1.12 Bun mountains

Rising a staggering 10-meter high , the bun mountains (bun towers) that are erected for the Bun Festival on Cheung Chau Island are constructed with bamboo and wooden poles and decorated with colorful floral boards, flags and couplets.

They are then covered with over 6,000 steamed buns stamped in red ink with the auspicious word "shou", meaning longevity, and sewn together with hemp string.

The towers were originally constructed in order to make an offering of the buns to the gods, who in return would help drive away evil spirits and protect the island.

At midnight on the last day of the festival, after all religious ceremonies and rituals had been performed, there would be an exciting scramble as people climbed the towers and made a grab for the "lucky" buns, which were said to bring protection and good fortune.

Unfortunately, a tower collapsed during the scramble in 1978, causing many injuries, and the practice was suspended. In the following years, buns were distributed to the participants in a safe and orderly fashion the next morning.

In 2005, the bun scramble was resumed in the form of a race in which athletes climb a metal tower erected at the site and grab "simulated" buns made of plastic.

Credit : History Museum of HK.

1.11 Traditional marriage customs and ceremonies

In past agrarian communities, weddings were usually held at the end of the year when farming activities had ceased. On the eve of the wedding, the couple would each conduct a "hair-combing" ceremony that symbolized their passage into adulthood.

The groom's family would engage a "good-life woman" (a woman who had enjoyed a long, prolific marriage) to perform a "bed-installing" fertility rite in the nuptial chamber.

As the wedding day drew close, the bride-to-be would live secluded in the loft of her parents' house and express her pre-marital anxieties through traditional songs.

On the wedding day, the bride would be carried to the groom's house in a decorated bridal sedan chair. During the wedding ceremony, the couple would kneel and bow first to heaven and earth, and then the groom's ancestors and parents.

A banquet would be held in the evening and the invited guests would become witnesses to the marriage.

Credit : History Museum of HK.

1.10 Pictures of traditions

Credit : History Museum of HK.

1.9 The anatomy of a Typhoon

A tropical cyclone is a rotating mass of warm humid air with the lowest pressure near its centre. Most tropical cyclones form between Latitudes 5 and 20 on both sides of the Equator.

With maximum winds exceeding 118 kilometers per hour, this phenomenon is called a typhoon in the western Pacific and the China Seas.

Hong Kong is most likely to be affected by typhoons in September, although typhoons of varyhing strength can occur at any time between May and November. On average, 24 typhoons develop each year over the western Pacific and the South China Sea.

Of these about six may come within 800 kilometers of Hong Kong. An average of one typhoon a years come close enough to bring severe winds, intense rainfall and tumultuous seas.

Credit : History Museum of HK.

1.8 Today's topography and climate

The total area of Hong Kong is 1,090 square km consisting Hong Kong Island, Kowloon Peninsula, the New Territories and approximately 260 Islands.

The topography of Hong Kong is very rugged with limited lowland. Mountain ranges run mostly from northeast to southwest with the highest point at Tai Mo Shan (957 meters).

Hong Kong has a monsoon climate, dominated by the seasonal alternation of wind direction and the resulting contrast in weather between winter and summer.

Temperature falls to a mean of 15.2°C in February but occasionally drops to just above freezing point. It rise to a mean maximum of 27.9°C in summer with extreme temperatures reaching the mid-30s. The mean annual rainfall is 2,214 mm, 70 per cent of which falls between May and September. Fog is common between February and April.

Credit : History Museum of HK.

1.7 Uplift

Uplift of the land took place during the Tertiary period from about 50 million years ago, and the erosion that followed began to shape today's landscape.

The climate was warm and humid, as it is today and weathering penetrated deep into the rock, forming soft clay and soil. This creates a problem today with the constant threat of landslides on weak and weathered slopes.

About two million years ago, in the Quaternary period, the Ice Ages began. As vast ice sheets spread from the Poles, the world sea level dropped considerably.

At the peak of the last major glaciation about 18,000 years ago, the sea level was 130 meters below its present level and coastline was 120 kilometers south of Hong Kong. New valleys were carved into the Hong Kong landscape during this time.

As the world's climate warmed and the ice sheets finally retreated, the sea level rose , following the new valleys to create Hong Kong's intricate coastline with its numerous bays, inlets, and about 260 islands.

Credit : History Museum of HK.

1.6 Shallow lake

From about 80 to 50 million years ago, in the late Cretaceous and early Tertiary, the climate became wetter and a broad shallow lake formed.

During each wet season, a thin layer of silt was deposited on the lake floor. Then in the dry season, as the lake evaporated, salts precipitated on the silt. These annual cycles appear today in the rocks on Ping Chau as countless thin layers of light and dark siltstone.

On the land surrounding the lake, a great variety of plants became established, along with many insects. Thus today the siltstone layers contain leaves, pollen, spores and insect fossils.

Many of the siltstone layers also display ripple marks formed by wave action in shallow water, and desiccation cracks formed when the lake dried out.

Credit : History Museum of HK.

1.5 Desert

About 100 million years ago, in the Cretaceous period, the Hong Kong region was a desert.

Rivers in the volcanic hinterland sometimes flooded out across the desert plain depositing layers of gravel, sand and mud.

These sediments are found today as layers of red rock in the northeast of Hong Kong, on Port Island and in the hills around Wu Kau Tang.

There are no fossils in these rocks probably because the region was dry and barren. Dinosaur remains have been found in Guangdong and some species may have roamed the fringes of the Hong Kong's Cretaceous desert.

Credit : History Museum of HK.

1.4 Volcanoes

From 164 to 140 million years ago, in the jurassic period, the area was shaken by numerous highly explosive volcanic eruptions. Sometimes tens of cubic kilometers of molten rock were blasted out in a single eruption.

Ground-hugging ash clouds then blanketed vast areas with hot ash.

Within the eruption crater the ash cooled slowly, forming tall, six-sided columns of rock such as those seen today on the Nine Pin Islands and at High Island Reservoir.

Rocks formed from ash and lava make up around 50 per cent of Hong Kong.

Molten rock that was not erupted to the surface cooled slowly at depth to form large bodies of granite. Uplift and erosion have exposed these coarse-grained rocks across 30 per cent of Hong Kong.

Credit : History Museum of HK.

1.3 Shallow sea

From about 290 million years ago, during the Permian period, a shallow sea spread across the region. Rivers draining the nearby land washed grey silt out onto the sea floor, and during stormy periods layers of sand were sometimes deposited over the silt.

As these sediments accumulated, shellfish and coral remains were sometimes buried within them.

After these sediments were buried and compacted, the layers were severely twisted and deformed by great forces within the Earth's crust.

Today these rocks are found in Tolo Harbour on Ma Shi Chau and Centre Island. Where we see them along the shore, the rock layers are often bent, buckled and split along faults.

Credit : History Museum of HK.

1.2 Tropical seashores and swamps

About 350 million years ago, in the early Carboniferous period, a shallow tropical sea covered the region. Shellfish and coral remains accumulated on the floor of this sea. When the sea level began to fall, lush vegetation became established in coastal swamps, while dead plant material accumulated on the muddy swamp floor.

Deep burial of these sediments turned the shelly sediment to limestone and the swamp sediment to siltstone. The plant material became coal. Later, heat and pressure within the Earth turned the limestone into marble, recrystallising and destroying the shellfish remains. The siltstone became schist and the coal became graphite.

Today, Hong Kong marble is only found underground, while schist containing graphite is found in the northwest of Hong Kong.

Credit : History Museum of HK.

1.1 Coastal river plain

About 400 million years ago, in the Devonian period, the Hong Kong region was covered by a large river flood plain. From mountains to the southeast, rivers washed sand and rounded pebbles of white quartz out onto the plain.

When floods occurred a layer of mud was spread across the land, providing a soil layer for primitive plants.

As the mountains were eroded, the sea began to cover part of the river plain. In the shallow water, shellfish and the remains of ancient fish called "Placoderms" were deposited in the marine mud.

Rocks from the Devonian period are found in Hong Kong today at Plover Cove, Bluff Head and along the northern shores of Tolo Channel.

Credit : History Museum of HK.

1.0 Prologue

Hong Kong is one of the world's busiest and most dynamic cities, where human influence on the landscape is highly visible.

Countless skyscrapers and high-rise apartments dominate the skyline and huge construction projects seem to be everywhere. However, these immediate impressions are insignificant compared with the dramatic work of Nature, especially when we turn back the clock through the vast amount of time since Hong Kong first began.

How long has Nature been at work on the natural setting of the Hong Kong region ? What changes in appearance have occurred over time ? To answer these questions, we will go back to the Hong Kong's beginnings and then lead us forward through the dramatic events that have marked her long history.

You will then be introduced to coral reef seashore communities, and finally be able to see the striking effects of climate on the city of Hong Kong.

Credit : History Museum of HK.