Hong Kong is a city like no other. It's the place where the most modern skyscrapers stand tall next to historic temples. It's the place where east meets west in an interesting clash of civilizations. These singularities about Hong Kong have also attracted filmmakers interested in capturing the city's spirit. Here are some of the most notable films set in Hong Kong:

Directed by Johnny Mak,

Long Arm of the Law (1984)

was a marvelous pre-cursor to the explosive crime thrillers of John Woo and Ringo Lam. Famous for its quote "We'll act in unison from now on. All for one, right?" the film follows Red Guards-turned-armed robbers through the sharp end of these Mainlanders' dreams of making a fortune in the more "modernised" Hong Kong. With memorable scenes ranging from a helicopter ambush to a gunpoint standoff, the film reaches its climax with a shootout inside the claustrophobic Kowloon Walled City.

Election 2 also tops the list with its famous quote "I can also make you a deal. I can also be a patriot." Directed by Johnnie To, the film shows an intrinsic interest in the triad society's origins. The political satire shows the power struggles surrounding the biannual voting process at the top of "Hong Kong's oldest triad." The film mocks simplistic capitalist ideals and aspirations in the very same stroke.

The Private Eyes, directed by Michael Hui and released in 1979, impresses the audience at once with its wordless opening credit sequence showing only the characters' feet. The comedy is known for many quotes, including:

"Eating too much will cause hemorrhoids, don't you know? Name one person with hemorrhoids who doesn't eat."

"I said when I died, that I'd come back. If you believe in ghosts, you're on the right track. I'm out of the grave, and roaming the moores. If you want to be safe, you better lock all the windows and screens."

"In this house, it's hard to survive. Some'll be dead, who are now alive. Mr. Uwatsum is gone, ‘cause he knew too much. Bye for now, but rest assured we'll keep in constant contact with each other."

"Sucked the brains clean out of a pig."

"You know who you are? You're the two idiots what got your picture in the newspaper.

The characters include a cheeky boss ready to exploit his employees, a kung-fu fighting apprentice and a stupid assistant who will test a bomb for him, literally. The comedy includes Bruce-Lee inspired fight scene with flour and sausages.

The Arch is the first feature by Cecile Tang, one of the extremely few woman filmmakers then working in Hong Kong. This legendary film, released in 1969, is one of the most significant classics in film history despite its limited distribution. The film tells the story of Madam Tung, a dignified middled-aged widow soon to be honored by the emperor for her chastity. Meanwhile, she is tormented by her suppressed desire for a cavalry captain stayer at her aristocratic residence. The main character meets her misery when the captain turn his attention to her young daughter. A famous quote from this film is "We can't take the plums home."

With an intoxicating cultural clash like no other, Hong Kong is a unique city and this special character about the city has seduced many notable writers who have attempted to convey this distinctive character. Taking into account its complex history and evolving present, these works of both fiction and non-fiction focus on Hong Kong and are a means to understanding this city in constant evolution. Kowloon Tong is a novel by Paul Theroux about Neville "Bunt" Mullard, an English mummy's boy born and raised in Hong Kong. The story is set in the days leading up to the handover to China of Hong Kong from the British.

One of the most outstanding authors that have attempted to capture the essence on this city in his writing is Paul Theroux. In fact, the novelist said that "When I went to Hong Kong, I knew at once I wanted to write a story set there." His book Kowloon Tong: A Novel of Hong Kong, published in 1997, depicts the city on the cusp of the most dramatic event in its history, the 1997 handover to China. Today, the book remains a powerful exploration of the ambivalence felt by most citizens towards this epoch defining event. Ninety-nine years of colonial history are about to meet its end and the time has come for the east and west to finally meet.

The book tells the story of a family of English expats who have settled in Hong Kong and become entangled in a mysterious web of crime, deceit and betrayal due to their involvement with the shady Chinese businessman Mr Hung. The main character Neville ‘Bunt' Mullard is symbolic of the confusion of identities Hong Kong citizens inherit, and leads a double life as he winds his way through the crowded city. Theroux's novel captures the sense of anxiety and menace that encapsulated Hong Kong at the time, and the complex spectrum of economic, social and historical issues which the city faced before returning to Chinese control.

"Albion Cottage was off Lugard Road, on a bluff above the Peak fire station. The fire brigade was inside today with the windows and doors shut. Everything in the bungalow on a morning like this had a film of dampness and the dampness seemed to live in the mildew and gave the interior the ripe cheesy odor of a mortuary... Yet on a clear morning, like a hallucination from the east-facing windows, where heavy with blackflies and aphids there were nasturtiums tumbling from a window box, Betty could see China - red China, as they used to call it. Shum Chun was an hour by train from the factory in Kowloon Tong across the harbor."

Paul Edward Theroux is an American travel writer and novelist, whose best known work is The Great Railway Bazaar (1975), a travelogue about a trip he made by train from Great Britain through Western and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, through South Asia, then South-East Asia, up through East Asia, as far east as Japan, and then back across Russia to his point of origin. Although perhaps best known as a travel writer, Theroux has also published numerous works of fiction, some of which were made into feature films. He was awarded the 1981 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel The Mosquito Coast.

From Paul Theroux to Jan Morris, famous authors from all walks of life have been fascinated by the vibrant city of Hong Kong and have chosen the island as the setting for their successful books. Here are the books that have best captured Hong Kong's in all its colorful and vibrant glory.

The first one to be mentioned is Jan Morris' book "Hong Kong" which was published back in 1997. The author explores Hong Kong's complex past, present and future in 1997, during the last days Hong Kong was under the British rule. In 1984, the British and Chinese governments signed the Sino-British Joint Declaration which stated that the sovereignty of Hong Kong should enjoy a "high degree of autonomy" under the "One Country, Two Systems" principle.

One of the famous passages of the book reads as follows:

"It is more than a city actually, being an archipelago of some 235 rocks and islands attendant upon a squat mountainous peninsula. Humped or supine, silent in the haze, to the south and west the islands seem to lie bewitched along the dim blue coast of China, and to the north a line of mainland hills stands like a rampart - the hills of Kowloon, or Nine Dragons. With luck the sea, when the mist disperses, will be a tremendous emerald green, and if one looks with a sufficiently selective eye it is easy enough to imagine the place as it was when it first entered world history, 150 years ago."

Another honorable mention is Alice Greenway's White Ghost Girls, published in 2006. This is a powerful and haunting novel of love and loss that was long-listed for the Orange Prize. The book tells the story of Frankie and Kate, two American sisters living in a foreign land in a chaotic time.

"Out in the harbor, at the end of summer, fishermen feed the hungry ghosts. They float paper boats shaped like junks and steamships. One is double-prowed like the cross-harbor Star Ferry which plies its way back and forth between Hong Kong (island) and Kowloon, never having to turn around. The fishermen load each tiny paper boat with some tea leaves, a drop of cooking oil, a spoonful of rice, a splash of petrol, before setting it afloat. Boats for the lost at sea, for the drowned. They hire musicians to clang cymbals. Children throw burning spirit money into the waves."

An engrossing and detailed historical novel is The Piano Teacher by Janice Y K Lee, published in 2009. The novel tells a love story set in Hong Kong in the 1940s and 1950s. A married woman is hired by a rich family to give piano lessons and ends up having a love affair with the driver who had a tragic love story of his own. The novel moves fluidly between one love story and the other. The character of Trudy was loosely based on American novelist and journalist Emily Hahn.

Here is an extract from the novel:

"To her surprise, she didn't detest Hong Kong, as her mother told her she would - she found the streets busy and distracting, so very different from Croydon, and filled with people and shops and goods she had never seen before. She liked to sample the local bakery goods, the pineapple buns, and yellow egg tarts, and sometimes wondered outside Central, where she would quickly find herself in unfamiliar surroundings, where she might be the only non-Chinese around. The fruit stalls were heaped with not only oranges and bananas, still luxuries in post-war England, but spiky, strange-looking fruits she came to try and like: starfruit, durian, lychee."

Tradition meets modernity and the East blends with the West all year in Hong Kong throughout its festivals. From the officially supported Mega Events Fund and "M" Mark Events to ancient and quirky local festivals, there's something for everyone in this vibrant city.

Chinese New Year

Celebrations start with the Chinese New Year, Hong Kong's most celebrated festival. A frenzy of neon and noise, skyscrapers on both sides of the harbor are lit up while fireworks explode over the harbor. This event takes place three days from the first day of the first moon, usually late January or early February.

Spring Lantern (Yuen Siu)

Known as the Chinese Valentine's Day, Spring Lantern (Yuen Siu) Festival marks the end of the traditional Lunar New Year celebrations. The reason why Cupid makes his appearance on this festival is that the event is characterized by canoodling couples who take to the parks under the gentle glow of lanterns. This festival takes place on the 23rd of the 3rd moon (April).

Cheung Chau Bun Festival

Another remarkable event is the Cheung Chau Bun Festival. Young men used to climb up 8m (26ft) towers covered in buns. This practice, however, was banned in the 1970s as some men would fall off and injure themselves. The event was revived in a tamer form in 2005. The festival takes place on the 6th day of the 4th moon (May).

Ching Ming Festival

Also known as the grave-sweeping festival, ching ming means "clear and bright." Chinese families visit the graves of their ancestors to clear them of any weeds and wilted flowers. It is a widespread practice to light incense and burn paper money. This event takes place on the first week of April.

Dragon Boat (Tuen Ng) Festival

During the Dragon Boat (Tuen Ng) Festival, drums thunder and paddles churn the waters of Hong Kong as garish craft vie for the top prize. The festival was founded to commemorate Qu Yuan, a 3rd-century poet-statesman who drowned himself to protest against corrupt rulers. The festival takes place on the 5th day of the 5th moon (early June) on various venues.

Hungry Ghost (Yue Laan) Festival

From the 14th day of the seventh moon, Chinese believe the gates of Hell are kicked open and the undead run free on Earth for a whole month. During that time, countless "Hell money" is burned on pyres along with various hillsides. Consequently, this is not a good time for hiking. The festival takes place across various locations in July.

Mid-Autumn Festival

This is an unmissable festival in Hong Kong as it is the most picturesque. Families flock to the city parks to burn candles and feast on yolk-centered moon-cakes. Modernity has also influenced this festival, as nowadays the intricate paper lanterns have increasingly been supplanted by glowing, blow-up Hello Kitty, Doraemon and Pokémon dolls. This event takes place on the 15th night of the 8th moon (August). A good spot to watch this festival is Victoria Park.

Chung Yeung Festival

This event requires hiking as it honors a Han Dynasty scholar who took his family up a hill and came back to find the rest of his village murdered. The event takes place on the 9th evening of the 9th moon (usually mid-to late October on any hilltop.