Introducing Mystery Class #8 Hong Kong, China (22.217 N, 114.183 E ) Mrs. Barnes' Class We're mystery class #8! Our teacher is Mrs. Barnes. Our class is quite big, about 300 sq. ft. There are 7 computers, 1 really fast printer, 1 scanner, and 3 TVs. We live in Hong Kong, China! We go to Hong Kong International School, which is located in Repulse Bay. Repulse Bay is the South side of Hong Kong. Central, the busiest part of Hong Kong with all the high-rise buildings is on the North side of Hong Kong. Hong Kong is an interesting city with lots of different contrasts. Hong Kong International School Hong Kong is usually humid and hot with disgusting and gross pollution. Hong Kong never gets tornadoes, twisters, or earthquakes. All Hong Kong gets is typhoons/hurricanes, which are not as bad as earthquakes and tornadoes. Typhoons can range from 1-10! Here in Hong Kong we speak mostly Cantonese. In China, Cantonese is only spoken in Hong Kong. The national language in China is Mandarin, which we learn in school. Some people in Hong Kong speak Mandarin as well as Cantonese. In Hong Kong we have Chinese New Year which is a Chinese Holiday where we celebrate the New Year. We get Lai See packets that have money in them. The Chinese calendar is different from the calendar you are used to. The 3 most popular religions are Buddhism, Taoism and Christian. Here in China we have festivals, some of which are The Dragon- Boat Festival, Ching Ming Festival, and the Tin Hau Festival. The Dragon-Boat Festival is to celebrate a poet who jumped into the sea and drowned himself. Ching Ming Festival is when Chinese go to the relatives' graves to clean and pray to them. The Tin Hau festival is where the Chinese praise the Goddess of the Sea. There are many more festivals that we did not name, but those are some of them. THE Class in THE Place to Be! Some interesting facts about Hong Kong is we have about 1,225 homeless people in Hong Kong. Also there is a lot of transportation, such as the MTR (Mass Transit Railway), taxis, Double Decker buses, Star Ferry and minibuses. Here in Hong Kong there are only about 20 rickshaws left, before they were everywhere! A rickshaw is a small carriage thatís red, which you sit in and is pulled by people, but now a days are mostly old Chinese men. This was our introduction about us and Hong Kong, THE place to be. Back to Today's Report Copyright 2001 Journey North. All Rights Reserved. Please send all questions, comments, and suggestions to our feedback form