2 drops so far, each with the clues a player could have used.
What keeps coming up
Tall lit housing towers, Red-and-white roadside railings, Subtropical trees, big junction, Island-studded bay with marina, Tower blocks among hills and Silvergrass and evergreen scrub.
Easily confused with
Shenzhen, mainland China: Hong Kong drives on the left; mainland China drives on the right.
Singapore: Singapore housing blocks are usually shorter and more colourfully painted.
Northern Taiwan: Taiwan's coastal hills usually face open ocean, not crowded island bays.
Southern South Korea: Korean hills show pines, bare rock and browner deciduous trees.
Tall lit housing towers: Very tall, densely lit residential blocks behind low buildings strongly suggest Hong Kong's New Territories.
Red-and-white roadside railings: Painted barrier fencing along the pavement edge is typical Hong Kong street furniture.
Subtropical trees, big junction: Dense evergreen trees around a wide signal-controlled junction fit humid southern China.
Even with heavy glare and darkness, the skyline gives this away: those slender, heavily lit towers in the distance are the kind of mass housing estates found across Hong Kong's New Territories. That alone rules out most of mainland China's smaller cities and narrows things to a few dense Asian places. The painted railings fencing pedestrians off from the road, the busy crossing and thick subtropical greenery all fit. A habit worth keeping for Hong Kong rounds: look for traffic on the left, railings along kerbs, and very tall towers rising behind trees, since the New Territories mix hillside woodland with huge estates.
Easily confused with
Shenzhen, mainland China: Hong Kong drives on the left; mainland China drives on the right.
Singapore: Singapore housing blocks are usually shorter and more colourfully painted.
Remember: Towering lit housing blocks behind leafy roads usually mean Hong Kong.
Island-studded bay with marina: Steep green islands in a hazy sheltered bay full of boats suggest Hong Kong's coast.
Tower blocks among hills: Dense apartment towers squeezed beside wild hillsides are typical of Hong Kong's New Territories.
Silvergrass and evergreen scrub: Feathery silvergrass and thick evergreen woodland point to humid subtropical southern China.
The haze and the bay full of small steep islands jump out first, followed by the boats packed into a marina. That combination of tidy harbours, wild grassy ridges and clusters of tall apartment blocks hugging the lowland is very Hong Kong. The vegetation is evergreen and lush, with feathery silvergrass on the ridge, which rules out temperate East Asia like Korea or most of Japan. Hong Kong is roughly three-quarters countryside, so many photos there show hiking trails and country parks rather than streets. Remember that its lowlands are crammed with high-rises while the hills stay untouched, and hazy horizons are common through much of the year.
Easily confused with
Northern Taiwan: Taiwan's coastal hills usually face open ocean, not crowded island bays.
Southern South Korea: Korean hills show pines, bare rock and browner deciduous trees.
Remember: Hazy green islands plus towers beside wild hills usually means Hong Kong.
dropzone
12
