Faces of Hong Kong: A Contest and a Book

(Postscript: Just got a news from the organiser of the Faces of Hong Kong photo contest (for HK residents only) that they now extend the contest to close on 20 June 2010. Participants can submit two entries instead of just one.)

While the Faces of Hong Kong photo contest, which closes at midnight today, is exclusively for Hong Kong residents to take part in, the book depicting another face of Hong Kong titled "Hong Kong Nature Landscapes" is for all lovers of Hong Kong spectacular hiking trails and aspiring landscape photographers.

The author and photographer, Edward Stokes, grew up in Hong Kong and returned in 1993, to work on projects about the natural landscape. He began with Hong Kong's wild places and criss-crossed them until 2003. The unique aspect about Hong Kong's country parks is not just that most of them border between thick woods and blue oceans, but more notably that they comprises 40% of Hong Kong's land. In comparison, the United States, for example, has designated only 3% to 4% of the country's land area for country parks.

The easy accessibility of Hong Kong's country parks is a great plus too. They are mostly within an hour ride by public transport.

This is a book I can easily recommend. You may check it out here and here. A reader gave his review on Amazon which I appended below. The author will give a club launch (lunch hour) at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Hong Kong.

Veteran Ed Stokes has come out with this fascinating collection of his pictures takes over the years, showing the Hong Kong natural landscape at its best. Apart from giving reasons why he took these pictures he also shares the technical details with the readers. In my 20+ years of hiking in HKG I have covered all these places, but seldom have I seen such beauty first hand. It is a testament to Ed's tenacity and hard work that he has chosen the best season, time of the day and vantage point to create these beautiful pictures.

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