HOME | POLITICS | SPORTS | LIFE | SCI/TECH | OPEDS | HELPFUL TIPS
|
Aug. 26, 2005 The two great Oriental cities of Hong Kong and Singapore have much in common but there are differences too, differences in population, ethnic makeup, language, weather and accessibility. I visited Singapore in 1989 and I visited Hong Kong three times in 1997 and 1998. Both Hong Kong and Singapore are young cities. Hong Kong was ceded to the British by the Chinese in the Treaty of Nanjing in 1841, as a result of the First Opium War. It became a crown colony in 1843. Britain’s lease ended in 1997, at which time the Chinese government founded Hong Kong SAR (Special Autonomous Region). Singapore was founded around 1820 by Sir Stamford Raffles of the British East India Company, as a transshipment center. Raffles’ name is still a commonplace in Singapore. According to local tradition, there had been a fishing village named Temasek, where Singapore now stands, from about the twelfth century. ‘Hong Kong’, which is ‘Xianggang’ in Mandarin, means ‘Fragrant Strait’, an allusion to the commerce in spices once carried on in the vicinity. ‘Singapore’ is the English version of ‘Singapura’, from Malay, and it means ‘Lion City’. Singapore is called ‘Xinjiapo’ in Chinese, but this is just a transliteration according to sound. Hong Kong has two official languages, Chinese and English. The traditional language of Hong Kong is Cantonese, which differs from Mandarin Chinese (Putonghua) in vocabulary, grammar and writing. The Communist Chinese government simplified Chinese characters in the days of Mao, but traditional characters remain in use in Hong Kong and Singapore. If you know the traditional characters, also used in Mandarin-speaking Taiwan, you will still be perplexed by Cantonese, with its different phraseology and syntax. Singapore has four official languages, Chinese, English, Malay and Tamil. The Chinese of Singapore is Mandarin, but with traditional characters. In any case, the difficulties are immense. Malay is an Austronesian language, along with several hundred others scattered throughout the Pacific and the Indian Oceans, and is also known as Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Malaysia. Tamil is a Dravidian language, originally from the south of India. The ethnic makeup of the cities follows similar lines. However, there is a considerable black population in HK, mostly from the West Indies. Hong Kong is by far the larger city, with 7,000,000 as against Singapore’s 2,000,000, but if you were standing in the midst of either city, you would never know the difference, with their armies of towering skyscrapers as far as the eye can see. Both cities have entrepots and godowns, refineries and factories galore, truly overwhelming and humiliating. Both cities have just countless stores, literally thousands, ranging from the most economical everyday wares up to exclusive shops for jewelry and furs and works of art with price tags in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Kai Tak Airport in Hong Kong and Chang I Airport in Singapore are modern international airports where one can fly anywhere in the world. From Hong Kong one also has access by rail to China, Mongolia, Russia and Central Asia, but one must have a consular visa in order to enter any of the abovesaid countries. In other words, you don’t just go, but must get permission in advance. From Singapore, one has access by rail to Malaysia and Thailand and access by ferry to Sumatra, a large island forming part of Indonesia, but in these cases, you may just go, for a visa will be issued to you on arrival. An American may enter either Hong Kong or Singapore and get a visa automatically at the point of entry. This is good for 30 days. In Singapore, you can renew your visa easily by taking a bus to Johor Baru, Malaysia, an hour away on a causeway across the Straits of Johor. On reentering you get another 30 days. Locally, both cities have modern subway stations, as well as buslines and cab service. In Hong Kong there is a definite cooling in the winter. July averages are 89 and 81 F; January averages are 67 and 58 F. In Singapore, just 65 miles from the equator, temperatures are constant all year long, around 87 and 72 F, virtually paradisical. The only drawback is that both cities are in the tropical rainforest region that covers all of Southeast Asia and Indonesia. Rainfall runs from 80 to 100 inches a year, double that of New York City. Cloudy skies are frequent, but one doesn’t mind clouds when it’s warm to hot in any case. Both cities are very expensive, but my personal experience tells me Hong Kong is worse than Singapore. Everything little thing seems so expensive! I visited a few museums and libraries, but since the cities are so young, one cannot expect to find counterparts of the museums of Greece and Egypt. I love both cities but the prices keep me away. ------------ About the author Thomas Keyes: I have written two books: A SOJOURN IN ASIA (non-fiction) and A TALE OF UNG (fiction), neither published so far. I have studied languages for years and traveled extensively on five continents. Email: udikeyes@yahoo.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
||||||
|
|
|||||||
|
