1. Description of Our Community
Hong Kong is perched on the south-east coast of China. With its magnificent harbour, steep peaks and surrounding islands, Hong Kong is a geographically interesting city. The territory is divided into four main areas -- Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, the New Territories and the outlying islands. In 1997, Hong Kong was returned to the embrace of our motherland, China and became Special Administrative Region. Hong Kong has always been internationally known as Gourmet Paradise. It is a melting pot of the East and the West. Almost all the different styles of Chinese cooking are represented here.
The history of food is elaborated in this project. Much traditional food is adapted and modified by the later-on generations. Therefore, the food develops a Hong Kong taste that can only be tasted here.
By looking into different stories of food, we find that Hong Kong people are very hard-working. They did not give up easily even during the 40’s and 50’s when Hong Kong’s economy was sluggish. We think that Hong Kong people can still face the hardship nowadays.
2. Summary of Our Project
The frenetic pace and long hours of working life in Hong Kong make eating out a necessity for many people. Therefore, it is not strange to find restaurants crammed with customers. Six special types of restaurants will be illustrated, namely, Chinese restaurants, tea bistros, Dai Pai Dong, cart noodle shops, herbal tea shops and congee shops. The stories behind these food shops, undoubtedly, give the older generation sweet memories.
We will also take an insight into Hong Kong’s style cuisine. In the second section, street snacks, dim sum, festival food, preserved food, barbecued food and other specialties will be elaborated. As a quick and easy reference, each food is rated by our members on the degree of attractiveness. The ratings are shown as stars above each comment. Up to 5 stars will be awarded.
Interviews with four foreigners are included. They were asked about their opinions on food in Hong Kong.
A bulletin board system is also included. Any questions and comments about Hong Kong’s food and our website are welcome. Photos of the team members and our teachers are put in the website. We also share our reflections on doing this project.
3. Our Computer and Internet Access
A. Percentage of students using the Internet at home:more than 50%
B. Number of workstations with Internet access in the classroom:1
C. Connection speed used in the classroom:dedicated connection
D. Number of years our classroom has been connected to the Internet:2-3
E. Additional comments concerning your computer and/or Internet access (Optional):
There are more than 300 computers in school, mainly resided in special rooms such as the library, computer laboratories, language laboratory and D & T room, etc. There are two 6 Mbps Internet connection lines in the school which are in the ADSL technology. We are going to change the connection lines into two 10 Mbps Ethernet technology so that both the upstream and the downstream connections can be enhanced.
The website will be held in the school Web server which runs in Microsoft IIS.
4. Problems We Had To Overcome
There are several problems we had to overcome. First is searching for information. We went to Kowloon City to take photos of various street foods. While many shop owners were very nice to help us, a few of them were not friendly.
As students in a Chinese-medium school, we do not have a great mastery of English. At first, we were quite worried to enter this competition as English is the language we had to use. The two group members who are better at the language help the script writing. Besides, we got help from the teachers and our friends at the editorial work. We also find it hard to translate some Chinese terms into English. Library books can give use some clues.
Time is also a great problem. We were told to do the project last October, which means that we got only six months to finish the website. We seized every opportunity to do the project. So, we went back to school during the Christmas and Chinese New Year holidays. Even though many members went to visit their relatives during the New Year holiday, those who are free also went to school.
Workload from school is quite heavy. We have great pressure from study. We still need to finish other homework and assignments during the holidays. Some sacrifice could not be avoided.
5. Our Project Sound Bite
Hong Kong offers a great variety of excellent cuisine to tempt every taste and please every palate. We hope that the completion of this web page can let people appreciate the food.
6. How did your activities and research for this CyberFair Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?
Hong Kong is a charming city where the choice of culinary indulgence is limited only by imagination and the inclination. As a part of tourism campaign, “The Best of the Best Culinary Awards” is organized by the Hong Kong Tourism Board annually to identify the examples of Hong Kong’s classic and representative dishes. The prize-winning dishes and details of the winning restaurants will be published and available locally and internationally. Our website is in line with that. By showing people the delicious Hong Kong food in the website, we would like help further expand Hong Kong’s international reputation as a paradise for food lovers.
This project is similar to what we usually do at school. Apart from doing worksheets, workbooks and other drilling exercises, we are also required to do cross-curriculum projects.
We learnt how to work as a team. We trust, rely on and tolerate with one other. In order to make the project successful, team spirit is very important. We also find that our interpersonal skills are improved. Apart from the knowledge we get from the textbook, we also need to acquire these social skills which are useful to us.
Besides, we have acquired new IT skills, for example, Dreamweaver and Flash.
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