Apusivu
Hong Kong
Hong Kong facts and figures
| Mum: | Oh, hello Ami! Come on in. Don's in his room. You know the way... |
| Ami: | Hi, Mrs Sangrini. Thanks. |
| Don: | Hi there! |
| Ami: | Hi yourself! How are things? |
| Don: | Fine, fine thanks. Can we get going with this Hong Kong assignment? I've got floorball practise at six, so ... |
| Ami: | OK, OK! Jeez... you're in a hurry! OK, so, Hong Kong, Hong Kong ... Here we are. OK. So, Hong Kong is like, what, about the size of Singapore, right? About 1,104 square kilometres...hmm. That's not very big at all. Finland's must be about 200, no, 300 times bigger than Hong Kong. |
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| Don: | 300 times bigger... Got it. What about the population? That's easy. Definitely more people in Hong Kong than in Finland! How many though? |
| Ami: | The population of Hong Kong is about 7.2 million. Compared to the population of Finland, which is about 5.5 million. Finland is a lot, 300 times in fact, bigger than Hong Kong, but there are more people in Hong Kong. So that means Hong Kongers live pretty close to each other, right? |
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| Don: | Which brings us to question number 3 - the population density? (reads) What is the population density in Hong Kong? |
| Ami: | Wait a minute ... OK, it says here that there are 6,500 people living in a square kilometre in Hong Kong. Phew. That's a LOT. They must be packed in like sardines. Hey, check out the map. Lots of islands, mountains... I thought Hong Kong was one big city, but in fact it's spread over several islands...hmm, about 250 islands. |
| Don: | Hong Kong consists of 250 islands? I didn't know that. |
| Ami: | Yeah, but the populated area, those famous skyscrapers, are mostly on Kowloon, the New Territories and Hong Kong island. Hang on a minute - this means that Hong Kong is the name of the city, of the country and of one of the big islands. It's complicated, isn't it? |
| Don: | Sure is... what's the next question? |
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| Ami: | So, about its history. Hong Kong was a British colony for 156 years. Why? Hong Kong is a long way from Europe ... what were the English doing there? |
| Don: | That's another topic Ami, let's just answer the questions and finish the homework, OK? When did Hong Kong become part of China again? |
| Ami: | In 1997. |
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| Don: | OK. Good. 1997... Hong Kong becomes part of China again. Next. What is the distance from London to Hong Kong? Let's see, 9,600 km! It's almost the same distance from Helsinki to Los Angeles. |
| Ami: | What does Los Angeles have to do with anything? |
| Don: | Nothing, nothing... I'm just comparing it. |
| Ami: | Hmm. So 9,600 is the answer, right? OK, two more questions. What languages do most people in Hong Kong speak? That's easy. Chinese of course. |
| Don: | Ah, but wouldn't they also speak English? After all, they belonged to Britain for what, 156 years. And aren't there many different types of Chinese? |
| Ami: | Hmm... Yeah, you're right! It says here that most people in Hong Kong speak Cantonese and English. They also speak Cantonese in Macau. But Mandarin in China. Jeez... it's complicated, isn't it? |
| Don: | Uhu ... So what's the answer? |
| Ami: | They speak Cantonese and English in Hong Kong. |
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| Don: | Right. And on to the final question. Modern dragon boat racing. Hey, I've seen this on YouTube - looked like fun. It's apparently popular all around the world - people do dragon boat racing in New York, in Sydney, even in Helsinki! OK, so how many people do it in China? Must be millions. |
| Ami: | Yip. About 50 million people do dragon boat racing in China. |
| Don: | We're done! Thanks, Ami. Teamwork, right? |
| Ami: | Yeah - it was fun. OK. I can see you're in a hurry. See you tomorrow. Bye! |
| Don: | Bye! Mum, can we leave in about 3 minutes? I don't want to be late for practise... |
