Hong Kong: Holidays and local customs
Major holidays and festive days
The Fringe Festival has been organized annually in January/February by the well-known cabaret of the Fringe Club since 1982. The cultural event, which lasts up to four weeks, mainly features experimental and alternative art forms (dance, theater, music, painting and photo exhibitions).
The Hong Kong Arts Festival has been held annually in February/March since 1973. The program includes presentations by renowned international and local artists from the fields of traditional and modern drama, classical music and pop, folklore dance and ballet, but also exhibitions that present paintings, calligraphy, photography and handicrafts.
The Hong Kong International Film Festival is held annually in March/April. The festival takes into account the importance of Hong Kong as a film metropolis and presents domestic and international film productions.
The Tin Hau’s birthday is celebrated loudly in Hong Kong on the 23rd day of the third moon (mid-April/mid-May) with decorated fishing boats, processions of dragon and lion dancers and colorful fireworks. In honor of the goddess of the seafarers, the largest and most impressive processions of Tai Mui take place at Joss House Bay on the Clear Water Bay Peninsula.
The Tam Kung Festival is celebrated at the same time as Buddah’s birthday. Tam Kung, the Daoist patron saint of fishermen and seafarers, is only venerated in Macau, apart from Hong Kong.
The Seven Sisters Festival is celebrated on the seventh day of the seventh moon in August. On this day, the legendary Daoist shrine at Lovers ‘Rock (Maidens’ Rock) on Browen Road on Hong Kong Island is colorfully decorated. Young girls come here on this day to ask for a good husband with offerings.
Source: Countryaah – Hong Kong Holidays
Symphony of Lights
The fantastic multi-media show Symphony of Lights – according to the Guinness Book of Records even the largest regularly held light and sound show in the world – is a breathtaking spectacle, in the context of which the 44 most famous buildings in Hong Kong shine in fire and light. You just sit down at the harbor at 8 p.m. and enjoy the spectacle of sound and colors in a pleasant atmosphere. The light conglomerate of laser, light and glow is accompanied by classical music. The whole show is made up of five themed parts that aim to describe awakening, energy, past, partnership and the essence of celebrations in Hong Kong. The best views of this event are from the ship, from the harbor promenade in Tsim Sha Tsui or from the harbor promenade in Wan Chai (at Golden Bauhinia Square).
National customs
Cantopop
The Cantonese Pop Music, in short: Cantopop is a music genre from Hong Kong, which is also very popular in other parts of Asia. The style, also known as Hong Kong Pop, combines traditional Chinese melodies with Western musical styles. In this music, in which the lyrics are also of great importance, Sam Hui and Roman Tam in particular were pioneers. The cantopop is mainly sung in Cantonese, but can also occur in other languages.
Festivals in Hong Kong
Since the Hong Kong people are on average more affluent than the people in the rest of China, the traditional Chinese festivals are celebrated here with greater effort than in the other regions of the gigantic empire. But also in Hong Kong the dates of the festive days are based on the Chinese lunar calendar and therefore – measured against the Gregorian calendar – take place on different days.
Hong Kong cinema
Hong Kong is also a well-known film metropolis, where more than 4,000 films have been produced so far. The reason for this lies in the fact that numerous directors from the Chiang Kai-shek government fled to Hong Kong during the Chinese civil war. Well-known films made in Hong Kong include Zhuangzi Checks His Wife, Wong Kar-Wais In The Mood For Love, King Hus A Touch Of Zen, John Woos A Better Tomorrow and countless martial arts films. Unforgettable movie stars like Leslie Cheung and Anita Mui have been immortalized on the Avenue of the Stars on the waterfront in Tsim Sha Tsui.
Nightlife
Hong Kong’s nightlife is varied and consists of a large selection of bars, pubs, discos, clubs and restaurants. Unfortunately, there are no casinos in Hong Kong. For visitors from the west, districts like Lan Kwai Fong (especially D’Aguilar Street), the red-light district of Wan Chai (especially Lockhart Road and Jaffe Road), Knutsford Terrace in Kowloon and the rather chic Soho-Toho (South of Hollywood Road), while the typical Asian establishments such as the inevitable karaoke bars are more in districts like Mongkok there, where you will also find street vendors and restaurants of various culinary styles.
Gays and Lesbians in Hong Kong
Gay bars and clubs are mostly found in Causeway Bay, Central, Sheung Wan and Tsim Sha Tsui in Kowloon. The quality of these locations fluctuates enormously and is guaranteed to disappoint all those who expect something like New York, London, Berlin or Paris. The New Wally Matt in Tsim Sha Tsui, the Works on Hollywood Road and the Propaganda, also on Hollywood Road, are definitely very good locations.
Alcohol and going out
The legal age required to consume alcohol in Hong Kong is 18 years. Usually this is rarely checked. But drinking alcohol in Hong Kong is an expensive pleasure anyway, especially if it’s supposed to be the imported beer in western bars. Local beers aren’t bad either and are a lot cheaper. Just try the famous Tsing Tao.
You don’t even have to start before midnight in Hong Kong, because the nightlife really only takes place at night. In return, everything is even more hectic at night than it is during the day anyway.
Hong Kong: climate
Travel times
The most pleasant travel time is from mid-September to mid-February, as the climate is then a bit more pleasant, i.e. cooler, than in the humid and hot summer months. In summer, from May to mid-September, temperatures range from 20 ° to 33 °C.
In general, however, you can travel to Hong Kong all year round.
Hong Kong: map
Hong Kong is located in southeast China at the mouth of the Pearl River. It is made up of four regions, namely Hong Kong Island (75 square kilometers), Kowloon (518 square kilometers), the New Territories (518 square kilometers) and the Outlaying Islands.
Hong Kong: geography
Location and area
Hong Kong is located in southern China on the eastern bank of the Pearl River Delta.
Hong Kong covers an area of 1,099 km².
Green spaces
Around 70% of the country is designated as green spaces, of which around 40% are taken up by the 21 landscape parks.
National border
Hong Kong and China share a border that is approx. 50 km long.
Coastline
Hong Kong has a sea coastline of around 733 km.
Longitude and latitude
Hong Kong extends over the following geographical latitude (abbreviation Δφ) and geographical longitude (abbreviation Δλ):
Δφ = from 22 ° 08 ‘to 22 ° 35’ north latitude Δλ = from 113 ° 49 ‘to 114 ° 31’ east longitude |
You can find detailed information on this subject under Longitude and Latitude.
Legal time
For Hong Kong, the following value applies to Central European Time (CET), i.e. the time (without summer time) in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. A minus sign means that it is earlier there, a plus sign that it is later than CET:
Δ t (CET) = + 7 h |
Further and detailed explanations of the time can be found under Time zones, time.
The highest point of the sun in Hong Kong
Hong Kong is located at a northern latitude of around φ = 22 ° and thus in the tropics.
If the declination δ of the sun has a value of 22 ° north, and thus the image point of the sun is exactly above the city or island, the sun is perpendicular there. This happens exactly twice a year, roughly 6 days before June 21 and 6 days after June 21 (see position of the sun)
Caution
If the image point of the sun and thus the declination δ is north of the latitude of Hong Kong, which is only the case for a few days in midsummer, the sun is not in the south at noon, as in our latitudes, but in the north. In this case, the sun moves from east to north to west, where, like us, it sets.
mountains
Ma On Shan Peak
The highest point in the country is Ma On Shan Peak with a height of 702 m.
Sharp Peak
The Sharp Peak has a height of 468 m.
Rivers, pearl river
The mouth of the approximately 180 km long Pearl River (also known as Yuèjiāng) is formed from the confluence of three rivers and therefore forms a real river network, a so-called estuary.
The whole thing is to be understood as follows:
The approximately 470 km long “Northern River” coming from the north flows into the approximately 2,195 km long “West River” near Sanshui. The two combined rivers begin to branch out shortly afterwards and after about 50 km to the southeast they reach the Chinese city of Guǎngzhōu. From here the water becomes the actual Pearl River for around 180 km. After another 50 km in a southerly direction, the 525 km long east river, coming from the east, flows into the water. The estuary formed by the three rivers is around 70 km long and 30 km wide.
The river is considered a very important stream in southern China. It flows into the South China Sea between Macao and Lantau Island (Hong Kong).
Lakes
The country includes numerous smaller man-made dams.
The Tai-Tamm dam is mentioned.
Islands
Hong Kong has 300 islands, the largest of which are:
Lantau
On Lantau – the largest island in Hong Kong – is the modern Chek Lap Kok airport in Hong Kong and Disneyland, which opened in 2005. The island covers an area of 143 km².
Hong Kong Island
The Hong Kong Island covers an area of 75 km².
Other islands:
Cheung Chau
Lamma
Peng Chau