I visited Hong Kong on a 24-hour stopover on New Year's Day 2012.
Located on China's south coast, Hong Kong is made up of islands, including Hong Kong island and the Kowloon peninsula, and over 200 others.
Hong Kong literally means 'fragrant harbour'. Of course, with 7 million people living there now the harbour is probably not quite so fragrant!
It was a British colony until 1997, when it was returned to China. It still bears many signs of the British era, including bilingual road signs.
It is one of the most densely populated areas in the world, having a population of 7 million people in an area of just over 1000 sq km. Consequently, there are over 1000 skyscrapers, putting the city at the top of world rankings.
Interestingly, it has the longest life expectancy of any country in the world.
Landslides are common in Hong Kong due to the steep terrain, most of which is undeveloped.
Hong Kong has the highest usage of public transport in the world, with over 90% of daily journeys being on public transport. Hong Kongers can use an Octopus card to pay for transport, which is similar to an Oyster card. One of the most fabulous public transport systems we saw was a huge network of escalators, which apparently covers 800 metres in distance.
The Kowloon ferry, which costs about 10p to go on.
