That's five times faster than the average airplane, which travels at 575 miles per hour!

Other minerals can be combined with sand, lime, and soda ash to produce different colored glass. Adding nickel oxide, for example, results in the violet glass.

You may be aware that the Chinese word for Hong Kong is 'fragrant harbor.' But did you know that when you say 'Kowloon,' you're actually pronouncing 'nine dragons'? According to legend, a youthful emperor spotted the area's eight hills and christened it "eight dragons." Later, a servant reminded the emperor that he, too, is a dragon, bringing the total to nine. In Cantonese, Kow sounds like 'gau' or 'nine,' while Loon sounds like 'lung' or 'long,' both of which signify dragon.

Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom penned this in 1841, following the British takeover of Hong Kong. Possession Point, where the British first raised the Union Jack, was known as Tai Hang Hau, or 'great puddle.' It was accumulating water directly on the island's shoreline. Today, the site is known as Hollywood Road Park. 

The Ritz-Carlton occupies the 118th level of Hong Kong's tallest building, the International Commerce Centre (ICC), and contains the world's highest outdoor bar and swimming pool.

The typhoon season lasts from May to November, and Hong Kong has a very effective infrastructure in place to deal with these intense tropical storms. A T1 signal implies that a storm is on its way. Then a T3 indicates that the storm intensifies, so schoolchildren and the elderly should stay home. Winds up to 180km/h swirl across the city during a T8 or T10, closing businesses and public transportation.

Donald Davies, a computer pioneer, helped pave the path for the birth of the internet by inventing packet-switched networking. (In addition, fellow Briton Sir Tim Berners-Lee created the World Wide Web.)

Glass, contrary to popular belief, is not a solid... liquid... or gas. Glass cools to form a "amorphous solid," which allows molecules within the glass to continue moving.

The Mona Lisa, arguably one of the most famous paintings in the world, is regarded as an Italian Renaissance masterpiece. The painting, widely assumed to be that of Italian noblewoman Lisa Gherardini, is thought to have been created between 1503 and 1506 and possibly as late as 1517. With an insurance valuation of more than $870 million, it is one of the most valuable paintings in the world.

The Last Supper, another masterpiece by Leonardo da Vinci, is a late 15th-century mural painting depicting Jesus' last supper with his apostles. He created the artwork between 1495 and 1496 with the intention of depicting the exact moment after Jesus reveals that one of his friends will betray him.Specifically, the apostles' expressions of rage and shock. Despite being one of the world's largest and most famous paintings, you won't be able to see it in a museum. It has a permanent residence in a convent in Milan, Italy.

The Two Fridas is a double self-portrait in oil of two versions of Frida Kahlo seated together. One is dressed in a white European-style Victorian gown, while the other is dressed in a traditional Tehuana gown. After divorcing her husband, fellow artist Diego Rivera, Kahlo created the artwork in 1939. (whom she would later remarry). Many art historians believe that the two figures in the painting represent Frida's dual heritage: her German father and Mexican mother.

M. Night Shyamalan comes from a family of doctors. He was expected to be one as well, but he fell in love with film at a young age. As a tribute to his family, he appeared as a doctor in The Sixth Sense.

"We'd take a meat cleaver and wedge into it so you'd get the impact and a bit of the goo... cracked walnuts work for a neck twist," The Evil Dead's Bruce Campbell explained.

When hot lava cools quickly after being expelled from a volcano, it can form obsidian, a type of natural glass.

Experts believe the Portland Vase was created in Rome between AD 5 and AD 25. The Vase is currently housed in the British Museum and has been there for over 200 years.

People used to make windows out of flattened animal horns before that.

Glass can naturally form when sand is struck by lightning due to high temperatures.

Glass is made by heating sand, lime, and soda ash at extremely high temperatures. Glass is formed when the liquid mixture cools down.

A treaty was drafted between the two countries in 1898, leasing Hong Kong to Britain for 99 years. As a result, Hong Kong became a Chinese Special Administrative Region on July 1, 1997.

During the First Opium War in 1841, British forces controlled Hong Kong Island. Following China's loss, the Qing Dynasty gave over Hong Kong to the United Kingdom in 1842 through the Nanjing Treaty.

Don't be concerned if your apartment building lacks the fourth level. The number four is frequently omitted because it sounds like the word 'death' in Chinese, making it an unlucky number. The lucky number eight, on the other hand, indicates wealth.

St. David's in Pembrokeshire is the world's smallest cathedral city, with a population of only 2,000 people. It is also the only city in the United Kingdom that is totally surrounded by a national park.

Professor Charles Kao of Hong Kong is known as the "Father of Fiber Optics," the glass cables that have drastically revolutionised the way humans communicate. He also received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2009.

With a total wealth of $280 billion, the city-state ranks seventh on the list of countries with the most billionaires. However, when it comes to cities with the most billionaires, Hong Kong comes in second. (From Asia Tatler)