Incense coils, Man Mo Temple, Hong Kong
With this lovely picture of what must be a most fragrant temple, we begin our last stop in the Asian stretch of the public domain pictures of the world series taken from the nations’ pages in the CIA World Factbook.
Hong Kong
Leal Senado (Loyal Senate) building [right], Senate Square, Macau
Macau is. like Hong Kong, a “special administrative region of China.” The CIA Factbook explains:
Colonized by the Portuguese in the 16th century, Macau was the first European settlement in the Far East. Pursuant to an agreement signed by China and Portugal on 13 April 1987, Macau became the Macau Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People’s Republic of China on 20 December 1999. In this agreement, China promised that, under its “one country, two systems” formula, China’s socialist economic system would not be practiced in Macau, and that Macau would enjoy a high degree of autonomy in all matters except foreign and defense affairs for the next 50 years.
Location of Macau is marked with a dot on the regional map.
The Chocolate Hills: A few of the nearly 1,300 cone-shaped hills found in a 50 square kilometer area near Bohol, Philippines
The “Bridge of No Return” in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea used for prisoner exchanges when Korean War ended.
Gyeongbokgung royal palace, Seoul, South Korea
Mount Fuji, Japan
Imperial Palace and Nijubashi Bridge, Tokyo, Japan
