Travel to Hong Kong

Enjoy 360 degree views of Hong Kong's famous skyline with the wind softly ruffling your hair. Moving at an easy pace in the tranquil waters of Hong Kong Island, it is best enjoyed on a on a sunny day, where you can view the multi hued sun setting or the extraordinary spectacle of the light show that Hong Kong is popular for. At night, sip on a chilled champagne or a favorite cocktail. Cruise off Lamma Island, Lei Yu Mun or Po Toi and sample a traditional Chinese sea food dinner. All this is possible aboard the Duk Ling, an authentic Chinese vessel, carefully restored to its original condition.

Currently plying the water of Hong Kong bay, it offers the only opportunity of sailing in a Chinese vessel used by fisher folk 150 years ago. The experience of sailing in an authentic piece of Hong Kong's history is a very powerful and unique experience. Sailing past many of Hong Kong's iconic buildings with the red sails of the boat in the foreground and Victoria Peak in the background indeed makes a very pretty picture and offers many photo opportunities.

As it is one of a kind experience, the Duk Ling is hired by corporate and commercial entities and individuals on tailor made, even themed packages suited to their needs in terms of destinations, routes and catering. The Duk Ling can be also hired as a wedding venue and has been featured in several movies.

Used by the Hong Kong Tourist Board as a cultural symbol, the Duk Ling sails from the Kowloon public pier, Tsim Sha Sui and from the Central Pier 9 on short journeys on Thursday afternoons and Saturday mornings, noon and afternoons. Cruises on the vessel can last for two and a half to four hours. Although the boat is not luxurious and the boat trips are often short, it offers relaxing moments away from the frenetic pace of Hong Kong and Kowloon. The only sounds that can be heard out on the water are the voices of other passengers, the wind, the waves and the ambient sounds of the harbour.

As one of the recent awardees of the Travelers Choice, Top Twenty Five Hotels in Hong Kong by Trip Advisor, the Langham Hong Kong exudes a European style elegance and offers amenities and service befitting a top level luxury hotel in Hong Kong. As one of the leading luxury Hong Kong hotels, the Langham pays meticulous attention to ensuring that its accommodation is impeccable. Its ambience is of quiet sophistication, its cuisine outstanding and facilities modern and up to date. Its central location places it close to all the main commercial, cultural and entertainment areas of Hong Kong and Kowloon.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/destinations-articles/adventures-in-a-chinese-junk-duk-ling-ride-hong-kong-4617202.html

Pushpitha Wijesinghe is an experienced independent freelance writer. He specializes in providing a wide variety of content and articles related to the travel hospitality industry.

Hong Kong boasts a rich heritage and a colourful history which has shaped its society in to the multicultural melting pot it is today. A great way to experience this is to visit the Hong Kong Museum of History which offers one a chance to learn about the country's historical, cultural and natural heritage in a fun and informative manner.

Initially a part of the City Museum and Art Gallery, the Hong Kong Museum of History came into existence as a single entity in 1975 along with the Hong Kong Museum of Art. While it was temporarily located in Kowloon Park, it was later moved to its permanent home on Chatham Road South where it stands today ideally placed next to the Hong Kong Science Museum.

With a collective floor space of around 17,500 square metres, the Hong Kong Museum of History has an extensive permanent exhibition and also hosts special temporary exhibitions at different times of the year. Titled "The Hong Kong Story", the permanent exhibition is spread out over two floors and is divided into eight separate galleries with a wide range of exhibits and multimedia features that take visitors on a journey back in time, showcasing the changing faces of this cosmopolitan country.

Galleries in the permanent exhibition include ‘The Natural Environment', ‘Prehistoric Hong Kong', ‘Folk Culture in Hong Kong', ‘Birth and Early Growth of The City', ‘Modern Metropolis and the Return to China' and ‘The Japanese Occupation' which has been made to look like an air-raid shelter.

Also at the museum one will find an extensive collection of items that have been carefully amassed over a significant period of time. Home to over 90,000 items, the collection has been divided into three separate sections namely ‘Natural History' which has a variety of rock, shell and animal specimens, ‘Local History' with its impressive collection of photographs and ‘Ethnography' which has such items as traditional costumes and junk models.

Travellers will find many a Hong Kong hotel from which to explore different parts of this cosmopolitan city. Those searching for a centrally located Hong Kong Kowloon hotel can stay at The Peninsula Hong Kong which is only about a 15 minute walk from the Hong Kong Museum of History.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/travel-tips-articles/the-changing-faces-of-a-nation-at-the-hong-kong-museum-of-history-5027432.html

Pushpitha Wijesinghe is an experienced independent freelance writer. He specializes in providing a wide variety of content and articles related to the travel hospitality industry.

Hong Kong is the Asian gateway to global business. As a special administrative region of China, entrepreneurs and investors flock to Hong Kong Company Formation as an investment strategy and to set up businesses because of its strategic location, stable political economy, and superior incentives for business operations.

Ranked as Asia's most competitive location to do business, according to the World Competitiveness Yearbook 2011, it is also the third-largest recipient of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the world, per UNCTAD's 2011 report recently released. This high influx of FDI can be partly attributed to the following factors.

i. Stategic location: Centrally located and bearing excellent ports, airports and docks, Hong Kong gives investors direct access to international networks and resources. Considered to be the gateway to China, it boasts a free economy and multi-national business environment that provides an essential link to China's economy which is a lead driver in today's business.

ii. Low-tax: Hong Kong is known to have the third-lowest tax structure in the world. While there is no tax on sales, no capital gains tax, and no individual estate tax. Corporate tax is capped at 16.5% and income tax at a lower 15%. Investors further benefit from tax laws, which allow all profits to be repatriated, as there is no withholding tax on dividends remitted abroad.

iii. World manufacturing hub: Access to the Pearl River Delta, the world's largest manufacturing region and the most economically developed region in mainland China, this region acconts for 10% of China's GDP and approximately 30% of China's exports. Not only do investors benefit from capital, skills, technology, market knowledge and mature business facilties, but also from the low-cost manufacturing and valueable cost-cutting processes.

iv. Free Trade Agreements: The Closer Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) grants easier access to mainland China and enables duty-free export, reducing financial and ownership restrictions. This is only one of many FTAs Hong Kong holds with the rest of the world.

v. Liberal immigration policies: These have been designed to attract professionals including entrepreneurs and investors. They are four different and flexible kinds of visas that foreigners may choose from; and family-friendly where the investor's spouse and dependent children are also welcomed.

Investors appreciate that there are no foreign ownership restrictions with Hong Kong company formation , with company directors not needing to be resident. There is no minimum for capital requirements and credit is more easliy available than in other economies. Hong Kong company set up time varies from 1-4 days. Opening a Hong Kong corporate bank account costs vary, but are quite low and can be opened for US$260. Investors feel safe conducting business in Hong Kong which provides the highest level of protection in the world for its investors and strictly enforces contracts.

A complete view of the ease of business can be seen in this Hong Kong Company Registration Guide.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/business-opportunities-articles/investors-look-to-hong-kong-asias-most-competitive-zone-5159531.html

Lawrence is a management and marketing consultant with a broad range of experience in providing corporate services, specialising in company incorporation, international banking and effective tax planning.

Firstly of all, Hong Kong has announced that it is looking at the company incorporation procedure in the city and make it more automated and streamlined. The overall aim is to drastically reduce the number of days it takes to setup a company in the city. Currently it takes about a week for a foreign company to complete their incorporation procedure in Hong Kong. However, if the new plan is implemented, it would take only a day for the entire procedure to be complete and companies can commence their business operations immediately.

Of course lately the most exciting developments in the city have all been related to Mainland China. Even though Hong Kong is an administrative region of the People's Republic of China, it is quite clear that Hong Kong will play an extremely important role for China in its quest to become the most important and largest economy in the world. Already several foreign companies that plan to enter the Chinese market prefer setting up their company in Hong Kong and use their Hong Kong Company for their Chinese business activities. Apart from that, China has been working overtime to convert Hong Kong into the most important financial center in the world. There have been announcements earlier this year about creation of an offshore spot Yuan fixing rate in Hong Kong. Many believe this is the first step in letting the Chinese Yuan becoming the most important global currency and has brought a lot of excitement to traders and investors in the city.

Hong Kong's own economy has been doing quite well and as per the latest world economic competitiveness rankings, Hong Kong is at the 11th position. Singapore is the only country from Asia that is ranked above Hong Kong in the global economic competitive rankings and Hong Kong is expected to go up the ladder in the future as many of the European economies would slide below Hong Kong. There are also talks about few major companies from Europe and US shifting their base to the city to take advantage of the pro-business policies and liberal taxation regime of Hong Kong.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/entrepreneurship-articles/recent-economic-developments-in-hong-kong-5248232.html

Bryan Wong is a business analyst in the Asia-Pacific region and in his free time writes business articles. In this article, Bryan talks about HK company registration and Hong Kong company registration services.

Spread across an area of 1,092 square kilometers, Hong Kong is the Special Administrative Region of China. Apart from being a hot tourist destination, Hong Kong is also an economic as well as trade center.



Due to its excellent legal and banking systems, many overseas business firms have made Hong Kong as their regional headquarters. This in turn has tremendously increased the demand for Hong Kong's commercial real estate, including office spaces, shopping malls, and retail stores.



The worldwide demand for commercial spaces also comes from arenas including law firms, financial institutions, and accountants. In addition to overseas investors, a growing number of mainland companies are also taking up office spaces in Hong Kong. In short, commercial real estate in Hong Kong has now turned out to be a demand-driven scenario. As a result, in recent years, the sale price of commercial property has been pushed up. Further, the rents charged on commercial real estate are exceptionally high, ranging from HK$22 to HK$105 per square foot per month.



Investing in commercial real estate in Hong Kong provides great benefits to investors. One of the prime benefits of investing in a Hong Kong commercial property is that it provides you access to one of the world's established markets. Another great benefit of investing in a commercial property is that not any kind of restrictions have been imposed on international investors to buy a property or asset. Further, purchasing a commercial real estate in Hong Kong is considered one of the best options for long term investment, as it can undoubtedly fetch you huge profits by way of renting and leasing.



Above all, the laws and regulations in connection with the process of buying commercial real estate are quite simple and liberal. Once you have found an appropriate property, an Agreement of Sale and Purchase would be signed between the property owner and investor, and this completes the sale procedure.



The buying processes related to the purchase of commercial property in Hong Kong are administered by the Conveyancing and Ordinance, which is structured in the form of English Law. In other words, the real estate law of Hong Kong is akin to one found in the UK, which in turn has attracted many American and British commercial real estate investors.



One of the unique things regarding the Hong Kong Property Law is that all of the land found here belongs to government, ie, each of the real estate in Hong Kong is held under leasehold title. Hence, those who are interested in property investment buy an agreement or a lease for a period ranging from 50 to 999 years.



A real estate or property in Hong Kong can be either solely owned by one person or through jointly by several investors. However, joint investment may be usually in the form of tenant or a joint tenancy. Further, a property can also be owned through a company structure. But, in case, if a company would like to conduct its business through the purchase of a property on lease, then it should be registered with the Hong Kong Companies Registry. In addition, every type of lease should be listed at the Hong Kong' Land Registry.



A plethora of real estate firms now operate in Hong Kong in order to help you find your dream commercial property. In other words, commercial real estate is one of core businesses of many real estate companies in Hong Kong. They offer a continuum of services in connection with the commercial real estate, such as, sale of commercial as well as retail property, office leasing, retail leasing, leasing and sales of industrial property, sale and acquisition of development sites, leasing and management of shopping centers, and asset management with regard to commercial, retail, and industrial.



Additionally, majority of them provide the services of professional lawyers to help you in effectively carrying out buying procedures, such as tax matters, Hong Kong Companies Registry, and negotiation of purchase. In addition, there are also real estate firms providing steps to arrange mortgages for the purchase of commercial property. But, prior to approaching a service provider, it is important to undertake an investigation with regard to their reputation and the quality as well as efficiency of service rendered.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/non-fiction-articles/commercial-real-estate-in-hong-kong-234784.html

Wantanee Khamkongkaew is an independent author evaluating and commenting on leading International Property Consultants in Asia and Greater China, especially CB Richard Ellis.