Essay

Hong Kong opens to the world

A century ago, when Hong Kong was still a small village, no one knew there was such a place in China. However, nowadays everybody in the world knows about Hong Kong, a successful international city. Since the handover of Hong Kong to China, it seems that there were more and more people around the world having been showing their concern about it. All these people thought that there would be a big change after the handover and in fact there are changes, but still Hong Kong maintains its statue as an international city.

　

In order to minimize the misunderstanding about Hong Kong that has been reported to emphasize too much on Chinese culture and language and become less international in its outlook, we have to put on more effort to promote its international characters. For example, we should promote tourism, business environment and a centre for cyber development.

　

Firstly, tourism is vitally important for Hong Kong to be a famous city. When visitors come to Hong Kong, they will have a deeper impression about it and they will like it if the people here and the attraction points are fantastic. However, the government policies only aim at tourist from mainland China after the handover, and not surprisingly, the majority of visitors to Hong Kong these years are from the mainland. Only a few proportions of them are from Europe and the West. However, if Hong Kong still wants to maintain its international image, the government needs to do something, for instance, top officials should pay more visits to foreign countries to promote Hong Kong. Actually, it is not that difficult to do it because Hong Kong has a lot of good points to hard sell. For example, Hong Kong has a great number of attraction points, like the night view form the Victoria Peak, the great sea view of the Victoria Harbor and cheap and good souvenirs in Stanley Market. Visitors can also get a sight of the history of Hong Kong by visiting some heritage, like the Central Market, Tomb for King of Han Dynasty in Li Cheng Uk. Five years later, visitors can as well enjoy the great fun of New Disneyland on Lantau Island, which will be the second Disneyland in Asia.

　

Secondly, Hong Kong has been a centre for business for a long time. And also it is the busiest centre having the most freedom, according to a magazine investigating freedom for business in the world. Although we know that we have an upper hand in this area, we still have to make it better, as cities like Shanghai and Taiwan are getting very close. Maintaining the lowest tax is one of the good ways to achieve this. We have to make the most of it and fight for as many chances as possible to hold international conferences, like the APEC, the World Accounting Assembly. Because of the convenience of transportation and a highly transfer of information, it not only benefits the conferences being held there, but also raises the statue of Hong Kong. It is a ‘beneficial cycle’ that we could easily see by doing so. If all the businessmen around the world think that Hong Kong is the best place to hold important conferences, they would prefer holding conferences here, but never other places. Since they are big investors, it does help attract the foreign investment as well as boost the local economy. A safe environment is equally important to such an investment. There are more than 20,000 policemen in the territory and the crime rate is low.

　

In addition, the Chief Executive of the SAR, Tung Chee-hwa proposed his fifth Policy address that there will be a Cyber Harbor in Hong Kong. That means Hong Kong is going into a technology information era. Nowadays, no one will argue that advanced technology plays an important role in our society. Try to imagine what would happen if all the advanced technology disappears. I am sure that will cause countless inconvenience. It is estimated that almost each family owns a computer in Hong Kong and there are quite a number of computers linking to the Internet in public places, like public libraries.

　

Computer centers, such as the Golden Centre in Shamshuipo, sell different kinds of computer hardware and software, surely the latest one. Hardware and software are cheap. Therefore, it makes people easy to get it. Advanced technology is used in different areas, including private sectors and government sectors. If the government holds more exhibitions about the use of advanced technology, it will attract more visitors from the countries in which its technology is not as modern as that of Hong Kong. They would choose to come to Hong Kong rather than other places, because it is convenient to get here and of course it is a highly praised place.

　

To summarize, if Hong Kong now puts on its effort to achieve these three aspects, it will again become a famous city in the world very soon. And for this time, it will be more glorious than ever.