Viewing The World from The Peak

The Peak in Hong Kong is actually called Victoria Peak. It is located in Hong Kong and it's not the tallest structure in Hong Kong, but it stands at one thousand eight hundred eleven feet above sea level. There are sections of the mountain that are exclusively for tourist sightseeing while there is another part of the mount that is just meant for a privately owned radio company.

Hong Kong The Peak Tower

The Peak actually started off as a residential area for rich and wealthy people. That phase of the Peak was started by the Governor of the time, Sir Richard Macdonnell who built his summer home there around 1868. Other rich people who wanted to get away from the intense summer heat followed his example and built houses on the Mountain. The residential phase of the peak roughly ended after a forty something year long time period. At the time a tram had been made so those residents used sedan chairs to go up and down the mountain. The tram routes were in consideration and development to operate on the mountain in the year 1881. With the tram constructed and built, The Peak quickly became a popular tour site with the panoramic view of the city. The view is really breathtaking. You literally can over see the whole city and the tall buildings are so small it looks like they are toys or figurines. 

Tram Train Hong Kong

The Peak Hotel opened in 1873 but with little people wanting to hike to it business was slowly becoming bad. In 1882 the company assigned to building the tram called Hong Kong High Level Tramway Company was born. At first the trams were made of really cheap and unsafe materials like varnished timber and there were a lot of openings throughout the tram so people could have easily fallen off. Due to its massive popularity, on the first day the tram had around six hundred people riding it! In 1926, operators of the Tram switched from the coal engines to an electric powered. During World War II, when Japan took over Hong Kong, The Tram engines took a heavy blow and so it was out of commission until 1945 when it started to work again. A lot of work and money was put into the Tram system to make it what it is now today. The Trams were really packed the few times I've been there, I guess it helps proves to me that this site is really popular and famous since so many people know of it and would go visit it even on weekdays when people should be at work.

HK The Peak

 Every year around seven million people come visit The Peak and explore its fascinating wonders and tour the site for more memories. This tourist attraction is easily known as the famous major tourist attraction in Hong Kong along with Disneyland and Ocean Park. I myself have gone to this wonder several times when I visited Hong Kong to see my family. I was really amazed when we got to the top and when I looked down at the view. It was really breathtaking. I really encourage people who had never been to Hong Kong, to go and definitely visit this beautifully made scenery. I haven’t been back to Hong Kong in a while so I hope next time I go back and visit this place, it will be even more beautiful and breathtaking than I remembered it was!

Towering Over France

The Eiffel Tower is truly an amazing site! People instantly think of The Eiffel Tower when France is brought up into the conversation. It is the most iconic symbol in all of France. It has beautiful scenery and is admired all around the world. It was the world's tallest building until the American's built the Chrysler Building in New York. As of now it rises again to be taller than that of the Chrysler Building with the antenna added on.  The tower itself is at least 1050 feet tall! People in France can see it miles and miles away since it stuck out like a sore thumb.

Maurice koechlin pylone

The Eiffel Tower was first designed by Maurice Koechlin and Emile Nouguier around 1884 to be used as a display for the 1889 Exposition Universelle. The first designs showed nothing like the final product we have now in France. It was really plain and dull until other architects and designers little by little added on to the design to make it so perfect. Building the actual tower took three years after the design was finalized until the new president for the engineering group was elected and determined how much they could actually spend on building. The tower itself took at least two years to complete! In 1887 they started on the base of it and slowly worked their way up to the top. Three hundred workers had worked on building this masterpiece! With all the safety precautions the head engineers did, only one person was unfortunately killed during the tower's building phase. I am quite relieved that not many casualties happened building this wonderful tower other wise it wouldn't have been worth it if too many people died working on the tower.

Stages of Construction 1887 through 1889

  Construction of the Eiffel Tower

The tower has gone through some hard times and some happy times in history. Many famous people have visited the tower including Thomas Edison, Adolf Hitler, and a pilot who died trying to fly a plane under the Tower named Leon Collet. It also has been damaged a lot throughout time with the Second World War, and some natural disasters like fire and burning. To be honest, I am glad this tower has gone through so much because I believe this tower is more memorable with all this past events. 

Eiffel-Tower-Paris

Now here are some fun facts about the tower after all that boring history  and what not. The Eiffel Tower is the most popular paid site in the world with over 250,000,000 people visiting it since its completion. There are only two restaurants throughout the whole site. One is named Le 58 Tour Eiffel and Le Jules Verne. One is located on the first floor while the other one is settled on the second floor. Because of the well known reputation of The Eiffel Tower, many people around the world want a copy of the tower for their for their city as an attraction. People also take advantage of its reputation by showing it in the media for television shows or in video games. In 1980s, there were talks about moving the tower for another expo, but that proposal ultimately failed because of trust issues. It is said that this original tower has been reproduced in other cities little miniature ones over thirty times! The Eiffel Tower now has lost its name of tallest structure in the world due to more and more taller buildings are being built. This tower has impressed me a lot because of its history and of its beauty as an architecture. I really want to go visit it because I love seeing beautiful buildings and scenery and this place has both so I just have to see it with my own eyes.