You can walk from Zurich to Rome in just over 1 hour. That is 'Zurich Avenue' and 'Crescendo Roma Viale' in Hong Kong (according to Google Maps it will take you 195 hours to walk from Zurich, Switzerland to Rome, Italy).
Rome and Zurich are not the only world locations which feature in the street names of Hong Kong. According to Asia’s World City: Around the World in One Day through Hong Kong's Street Names there are hundreds of locations in Hong Kong named for overseas locations. In this exploration of Hong Kong's street names designer Diana Pang has taken a deep dive into the history of Hong Kong's streets.
As a former British colony you will probably not be surprised to learn that lots of locations in Hong Kong are named after places in the UK. Hong Kong's historical importance as a major trading hub has also had an impact on many of the city's street names. Hong Kong's close trading ties in the 19th century with Indochina, can still be observed in street names which reference towns in Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Japan.
You can explore the influence of world geography on Hong Kong's streets in two interactive maps in Diana's article. One map uses polylines to connect Hong Streets to their namesake origins around the world. The other map uses colored dots to show all of the Hong Streets named for overseas locations, with the color of the dots representing different countries. Click on a marker on the map and you can learn a little more about that individual street's etymology.
No comments:
Post a Comment