video shows the urbanization of Hong Kong but also the problems it leads to.

Opening Process

During Mao's years, China was very isolated from the world and not open to trading with other countries. Once China decided to open up international trade it brought it in a lot of foreign investment. Hong Kong has become one of the most important cities in China for international trade, it is seen as the economic gateway into the mainland of China. It has become one of the busiest ports in the world, allowing imports an exports from other countries to come in and leave.

Hong Kong Economy

Although Hong Kong is a part of China, it runs a more free economy. Throughout the decades, Hong Kong has been taken over by different countries and it was handed over to China by the British. China runs on a socialist economy and Hong Kong is allowed to continue its capitalist type of economy, the same type that it ran when it was part of the British. This has allowed Hong Kong to become one of worlds biggest cities to do business in.

Population

Hong Kong is one of the heavy populated cities in China, but it also has a big number of its population under poverty. As of last year Hong Kong's population was at 7.155 million people and about 1.3 million of those were below the poverty line. Hong Kong is somewhat similar to a Los Angeles or New York type city, a city that is seen as a very rich where much buisness is done, so to here that so many people are living under the poverty line is some what of a shock. The video is an example of how people are living in poverty and the type of conditions they live in.

Chapter 4: Politics and Political Geography

Hong Kong is part of the "one country, two systems" in China. The rest of China follows a socialist system, while Hong Kong along with Taiwan maintain a capitalist system. Hong Kong has been part of British until it was seized by Japan, then it was taken over again by the British who then handed China. This is all something that is new to me and i had no idea of until i did some research on Hong Kong political system. This video gives a little bit of background on how it differs from other Chinese cities.

http://youtu.be/--a1UXA42zM

Chapter 3: Culture and Traditions

I chose to write about the Chinese New Year tradition. This tradition doesn't necessarily relate to Hong Kong specifically but to China as a whole because it is a national tradition that the country celebrates as a whole. I think its something that most of us have heard about but Ive never knew anything about it other than then just the fireworks. The fireworks are used not only to celebrate the new year but also to scare away the evil. There's so much to the New Year tradition that i didn't know about such as the food and the cleaning of their houses to get rid of the "old" and welcoming in the "new".

Source: http://www.chinesenewyears.info/chinese-new-year-traditions.php

Chapter 2: Natural Environment

Because of China's heavy pollution, i chose this video to show the types of effects the pollution has on the country specifically in Hong Kong. Because Hong Kong is so heavily populated it contributes to much of China's pollution problem. The video shows the low quality of air and low visibly that has resulted from primarily so many vehicles on the roads. There isn't much of government restrictions for their pollution problems and it is causing some residents to leave the big city because of the health problems it is causing them and their young children.Many of us here can relate to this problem being so close to Los Angeles  not just air quality but their water and other natural environments.

Chapter 1: Intro to Hong Kong

China's Booming Growth

For my city in China I chose to do Hong Kong, it primarily a city we all know of and have heard of and is one of the biggest cities in China. China as a country has a population of 1.3 billion people and Hong Kong is responsible for a good portion of that population with 7.15 million people living there. Over the past years the annual rate of increased population has risen, it has doubled from 2008 to 2012. It will continue to increase over the years and most likely keep doubling itself since the birth rate is much higher than the birth rate.