Hong Kong, from "barren rock" to international mega-metropolis in just 150 years. There is no other achievement to match it. Hong Kong, the city state, a modern day counterpart of Marco Polo's Venice, a city founded on trade. Small, densely populated, with few natural advantages except an ideal geographical location and an excellent harbour. A city which has rapidly passed through all the stages of economic industrialization and urbanization — from the manufacture of cheap, low quality goods to high tech, value added products and, more importantly, to the development of an increasingly significant tertiary sector. It lives on the edge between East and West and its future is directly linked to China's economic and political development.Distributed (and Produced) for Anthony Walker; sold under HKUP imprint