Hong Kong is where the past meets the present, where gleaming steel high-rises tower over streets where old men in bicycles share the narrow streets with shiny Rolls Royces. For a land of stark contradictions, there is no other better example other than Hong Kong. This is a city that builds magnificent, hundred-story buildings of glass and steel using bamboo scaffolding, where you can easily eat a good piece of dimsum at a high-end gourmet restaurant or at the nearest street food stall outside, and where gigantic shopping malls compete for customers with the city's lively and colorful street markets.

Handed over to Chinese rule in 1997, Hong Kong still retains a part of its "Britishness" seen in its efficient education system and the double-decker buses that ply the streets. English pubs exist in peaceful harmony with Chinese tea houses where old Chinese men come in with their birdcages and swap stories to while the afternoon away.

Known as the "Wall Street" of Asia, Hong Kong is a modern metropolis that attracts 12 million visitors a year. Tourism is a major industry in Hong Kong, where major attractions such as Hong Kong Disneyland, Victoria Peak, Ocean Park and Stanley Market draw crowds from all over Asia and the world.