Name	Bangkok
Official name	Krung Thep Maha Nakhon
Native name	กรุงเทพมหานคร
Motto
Image seal	Seal_Bangkok.png
Map caption	Location
Pushpin map	Thailand
Coordinates display	inline,title
Coordinates region	TH
Subdivision type	Country
Subdivision name	Thailand
Government type	Special administrative area
Leader title	Governor
Leader name	M.R. Sukhumbhand Paribatra
Established title	Settled
Established date	Ayutthaya Period
Established title2	Founded as capital
Established date2	21 April 1782
Established date3
Area total km2	1568.737
Area metro km2	7761.50
Area blank1 km2
Population as of	January 2010
Population total	9,100,000
Population density km2	5801
Population metro	11,971,000
Population density metro km2	1542.36
Population blank2 title	Demonym
Population blank2	Bangkokian,Bangkoker
demographics type1	Human Development Index
demographics1 footnotes
demographics1 title1	HDI (2009)
demographics1 info1	0.933 (very high) (1st)
Timezone	Thailand
Utc offset	+7
Elevation footnotes
Elevation m
Postal code type
Area code	+66-2
Blank name	ISO 3166-2
Blank info	TH-10
Blank1 name	Airport Suvarnabhumi
Blank1 info	IATA: BKK – ICAO: VTBS
Blank2 name	Airport Don Muang
Blank2 info	IATA: DMK – ICAO: VTBD
Website	http://www.bangkok.go.th
Footnotes	}}

Bangkok is the capital, largest urban area and primary city of Thailand. Known in Thai as ''Krung Thep Maha Nakhon'' (, pronounced ), or กรุงเทพฯ ''Krung Thep'' (, meaning "city of angels" for short, it was originally a small trading post on the west bank of the lower Chao Phraya River during the Ayutthaya Kingdom. It became the capital in 1768 after the destruction of Ayutthaya by Burmese invaders. However, the current Rattanakosin Kingdom did not begin until 1782, when the capital was moved to the east bank of the river by Rama I following the death of King Taksin. The city is more formally called "Phra Nakhon" (), referring to the original boundaries of the 18th century, while the name Krungthep Mahanakorn includes the urban areas which have since grown. Foreigners generally call the city by its original name of Bangkok.

Overview

Because of its strategic location in Southeast Asia, Siam (later Thailand) acted as a buffer-zone between the French and British colonial empires. Bangkok itself has gained a reputation as an independent, dynamic and influential city. Bangkok is the political, social and economic centre of Thailand, and one of the leading cities in Southeast Asia.

Due to the 1980s and 1990s Asian investment boom, many multinational corporations make their regional headquarters in Bangkok and the city is a regional force in finance and business. Its increasing influence on global politics, culture, fashion and entertainment underlines its status as an Alpha global city. In 2009, it was the second most expensive city in South-East Asia behind Singapore.

The city's many cultural landmarks and attractions in addition to its nightlife venues has made it synonymous with exoticism. Its rapid modernization, reflected in the cityscape and the urban society, has left untouched the historic Grand Palace, Wat Arun, Vimanmek Palace Complex, hundreds of Buddhist temples, and the city's illegal (but tolerated) red-light districts draw about 10 million international visitors each year, second only to London.

Bangkok has an official population of 9,100,000 residents, while the greater Bangkok area continues some 11,971,000 (January 2008). The capital is in a heavily urbanized triangle of central and eastern Thailand, which stretches from Nakhon Ratchasima to the heavily Industrialized Eastern Seaboard. Bangkok borders five other provinces: Nonthaburi, Pathum Thani, Samut Prakan, Samut Sakhon and Nakhon Pathom, and all five provinces are joined in the conurbation of the Bangkok Metropolitan Area. It is served by two international airports, Suvarnabhumi Airport and Don Mueang International Airport, four rapid transit lines operated by the BTS, MRT, and the SRT, with plans to add additional lines by 2020.

History

The town of Bangkok ( ) began as a small trading center and port community on the west bank of the Chao Phraya River before the establishment of the Ayutthaya Kingdom, the precursor of modern Thailand, which existed from 1350 to 1767. The etymology of the town's name is unclear. ''Bang'' is the Central Thai name for a town situated on the bank of a river. It is believed that "Bangkok" derived from either ''Bangkok'', ''kok'' (กอก) being the Thai name for the Java plum (''ma-kok'', มะกอก), one of several trees bearing olive-like fruits); or ''Bang Koh'', ''koh'' meaning "island," a reference to the area's landscape which was carved by rivers and canals.

After the fall of Ayutthaya to the Burmese Kingdom in 1767, the newly declared King Taksin established a new capital in the area of the then Bangkok, which became known as Thonburi. When Taksin's reign ended in 1782, King Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke reconstructed the capital on the east bank of the river and gave the city a ceremonial name (see below) which became shortened to its current official name, ''Krung Thep Maha Nakhon''. The new city, however, also inherited the name Bangkok, which continued to be used by foreigners to refer to the entire city and became its official English name, while in Thai the name still refers only to the old district on the west bank of the river. The city has since vastly modernized and undergone numerous changes, including the introduction of transportation and utility infrastructure in the reigns of King Mongkut and King Chulalongkorn, and quickly developed into the economic center of Thailand.

Full name

The full ceremonial name of the city given by King Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke, and later edited by King Mongkut, is:

''Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Phiman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit'' ( ).

This ceremonial name uses two ancient Indian languages, Pāli and Sanskrit, initiated with the only original Thai word ''Krung'' which means "capital". According to the romanisation of these languages, it can actually be written as ''Krung-dēvamahānagara amararatanakosindra mahindrāyudhyā mahātilakabhava navaratanarājadhānī purīramya uttamarājanivēsana mahāsthāna amaravimāna avatārasthitya shakrasdattiya vishnukarmaprasiddhi''. It translates to "The city of angels, the great city, the eternal jewel city, the impregnable city of God Indra, the grand capital of the world endowed with nine precious gems, the happy city, abounding in an enormous Royal Palace that resembles the heavenly abode where reigns the reincarnated god, a city given by Indra and built by Vishnukarma".

Local school children are taught the full name, although few can explain its meaning because many of the words are archaic, and unknown to all but a few. Most Thais who do recall the full name do so as a result of its use in a popular song, ''Krung Thep Maha Nakhon'' (1989) by Asanee-Wasan Chotikul and will often recount it by recalling the song at the same time, much as English speakers might sing the alphabet song while reciting the English alphabet.

The full name of the city is listed by Guinness Book of Records as the world's longest place name.

Administration

Bangkok is one of two special administrative areas in Thailand, the other being Pattaya, in which citizens vote to choose their governor, unlike in Thailand's 76 provinces (''changwat''). In the 2009 gubernatorial election, M.R. Sukhumbhand Paribatra was elected governor.

The urban sprawl of the greater Bangkok Metropolitan Area extends beyond the borders of Bangkok province, spilling into the neighbouring provinces of Nonthaburi, Samut Prakan, Pathum Thani, Nakhon Pathom and Samut Sakhon. The province as it is today was created in 1971 when the previous Bangkok province, ''changwat Phra Nakhon'', merged with Thonburi province.

Bangkok is subdivided into 50 districts (''khet'', also sometimes called ''amphoe'' in the other provinces), which are further subdivided into 169 ''kwaeng'' (แขวง, equivalent to ''tambon'' in other provinces). Each district is managed by a district chief appointed by the governor. District councils, elected to four-year terms, serve as advisory bodies to their respective district chiefs.

There is also an elected Bangkok Metropolitan Council, which has power over municipal ordinances and the city's budget. The last elections for local councils in Bangkok were held on 23 July 2006. The government of Bangkok is called the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration or the BMA.

The seal of the city shows the god Indra riding in the clouds on Erawan, a mythological elephant-shaped creature. In his hand Indra holds a lightning bolt, which is his weapon to drive away drought. The seal is based on a painting done by Prince Naris. The tree symbol of Bangkok is ''Ficus benjamina''.

Geography

Topography and climate

The Bangkok special administrative area covers , making it the 68th largest province in Thailand. Much of the area is considered the city of Bangkok, making it the 73rd largest city in the world. The Chao Phraya River, which stretches , is Bangkok's main geographical feature. The Chao Phraya River basin, the area surrounding Bangkok, and the nearby provinces comprise a series of plains and river deltas that lead into the Bay of Bangkok about south of the city center. This gave rise to Bangkok's appellation as the "Venice of the East" due to the number of canals and passages that divide the area into separate patches of land. The city once used these canals, which were plentiful within Bangkok itself, as divisions for city districts. However, as the city grew in the second half of the 20th century, the plan was abandoned and a different system of division was adopted.

Bangkok lies about two meters (6.5 ft) above sea level, which causes problems for the protection of the city against floods during the monsoon season. Occasionally after a downpour, water in canals and the river overflows the banks, resulting in floods in some areas. The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) has recently installed higher banks alongside some canals to keep water levels from reaching street level. There are however some downsides for Bangkok's extensive canal routes, as the city is rumored to be sinking an average of two inches a year as it lies entirely on a swamp and there are fears that Thailand's capital will be submerged by 2030

Bangkok has a tropical wet and dry climate under the Köppen climate classification system. Average temperatures in the city are about 2 °C (3.6 °F) higher than the ones shown for the Don Mueang Airport during the 1960–1990 period. The highest recorded maximum temperature is in May 1983 and the lowest recorded minimum temperature is in January 1955. The coldest temperatures were recorded in January 1924, January 1955, January 1974 and December 1999. The hottest year on record was 1997 (average yearly at Don Mueang 30.0 °C) and the coldest was 1975 (average yearly at Don Mueang 26.3 °C). The coldest daytime maximum temperature was , recorded in December 1992.

Districts

Bangkok has 50 districts or ''khet'', which mark the administrative subdivisions under the authority of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration. These are further subdivided into 169 khwaeng (แขวง), roughly equivalent to sub-districts tambon in the other provinces.

{| |- style="vertical-align:top;" || # Phra Nakhon # Dusit # Nong Chok # Bang Rak # Bang Khen # Bang Kapi # Pathum Wan # Pom Prap Sattru Phai # Phra Khanong # Min Buri # Lat Krabang # Yan Nawa # Samphanthawong # Phaya Thai # Thon Buri # Bangkok Yai # Huai Khwang # Khlong San # Taling Chan # Bangkok Noi # Bang Khun Thian # Phasi Charoen # Nong Khaem # Rat Burana # Bang Phlat ||

26. Din Daeng
27. Bueng Kum
28. Sathon
29. Bang Sue
30. Chatuchak
31. Bang Kho Laem
32. Prawet
33. Khlong Toei
34. Suan Luang
35. Chom Thong
36. Don Mueang
37. Ratchathewi
38. Lat Phrao
39. Watthana
40. Bang Khae
41. Lak Si
42. Sai Mai
43. Khan Na Yao
44. Saphan Sung
45. Wang Thonglang
46. Khlong Sam Wa
47. Bang Na
48. Thawi Watthana
49. Thung Khru
50. Bang Bon

|}

However, these district areas might not accurately represent functional divisions of Bangkok's neighborhoods. Throughout the years, Bangkok has grown from a city scattered along the river to a metro area that spans as many as six provinces. The city's main business districts and residential areas are continuously expanding. The influx of foreigners from Western countries as well as immigrants from neighboring Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia and many other Asian countries along with the growth of the Thai population has stemmed hundreds of housing projects around the metro area, developing communities along the outskirts. Within years, these communities are engulfed by the greater Bangkok and become another part of this urban jungle.

As the city expanded on the outskirts, the inner city has nowhere to grow but up. The city has a registered 1,000 skyscrapers and ranks 17th as the world's tallest city. This does not include hundreds of new buildings predicted as part of the construction boom in 2007 and the coming years. Areas such as Silom-Sathon and Asok have for decades been Thailand's business center. From 1985 to 1996, Thailand experienced the world's highest growth rates and underwent an economic transformation, Bangkok went through dramatic changes. The Ratchadaphisek area was turned into a business district which continued through the Asok area up north for five kilometers (3 mi). The Sukhumvit area, stretching 15–20 km (9–12 mi), gradually turned into a mixed commercial and residential area. Wireless Road and Chitlom are where some of Bangkok's most expensive land plots exist. Part of the British Embassy on the corner of Wireless and Rama I Roads, nine rai or approximately in area, was sold for USD 92 million or THB 3.24 billion.

thumb|250|left|Siam Square is Central Bangkok's shopping district, combining several large malls and side shops with both local and international brands.The most important business districts of Bangkok include Silom, Bangrak, Pinklao, Sathon, Phra Ram 2, Phetchaburi, Phra Nakhon, Pathumwan, Chatuchak (new central business district), and Phra Ram 3 (new financial center). Bangkok's Phra Nakhon district alongside Dusit is where most governmental agencies and ministries have their offices. Most of the well-known tourist attractions are also in this particular area due its cultural & historical heritage. This part of Bangkok is perhaps the most popular for tourists as most notable attractions such as the Grand Palace, Wat Pho, the Democracy Monument, the Giant Swing, Sanam Luang and other venues are located here. Thon Buri also has its fair share of historic monuments mainly located near the river, such as Wat Arun. The Victory Monument in Bangkok is one of the city's biggest bus destinations. Although not officially a bus depot, its location in the center of city transits as many as 20 bus lines as well as a BTS Skytrain station. Starting from Victory Monument, Phahonyothin road early sois are occupied by ministries, government agencies, commercial buildings as well as upper-middle class residential areas. Further to the north, after the Lat Phrao/Phahonyothin intersection, the Northern Corridor is an expanding business district, where the famous Elephant Building can be found.

Bangkok's north and eastern areas are primarily residential areas for middle class residents of Bangkok. Whereas the inner city often has small apartments and low rises for poor immigrants, Lat Phrao and Si Nakharin offer residential compounds and townhouses. The two areas cover as much as to each, and have turned into what is now part of Bangkok as more suburban housing developments sprawl further out to the east and north. The west of Bangkok in Thon Buri is another growing area, approaching the degree of development experienced by the north and east. Suvarnabhumi Airport in the east is seen as a jump start for the eastern expansion of Bangkok as Don Mueang was for the north.

Ratchaprasong is at the forefront of Bangkok's shopping scene. The newly renovated Central World Plaza intends to serve as a square to Bangkokians. Just up the street is Siam Square, similar to Shinjuku in Tokyo and Oxford Street and Piccadilly Circus in London. The Sukhumvit area also serves as a shopping district for foreigners. The popular Chatuchak Weekend Market in the north of the city is where many people head for cheap, used and high quality products.

Bangkok's poorest districts are spread throughout the city. However, the most concentrated area is just north of the Port of Bangkok at the turn of the Chao Phraya River. For an area of , the Khlong Toei district houses one of the poorest areas in the country with half-built houses and midrises for immigrants and workers from the northeast Isan provinces.

Green zones and major parks

Bangkok has large sections of greenery either preserved by the Department of National Forestry or designated as green zones. The city however, continues to lack a green belt development as economic activity continues to pour into the capital, resulting in massive housing projects along the suburbs.

Bangkok is known for its large green sections within the city centre, including the large forest park between Yannawa and Samut Prakan. This part of the city covers an area of over . and is intended to buffer the CBD from the large industries of the west and south of Metropolitan Bangkok. Other areas include Bung Makkasan, an urban city buffer for residences, sections of many major roads which have unbuilt swamps and green fields. Some of these areas are intentionally undeveloped for protecting against urbanization, while others are land lost during the Asian Financial Crisis.

Lumphini Park is regionally famous. Renowned as Bangkok's Central Park, it was built in the early 1920s by Rama VI with this intent. It has since been used to hold grand pageants, ceremonies of the Thai constitution, and was a camp for Japanese soldiers during World War II. On Sundays, the western gates are open for runners to run on to Silom Road. The park is normally closed at night due to the incidences of vandalism, robberies and murders reported. Chatuchak Park and Rama IX Park are two of Bangkok's largest parks. The two, built in the past 50 years cater to Bangkok's suburban population, include botanic gardens, sports clubs and complexes, English/French/Japanese gardens and parks as well as large ponds and lakes. Other famous parks include Queen Sirikit Park near Lat Yao, Benchasiri Park on Sukhumvit Rd, Saranrom Park across the Grand Palace, Sanam Luang, Suan Romaneenat, and Dusit Park.

Economy

Bangkok is the economic center of Thailand, dominating the country's economy and dwarfing any other urban centers. Development continues to pour in to Bangkok mostly neglecting the rest of the nation. Its combined economic output is roughly 140 billion dollars in purchasing power parity terms, which accounts for roughly 16 percent of Thailand's GDP also in PPP terms. However, there is a quite a large discrepancy and statisticians and economists would claim that Bangkok accounts for nearly 75 percent of Thailand's service sector which accounts for 45.2 percent of Thailand's 590 billion dollar economy. With the given GDP of the city, the estimates for per capita income is roughly 20,000 dollars. More realistic but unclaimed estimates put the city's output as high as 210 billion dollars, accounting for 38 percent of national income and per capita income at 33,000 dollars.

The Stock Exchange of Thailand, or the SET is located on Ratchadaphisek Road in inner-Bangkok with over 544 listed companies and combined market capitalization of about THB 8.7 trillion (USD 290 billion) as of 30 May 2011. Due to the large amount of foreign representation, Thailand has for several years been a mainstay of the Southeast Asian economy and a key center in Asian business. The indices of the stock exchange are SET Index, SET50 Index and SET100 Index. As of Fall 2009, the index is one of Asia's top performing indices, up 58 percent since January.

Bangkok is home to the headquarters of all of Thailand's major commercial banks and financial institutions; 27 financial institutions and a number of international banks located in Bangkok include ABN AMRO, ANZ, Bank of America, Bank of Baroda, Bank of China, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, CIMB, Citigroup, DBS Bank, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Barclays, Indian Overseas Bank, UBS, Credit Suisse, OCBC Bank, Mizuho Corporate Bank, Calyon, RBS, RHB Bank, Macquarie Group, ING Bank, Scotia Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, United Overseas Bank, BNP Paribas, Wells Fargo Bank and Standard Chartered. hold at least 1 billion dollars in total assets. Their bank deposits totaled approximately THB 9.6 trillion, the equivalent of USD 314 billion at the end of the third quarter in 2007. A large number of multinational corporations base their regional headquarters in Bangkok due to the lower cost of the workforce and firm operations relative to other major Asian business centers. Thirteen Bangkok-based companies make the Forbes 2000 list annually. The list includes the largest Thai bank, Bangkok Bank, the country's largest listing as well as the state-owned energy firm PTT, and the renowned Charoen-Phokphand agri-foods conglomerate.

The market for flights to enter Laos and Cambodia is heavily dominated by airlines based in Bangkok such as THAI Airways International, Bangkok Airways, and the multitude of low cost airlines in Thailand. Telecommunications, retail, real estate, airlines, and media conglomerates mainly cater to the country's growing population, however, few Thai corporations venture overseas and gain notoriety.

Tourism is a significant contributor to Thailand's economy, providing about 5 percent of GDP. Bangkok is Thailand's principal international gateway and a destination in its own right. This giant market has made Bangkok a prime location for hotel operations as well as the launching pad for small and medium accommodation enterprises. Moreover, Bangkok-based hospitality companies such as Dusit Thani Group, Erawan Group, and Siam Hotels and Resorts, have all expanded operations and can officially be classified as a multinational corporation in its own right.

Income inequality is a growing issue in Bangkok, especially between relatively unskilled lower-income immigrants from rural provinces in Thailand and neighboring countries and middle-class professionals (45% of registered residents), business elites, and retired and working foreign expats. About 7 percent of Bangkok's population (excluding illegal immigrants who constitute about 5–8 percent of population) live below the poverty line compared to the national average of 9 percent.

Demographics

The 2010 statistics report by the BMA Data Center notes a registered population of 5.7 million. However, this figure does not take into account the many unregistered residents. The city's registered population is composed mostly of ethnic Thais, but many minority groups are visible as well. The Chinese are by far the largest minority group in the city.

Recently, Bangkok has experienced a large influx of foreign immigrants, long-term residents, and expatriates. Long-term foreign residents include 250,000 mainland Chinese, 105,000 Indians (most of whom are Sikh), of whom more than 80% have dual Thai citizenship, 44,000 Japanese, 25,000 Americans, 75,000 Europeans, 15,000 Taiwanese, 20,000 South Koreans, 6,000 Nigerians, 7,500 Australians, 12,000 people of Arabic speaking countries, 20,000 Malaysians, 4,000 Singaporeans, 5,000 Filipinos, and 800 New Zealanders. It is estimated that 5–10% of Bangkok's population (all are unregistered and unaccounted) are illegal immigrants (majority are domestic servants) from neighboring countries including Burma, Cambodia, and Laos. Almost all the beggars in the street of Bangkok are from Cambodia and speak little Thai. A vast majority of the population, 92%, is Buddhist. The rest are Muslim (6%), Christian (1%), Hindu/Sikh (0.6%), Jewish (300 residents), and others. There are some 450 Buddhist temples, 170 mosques, 60 churches, 3 Hindu Temples, 3 synagogues, 1 Sikh gurdwara and 1 Jain temple in Bangkok.

{| |- | align="top" |

style="background:#efefef;"	Date	Population
1880	255,000
1910	365,000
1 April 1919	437,294
15 July 1929	713,384
23 May 1937	890,453
25 April 1947	1,178,881
25 April 1960	2,136,435

| align="top" |

style="background:#efefef;"	Date	Population
1 April 1970	3,077,361
1 April 1980	4,697,071
1 April 1990	5,882,411
1 April 2000	6,320,174
1 January 2005	6,642,566
1 July 2007	8,160,522
January 2010	9,100,000

|}

Transportation

River and canals network

An elaborate network of canals known as ''khlongs'' gave Bangkok the nickname "Venice of the East" at a time when most transportation was by boat. Today, nearly all of the canals have been filled in and converted into streets. While many khlongs still exist with people living along them and markets often being operated along the banks, most are severely polluted. A notable khlong market is the floating market in Taling Chan district. Through downtown Bangkok runs the Khlong Saen Saeb, which has a canal boat service. The wide river Chao Phraya, flowing through the city, has several cross-river ferries and the Chao Phraya Express Boat with as many as thirty stops along the both banks extending as far as the northern suburb of Nonthaburi.

Roads

Several elevated highways, newly rebuilt intersections, and many partially finished road and rail projects dot the landscape around greater Bangkok, but have done little to overcome the notorious traffic jams on Bangkok's surface roads as private vehicle usage continues to outstrip infrastructure development.

Due to a large number of traffic jams in Bangkok, the elevated highway (Thai: ทางด่วน, , "express way"), linking most road networks in Bangkok together, is another choice for the rush. However, tax is to be paid for utilizing the highway depending on size of the vehicle. This highway also leads to some outskirts of Bangkok including Suvarnabhumi International Airport.

Inner-City Buses

A regular bus service is provided by the Bangkok Mass Transit Authority (BMTA) and it operates throughout Bangkok as well as to adjoining provinces around the clock on certain routes. Public buses are plentiful and cheap, with a minimum fare of 7 baht to most destinations within metropolitan Bangkok. Air-conditioned buses have minimum and maximum fares of 11 and 24 baht, respectively. Air-conditioned micro-buses charge a flat fare of 25 baht all routes. A bus route map is available at bookshops.

Rail systems

On the birthday of HM King Rama IX, 5 December 1999, an elevated two-line Skytrain (officially called BTS) metro system was opened. The remains of the failed BERTS (Hopewell) project can still be seen all the way from the main railroad station out towards Don Mueang Airport. Due to the Asian financial crisis of 1997 construction was halted and the concrete pillars were left unused.

The MRT subway system opened for use in July 2004. The MRT connects the northern train station of Bang Sue to the Hua Lamphong central railway station near the city centre, while also going through the eastern part of Bangkok. It connects to the BTS system at BTS stations Mo Chit, Asok, and Sala Daeng.

A new high speed elevated railroad called the Suvarnabhumi Airport Link, links the city with the new Suvarnabhumi Airport. The announced opening date after facing many delays was finally set on August 23, 2010. The Airport Express railway and City line (commuter service) is operated by the State Railway of Thailand. It provides a link between the new airport and the City Air Terminal (CAT) at Makkasan where it connects with MRT Phetchaburi station and has another connection to the BTS at Phaya Thai. There are plans to extend the line to Don Mueang and Rangsit (SRT Dark Red Line), but again, this is very dependent on the political situation.

Plans have been approved for a further extension of the BTS Silom line from Wongwian Yai to Bang Wa (), Samrong to Samut Prakan (), Mo Chit to Saphan Mai () and the National Stadium to Phran Nok (). This includes five underground stations in the Rattanakosin area. The State Railway of Thailand has also been given approval to complete the Dark Red and Light Green lines. Alongside, MRT has also begun construction on two new lines, the Purple line from Bang Yai to Bang Sue, and the Blue line from Hua Lampong to Bang Khae and Bang Sue to Tha Pra.

For intercity travel by train, most passengers begin their trips at Hua Lamphong at the southern end of the MRT. Here, trains connect Bangkok to Malaysia in the south, Chiang Mai to the north, and Nong Khai to the northeast and beyond to Laos.

When viewing the map, not all MRT and BTS lines stop at every station. Currently, the blue MRT line goes from Hua Lampong to Asok. The two BTS lines extend from Mo Chit to On Nut, and from National Stadium to Wongwian Yai. This line's final stop used to be Saphan Taksin station but has subsequently been extended across the Chao Phraya River to Wongwian Yai. Stations with BTS/MRT interchange are Mo Chit, Sala Daeng, and Asok.

Bus services

Virtually all cities and provinces are easily reached by bus from Bangkok. For destinations in the southwest and the west, buses leave from the Southern Bus Terminal, west of the city in the Thonburi area. For destinations in the southeast, such as Pattaya, Ko Samet and Ko Chang, buses leave from the Eastern Bus Terminal at Ekkamai. For all destinations north and northeast, the Northern Bus Terminal is at Mo Chit. Bangkok's less accessible southern terminal was recently moved even farther out. Though Bangkok is well connected to other cities, getting to the bus terminals often are a challenge in themselves.

There are numerous companies that provide bus services within Bangkok Metropolitan Region. The main operator, Bangkok Mass Transit Authority, has a service area covering Bangkok and its suburban areas in the adjacent provinces of Nonthaburi, Samut Prakan, Pathum Thani, Nakhon Pathom, and Samut Sakhon. It serves approximately 3 million passengers per day. The service hours are 05.00–23.00 hrs, except 24-hr night-owl service on some routes. In September 2005, BMTA owns a fleet of 3,579 buses—comprising 1,674 ordinary buses and 1,905 air-conditioned buses. In addition to BMTA-owned buses, there are 3,485 private-own contract buses, 1,113 contract minibuses, 2,161 side-street songthaews, and 5,519 vans. In total, there are 15,857 buses and vans over 427 routes across 8 zones.

Premier Metro Bus 7 Line

Zone 1: North (Hubs: Rangsit, Bang Khen)

Zone 2: Upper East (Hubs: Bang Kapi, Minburi)

Zone 3: Lower East (Hubs: Samrong, Samut Prakan)

Zone 4: South Central (Hubs: Khlong Toei)

Zone 5: Southwest (Hubs: Dao Khanong, Phra Pradaeng)

Zone 6: West (Hubs: Bang Khae, Thonburi)

Zone 7: Northwest (Hubs: Nonthaburi, Pak Kret)

Zone 8: Central (Hubs: Huai Khwang)

Airports

Bangkok is one of Asia's most important air transport hubs. In 2005, more than ninety airlines served Don Mueang International Airport (IATA: DMK; ICAO: VTBD). It was the 18th busiest airport in the world, second busiest in Asia by passenger volume, 15th busiest in the world and fourth busiest in Asia in international passenger volume. Don Mueang consistently ranked 19th in the world in cargo traffic, and seventh in the Asia-Pacific region. Don Mueang is considered to be one of the world's oldest international airports, its opening in March 1914 making it almost twenty years older than London Heathrow. It has three terminals and is located about north from the heart of Bangkok.

On 28 September 2006, Suvarnabhumi Airport (IATA: BKK; ICAO: VTBS), became Bangkok's official international airport, replacing Don Mueang. Pronounced Suwannaphum (RTGS), or loosely ''Su-wan-na-poom'', the airport is located southeast of the city center in Bang Phli district, Samut Prakan Province. The progress of Suvarnabhumi Airport dates back to the early 1970s when a large plot of land (32 km²) was bought. A student uprising in October of the same year prevented further progress with the development when the military government of Thanom Kittikachorn was subsequently overthrown. After several military coups and the Asian financial crisis of 1997, construction finally began in 2002, after five years of clearing the site. The first flights landed in September 2006, shortly after another military coup. Its two parallel runways are connected by the five concourses of the main terminal building. The airport features a -tall control tower, the tallest in Asia and one meter (3.2 ft) taller than Kuala Lumpur International Airport control tower. It is the tallest stand alone purpose built control tower in the world. Airports of Thailand Plc. (AoT) have announced another terminal to accommodate a further fifteen million passengers. This will be part of Phase 2 of the airport, which is expected to begin construction in three to five years. The main airline of Suvarnabhumi is Thai Airways International.

Much of the construction of Suvarnabhumi Airport took place during the premiership of Thaksin Shinawatra, who took personal responsibility for its timely completion. Despite a "ceremonial" opening on the planned date, construction was over a year late. Continuing controversy surrounds the quality of planning and construction; accusations include cracks in the runway, overheated buildings, a severe shortage of toilet facilities and lengthy passenger walks to departure gates. The fact that the airport is already overcrowded and near its maximum capacity less than a year after opening is another concern.

Don Mueang remains in use as a base of the Royal Thai Air Force. Most of the low-cost airlines now use the airport for domestic flights, in an effort to ease congestion at Suvarnabhumi, until the next terminal is opened.

Transport network

Khlong Saen Saep Express Boat

Chao Phraya Express Boat

Bangkok Noi Longtail Express Boat

Sathon-Khlong Toei Express Boat

Sathon-Wat Dao Khanong Express Boat

Sathon-Samut Prakan Express Boat

Khlong Phasi Charoen Express Boat (Under new testing)

Khlong Lat Phrao Express Boat (Under new testing)

Khlong Prem Prachakhon Express Boat (Under new testing)

Khlong Phadung Krung Kasem Express Boat (Under new testing)

BTS or Bangkok Skytrain

MRT or Bangkok Metro

SRT or State Railway of Thailand

BRT (Bangkok) or Bus Rapid Transit

METROBUS or Premier Metro Bus

BTS Links

BMTA or Bangkok Bus

Suvarnabhumi Airport Link

SRT Lines (U/C, finish 2012)

Chula-Siam Monorail (Planned)

Bangkok City Tour Shuttle Bus

Taxis

Bangkok has many taxis. Many roam the streets looking for customers, but there are also a number of taxi companies whose vehicles can be booked by telephone. Taxis are metered, with a fixed starting fare, and charge by distance and waiting time.

Three-wheeled open-air motorized taxis called tuk-tuks () (auto rickshaws in other countries) are popular for shorter journeys. Price should be negotiated before the ride.

Motorcycle taxis stands, called ''win motoesai'' (), are found all over the city. Motorcycle taxis usually accommodate one, or sometimes two, passengers, and typically only cover small local areas.

The fare for tuk-tuks and motorcycle taxis is usually negotiable between passenger and driver, except for cases where an organised taxi rank is in operation, where prices to certain locations may be printed on a sign on display at the rank. When two passengers use a motorcycle taxi the fare is usually doubled, although no such increases apply to tuk-tuks.

Education

The majority of the country's universities, both public and private, are located in and/or around the capital. Chulalongkorn University, Kasetsart University, Mahidol University and Thammasat University are at the forefront of tertiary education. They are public universities and have been a foundation for young thinkers for nearly a century. Over the past few decades the general trend of pursuing a university degree has prompted the founding of new universities to meet the needs of the Thai students. Bangkok became not only a place where immigrants and provincial Thais go for job opportunities, but also for a chance to receive a university degree. Ramkhamhaeng University emerged in 1971 as the only open university. It has the highest enrolment of students compared with any other Thai university. Ramkhamhaeng was one of the Thai government's ways to deal with the rise in a demand for tertiary education. The demand for higher education has led to the founding of many other universities and colleges in the metropolitan area. Vocational/technical colleges are also on the rise. One of such is SAE Institute Bangkok (started in 2002). In recent years a large number of private institutions, primarily with Western ties and exchange programs, were established in the capital. The rise in the number of schools offering English teaching has raised the bar for many state-run institutions to compete with the standards set by private education.

Chulalongkorn University, Kasetsart University, Mahidol University, Silpakorn University, Srinakharinwirot University, and Thammasat University rank among the nation's top universities. Bangkok also plays host to the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), built as an international co-operative institute between Asia-Pacific nations. There are also many Buddhist universities branching into the realm of religious studies in which Bangkok has taken a leading role.

Amidst all this, however, the tertiary education scene in Bangkok is still over-populated with non-Bangkokians. Officials currently stress the need for a revamping of the Thai educational system. Education has long been a prime factor in the centralization of Bangkok and will play a vital role in the government's efforts to decentralize the country.

Health care and medical centers

Bangkok has a large number of hospitals and medical centers, which include eight of the country's fifteen medical schools. Many hospitals in Bangkok act as tertiary care centers, receiving referrals from distant parts of the country. Lately, especially in the private sector, there has been much growth in medical tourism, with many hospitals providing services specifically catering to foreigners.

The Bumrungrad Hospital is the main international class hospital on Sukumvit Road, and is popular with expats, wealthy Thais and medical tourists. Its closest competitors are Samithivej Hospitaland and Bangkok Hospital Medical Center. All 3 of which have achieved accreditation from the Joint Commission International (JCI).

Tourism

Bangkok is considered to be one of the world's tourist hotspots. Bangkok is Thailand's major tourist gateway, which means that the majority of foreign tourists arrive in Bangkok. The city boasts some of the country's most visited historical venues such as the Grand Palace, Wat Pho, and Wat Arun. There are numerous projects to maintain Bangkok's historic sites in the Rattanakosin area and river districts.

Culture

Festivals and events

Bangkok Songkran Festival 13–15 April The traditional Thai New Year is an occasion for merriment all over the city, but most notably at Sanam Luang, near the Grand Palace, where the revered Phra Phuttha Sihing image is displayed and bathed by devotees. In the Wisutkasat area, a Miss Songkran beauty contest is held and accompanied by merit-making and entertainment. Khao San Road, Bang Lamphu area is also one of the high-spots in the city where locals and tourists play water by the water-throwing activities.

Royal Ploughing Ceremony May

An ancient Brahman ritual, conducted at Sanam Luang, in which farmers believe, is able to forecast the abundance of the next rice crop. The event is a result of a series of ceremonies that are conducted by Phraya Raek Na, portrayed by a high-ranking official from the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives who wears colourful traditional costumes. This ceremony was re-introduced in 1960 by King Bhumibol Adulyadej and is considered the official commencement of the rice-growing season.

The Queen’s Birthday Celebration 12 August

To display their loyalty and to honour Queen Sirikit on the occasion of her royal birthday, the Thai people decorate their houses and public buildings. Around Bangkok, Ratchadamnoen Avenue, the area around the Grand Palace and other well-known locations are bedecked with coloured lights and magnificent adornments.

Trooping of the Colours December

The King and Queen preside over this impressive annual event, held in the Royal Plaza near the equestrian statue of King Chulalongkorn. Dressed in colourful uniforms, amid much pomp and ceremony, members of the elite Royal Guards swear allegiance to the King and march past members of the Royal Family.

The King’s Birthday Celebrations 5 December

King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world’s longest reigning monarch is well beloved and deeply respected by all Thais old and young. The occasion of his royal birthday provides his loyal subjects the opportunity to express their reverence for him. All over the country, buildings and homes are elaborated and the area around the Grand Palace is spectacularly illuminated.

Media

There is an average of four million readers for more than 25 Bangkok based newspapers, one of which, ''Thai Rath'', sells over a million copies a day. Bangkok also has two major English-language dailies, the ''Bangkok Post'' and ''The Nation'' and the new free-sheet, The Daily Xpress. The ''Asian Wall Street Journal'' and ''International Herald Tribune'' are printed in Bangkok and have high distribution numbers. There are also a number of weekly publications normally published on Fridays that deal with political issues. Other publications, such as lifestyle and entertainment magazines are also plentiful.

Many gossip and fashion magazines are also published in Bangkok, especially after the launch of the Bangkok Fashion City project in 2004. Since then, United Broadcasting Corporation (UBC, or now True Visions), the Thai cable operator, has launched a new channel devoted to Thai fashion as well as a Thai edition of E! Entertainment television.

There is a large amount of television media in Bangkok. Six television stations operated and controlled by the government and many major cables TV operators such as True Visions (formally UBC), MTV, TTV, PTV, ASTV are based in Bangkok. They broadcast a total of 100 channels to viewers with including many Thai television stations such as TITV, Nation Channel, ETV, DLTV, Royal TV, Money Channel, SMe TV, six sports channels, and Channel V, among others. There are more than 50 FM radio stations within the Bangkok metro vicinity and 50 AM channels including international brands such as Virgin Radio. Radio stations mainly broadcast in Thai, although some broadcast solely in English due to the growing expat population and the growing number of locals who enjoy learning English.

Chalerm Krung Theater and the National Theater have been in operation since the early 20th century whereas the newer Thailand Cultural Center hosts a variety of plays and events.

Bangkok has dozens of cinema multiplexes, and the city hosts two major film festivals annually, the Bangkok International Film Festival and the World Film Festival of Bangkok.

Art

The National Gallery located near Sanam Luang is a popular venue for art in Thailand.

The arts in Bangkok have well developed almost exclusively and anonymously in the services of Theravada Buddhism since the golden age in Ayutthaya period and continuing to the present day by incorporating Western elements which is called the Rattanakosin or Bangkok style. Nowadays, the modern art scene is centered around Bangkok as the capital of contemporary art in the region, while traditional art can be found in many commercial areas in the old city as well as temples and palaces throughout the city. There are also a number of artists who prefer to live and work outside the metropolis. The number of artists is constantly on the rise, so an increasing variety of works are available on the art market. Many art galleries in Bangkok tend to sell work restricted to traditional rural motifs. The artists creating this type of art are often influenced by traditional Buddhist beliefs and motifs, and are popular among the general Thai public. Nevertheless, some Thai artists are breaking away from these norms by addressing more controversial issues in their work, for example the loss of traditional values and the obsession with money in today's society.

Bangkok is home to the National Gallery of Thailand, Bangkok Metropolitan Museum of Contemporary Art and Thailand Creative & Design Center as well as many other museums, concert halls, theatres, and art galleries. It is home to the Thailand Cultural Centre and the National Theatre.

Sport

Modern sports have been introduced to the people of Bangkok dating back a century by King Chulalongkorn. Horse racing followed by golf began in Bangkok over 100 years ago when the king bestowed land for the first race course. The objective of His Majesty was to introduce and promote the quality of horse racing and breeding in Thailand, while providing sporting facilities of international standards for Thailand. Today, horse racing is one of the most popular sports in the capital and one of the most famous sport events in the region. Bangkok has hosted the Asian Games four times, in 1966, 1970, 1978 and 1998. Bangkok was also the host of the first SEA Games in 1959 and Summer Universiade in 2007.

Bangkok's popular modern sports are football, golf, bowling and horse racing. The city has many famous league football clubs with a number of international class football stadiums as well as many golf courses and bowling alleys throughout the city. The popular traditional sports are Muay Thai. Fights can be seen in two major boxing stadiums in the city: Rajadamnern Stadium along with Lumpini Stadium, Takraw, which is played in open spaces throughout the city, and kite fighting, which is easy to see in the centre of the old city. Sanam Luang, on the north side of Wat Phra Kaew, is transformed each year around February from a sedate little patch of greenery in the midst of a concrete jungle into an ongoing kite festival as locals come to the park to practice the art of flying kites.

Rajamangala Stadium is Bangkok's new national stadium. It can seat more than 65,000.

Bangkok features a number of sports clubs including the Royal Bangkok Sports Club, Royal Turf Club of Bangkok, Krungthep Kreetha Sports Club, Rajapruk Sport Club (North Park), Royal Thai Police Sports Club, Piyarom Sports Club, Southerners Sports Club and the British Club, which was established in Bangkok in 1903.

Multicultural Communities

Bangkok has several concentration areas of people of foreign origin. Yaowarat Road is the home of Bangkok's sizable Chinatown, while those of Indian ethnicity have congregated around Pahurat Road. At the West End of Silom Road was the first European community in Bangkok called the old Farang Quarter. The Portuguese Embassy operates from 1820 and was the first embassy to be established in the capital, with their community around the Santa Cruz Church on the Thonburi side. The Haroon Mosque, a small, attractive stucco building is used by the local Muslim population. The French Embassy was the second to be established in the area within walking distance from the Assumption cathedral, one of the biggest building in the area, still serving the community. Along Sukhumvit Road communities of Japanese are around Phrom Phong, Koreatown can be found around Asok Station and the nearby Nana Station is dense with Arab and Afican cultures and food, "Little Africa" neighborhood can be found here.

Urban lifestyle

Although it is one of Asia's most important cities economically, the urban pace of Bangkok is somewhat relaxed, as the city offers enormous amounts of getaway locations. Most residents tend to stress over the amount of traffic in the city. Peak hours are between 6:30 am to 9:30 am and 4:30pm to 8:00 at night on weekdays, with a general state of traffic on Monday morning and Friday night.

Many residents leave town on weekends to visit seaside resorts such as Hua Hin, Cha-am, and Pattaya. Others return home to visit elderly relatives in Isan and the northern provinces. Saturday is somewhat considered a work day to many of the residents of Bangkok.

Religion does not play a very influential role in the capital as it would compared to other cities. However, a good proportion of the population remains devout and offers daily alms to the monks who walk their neighbourhoods. Muslims are often either assimilated entirely by the Thai or live in remote parts of the city such as the Nong Chok district where traditional Thai Muslims still live.

Current issues

Bangkok has long been notorious for its massive traffic jams, which are still a serious problem. The recent construction of the elevated second-level, third-level and fourth-level expressways, many tunnels and flyovers, BTS and MRT systems, four new SRT lines and BRT Bangkok has eased some of the congestion along specific corridors, but has done little to alleviate overall congestion. The major reason is the continued popularity of private automobiles, and extensive consumer credit for automobile purchases.

Environmental issues such as air pollution, a large part of which is caused by the traffic and dirt left on streets from construction projects, was a major problem. Industrial pollution has also contributed to poor air and water quality. Though sulfur dioxide and ozone levels have fallen substantially, PM (particulate matter) still exceeds health standards in some areas. However, the large volume of trash in the canals must be cleaned out by other means. Mold growth is ubiquitous in Bangkok, as the wet tropical climate makes it grow, and many residents simply ignore it.

As in many other Asian cities, the sale of illegally copied copyright-protected material, mostly software and DVD movies, is widespread in Bangkok, but technically illegal.

Another issue which has given the city a reputation is the sex industry. Prostitution in Thailand is technically illegal, but can be found all over Bangkok in vast numbers of massage parlors, saunas, parks, and hourly hotels, serving foreign tourists as well as locals.

Crime

Foreign residents and tourists alike complain of widespread scams and blatant price gouging. Elaborate gem store scams, involving earning the trust of a shopper by a westerner who is in cooperation with local merchants, have robbed tourists of thousands of dollars, although overcharging is more of a common occurrence. Commission-based profiteering is common for restaurants, hotels, and other kinds of businesses. The Tourist Police lack police powers and are largely responsible for writing out reports for insurance companies for victims of theft. In more serious cases, they will translate reports to be passed on to the regular police in Bangkok. Also, despite stringent drug laws, the illegal drug trade continues to thrive.

Armed robbery and violence against tourists are rare, but murders involving tourists and long-term foreign residents do occur. A dramatic increase in the number of illegal immigrant workers in Thailand has resulted in many of the crimes being committed by these illegal immigrants. However, Bangkok is generally considered safe from the standpoint of violent crime. The rates for violent crimes such as murders and muggings are fairly low when compared to other large Asian and international cities.

International relations

Bangkok as seat of international and regional organizations

With its geograpical location at the heart of mainland Southeast Asia and as one of Asia's hubs of transportation, Bangkok is home to many international and regional organizations, including regional headquarters or offices (for Southeast Asia, Asia-Pacific region, or East Asia) of many organs under the United Nations system and some organization not belonging to the UN. Bangkok is host to 74 foreign embassies and 32 offices of international organizations

Among others, Bangkok is the seat of the Secretariat of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), as well as the Asia-Pacific regional offices of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

For the list of offices of the UN agencies in Bangkok, please visit http://www.un.or.th/unagencies/index.html

Twin towns – Sister cities

Bangkok has a number of sister cities. They are:

* Washington, D.C., United States, since 1962

Beijing, People's Republic of China>China (PRC), 1993

* Moscow, Russia, since 1997

* Manila, Philippines, since 1997

* Saint Peterburg, Russia, since 1997

* Astana, Kazakhstan, since 2004

Chaozhou, People's Republic of China>China (PRC), since 2005

* Seoul, South Korea, since 2006

* New York City, United States, since 2006

* Berlin, Germany, since 2006

Fukuoka, Japan, since 2006

* Ankara, Turkey, since 2006

* Hanoi, Vietnam, since 2006

* Ulanbator, Mongolia, since 2006

* Buenos Aires, Argentina, since 2006

* Brisbane, Australia, since 2007

* Milan, Italy, since 2007

* Liverpool, United Kingdom, since 2007

* Tokyo, Japan, since 2007

* Cape Town, South Africa, since 2007

* Budapest, Hungary, since 2007

* Sydney, Australia, since 2007

Perth, Western Australia>Perth, Australia, since 2007

* Stjørdal, Norway, since 2009

* Istanbul, Turkey, since 2009

Guangzhou, People's Republic of China>China

Ragunda kommun>Ragunda, Sweden

* Vientiane, Laos

* Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, since 2010

* Madrid, Spain, since 2010

See also

Large Cities Climate Leadership Group

List of metropolitan areas in Thailand by population

Megalopolis (city type)

United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009

Thailand floods of late 2010

Notes

External links

Bangkok Metropolitan Administration

Captain John Bush, 1819-1905 19th century Bangkok Harbour master

}}

Category:Capitals in Asia Category:Populated places in Thailand Category:Gulf of Thailand Category:Populated places established in the 18th century Category:Provinces of Thailand

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name	Tiger Woods
fullname	Eldrick Tont Woods
nickname	Tiger
birth date	December 30, 1975
birth place	Cypress, California
death date
height
weight
nationality
residence	Windermere, Florida
spouse	Elin Nordegren (2004–2010)
children	Sam Alexis (b. 2007)Charlie Axel (b. 2009)
college	Stanford University (two years)
yearpro	1996
tour	PGA Tour (joined 1996)
prowins	97
pgawins	71 (3rd all time)
eurowins	38 (3rd all time)
japwins	2
asiawins	1
auswins	1
champwins
otherwins	15
majorwins	14
masters	Won: 1997, 2001, 2002, 2005
usopen	Won: 2000, 2002, 2008
open	Won: 2000, 2005, 2006
pga	Won: 1999, 2000, 2006, 2007
wghofid
wghofyear
award1	PGA TourRookie of the Year
year1	1996
award2	PGA Player of the Year
year2	1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
award3	PGA TourPlayer of the Year
year3	1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
award4	PGA Tourleading money winner
year4	1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
award5	Vardon Trophy
year5	1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009
award6	Byron Nelson Award
year6	1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
award7	FedEx Cup Champion
year7	2007, 2009
awardssection	List of career achievements by Tiger Woods#Awards }}

Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods (born December 30, 1975) is an American professional golfer whose achievements to date rank him among the most successful golfers of all time. Formerly the World No. 1, he is the highest-paid professional athlete in the world, having earned an estimated US$90.5 million from winnings and endorsements in 2010.

Woods has won 14 professional major golf championships, the second highest of any male player (Jack Nicklaus leads with 18), and 71 PGA Tour events, third all time behind Sam Snead and Nicklaus. He has more career major wins and career PGA Tour wins than any other active golfer. He is the youngest player to achieve the career Grand Slam, and the youngest and fastest to win 50 tournaments on tour. Additionally, Woods is only the second golfer, after Jack Nicklaus, to have achieved a career Grand Slam three times. Woods has won 16 World Golf Championships, and won at least one of those events in each of the first 11 years after they began in 1999.

Woods held the number one position in the world rankings for the most consecutive weeks and for the greatest total number of weeks. He has been awarded PGA Player of the Year a record ten times, the Byron Nelson Award for lowest adjusted scoring average a record eight times, and has the record of leading the money list in nine different seasons.

On December 11, 2009, Woods announced he would take an indefinite leave from professional golf to focus on his marriage after he admitted infidelity. His multiple infidelities were revealed by over a dozen women, through many worldwide media sources. Woods returned to competition on April 8, 2010 for the 2010 Masters, after a break lasting 20 weeks.

In July 2010, ''Forbes'' announced Woods as the richest sportsman in the world, earning a reported $105m according to them and $90.5m according to ''Sports Illustrated''.

On October 31, 2010, Woods lost the world number one ranking to Lee Westwood. As of August 29, 2011, Woods is ranked #38 in the world. This is his lowest rank since October 13, 1996, nearly 15 years ago, when he was ranked 61st; he had turned professional in late August 1996. Since mid-November 2009, shortly before the infidelity scandals began breaking in the media, Woods has been winless worldwide for more than 21 months, the longest streak without a title of his professional career.

Woods announced via his website on July 6, 2011 that he would miss the 2011 Open Championship, his second straight unplayed major championship, since he is taking time off from competitive golf to heal injuries to his left knee and ankle. On July 20, Woods announced via his website that he was firing his caddy Steve Williams, who had worked for him since 1999; the two had teamed for 13 of Woods' 14 major championships. Williams will now caddy for Australian star Adam Scott. On July 27, Woods announced via his twitter account that he would return to tournament play on August 4 for the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, following a break of 11 weeks, and that longtime friend and current employee Bryon Bell would caddy for him.

Background and family

Woods was born in Cypress, California, to Earl (1932–2006) and Kultida (Tida) Woods (born 1944). He is the only child of their marriage, but does have two half-brothers, Earl Jr. (born 1955) and Kevin (born 1957), and a half-sister, Royce (born 1958) from the 18-year marriage of Earl Woods and his first wife, Barbara Woods Gray. Earl, a retired lieutenant colonel and Vietnam War veteran, was of mixed African American, Chinese, and Native American ancestry. Kultida (née Punsawad), originally from Thailand (where Earl had met her on a tour of duty in 1968), is of mixed Thai, Chinese, and Dutch ancestry. This makes Woods himself half Asian (one-quarter Chinese and one-quarter Thai), one-quarter African American, one-eighth Native American, and one-eighth Dutch. He refers to his ethnic make-up as ''“Cablinasian”'' (a syllabic abbreviation he coined from Caucasian, Black, (American) Indian, and Asian).

From childhood he was raised as a Buddhist, and actively practised this faith from childhood until well into his adult professional golf career. He has attributed his deviations and infidelity to his losing track of Buddhism. He said that "Buddhism teaches me to stop following every impulse and to learn restraint. Obviously I lost track of what I was taught."

At birth, Woods was given 'Eldrick' and 'Tont' as first and middle names. His middle name, Tont (), is a traditional Thai name. He got his nickname from a Vietnamese soldier colleague and friend of his father, Colonel Vuong Dang Phong, to whom his father had also given the 'Tiger' nickname. Young Eldrick became generally known by that name, and by the time he had achieved national prominence in junior and amateur golf, he was simply known as 'Tiger' Woods.

Woods did retain the 'ETW' initials for use in naming one of his business enterprises, once he turned professional.

Early life and amateur golf career

Woods grew up in Orange County, California. He was a child prodigy, introduced to golf before the age of two, by his athletic father Earl, a single-figure handicap amateur golfer who had been one of the earliest African-American college baseball players at Kansas State University. In 1978, Tiger putted against comedian Bob Hope in a television appearance on ''The Mike Douglas Show''. At age three, he shot a 48 over nine holes over the Cypress Navy course, and at age five, he appeared in ''Golf Digest'' and on ABC's ''That's Incredible''. Before turning seven, Tiger won the Under Age 10 section of the Drive, Pitch, and Putt competition, held at the Navy Golf Course in Cypress, California. In 1984 at the age of eight, he won the 9–10 boys' event, the youngest age group available, at the Junior World Golf Championships. He first broke 80 at age eight. He went on to win the Junior World Championships six times, including four consecutive wins from 1988 to 1991.

Woods' father Earl wrote that Tiger first beat him when he was 11 years old, with Earl trying his best. Earl lost to Tiger every time from then on. Woods first broke 70 on a regulation golf course at age 12.

Woods's first major national junior tournament was the 1989 Big I, when he was 13 years old. Woods was paired with pro John Daly, then relatively unknown, in the final round; the event's format placed a professional with each group of juniors who had qualified. Daly birdied three of the last four holes to beat Woods by only one stroke. As a young teenager, Woods first met Jack Nicklaus in Los Angeles at the Bel-Air Country Club, when Nicklaus was performing a clinic for the club's members. Woods was part of the show, and impressed Nicklaus and the crowd with his skills and potential. Earl Woods had researched in detail the career accomplishments of Nicklaus, and had set his young son the goals of breaking those records.

While attending Western High School in Anaheim at the age of 15, Woods became the youngest ever U.S. Junior Amateur champion in 1991 (a record which stood until it was broken by Jin Liu in 2010), was voted Southern California Amateur Player of the Year for the second consecutive year, and Golf Digest Junior Amateur Player of the Year for 1991. In 1992, he defended his title at the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship, becoming the first multiple winner, competed in his first PGA Tour event, the Nissan Los Angeles Open (he missed the 36-hole cut), and was named Golf Digest Amateur Player of the Year, Golf World Player of the Year, and Golfweek National Amateur of the Year.

The following year, Woods won his third consecutive U.S. Junior Amateur Championship, and remains the event's only three-time winner. In 1994, he became the youngest-ever winner of the U.S. Amateur Championship, a record that stood until 2008 when it was broken by Danny Lee. Woods won over the TPC at Sawgrass in Florida. He was a member of the American team at the 1994 Eisenhower Trophy World Amateur Golf Team Championships (winning), and the 1995 Walker Cup (losing).

Woods graduated from Western High School in 1994 at age 18, and was voted "Most Likely to Succeed" among the graduating class. He had starred for the high school's golf team under coach Don Crosby.

College golf career

Woods was recruited very heavily by college golf powers, and chose Stanford University, the 1994 NCAA Division I champion. He obtained a golf scholarship and enrolled at Stanford in the fall of 1994. He won his first collegiate event, the 40th Annual William H. Tucker Invitational, in September. He declared a major in economics, and was nicknamed "Urkel" by college teammate Notah Begay III. In 1995, he defended his U.S. Amateur title, at the Newport Country Club in Rhode Island He participated in his first PGA Tour major, the 1995 Masters Tournament, and tied for 41st as the only amateur to make the cut. At age 20 in 1996, he became the first golfer to win three consecutive U.S. Amateur titles, winning at the Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club in Oregon, and won the NCAA individual golf championship. In winning the Silver Medal as leading amateur at The Open Championship, he tied the record for an amateur aggregate score of 281. He left college after two years and turned professional.

Professional career

1996–98: Early years and first major win

With the announcement "Hello world," Tiger Woods became a professional golfer in August 1996, and signed endorsement deals worth $40 million from Nike, Inc. and $20 million from Titleist. These endorsement contracts were the highest in golf history to that stage. He played his first professional golf event at the Greater Milwaukee Open, tying for 60th place, and would win two events in the next three months to qualify for the Tour Championship. For his efforts, Woods was named ''Sports Illustrated'''s 1996 Sportsman of the Year and PGA Tour Rookie of the Year. He began his tradition of wearing a red shirt during the final round of tournaments, a link to his college days at Stanford and a color he believes symbolizes aggression and assertiveness.

The following April, Woods won his first major, The Masters, with a record score of 18-under-par 270, by a record margin of 12 strokes. The landmark victory made Woods the tournament's youngest-ever winner, as well as its first African-American winner (and its first Asian-American winner). All told, Woods set a total of 20 Masters records in 1997 and tied six others. He went on to win another three PGA Tour events that year, and on June 15, 1997, in only his 42nd week as a professional, rose to number one in the Official World Golf Rankings, the fastest-ever ascent to world No. 1. At the conclusion of the 1997 season, Woods was named PGA Player of the Year, the first time a golfer had won the award in just his second year as a professional.

While expectations for Woods were high, his play faded in the second half of 1997, and in 1998 he only won a single PGA Tour event. He answered critics of his "slump" and what seemed to be wavering form by maintaining he was undergoing extensive swing changes with his coach, Butch Harmon, and was hoping to do better in the future.

1999–2002: Slams

In June 1999, Woods won the Memorial Tournament, a victory that touched off one of the greatest sustained periods of dominance in the history of men's golf. He completed his 1999 campaign by winning his last four starts —- including the PGA Championship -— and finished the season with eight wins, a feat not achieved since 1974. Woods was voted PGA Tour Player of the Year and Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year for the second time in three years.

Picking up where he had left off in 1999, Woods started 2000 with his fifth consecutive victory and began a record-setting season. He extended his win streak to six at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am in February with a memorable comeback—trailing by seven strokes with seven holes to play, he finished eagle-birdie-par-birdie for a 64 and a two-stroke victory. His six consecutive wins were the most since Ben Hogan in 1948 and only five behind Byron Nelson's record of eleven in a row. In the 2000 U.S. Open, he broke or tied a total of nine U.S. Open records with his 15-shot win, including Old Tom Morris's record for the largest victory margin ever in a major championship, which had stood since 1862, and became the Tour's all-time career money leader. He led by a record ten strokes going into the final round, and ''Sports Illustrated'' called it "the greatest performance in golf history." In the 2000 Open Championship at St Andrews, which he won by eight strokes, he set the record for lowest score to par (−19) in any major tournament, and he holds at least a share of that record in all four major championships. At 24, he became the youngest golfer to achieve the Career Grand Slam.

Woods's major championship streak was seriously threatened at the 2000 PGA Championship, when Bob May went head-to-head with Woods on Sunday at Valhalla Golf Club. However, Woods played the last twelve holes of regulation seven under par, and won a three-hole playoff over May with a birdie on the first hole and pars on the next two. He joined Ben Hogan (1953) as the only other player to win three professional majors in one season. Three weeks later, he won his third straight start on Tour at the Bell Canadian Open, becoming only the second man after Lee Trevino in 1971 to win the Triple Crown of Golf (U.S., British, and Canadian Opens) in one year. By the end of Woods' 2000 campaign, he had won three consecutive majors, nine PGA Tour events, and had set or tied 27 Tour records. Of the twenty events he entered, he finished in the top three fourteen times. His adjusted scoring average of 67.79 and his actual scoring average of 68.17 were the lowest in PGA Tour history, besting his own record of 68.43 in 1999 and Byron Nelson's average of 68.33 in 1945. He was named the 2000 ''Sports Illustrated'' Sportsman of the Year, becoming the first and only athlete to be honored twice. Woods was ranked as the twelfth best golfer of all time by ''Golf Digest'' magazine just four years after he turned professional.

The following season, Woods continued to dominate. His 2001 Masters Tournament win marked the only time in the modern era of the Grand Slam that any player has held all four major championship titles at the same time, a feat now known as the "Tiger Slam". It is not viewed as a true Grand Slam, however, because it was not achieved in a calendar year. Surprisingly, he was not a factor in the three remaining majors of the year, but finished with the most PGA Tour wins in the season, with five. In 2002, he started off strongly, joining Nick Faldo (1989–90) and Jack Nicklaus (1965–66) as the only men to have won back-to-back Masters Tournaments.

Two months later, Woods was the only player under par at the U.S. Open, and resurrected buzz about the calendar Grand Slam, which had eluded him in 2000. All eyes were on Woods at the Open Championship, but his third round score of 81 in dreadful weather at Muirfield ended his Grand Slam hopes. At the PGA Championship, he nearly repeated his 2000 feat of winning three majors in one year, but bogeys at the 13th and 14th holes in the final round cost him the championship by one stroke. Nonetheless, he took home the money title, Vardon Trophy, and Player of the Year honors for the fourth year in a row.

2003–04: Swing adjustments

The next phase of Woods's career saw him remain among the top competitors on the tour, but lose his dominating edge. He did not win a major in 2003 or 2004, falling to second in the PGA Tour money list in 2003 and fourth in 2004. In September 2004, his record streak of 264 consecutive weeks as the world's top-ranked golfer came to an end at the Deutsche Bank Championship, when Vijay Singh won and overtook Woods in the Official World Golf Rankings.

Many commentators were puzzled by Woods's "slump," offering explanations that ranged from his rift with swing coach Butch Harmon to his engagement and marriage. At the same time, he let it be known that he was again working on changes to his swing, this time in hopes of reducing the wear and tear on his surgically repaired left knee, which was subjected to severe stress in the 1998–2003 version of his swing. Again, he anticipated that once the adjustments were complete, he would return to his previous form. Woods changed coaches, working with Hank Haney after leaving Harmon.

2005–07: Resurgence

In the 2005 season, Woods quickly returned to his winning ways. He won the Buick Invitational in January, and in March he outplayed Phil Mickelson to win the Ford Championship at Doral and temporarily return to the Official World Golf Rankings number one position (Singh displaced him once again two weeks later). In April, he finally broke his "drought" in the majors by winning the 2005 Masters Tournament in a playoff, which regained him the number one spot in the World Rankings. Singh and Woods swapped the #1 position several times over the next couple of months, but by early July Woods had reclaimed the top spot, propelled further by a victory at the 2005 Open Championship, his 10th major. He went on to win six official money events on the PGA Tour in 2005, topping the money list for the sixth time in his career. His 2005 wins also included two at the World Golf Championships.

For Woods, the year 2006 was markedly different from 2005. While he began just as dominantly (winning the first two PGA tournaments he entered on the year) and was in the hunt for his fifth Masters championship in April, he never mounted a Sunday charge to defend his title, allowing Phil Mickelson to claim the green jacket.

Death of father

On May 3, 2006, Woods' father, mentor and inspiration, Earl, died at age 74 after a lengthy battle with prostate cancer. Woods took a nine-week hiatus from the PGA Tour to be with his family. When he returned for the 2006 U.S. Open, the rust was evident—he missed the cut at Winged Foot, the first time he had missed the cut at a major as a professional, and ended his record-tying streak of 39 consecutive cuts made at majors. Still, a tie for second at the Western Open just three weeks later showed him poised to defend his Open Championship crown at Hoylake.

Returns to top form

At the 2006 Open Championship, Woods almost exclusively used long irons off the tee (he hit driver only one time the entire week—the 16th hole of the first round), he missed just four fairways all week (hitting the fairway 92% of the time), and his score of −18 to par (three eagles, 19 birdies, 43 pars, and seven bogeys) was just one off of his major championship record −19, set at St Andrews in 2000. The victory was an emotional one for Woods, who dedicated his play to his father's memory.

Four weeks later at the 2006 PGA Championship, Woods again won in dominating fashion, making only three bogeys, tying the record for fewest in a major. He finished the tournament at 18-under-par, equaling the to-par record in the PGA that he shares with Bob May from 2000. In August 2006, he won his 50th professional tournament at the Buick Open—and at the age of thirty years and seven months, he became the youngest golfer to do so. He ended the year by winning six consecutive PGA Tour events, and won the three most prestigious awards given by the PGA Tour (Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, and Byron Nelson Awards) in the same year for a record seventh time.

At the close of his first 11 seasons, Woods's 54 wins and 12 major wins had surpassed the all time eleven-season PGA Tour total win record of 51 (set by Byron Nelson) and total majors record of 11 (set by Jack Nicklaus). He was named Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year for a record-tying fourth time.

Woods and tennis star Roger Federer, who share a major sponsor, first met at the 2006 U.S. Open tennis final. Since then, they have attended each other's events and have voiced their mutual appreciation for each other's talents.

Woods began 2007 with a two-stroke victory at the Buick Invitational for his third straight win at the event and his seventh consecutive win on the PGA Tour. The victory marked the fifth time he had won his first tournament of the season. With this win, he became the third man (after Jack Nicklaus and Sam Snead) to win at least five times in three different events on the PGA Tour (his two other events are the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and WGC-CA Championship). He earned his second victory of the year at the WGC-CA Championship for his third consecutive and sixth win overall at the event. With this victory, he became the first player to have three consecutive victories in five different events.

At the 2007 Masters Tournament, Woods was in the final group on the last day of a major for the thirteenth time in his career, but unlike the previous twelve occasions, he was unable to come away with the win. He finished tied for second two strokes behind winner Zach Johnson.

Woods earned his third victory of the season by two strokes at the Wachovia Championship, the 24th different PGA Tour tournament he won. He has collected at least three wins in a season nine times in his 12-year career. At the U.S. Open, he was in the final group for the fourth consecutive major championship, but began the day two strokes back and finished tied for second once again. His streak of never having come from behind to win on the final day of a major continued.

In search of a record-tying third consecutive Open Championship, Woods fell out of contention with a second-round 75, and never mounted a charge over the weekend. Although his putting was solid (he sank a 90-footer in the first round), his iron play held him back. "I wasn't hitting the ball as close as I needed to all week," he said, after he finished tied for twelfth, five strokes off the pace.

In early August, Woods won his record 14th World Golf Championships event at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational by 8 strokes for his third consecutive and sixth victory overall at the event. He became the first golfer to win the same event three straight times on two different occasions (1999–2001) and (2005–2007). The following week, he won his second straight PGA Championship by defeating Woody Austin by two strokes. He became the first golfer to win the PGA Championship in back-to-back seasons on two different occasions: 1999–2000 and 2006–2007. He became the second golfer, after Sam Snead, to have won at least five events on the PGA Tour in eight different seasons.

Woods earned his 60th PGA Tour victory at the BMW Championship by shooting a course record 63 in the final round to win by two strokes. He sank a fifty-foot putt in the final round and missed only two fairways on the weekend. He led the field in most birdies for the tournament, and ranked in the top five in driving accuracy, driving distance, putts per round, putts per green, and greens in regulation. Woods finished his 2007 season with a runaway victory at the Tour Championship to capture his fourth title in his last five starts of the year. He became the only two-time winner of the event, and the champion of the inaugural FedEx Cup. In his 16 starts on Tour in 2007, his adjusted scoring average was 67.79, matching his own record set in 2000. His substantial leads over the second, third, and fourth players were similar in 2000 (1.46 (Phil Mickelson), 1.52 (Ernie Els), 1.66 (David Duval)) and 2007 (1.50 (Els), 1.51 (Justin Rose), 1.60 (Steve Stricker)).

2008: Injury-shortened season

Woods started the 2008 season with an eight-stroke victory at the Buick Invitational. The win marked his 62nd PGA Tour victory, tying him with Arnold Palmer for fourth on the all time list. This marked his sixth victory at the event, the sixth time he has begun the PGA Tour season with a victory, and his third PGA Tour win in a row. The following week, he was trailing by four strokes going into the final round of the Dubai Desert Classic, but made six birdies on the back nine for a dramatic one-stroke victory. He took home his 15th World Golf Championships event at the Accenture Match Play Championship with a record-breaking 8 & 7 victory in the final.

In his next event, the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Woods got off to a slow start, finishing the first round at even par and tied for 34th place. After finishing the third round in a five-way tie for first place, he completed his fifth consecutive PGA Tour victory with a dramatic putt on the 18th hole to defeat Bart Bryant by a stroke. It was also his fifth career victory in this event. Geoff Ogilvy stopped Woods's run at the WGC-CA Championship, a tournament Woods had won in each of the previous three years. He remains the only golfer to have had more than one streak of at least five straight wins on the PGA Tour.

Despite bold predictions that Woods might again challenge for the Grand Slam, he did not mount a serious charge at the 2008 Masters Tournament, struggling with his putter through each round. He would still finish alone in second, three strokes behind the champion, Trevor Immelman. On April 15, 2008, he underwent his third left knee arthroscopic surgery in Park City, Utah, and missed two months on the PGA Tour. The first surgery he had was in 1994, when he had a benign tumor removed, and the second in December 2002. He was named ''Men's Fitness'''s Fittest Athlete in the June/July 2008 issue.

Woods returned for the 2008 U.S. Open in one of the most anticipated golf groupings in history including Woods, Phil Mickelson and Adam Scott, the top three golfers in the world. Woods struggled the first day, notching a double bogey on his first hole. He would end the round at +1 (72), four shots off the lead. He scored −3 (68) his second day, still paired with Mickelson, managing five birdies, one eagle and four bogeys. On the third day of the tournament, he started off with a double bogey once again and was trailing by five shots with six holes to play. However, he finished the round by making two eagle putts, a combined in length, and a chip-in birdie to take a one-shot lead into the final round. His final putt assured that he would be in the final group for the sixth time in the last eight major championships.

On Sunday, June 15, Woods began the day with another double bogey, and trailed Rocco Mediate by one stroke after 71 holes. He winced after several of his tee shots, and sometimes made an effort to keep weight off his left foot. Woods was behind by one stroke when he reached the final hole. Left with a putt for birdie, he sank it to force an 18-hole playoff with Mediate on Monday. Despite leading by as many as three strokes at one point in the playoff, Woods again dropped back and needed to birdie the 18th to force sudden-death with Mediate, and did so. Woods made par on the first sudden-death hole; Mediate subsequently missed his par putt, giving Woods his 14th major championship. After the tournament, Mediate said "This guy does things that are just not normal by any stretch of the imagination," and Kenny Perry added, "He beat everybody on one leg." His third win in the U.S. Open tied him with Bobby Jones for the career lead in USGA championships won, with nine.

Two days after winning the U.S. Open, Woods announced that he would be required to undergo reconstructive anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) surgery on his left knee and would miss the remainder of the 2008 golf season, including the final two major championships: The Open Championship, and the PGA Championship. Woods also revealed that he had been playing for at least ten months with a torn ligament in his left knee, and sustained a double stress fracture in his left tibia while rehabbing after the surgery he had after the Masters. Publications throughout the world asserted his U.S. Open victory as "epic" and praised his efforts, especially after learning of the extent of his knee injury. Woods called it "My greatest ever championship – the best of the 14 because of all the things that have gone on over the past week."

Woods' absence from the remainder of the season caused PGA Tour TV ratings to decline. Overall viewership for the second half of the 2008 season saw a 46.8% decline as compared to 2007.

2009: Returning to the PGA Tour

Called "one of the most anticipated returns in sports" by the Associated Press, Woods' first PGA Tour event after an eight-month layoff came at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship. He lost to Tim Clark in the second round. His first stroke play event was the WGC-CA Championship at Doral, where he finished 9th (−11). Woods won his first title of the year at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, where he was five strokes behind Sean O'Hair entering the final round. Woods shot a final round 67 and made a birdie putt at the final hole to defeat O'Hair by one stroke. Afterwards, he would continue to perform consistently. At The Masters, he finished sixth, four strokes behind eventual winner Ángel Cabrera. Then, despite having the 18-hole lead at the Quail Hollow Championship, he finished two strokes behind Sean O'Hair. At The Players Championship, he played in the final group on Sunday, but finished eighth.

Woods won his second event of 2009 at the Memorial Tournament. He trailed by four shots after three rounds but shot a final round 65, which included two consecutive birdies to end the tournament. The win was Woods' fourth at the event. Woods won his third event of the 2009 season on July 5 at the AT&T National, an event hosted by Woods himself. However, for the third time going into a 2009 major, Woods failed to capitalize on his preceding win. Instead, at the 2009 Open Championship, played at Turnberry, he missed the cut for only the second time in a major championship since turning professional.

On August 2, Woods captured the Buick Open for his fourth win of the season, with a three-shot victory over three other players. After firing an opening-round 71 that put him in 95th place and outside of the cutline, Woods responded with a second-round 63, nine-under-par, that vaulted him into contention. A third-round 65 put him atop the leaderboard and he coasted to victory with a final-round 69 for a 20-under 268 four-round total. This was his biggest turnaround pro victory to date.

Woods won his 70th career event the following week at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. He went head-to-head against Pádraig Harrington on Sunday until the 16th, where Harrington made a triple-bogey-8 on the par five hole, and Woods made birdie. Tiger went on to win the event by four strokes over Harrington and Robert Allenby.

At the 2009 PGA Championship, Woods shot a 5-under 67 to take the lead after the first round. He remained leader or co-leader through the second and third rounds. Going into the final round, Woods had a 2-stroke lead at 8-under. However, at the 68th hole, Woods was overtaken for the first time atop the leaderboard by Yang Yong-eun. Yang eventually won the tournament by three strokes over Woods, who finished second. It marked the first time that Woods failed to win a major when leading or co-leading after 54 holes, and the first time he had lost any tournament on American soil when leading by more than one shot. It also meant that Woods would end the year without a major for the first time since 2004.

Woods won his 71st career title at the BMW Championship. The win moved him to first place in the FedEx Cup standings going into the final playoff event. It was his fifth win at the BMW Championship (including three wins as the Western Open) and marked the fifth time he had won an event five or more times in his career on the PGA Tour. Woods finished second at The Tour Championship to capture his second FedEx Cup title.

At the 2009 Presidents Cup, Woods had a spectacular performance, winning all five of his matches at the event. He joined his friend Mark O'Meara, who won all five of his matches at the 1996 Presidents Cup, and Shigeki Maruyama, who accomplished this feat in the 1998 Presidents Cup. In all three instances, their respective teams won the competition. Woods was paired with Steve Stricker for all four partners' rounds of the competition, in foursomes and four-ball. On the first day of foursomes, they won 6 and 4 over the team of Ryo Ishikawa and Geoff Ogilvy. In Friday's match of four-ball, they won over the team of Ángel Cabrera and Geoff Ogilvy, 5 and 3. On Saturday, they beat the team of Tim Clark and Mike Weir after trailing for most of the match, by winning the 17th and 18th holes to win 1-up in morning foursomes, and in the afternoon four-ball they defeated the team of Ryo Ishikawa and Y. E. Yang by the score of 4 and 2. In the singles match, Woods was paired with his nemesis from the 2009 PGA Championship, Yang. Yang grabbed the quick 1-up lead on the first hole, but on the third hole lost the lead and Woods went onto win the match by a score of 6 and 5. In addition, Woods clinched the Cup for the United States, which was the first time ever in his career he had the honor and opportunity to do this in a team event competition.

In November 2009, Woods was paid $3.3 million to play in the JBWere Masters, held at Kingston Heath in Melbourne, Australia from November 12 to 15. The event was sold out for the first time. He went on to win at 14 under par, two strokes over Australian Greg Chalmers, marking his 38th European Tour win and his first win on the PGA Tour of Australasia.

2010: Turbulent, winless season

After his past marital infidelities came to light, with massive worldwide media coverage which would eventually last for several months, Woods announced an indefinite break from competitive golf at the end of 2009. He apologized for his behaviour at a news conference held at PGA Tour headquarters on Feb. 19; the statement received live network coverage. In March 2010, he announced that he would be playing in the 2010 Masters.

Missing the start of the 2010 season, Woods returned to competition for the 2010 Masters Tournament in Augusta, Georgia, starting on April 8, 2010, after a break lasting nearly 20 weeks. He began with a 4-under-par round of 68, his best ever start at the Masters, and remained in contention until nearly the end of the fourth day, eventually finishing the tournament tied for fourth. Woods next competed at the 2010 Quail Hollow Championship at the end of April, but missed the cut for just the sixth time of his career. He shot his second-worst round as a professional on April 30, a 7-over 79 during the second round to miss the 36-hole cut by eight strokes. Woods withdrew from The Players Championship during the fourth round, on May 9, later citing a neck injury. He had scored 70–71–71 in the first three rounds, and was two over par for the round, while playing the seventh hole, when he withdrew. Hank Haney, who had coached Woods since 2003, issued a statement resigning as his coach shortly after The Players Championship.

Woods returned to competitive golf four weeks later to defend his title at The Memorial Tournament. He made the cut and went on to finish T19, his worst finish in that tournament since 2002. His next competitive tournament began June 17 at the U.S. Open held at Pebble Beach, the site of his 2000 win by a record 15 shots. After a relatively unspectacular performance through the first two rounds, Woods showed signs of his pre-2010 form, as he managed a back nine 31 in route to shooting a five-under-par 66 on Saturday, which would tie for the low round of the tournament and put him back into contention. However, he was unable to mount a charge on Sunday, despite the collapse of 54-hole leader Dustin Johnson, and went on to finish the tournament at three-over-par and in a tie for fourth place, repeating his top-5 result at the 2010 Masters Tournament.

Woods then played in the AT&T National in late June, which he had formerly hosted, before AT&T dropped his personal sponsorship. He was the defending champion, and the favorite among many, but he struggled all four days of the tournament, failed to post a round under par, and tied for 46th place.

Woods then flew to Ireland to play in a two-day charity event -– the JP McManus Pro-Am –- and then flew home to Florida to "see his kids", before preparing for The Open Championship just over a week later. He changed his putter for the Open Championship at St Andrews Old Course, saying he always struggled on slow greens and needed this new Nike Method 001 putter to "get the ball rolling faster and better". This was a somewhat surprising statement, considering he had won the previous two Open Championships held at St Andrews, in 2000 and 2005. It was the first time Woods had used any other putter than his Titleist Scotty Cameron since 1999. Woods putted well the first day of the tournament, shooting a 5-under 67, but wind gusts of over 40 mph suspended play for 66 minutes the next day at St Andrews, and Woods was never able to get anything going. It was the same story Saturday. He missed short putts over and over again. He changed his putter back to his old Scotty Cameron for the final round, but did not putt any better. Woods finished 3-under overall, 13 shots behind winner Louis Oosthuizen (tied for 23rd place).

Woods finished in 18-over par, tying for 78th place (second-to-last place) in the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational on August 8. He posted his worst four-round result as a professional golfer.

Woods began working with Canadian golf coach Sean Foley in August 2010; the two had been discussing a possible partnership for several previous weeks. In the 2010 PGA Championship, played at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin, Woods made the 36-hole cut but failed to mount a challenge, ending in a tie for 28th place.

Woods's inconsistent play in the 2010 FedEx Cup playoffs failed to qualify him into the top 30 players for The Tour Championship, for the first time since he turned professional in 1996. He had won the FedEx Cup in 2007 and 2009. He also failed to qualify on points for the 2010 Ryder Cup team, for the first time in his career. But captain Corey Pavin chose Woods as one of his four captain's picks. Woods, again partnering with Steve Stricker in pairs play, played inconsistently in terrible weather conditions at Celtic Manor in Wales; the matches were delayed several times when the course became unplayable, and the format had to be significantly modified and then even extended to a fourth day to complete the event. The U.S., entering as Cup holders, lost the Cup to the European team, by the narrowest possible margin, 14.5 to 13.5. However, Woods played impressive golf in his final-day singles match, winning decisively over Francesco Molinari.

Woods then took an extended break from competition, to refine new techniques with Foley. He returned in early November, after more than a month off, at the WGC-HSBC Champions event in Shanghai, where he had placed 2nd in 2009, but failed to challenge seriously. Next was a visit to Thailand, his mother's birthplace, for a one-day Skins Game, honoring King Bhumibol. At the 2010 JBWere Masters, held near Melbourne, Australia in mid-November, Woods arrived as defending champion and was paid an appearance fee of more than $3 million. He charged late on the final day to finish in fourth place. Over his final six holes, Woods made two eagles, two birdies, and two pars, to end with a round of 6-under 65. Three weeks later, resuming his role as host of the elite-field Chevron World Challenge near Los Angeles (he had skipped the 2009 event because of personal crisis; the tournament serves as a primary benefactor of his charitable foundation), Woods put up three straight rounds in the 60s, and led going into the final round for the first time in 2010. But he struggled with his long-game control in mixed weather conditions on Sunday, and putted much worse than he had in previous rounds, winding up in a tie with Graeme McDowell after 72 holes. McDowell sank a birdie putt on the final green; Woods then sank his own short birdie putt to tie. McDowell again made birdie on the first playoff hole (the 18th) from to take the title, when Woods missed from shorter range. The playoff loss meant that Woods went winless for an entire season, for the first time since turning professional. However, Woods finished the 2010 season ranked #2 in the world. He again used the Nike Method 003 putter for his final two events of 2010.

2011: Work in progress

Woods opened his 2011 season at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines Golf Course near San Diego. He has enjoyed tremendous success there, with six past Tour titles and a dramatic playoff win in the 2008 U.S. Open, but was making his first appearance at the course since that 2008 major win. Woods played strongly for the first two rounds, scoring 69–69 to sit five strokes behind halfway leader Bill Haas. But on the weekend, many wayward approach shots found greenside bunkers, and Woods was unable to recover sufficiently well to stay in contention. He scored 74–75 to end at one-under-par 287, 15 strokes behind winner Bubba Watson, in a tie for 44th place. It was the worst season-opening performance of his career.

Woods made his next appearance at the Dubai Desert Classic, an event he had previously won twice and always ended inside the top five, in six previous appearances. Woods, ranked #3 in the world, was grouped with #1 Lee Westwood and #2 Martin Kaymer for the first two rounds. Woods started with 71 and scored 6-under 66 in round two to move into contention, and stayed in the hunt with 72 for round three, but struggled on Sunday with 75, to end in a tie for 20th, at 4-under 284, seven shots back of winner Álvaro Quirós. During the final round of that competition, Woods spat on the ground a few feet from the hole, after missing a putt at the 12th green. The incident was shown on televised coverage worldwide. Woods apologized for the incident in which he breached the European Tour's code of conduct; he will be fined an undisclosed sum. Later starters had to play across the area where Woods spat. Sportswriter John Feinstein stated on Golf Channel a few days after the incident that Woods is in fact the most-fined player in the history of the PGA Tour.

Woods made his next appearance at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, a World Golf Championship event for the top 64 players. He was playing in this tournament for the first time since Accenture dropped his personal sponsorship some 14 months earlier. Woods, a three-time champion who has more match wins in the event than any other player, came in as one of the four #1 seeds, but lost in the first round on the first sudden-death hole, the 19th, to Thomas Bjørn, after the two players had tied their 18-hole match. On February 27, Woods had his world ranking drop to #5,;

Woods played next in the WGC-Cadillac Championship at Doral's Blue Monster course, where he had never missed the top ten in any event. Woods was never in contention to win, but kept his streak going with a tie for tenth place, scoring 70–74–70–66, for eight-under-par 280, eight shots behind winner Nick Watney. His final round tied for best of the day, and was his lowest 18-hole score on the PGA Tour since the third round of the 2010 U.S. Open. After the final round, Woods commented that he was making good progress on his game with coach Sean Foley, being able to identify and correct faults during his final round at Doral. Woods put a Nike heel-shafted blade putter in play for the final two rounds, replacing his center-shafted Titleist Scotty Cameron blade model; he explained afterward he wanted a hotter putter to tackle Doral's grainy greens.

Woods competed in the 2011 Tavistock Cup, a charity interclub team event, held at his home course, Isleworth Country Club, but represented the new club Albany, of the Bahamas, where he is an investor. Woods teamed with Arjun Atwal the first day to post a better-ball score of 64, and shot 69 on his own ball on day two. Lake Nona won the team portion of the event, and England's Oliver Wilson won the Payne Stewart Salver with the low individual score of 65.

Woods next competed in the 2011 Arnold Palmer Invitational, an event he has won six times. Woods showed inconsistent play over the four rounds, carding 73–68–74–72 to finish at one-under-par 287, in a tie for 24th place, seven shots behind winner Martin Laird. His world ranking dropped to #7 following this event, the lowest it has been since the week before the 1997 Masters. Woods contended strongly in the 2011 Masters Tournament, scoring 71–66–74–67 to finish at ten-under 278, in a tie for fourth place, four shots behind winner Charl Schwartzel. His ranking rose to #5.

Woods was sidelined from tournament play until May 12 by two leg injuries incurred in round three of the Masters. He entered the 2011 Players Championship, but withdrew after nine holes of the first round, with a score of +6, as his injuries caused him to limp noticeably. His world rank fell to #15 on June 6, his lowest since early 1997, more than 14 years ago.

Woods announced on June 7 via his website and twitter that he would not be playing in the 2011 U.S. Open, set to begin June 16, due to continued pain in his left Achilles tendon and left anterior cruciate ligament. Woods stated he was very disappointed to not be able to play in the season's second major championship, but that he was listening to his doctors, continuing to work on his recovery, and planning for the long term. He also stated the same day that he would remain with longtime agent Mark Steinberg after the agent's contract was not renewed by the International Management Group. Both stories were picked up immediately by media outlets worldwide. Woods also missed the 2011 British Open, still recovering from injury. He fired his longtime caddy Steve Williams following the AT&T National in early July; Williams will now caddy for Adam Scott.

Woods returned to tournament play in early August, following a break of 11 weeks, at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, where he is a seven-time champion. He had Bryon Bell as caddy; Bell is a childhood friend, former high school golf teammate, and current employee of Tiger Woods Design; Bell had caddied for Woods on several previous occasions, dating back to amateur golf. Woods stated in a pre-tournament press conference that Bell is serving temporarily as his caddie, and that he has yet to make a decision on a permanent replacement for Williams. Woods also stated he is "completely healthy". He tied for 37th place after rounds of 68-70-71-70, as Adam Scott won with a 17-under-par total 263. Woods finished last in the field of 76 players in driving accuracy, hitting only slightly more than 40% of his fairways.

Fred Couples, 2011 Presidents Cup U.S. team captain, stated he would use a captain's pick to select Woods for the team should he not automatically qualify. Woods had his contract discontinued by sponsor Tag Heuer, a luxury Swiss watchmaker, on August 10.

Woods, again with Bell on his bag, missed the cut at the 2011 PGA Championship, held at Atlanta Athletic Club, for the first time in that major and for only the third time in a major championship as a professional. After starting with three birdies and two pars over his first five holes, he collapsed to shoot 77, his highest first-round major score since turning pro in 1996, and followed this up with 73 the second day, to finish at ten-over-par 150, missing the cut by six strokes. He had five holes with double bogey or worse in 36 holes; the only other previous event where he had this was the 2007 Arnold Palmer Invitational. Woods also failed to qualify for the 2011 FedEx Cup playoffs since he is outside the top 125 qualifying point earners.

Playing style

When Woods first joined the professional tour in 1996, his long drives had a large impact on the world of golf. However, when he did not upgrade his equipment in the following years (insisting upon the use of True Temper Dynamic Gold steel-shafted clubs and smaller steel clubheads that promoted accuracy over distance), many opponents caught up to him. Phil Mickelson even made a joke in 2003 about Woods using "inferior equipment", which did not sit well with Nike, Titleist or Woods. During 2004, Woods finally upgraded his driver technology to a larger clubhead and graphite shaft, which, coupled with his clubhead speed, made him one of the Tour's lengthier players off the tee once again.

Despite his power advantage, Woods has always focused on developing an excellent all-around game. Although in recent years he has typically been near the bottom of the Tour rankings in driving accuracy, his iron play is generally accurate, his recovery and bunker play is very strong, and his putting (especially under pressure) is possibly his greatest asset. He is largely responsible for a shift to higher standards of athleticism amongst professional golfers, and is known for putting in more hours of practice than most.

From mid-1993, while he was still an amateur, until 2004, Woods worked almost exclusively with leading swing coach Butch Harmon. From mid-1997, Harmon and Woods fashioned a major redevelopment of Woods' full swing, achieving greater consistency, better distance control, and better kinesiology. The changes began to pay off in 1999. Since March 2004, Woods has been coached by Hank Haney, who has worked on flattening his swing plane. Woods has continued to win tournaments with Haney, but his driving accuracy has dropped significantly since his move from Harmon. In June 2004, Woods was involved in a media spat with Harmon, who also works as a golf broadcaster, when Harmon suggested that he was in "denial" about the problems in his game, but they publicly patched up their differences.

Haney announced that he was stepping down as Woods' coach on May 10, 2010.

On August 10, 2010, Sean Foley helped Woods with his swing during a practice round at the PGA Championship and confirmed the possibility of working with him.

When Woods turned pro, Mike "Fluff" Cowan was his caddie until March 8, 1999. He was replaced by Steve Williams, who has become a close friend of Woods and is often credited with helping him with key shots and putts.

Equipment

As of 2011:

Driver: Nike VR Tour Driver (8.5 degrees; Mitsubishi Diamana Whiteboard 83g shaft)

Fairway Woods: Nike VR Pro 15° 3-wood with Mitsubishi Diamana Blueboard and Nike SQ II 19° 5-Wood

Irons: Nike VR Pro Blades (2-PW) (Tiger will put his 5 Wood or 2 Iron in the bag depending upon the course setup and conditions). All irons are 1 degree upright, have D4 swingweight, standard size Tour Velvet grips and True Temper Dynamic Gold X-100 shafts.

Wedges: Nike VR 56° Sand Wedge and Nike SV 60° Lob Wedge

Putter: Nike Method 001, 35 inches long; Titleist Scotty Cameron; Nike Method 003 (switches putters depending on the greens of certain courses)

Ball: Nike ONE Tour D (with "Tiger" imprint)

Golf Glove: Nike Dri-FIT Tour glove

Golf Shoes: Nike Air Zoom TW 2011

Driver club cover: ''Frank'', a plush tiger head club cover created by his mother. Frank has appeared in several commercials.

Other ventures and aspects

Charity and youth projects

Woods has established several charitable and youth projects. The Tiger Woods Foundation: The Tiger Woods Foundation was established in 1996 by Woods and his father Earl. It focuses on projects for children. Initially these comprised golf clinics (aimed especially at disadvantaged children), and a grant program. Further activities added since then include university scholarships, an association with Target House at St. Jude Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee; the Start Something character development program, which reached one million participants by 2003; and the Tiger Woods Learning Center. The Tiger Woods Foundation recently has teamed up with the PGA Tour to create a new PGA tour event that will take place in the nation's capital (Washington, D.C.) beginning in July 2007. In The City Golf Clinics and Festivals: Since 1997, the Tiger Woods Foundation has conducted junior golf clinics across the country. The Foundation began the “In the City” golf clinic program in 2003. The first three clinics were held in Indio, California, Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, and San Juan, Puerto Rico, and were targeted to all youth, ages 7–17, and their families. Each three-day event features golf lessons on Thursday and Friday of clinic week and a free community festival on Saturday. Host cities invite 15 junior golfers to participate in the annual Tiger Woods Foundation Youth Clinic. This three-day junior golf event includes tickets to Disney Resorts, a junior golf clinic, and an exhibition by Tiger Woods. Tiger Woods Learning Center: This is a educational facility in Anaheim, California which opened in February 2006. It is expected to be used by several thousand students each year in grades 4 to 12. The center features seven classrooms, extensive multi-media facilities and an outdoor golf teaching area. Tiger Jam: An annual fundraising concert which has raised over $10 million for the Tiger Woods Foundation. Past performers at Tiger Jam include Sting, Bon Jovi and Stevie Wonder. Chevron World Challenge: An annual off-season charity golf tournament. The event carries generous prize money, and in 2007 Woods donated his $1.35 million first-place check to his Learning Center. Tiger Woods Foundation National Junior Golf Team: An eighteen member team which competes in the annual Junior World Golf Championships.

Woods has also participated in charity work for his current caddy, Steve Williams. On April 24, 2006 Woods won an auto racing event that benefited the Steve Williams Foundation to raise funds to provide sporting careers for disadvantaged youth.

Writings

Woods wrote a golf instruction column for ''Golf Digest'' magazine from 1997 to February 2011. In 2001 he wrote a best-selling golf instruction book, ''How I Play Golf'', which had the largest print run of any golf book for its first edition, 1.5 million copies.

Laser eye surgery

Woods underwent laser eye surgery in 1999. Before this surgery, Woods eyesight was minus 11, meaning he was almost legally blind. He considered the surgery a big help in his career and a good alternative to the glasses and contact lenses. He immediately starting winning tour events after the surgery. He received money from TLC Laser Eye Centers to endorse them. In 2007, he had a second laser eye surgery when his vision began to deteriorate again.

Golf course design

Woods announced on December 3, 2006 that he will develop his first golf course in the United Arab Emirates through his golf course design company, Tiger Woods Design. The Tiger Woods Dubai will feature a , par-72 course named ''Al Ruwaya'' (meaning "serenity"), a clubhouse, a golf academy, 320 exclusive villas and a boutique hotel with 80 suites. Tiger Woods Dubai is a joint venture between Woods and Tatweer, a member of the government-affiliated Dubai Holding. Woods chose Dubai because he was excited about the "challenge of transforming a desert terrain into a world-class golf course." The development was scheduled to be finished in late 2009 at Dubailand, the region's largest tourism and leisure project. However, economic difficulties in Dubai have delayed the completion of this project. A Feb. 1, 2011 report on The Golf Channel stated the project has been abandoned, with only six holes completed.

On August 14, 2007, Woods announced his first course to be designed in the U.S., The Cliffs at High Carolina. The private course will sit at about in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Asheville, North Carolina.

Woods will also design a golf course in Mexico. This will be his first oceanfront course. It will be called Punta Brava, which will be located by Ensenada, Baja California. The project will include an 18-hole course designed by Woods, 40 estate lots of up to three acres in size, and 80 villa homes of up to . Construction will start in 2009 with the project scheduled for completion in 2011.

Endorsements

Woods has been called the world's most marketable athlete. Shortly after his 21st birthday in 1996, he began signing endorsement deals with numerous companies, including General Motors, Titleist, General Mills, American Express, Accenture, and Nike, Inc. In 2000, he signed a 5-year, $105 million contract extension with Nike. It was the largest endorsing deal ever signed by an athlete at that time. Woods' endorsement has been credited with playing a significant role in taking the Nike Golf brand from a "start-up" golf company earlier in the past decade, to becoming the leading golf apparel company in the world, and a major player in the equipment and golf ball market. Nike Golf is one of the fastest growing brands in the sport, with an estimated $600 million in sales. Woods has been described as the "ultimate endorser" for Nike Golf, frequently seen wearing Nike gear during tournaments, and even in advertisements for other products. Woods receives a cut from the sales of Nike Golf apparel, footwear, golf equipment, golf balls, and has a building named after him at Nike’s headquarters campus in Beaverton, Oregon.

In 2002, Woods was involved in every aspect of the launch of Buick's Rendezvous SUV. A company spokesman stated that Buick is happy with the value of Woods' endorsement, pointing out that more than 130,000 Rendezvous vehicles were sold in 2002 and 2003. "That exceeded our forecasts," he was quoted as saying, "It has to be in recognition of Tiger." In February 2004, Buick renewed Woods' endorsement contract for another five years, in a deal reportedly worth $40 million.

Woods collaborated closely with TAG Heuer to develop the world's first professional golf watch, released in April 2005. The lightweight, titanium-construction watch, designed to be worn while playing the game, incorporates numerous innovative design features to accommodate golf play. It is capable of absorbing up to 5,000 Gs of shock, far in excess of the forces generated by a normal golf swing. In 2006, the TAG Heuer ''Professional Golf Watch'' won the prestigious ''iF product design award'' in the Leisure/Lifestyle category.

Woods also endorses the Tiger Woods PGA Tour series of video games; he has done so since 1999. In 2006, he signed a six-year contract with Electronic Arts, the series' publisher.

In February 2007, along with Roger Federer and Thierry Henry, Woods became an ambassador for the "Gillette Champions" marketing campaign. Gillette did not disclose financial terms, though an expert estimated the deal could total between $10 million and $20 million.

In October 2007, Gatorade announced that Woods would have his own brand of sports drink starting in March 2008. "Gatorade Tiger" was his first U.S. deal with a beverage company and his first licensing agreement. Although no figures were officially disclosed, ''Golfweek'' magazine reported that it was for five years and could pay him as much as $100 million. The company decided in early fall 2009 to discontinue the drink due to weak sales.

According to ''Golf Digest'', Woods made $769,440,709 from 1996 to 2007, and the magazine predicted that by 2010, Woods would pass one billion dollars in earnings. In 2009, ''Forbes'' confirmed that Woods was indeed the world's first athlete to earn over a billion dollars in his career (before taxes), after accounting for the $10 million bonus Woods received for the FedEx Cup title. The same year, Forbes estimated his net worth to be $600 million, making him the second richest "African American" behind only Oprah Winfrey.

Honors

On August 20, 2007, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver announced that Woods would be inducted into the California Hall of Fame. He was inducted December 5, 2007 at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts in Sacramento.

He has been named "Athlete of the Decade" by the Associated Press in December 2009. He has been named Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year a record-tying four times, and is the only person to be named ''Sports Illustrated'''s Sportsman of the Year more than once.

Since his record-breaking win at the 1997 Masters Tournament, golf's increased popularity is commonly attributed to Woods' presence. He is credited by some sources for dramatically increasing prize money in golf, generating interest in new audiences, and for drawing the largest TV audiences in golf history.

Politics

Tiger Woods is registered as an independent. In January 2009, Woods delivered a speech commemorating the military at the We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial. In April 2009, Woods visited the White House while in the Washington, D.C. area promoting the golf tournament he hosts, the AT&T National.

Cut streak

In both Byron Nelson's and Woods's eras, "making the cut" has been defined as receiving a paycheck. However, in Nelson's day, only players who placed in the top 20 (sometimes as few as 15) in an event won a paycheck, whereas in Woods's day only players who reach a low enough score (top 70 and ties for most events) within the first 36 holes win a paycheck. Several golf analysts argue that Woods did not actually surpass Nelson's consecutive cuts mark, reasoning that 31 of the tournaments in which Woods competed were "no-cut" events, meaning all the players in the field were guaranteed to compete throughout the entire event regardless of their scores through 36 holes (and hence all "made the cut," meaning that they all received a paycheck). These analysts argue that this would leave Woods's final consecutive cuts made at 111, and Nelson's at 113.

However, at least ten of the tournaments in which Nelson played did not have modern-day cuts; that is, all of the players in these events were guaranteed to compete past 36 holes. The Masters, for example, did not institute a 36-hole cut until 1957 (which was well after Nelson retired), the PGA Championship was match play until 1958, and it is unclear whether or not three other events in which Nelson competed had 36-hole cuts. Therefore, these analysts remove "no 36-hole cut" events from both cut streak measures, leaving Nelson's consecutive cuts made at 103 (or possibly less) and Woods's at 111.

In the tournaments in which Nelson competed that did not have 36-hole cuts (that is: the Masters, PGA Championship and the possible three other tournaments), only the top 20 players received a paycheck even though all players in these events were guaranteed to compete past 36 holes. Hence, in these no-cut events, Nelson still placed in the top 20, so Nelson's 113 cuts made are reflective of his 113 top 20 finishes. Woods achieved a top 20 finish 21 consecutive times (from July 2000 to July 2001) and, in the 31 no-cut events in which he played, he won 10 and finished out of the top 10 only five times. Others, including Woods himself, argue that the two streaks cannot be compared, because the variation of tournament structures in the two eras is too great for any meaningful comparison to be made.

A more relevant comparison on cut streaks is the 105 consecutive cuts made by Jack Nicklaus between 1970 and 1976, ending at the 1976 World Open. The cut format from that era was virtually identical to the current PGA Tour practice, and most events in Nicklaus' streak, except for the Tournament of Champions (now the SBS Championship), the World Series of Golf (now the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational), and the U.S. Professional Match Play Championship (10 events for Nicklaus) had a cut made after 36 holes.

Tiger-proofing

Early in Woods's career, a small number of golf experts expressed concern about his impact on the competitiveness of the game and the public appeal of professional golf. Sportswriter Bill Lyon of Knight-Ridder asked in a column, "Isn't Tiger Woods actually bad for golf?" (though Lyon ultimately concluded that he was not). At first, some pundits feared that Woods would drive the spirit of competition out of the game of golf by making existing courses obsolete and relegating opponents to simply competing for second place each week.

A related effect was measured by economist Jennifer Brown of the University of California, Berkeley who found that other golfers played worse when competing against Woods than when he was not in the tournament. The scores of highly skilled (exempt) golfers are nearly one stroke higher when playing against Woods. This effect was larger when he was on winning streaks and disappeared during his well-publicized slump in 2003–04. Brown explains the results by noting that competitors of similar skill can hope to win by increasing their level of effort, but that, when facing a "superstar" competitor, extra exertion does not significantly raise one's level of winning while increasing risk of injury or exhaustion, leading to reduced effort.

Many courses in the PGA Tour rotation (including Major Championship sites like Augusta National) began to add yardage to their tees in an effort to slow down long hitters like Woods, a strategy that became known as "Tiger-Proofing". Woods himself welcomed the change as he believes adding yardage to the course does not affect his ability to win.

Ryder Cup performance

Despite his outstanding success on the PGA Tour, Woods had little success in the Ryder Cup early in his career. In his first Ryder Cup in 1997, he earned only 1½ points competing in every match and partnering mostly with Mark O'Meara. Costantino Rocca defeated Woods in his singles match. In 1999, he earned 2 points over every match with a variety of partners. In 2002, he lost both Friday matches, but, partnered with Davis Love III for both of Saturday's matches, won two points for the Americans, and was slated to anchor the Americans for the singles matches, both squads going into Sunday with 8 points. However, after the Europeans took an early lead, his match with Jesper Parnevik was rendered unimportant and they halved the match. In 2004, he was paired with Phil Mickelson on Friday but lost both matches, and only earned one point on Saturday. With the Americans facing a 5–11 deficit, he won the first singles match, but the team was not able to rally. In 2006, he was paired with Jim Furyk for all of the pairs matches, and they won two of their four matches. Woods won his singles match, one of only three Americans to do so that day. Woods missed the 2008 Ryder Cup competition altogether, as he was recovering from reconstructive surgery on his left knee. Despite Woods' absence, the United States team posted its largest margin of victory in the event since 1981.

Career achievements

Woods has won 71 official PGA Tour events including 14 majors. He is 14–1 when going into the final round of a major with at least a share of the lead. He has been heralded as "the greatest closer in history" by multiple golf experts. He owns the lowest career scoring average and the most career earnings of any player in PGA Tour history.

He has spent the most consecutive and cumulative weeks atop the world rankings. He is one of five players (along with Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, and Jack Nicklaus) to have won all four professional major championships in his career, known as the Career Grand Slam, and was the youngest to do so. Woods is the only player to have won all four professional major championships in a row, accomplishing the feat in the 2000–2001 seasons.

PGA Tour wins (71)

European Tour wins (38)

Japan Golf Tour wins (2)

Asian Tour wins (1)

PGA Tour of Australasia wins (1)

Other professional wins (15)

Amateur wins (21)

Major championships

Wins (14)

{|class="sortable wikitable" !Year!!Championship!!54 Holes!!Winning Score!!Margin!!Runner(s)-up |- style="background:#d0f0c0;" | 1997 ||Masters Tournament ||9 shot lead ||−18 (70–66–65–69=270) ||12 strokes || Tom Kite |- style="background:thistle;" | 1999 ||PGA Championship ||Tied for lead ||−11 (70–67–68–72=277) ||1 stroke || Sergio García |- style="background:#fbceb1;" | 2000 ||U.S. Open ||10 shot lead ||−12 (65–69–71–67=272) ||15 strokes || Ernie Els, Miguel Ángel Jiménez |- style="background:#abcdef;" | 2000 ||The Open Championship ||6 shot lead ||−19 (67–66–67–69=269) ||8 strokes || Thomas Bjørn, Ernie Els |- style="background:thistle;" | 2000 ||PGA Championship (2)||1 shot lead ||−18 (66–67–70–67=270) ||Playoff ¹ || Bob May |- style="background:#d0f0c0;" | 2001 ||Masters Tournament (2)||1 shot lead ||−16 (70–66–68–68=272) ||2 strokes || David Duval |- style="background:#d0f0c0;" | 2002 ||Masters Tournament (3)||Tied for lead ||−12 (70–69–66–71=276) ||3 strokes || Retief Goosen |- style="background:#fbceb1;" | 2002 ||U.S. Open (2)||4 shot lead ||−3 (67–68–70–72=277) ||3 strokes || Phil Mickelson |- style="background:#d0f0c0;" | 2005 ||Masters Tournament (4)||3 shot lead ||−12 (74–66–65–71=276) ||Playoff ² || Chris DiMarco |- style="background:#abcdef;" | 2005 ||The Open Championship (2)||2 shot lead ||−14 (66–67–71–70=274) ||5 strokes || Colin Montgomerie |- style="background:#abcdef;" | 2006 ||The Open Championship (3)||1 shot lead ||−18 (67–65–71–67=270) ||2 strokes || Chris DiMarco |- style="background:thistle;" | 2006 ||PGA Championship (3)||Tied for lead ||−18 (69–68–65–68=270) ||5 strokes || Shaun Micheel |- style="background:thistle;" | 2007 ||PGA Championship (4)||3 shot lead ||−8 (71–63–69–69=272) ||2 strokes || Woody Austin |- style="background:#fbceb1;" | 2008 ||U.S. Open (3)||1 shot lead ||−1 (72–68–70–73=283) ||Playoff ³ || Rocco Mediate |} ¹ Defeated May in three-hole playoff by 1 stroke: Woods (3–4–5=12), May (4–4–5=13) ² Defeated DiMarco with birdie on first extra hole ³ Defeated Mediate with a par on 1st sudden death hole after 18-hole playoff was tied at even par

Results timeline

{| cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" border="1" style="font-size: 95%; border: #aaa solid 1px; border-collapse: collapse; text-align:center" |- style="background:#eee;" !align="left"|Tournament !1995 !1996 !1997 !1998 !1999 !2000 !2001 !2002 !2003 !2004 !2005 !2006 !2007 !2008 !2009 !2010 !2011 |- | style="text-align:left;"|The Masters |T41 LA |CUT | style="background:lime;"|1 | style="background:yellow;"|T8 |T18 | style="background:yellow;"|5 | style="background:lime;"|1 | style="background:lime;"|1 |T15 |T22 | style="background:lime;"|1 | style="background:yellow;"|T3 | style="background:yellow;"|T2 | style="background:yellow;"|2 | style="background:yellow;"|T6 | style="background:yellow;"|T4 | style="background:yellow;"|T4 |- | style="text-align:left;"|U.S. Open |WD |T82 |T19 |T18 | style="background:yellow;"|T3 | style="background:lime;"|1 |T12 | style="background:lime;"|1 |T20 |T17 | style="background:yellow;"|2 |CUT | style="background:yellow;"|T2 | style="background:lime;"|1 | style="background:yellow;"|T6 | style="background:yellow;"|T4 |DNP |- | style="text-align:left;"|The Open Championship |T68 |T22 LA |T24 | style="background:yellow;"|3 | style="background:yellow;"|T7 | style="background:lime;"|1 |T25 |T28 | style="background:yellow;"|T4 | style="background:yellow;"|T9 | style="background:lime;"|1 | style="background:lime;"|1 |T12 |DNP |CUT |T23 |DNP |- | style="text-align:left;"|PGA Championship |DNP |DNP |T29 | style="background:yellow;"|T10 | style="background:lime;"|1 | style="background:lime;"|1 |T29 | style="background:yellow;"|2 |T39 |T24 | style="background:yellow;"|T4 | style="background:lime;"|1 | style="background:lime;"|1 |DNP | style="background:yellow;"|2 |T28 |CUT |}

LA = Low Amateur DNP = Did not play CUT = missed the half-way cut "T" indicates a tie for a place Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10.

World Golf Championships

Wins (16)

¹ Won on the first extra hole of a sudden-death playoff. ² Won on the seventh extra hole of a sudden-death playoff. ³ Won on the second extra hole of a sudden-death playoff. ⁴ Won on the fourth extra hole of a sudden-death playoff.

Results timeline

!Tournament!!1999!!2000!!2001!!2002!!2003!!2004!!2005!!2006!!2007!!2008!!2009!!2010!!2011

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R64

R32

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R32

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R64

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NT1

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T78

T37

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¹Cancelled due to 9/11 DNP = Did not play QF, R16, R32, R64 = Round in which player lost in match play "T" = tied NT = No Tournament Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10. Note that the HSBC Champions did not become a WGC event until 2009.

PGA Tour career summary

! Year !! Wins (Majors) !! Earnings ($) !! Money list rank
1996	2	790,594	24
1997	4 (1)	2,066,833
1998	1	1,841,117
1999	8 (1)	6,616,585
2000	9 (3)	9,188,321
2001	5 (1)	6,687,777
2002	5 (2)	6,912,625
2003	5	6,673,413
2004	1	5,365,472
2005	6 (2)	10,628,024
2006	8 (2)	9,941,563
2007	7 (1)	10,867,052
2008	4 (1)	5,775,000
2009	6	10,508,163
2010	0	1,294,765	68
2011*	0	629,863	113
!Career*	!71 (14)	!94,787,167	1

: * As of August 21, 2011.

Personal life

Marriage

In November 2003, Woods became engaged to Elin Nordegren, a Swedish former model and daughter of former minister of migration Barbro Holmberg and radio journalist Thomas Nordegren. They were introduced during The Open Championship in 2001 by Swedish golfer Jesper Parnevik, who had employed her as an au pair. They married on October 5, 2004 at the Sandy Lane resort on the Caribbean island of Barbados, and lived at Isleworth, a community in Windermere, a suburb of Orlando, Florida. They also have homes in Jackson, Wyoming, California, and Sweden. In January 2006, they purchased a $39 million residential property in Jupiter Island, Florida, intending to make it their primary residence. Jupiter Island residents include fellow golfers Gary Player, Greg Norman, and Nick Price, as well as singers Celine Dion and Alan Jackson. In 2007, a guest house owned by Woods on the Jupiter Island estate was destroyed in a fire caused by lightning.

Early in the morning of June 18, 2007, Elin gave birth to the couple's first child, a daughter, Sam Alexis Woods, in Orlando. The birth occurred just one day after Woods finished tied for second in the 2007 U.S. Open. Woods chose to name his daughter Sam because his father said that Woods looked more like a Sam. On September 2, 2008, Woods announced on his website that he and his wife were expecting their second child. Five months later, it was announced Elin had given birth to a son, Charlie Axel Woods, on February 8, 2009. Woods and Nordegren divorced on August 23, 2010.

Marital infidelities and career break

On November 25, 2009, supermarket tabloid ''The National Enquirer'' published a story claiming that Woods had an extramarital affair with New York City nightclub manager Rachel Uchitel‎, a claim she denied.

Woods injured in car accident

The story about Woods's infidelity began to attract media attention when Woods had a car accident a day and a half later, on November 27, as he left his Orlando-area home around 2:30 am in his SUV, a 2009 Cadillac Escalade, Woods hit a hedge, a fire hydrant, and, finally, a tree, just down the street from his house. Woods was treated for minor facial lacerations, and cited for careless driving. He paid a $164 traffic ticket. He refused to speak to the police, and the accident fanned intense speculation for two days, until Woods released a statement on his website, taking blame for the crash and adding that it was a private matter; he also praised his wife, Elin, for getting him out of the car.

Woods announced shortly afterward that he would neither play in nor attend his own charity golf tournament, the Chevron World Challenge, nor any other remaining tournaments in 2009.

More women come forward with claims

Interest in the story grew, until San Diego cocktail waitress Jaimee Grubbs publicly claimed in the gossip magazine ''Us Weekly'' that she had a two-and-a-half-year affair with Woods, producing voice and text messages that she said Woods left her. The voice message stated: "Hey it's Tiger, I need you to do me a huge favor. Can you please take your name off your phone? My wife went through my phone...You got to do this for me. Huge. Quickly. Bye." Woods released an apology on the day that the story was published, expressing regret for "transgressions" and saying "I have let my family down." Woods was not specific about the reason for the apology, and requested privacy.

After over a dozen women claimed in various media outlets that they had affairs with Woods, media pressure increased. On December 11, he released another statement, admitting to infidelity, offering another apology, and announcing an indefinite hiatus from professional golf. On the same day, lawyers acting on his behalf obtained an injunction in the High Court of Justice of England and Wales, preventing the publication in the UK of any images of Woods naked or having sexual intercourse, while denying that Woods was aware of the existence of any such images. Reporting the subject of the injunction was also enjoined. The following week, one of the women who had undertaken media interviews regarding her relationship with Woods admitted having taken photographs of Woods naked, on the pre-meditated premise that she would sell them if they ever broke up.

Sponsorships, business deals ended

The day after the statement, several companies indicated they were reconsidering endorsement deals. Gillette suspended advertising featuring Woods, and said they would not be hiring him for any public appearances for the company. On December 13, management consultancy firm Accenture completely cut its sponsorship of Woods, stating that the golfer was "no longer the right representative."

On December 8, 2009, Nielsen indicated that advertisers had tentatively suspended TV ads featuring Woods after news of his adulteries emerged. Major sponsors initially pledged support and to retain Woods, but he was suspended by Gillette on December 11, and completely dropped by Accenture on December 13. On December 18, TAG Heuer dropped Woods "for the foreseeable future" from its advertising campaigns, only to then change their home page by December 23 to the statement that "Tag Heuer stands with Tiger Woods". In August 2011, Tag Heuer ended its sponsorship arrangement with Woods when his contract expired. On January 1, 2010, AT&T announced the end of its sponsorship of Woods. On January 4, 2010, Electronic Arts, via the blog of President Peter Moore, stated that they would continue to work with Woods and cited their collaboration on a web-based golf game, ''Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online''. On January 13, General Motors ended a free car loan deal that had been due to end on December 31, 2010.

A December 2009 study by Christopher R. Knittel and Victor Stango, economics professors at the University of California at Davis, estimated that the shareholder loss caused by Woods' extramarital affairs to be between $5 billion and $12 billion.

''Golf Digest'' magazine, which had featured monthly instructional articles from Woods on an exclusive basis since 1997, announced in its February 2010 issue that it would suspend publication of articles by Woods while he works out his problems. Woods resumed his articles with the magazine with its September 2010 issue. On January 6, 2011, the magazine announced that its publishing relationship with Woods would end with the February 2011 issue.

Press conference apology

On February 19, 2010, Woods delivered a televised speech from the PGA Tour headquarters in Florida. He admitted that he had been unfaithful to his wife. He said he used to believe he was entitled to do whatever he wanted to do, and that, due to his success, normal rules did not apply to him. He said he realizes now that he was wrong to have had extramarital affairs, and apologized for the hurt his behavior caused to his family, friends, fans, and business partners. Woods stated he had strayed from Buddhism, his trained faith since childhood, and that he would work to re-embrace his faith in the future. Woods also stated he had been in a therapy program for 45 days, and would be returning there soon. He stated he planned to return to competitive golf in the future, but was unspecific on details. He did not take questions.

On February 27, 2010, energy drink firm Gatorade ended its sponsorship of Tiger Woods. However, Gatorade said it would continue its partnership with the charitable Tiger Woods Foundation. In March Irish bookmaker Paddy Power revealed that Woods had declined a $75 million endorsement deal with them.

Announces return to competition

On March 16, 2010, Woods announced that he would return to golf at the 2010 Masters. However, his wife Elin announced that she planned to return to Sweden at that time, instead of attending the tournament.

Woods admits to multiple infidelities

On March 21, 2010, Woods was interviewed by Tom Rinaldi, his first interview after the incident. On April 29, 2010, the National Enquirer reported that Woods had confessed to his wife that he has had 120 affairs. He also admitted having a one-night-stand with his neighbours' 21-year-old daughter Raychel Coudriet, whom he has known since she was 14.

Woods, Nordegren divorce

Woods and Nordegren officially divorced on August 23, 2010. While the precise financial terms of the divorce are confidential, published reports indicate that Nordegren received a settlement of approximately $100 million; the two will share custody of their two children.

''Tiger Woods: The Rise and Fall'' documentary

Another Woods lover, porn star and exotic dancer Veronica Siwik-Daniels (stage name Joslyn James), was interviewed for the British television documentary ''Tiger Woods: The Rise and Fall'', which was first broadcasted in mid-June 2010, on Channel 4 in the UK, and then by other media worldwide since that time. In her interview on the program, Siwik-Daniels, based in Las Vegas and Los Angeles, claimed that she and Woods had had a relationship lasting three years, with Woods paying to have her travel by air to meet him for trysts at several golf tournaments around the United States. Siwik-Daniels said that Woods had asked her to quit her porn career, since he was bothered by watching her videos. Siwik-Daniels said she had become pregnant by Woods on two occasions, with one pregnancy ending in a miscarriage, and the other ending in an abortion. Siwik-Daniels retained celebrity divorce lawyer Gloria Allred for a lawsuit against Woods.

Orlando waitress Mindy Lawton was interviewed as well; she claimed that she and Woods met frequently for sex, usually in the private den of his home, but sometimes in other locations, over a period of several months. One of their trysts was apparently observed and photographed, on a tip from Lawton's mother, with this information going to the National Enquirer. According to the program, the tabloid then contacted Woods's management team, with the outcome being an arrangement to cover up the affair, in exchange for Woods's appearance on the cover of a fitness magazine, and an article detailing his workout routine; the fitness magazine was part of the same publishing group as the National Enquirer. The program presented an interview with a Las Vegas madam, who stated that Woods had employed high-priced prostitutes from her agency on many occasions, either in Las Vegas or at golf tournaments around the United States, with Woods paying for flights for the women to join him at the tournaments. The program also stated that Woods likely had a child, a boy, with porn star Devin James, from a time before his marriage to Elin Nordegren; a photograph of the child was shown.

Other

In a 1997 GQ profile Woods speculated on the sexual attractiveness of certain athletes: "What I can't figure out," Tiger Woods asks Vincent, the limo driver, "is why so many good-looking women hang around baseball and basketball. Is it because, you know, people always say that, like, black guys have big dicks?".

On December 15, 2009, ''The New York Times'' reported that Anthony Galea, a Canadian sports doctor who had previously treated Woods, was under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for allegedly providing the drug Actovegin and human growth hormone to athletes. According to the same article, Galea visited Woods at his Orlando home at least four times in February and March 2009 to administer a special blood-spinning technique, and that Woods had responded well to the treatment.

Woods has said he "believes in Buddhism... Not every aspect, but most of it." In his February 19, 2010 public apology statement, Woods said that he had been raised as a Buddhist and had practiced this faith until recent years. He then said that he will turn back to Buddhism to help him turn his life around.

When Woods came to Thailand for a tournament in 2000, Thai officials tried to bestow on him royal decorations, and even offered him Thai citizenship, based on his mother being Thai. Although Woods said the bestowal would bring his family "a lot of honor [and] a lot of pride," he reportedly declined the offer because of tax complications.

Woods has a niece named Cheyenne Woods who, as of 2009, is an amateur golfer at Wake Forest University.

Woods and his former wife own a 155-foot (47 m) yacht called ''Privacy'', berthed in Florida. The $20 million, vessel features a master suite, six staterooms, a theatre, gym, and Jacuzzi, and sleeps 21 people. Registered in the Cayman Islands, the boat was built for Woods by Christensen Shipyards, a Vancouver, Washington-based luxury yacht builder. Woods sometimes stays on the yacht when playing tournaments at oceanside golf courses. In October 2010, Woods moved into a new $50 million home on Jupiter Island with a 4-hole golf course.

See also

Career Grand Slam Champions

Golfers with most European Tour wins

List of golfers with most PGA Tour wins

List of men's major championships winning golfers

List of World Number One male golfers

Longest PGA Tour win streaks

Most PGA Tour wins in a year

Most wins in one PGA Tour event

References

Further reading

External links

Tiger Woods Foundation

Tiger Woods Learning Center

Tiger Woods' Videos on mReplay

Tiger Woods Video on ESPN Video Archive

Tiger Woods Video on FoxSports Video Archive

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conventional long name	Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China although "Hong Kong Special Administrative Region" and "Hong Kong" are also accepted.|groupnote}}

| native_name = 中華人民共和國香港特別行政區 | common_name = Hong Kong | image_flag = Flag of Hong Kong.svg | alt_flag = A flag with a white 5-petalled flower design on solid red background | image_coat = Hong Kong SAR Regional Emblem.svg | alt_coat = A red circular emblem, with a white 5-petalled flower design in the centre, and surrounded by the words "Hong Kong" and "中華人民共和國香港特別行政區" | symbol_type = Emblem | national_anthem = ''March of the Volunteers'' 《義勇軍進行曲》 | image_map = Hong Kong Skyline Restitch - Dec 2007.jpg | map_caption = View at night from Victoria Peak | alt_map = A panorama overlooking the skyscrapers of Hong Kong at night, with Victoria Harbour in the background | image_map2 = Hong Kong Location.svg | map2_width = 250px | alt_map2 = Hong Kong is situated on a peninsula and series of islands on the south coast of China, to the east of the Pearl River Delta and bordered to the north by Guangdong province | official_languages = Chinese, English It does not explicitly specify the standard for "Chinese". While Mandarin written in Simplified Chinese characters are the standards in mainland China, Cantonese and Traditional Chinese characters are the ''de facto'' standards in Hong Kong. ''See also: Bilingualism in Hong Kong''.|group=note}} | languages_type = Spoken languages | languages = Cantonese, English | demonym = Hong Konger | leader_title1 = Chief Executive | leader_name1 = Donald Tsang | leader_title2 = Chief Justice | leader_name2 = Geoffrey Ma | leader_title3 = President of theLegislative Council | leader_name3 = Jasper Tsang | legislature = Legislative Council | government_type = Quasi-presidential autonomous region with limited suffrage | sovereignty_type = Establishment | established_event1 = Treaty of Nanking | established_date1 = 29 August 1842 | established_event2 = Japanese occupation | established_date2 = 25 December 1941 –15 August 1945 | established_event3 = Handover to China | established_date3 = 1 July 1997 | latd= 22 | latm= 16.7 | latNS = N | longd= 114 |longm= 09.533 |longEW = E | area_magnitude = 1 E9 | area_km2 = 1,104 | area_rank = 179th | area_sq_mi = 426 | percent_water = 4.58 (50 km²; 19 mi²) | population_census = 7,061,200 | population_census_year = 2010 | population_density_km2 = 6480 | population_density_sq_mi = 16576 | population_density_rank = 4th | GDP_PPP = $326 billion | GDP_PPP_rank = | GDP_PPP_year = 2010 | GDP_PPP_per_capita = $45,736 | GDP_PPP_per_capita_rank = | GDP_nominal = $225 billion | GDP_nominal_rank = | GDP_nominal_year = 2010 | GDP_nominal_per_capita = $31,590 | GDP_nominal_per_capita_rank = | Gini = 43.4 | Gini_year = 2007 | HDI = 0.862 | HDI_rank = 21st | HDI_year = 2010 | HDI_category = very high | currency = Hong Kong dollar | currency_code = HKD | time_zone = HKT | utc_offset = +8 | date_format = yyyy年m月d日 (Chinese) dd-mm-yyyy (English) | drives_on = left | cctld = .hk and .香港 | calling_code = +852 | nicknames = HK, The 852 }}

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Hong Kong () is one of two special administrative regions (SARs) of the People's Republic of China (PRC), the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour. With a land mass of and a population of seven million people, Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. Hong Kong's population is 95 percent ethnic Chinese and 5 percent from other groups. Hong Kong's Han Chinese majority originate mainly from the cities of Guangzhou and Taishan in the neighbouring Guangdong province.

Hong Kong became a colony of the British Empire after the First Opium War (1839–42). Originally confined to Hong Kong Island, the colony's boundaries were extended in stages to the Kowloon Peninsula in 1860 and then the New Territories in 1898. It was occupied by Japan during the Pacific War, after which the British resumed control until 1997, when China resumed sovereignty. The region espoused minimum government intervention under the ethos of positive non-interventionism during the colonial era. The time period greatly influenced the current culture of Hong Kong, often described as "East meets West", and the educational system, which used to loosely follow the system in England until reforms implemented in 2009.

Under the principle of "one country, two systems", Hong Kong has a different political system from mainland China. Hong Kong's independent judiciary functions under the common law framework. The Basic Law of Hong Kong, its constitutional document, which stipulates that Hong Kong shall have a "high degree of autonomy" in all matters except foreign relations and military defence, governs its political system. Although it has a burgeoning multi-party system, a small-circle electorate controls half of its legislature. An 800-person Election Committee selects the Chief Executive of Hong Kong, the head of government.

As one of the world's leading international financial centres, Hong Kong has a major capitalist service economy characterised by low taxation and free trade, and the currency, Hong Kong dollar, is the ninth most traded currency in the world. The lack of space caused demand for denser constructions, which developed the city to a centre for modern architecture and the world's most vertical city. The dense space also led to a highly developed transportation network with public transport travelling rate exceeding 90 percent, the highest in the world. Hong Kong has numerous high international rankings in various aspects. For instance, its economic freedom, financial and economic competitiveness, quality of life, corruption perception, Human Development Index, etc., are all ranked highly.

Etymology

The name "Hong Kong" is an approximate phonetic rendering of the pronunciation of the spoken Cantonese or Hakka name "香港", meaning "fragrant harbour". Before 1842, the name referred to a small inlet – now Aberdeen Harbour or Little Hong Kong – between the island of Ap Lei Chau and the south side of Hong Kong Island, which was one of the first points of contact between British sailors and local fishermen.

The reference to fragrance may refer to the harbour waters sweetened by the fresh water estuarine influx of the Pearl River, or to the incense from factories lining the coast to the north of Kowloon, which was stored around Aberdeen Harbour for export before the development of Victoria Harbour. In 1842, the Treaty of Nanking was signed, and the name Hong Kong was first recorded on official documents to encompass the entirety of the island.

History

Pre-colonial

Archaeological studies support a human presence in the Chek Lap Kok area from 35,000 to 39,000 years ago, and in Sai Kung Peninsula from 6,000 years ago. Wong Tei Tung and Three Fathoms Cove are the two earliest sites of human habitation in the Palaeolithic period. It is believed the Three Fathom Cove was a river valley settlement and Wong Tei Tung was a lithic manufacturing site. Excavated Neolithic artefacts suggest cultural differences from the Longshan culture in northern China and settlement by the Che people prior to the migration of the Baiyue. Eight petroglyphs were discovered on surrounding islands, which dated to the Shang Dynasty in China.

In 214 BC, Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, conquered the Baiyue tribes in Jiaozhi (modern Liangguang region) and incorporated the territory into imperial China for the first time. Modern Hong Kong is located in Nanhai commandery (modern Nanhai District) and near the ancient capital city Pun Yue. The area was consolidated under the kingdom of Nanyue, founded by general Zhao Tuo in 204 BC after the Qin Dynasty collapsed. When the kingdom was conquered by Emperor Wu of Han in 111 BC, the land was assigned to the Jiaozhi commandery under the Han Dynasty. Archaeological evidence indicates the population increased and early salt production flourished in this time period. Lei Cheng Uk Han Tomb in the Kowloon Peninsula is believed to have been built during the Han Dynasty.

During the Tang Dynasty period, the Guangdong region flourished as a regional trading center. In 736, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang established a military town in Tuen Mun to defend the coastal area in the region. The first village school, Li Ying College, was established around 1075 in the New Territories under the Northern Song Dynasty. During the Mongol invasion in 1276, the Southern Song Dynasty court moved to Fujian, then to Lantau Island and later to Sung Wong Toi (modern Kowloon City), but the child Emperor Huaizong of Song committed suicide by drowning with his officials after being defeated in the Battle of Yamen. Hau Wong, an official of the emperor is still worshipped in Hong Kong today.

The earliest recorded European visitor was Jorge Álvares, a Portuguese explorer who arrived in 1513. After establishing settlements in the region, Portuguese merchants began trading in southern China. At the same time, they invaded and built up military fortifications in Tuen Mun. Military clashes between China and Portugal led to the expulsion of the Portuguese. In the mid-16th century, the Haijin order banned maritime activities and prevented contact with foreigners; it also restricted local sea activity. In 1661–69, the territory was affected by the Great Clearance ordered by Kangxi Emperor, which required the evacuation of the coastal areas of Guangdong. It is recorded that about 16,000 persons from Xin'an County were driven inland, and 1,648 of those who left are said to have returned when the evacuation was rescinded in 1669. What is now the territory of Hong Kong became largely wasteland during the ban. In 1685, Kangxi became the first emperor to open limited trading with foreigners, which started with the Canton territory. He also imposed strict terms for trades such as requiring foreign traders to live in restricted areas, staying only for the trading seasons, banning firearms, and trading with silver only. The East India Company made the first sea venture to China in 1699, and the region's trade with British merchants developed rapidly soon after. In 1711, the company established its first trading post in Canton. By 1773, the British reached a landmark 1,000 chests of opium in Canton with China consuming 2,000 chests annually by 1799.

British colonial era

In 1839, the refusal by Qing Dynasty authorities to import opium resulted in the First Opium War between China and Britain. Hong Kong Island was occupied by British forces on 20 January 1841 and was initially ceded under the Convention of Chuenpee as part of a ceasefire agreement between Captain Charles Elliot and Governor Qishan, but the agreement was never ratified due to a dispute between high ranking officials in both governments. It was not until 29 August 1842 that the island was formally ceded in perpetuity to the United Kingdom under the Treaty of Nanking. The British established a crown colony with the founding of Victoria City the following year.

In 1860, after China's defeat in the Second Opium War, the Kowloon Peninsula and Stonecutter's Island were ceded in perpetuity to Britain under the Convention of Peking.

In 1894, the deadly Third Pandemic of bubonic plague spread from China to Hong Kong, causing 50,000–100,000 deaths.

In 1898, under the terms of the Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory, Britain obtained a 99-year lease of Lantau Island and the adjacent northern lands, which became known as the New Territories. Hong Kong's territory has remained unchanged to the present.

During the first half of the 20th century, Hong Kong was a free port, serving as an entrepôt of the British Empire. The British introduced an education system based on their own model, while the local Chinese population had little contact with the European community of wealthy ''tai-pans'' settled near Victoria Peak.

In conjunction with its military campaign, the Empire of Japan invaded Hong Kong on 8 December 1941. The Battle of Hong Kong ended with British and Canadian defenders surrendering control of the colony to Japan on 25 December. During the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, civilians suffered widespread food shortages, rationing, and hyper-inflation due to forced exchange of currency for military notes. Through a policy of enforced repatriation of the unemployed to the mainland throughout the period, because of the scarcity of food, the population of Hong Kong had dwindled from 1.6 million in 1941 to 600,000 in 1945, when the United Kingdom resumed control of the colony.

Hong Kong's population recovered quickly as a wave of migrants from China arrived for refuge from the ongoing Chinese Civil War. When the PRC was proclaimed in 1949, more migrants fled to Hong Kong for fear of persecution by the Communist Party. Many corporations in Shanghai and Guangzhou shifted their operations to Hong Kong.

In the 1950s, Hong Kong's rapid industrialisation was driven by textile exports and other expanded manufacturing industries. As the population grew and labour costs remained low, living standards rose steadily. The construction of Shek Kip Mei Estate in 1953 followed a massive slum fire, and marked the beginning of the public housing estate programme designed to cope with the huge influx of immigrants. Trade in Hong Kong accelerated even further when Shenzhen, immediately north of Hong Kong, became a special economic zone of the PRC, and Hong Kong was established as the main source of foreign investment in China. The manufacturing competitiveness gradually declined in Hong Kong due to the development of the manufacturing industry in southern China beginning in the early 1980s. By contrast, the service industry in Hong Kong experienced high rates of growth in the 1980s and 1990s after absorbing workers released from the manufacturing industry.

In 1983, when the United Kingdom reclassified Hong Kong from a British crown colony to a dependent territory, the governments of the United Kingdom and China were already discussing the issue of Hong Kong's sovereignty due to the impending expiry (within two decades) of the lease of the New Territories. In 1984, the Sino-British Joint Declaration – an agreement to transfer sovereignty to the People's Republic of China in 1997 – was signed. It stipulated that Hong Kong would be governed as a special administrative region, retaining its laws and a high degree of autonomy for at least 50 years after the transfer. The Hong Kong Basic Law, which would serve as the constitutional document after the transfer, was ratified in 1990.

Since 1997

On 1 July 1997, the transfer of sovereignty from United Kingdom to the PRC occurred, officially ending 156 years of British colonial rule. Hong Kong became China's first special administrative region, and Tung Chee Hwa took office as the first Chief Executive of Hong Kong. That same year, Hong Kong suffered an economic double blow from the Asian financial crisis and the H5N1 avian influenza. In 2003, Hong Kong was gravely affected by the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). The World Health Organization reported 1,755 infected and 299 deaths in Hong Kong. An estimated 380 million Hong Kong dollars (US$48.9 million) in contracts were lost as a result of the epidemic.

On 10 March 2005, Tung Chee Hwa announced his resignation as Chief Executive due to "health problems". Donald Tsang, the Chief Secretary for Administration at the time, entered the 2005 election unopposed and became the second Chief Executive of Hong Kong on 21 June 2005. In 2007, Tsang won the Chief Executive election and continued his second term in office.

In 2009, Hong Kong hosted the fifth East Asian Games, in which nine national teams competed. It was the first and largest international multi-sport event ever held in the territory. Today, Hong Kong continues to serve as an important global financial centre, but faces uncertainty over its future due to the growing mainland China economy, and its relationship with the PRC government in areas such as democratic reform and universal suffrage.

Governance

In accordance with the Sino-British Joint Declaration, and the underlying principle of one country, two systems, Hong Kong has a "high degree of autonomy as a special administrative region in all areas except defence and foreign affairs." The declaration stipulates that the region maintain its capitalist economic system and guarantees the rights and freedoms of its people for at least 50 years beyond the 1997 handover. The guarantees over the territory's autonomy and the individual rights and freedoms are enshrined in a constitution, the Hong Kong Basic Law, which outlines the system of governance of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, but which is subject to the interpretation of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPCSC).

The primary pillars of government are the Executive Council, the civil service, the Legislative Council, and the Judiciary. The Executive Council is headed by the Chief Executive who is elected by the Election Committee and then appointed by the Central People's Government. The civil service is a politically neutral body that implements policies and provides government services, where public servants are appointed based on meritocracy. The Legislative Council has 60 members, half of which are directly elected by universal suffrage by permanent residents of Hong Kong according to five geographical constituencies. The other half, known as functional constituencies, are directly elected by a smaller electorate, which consists of corporate bodies and persons from various stipulated functional sectors. The entire council is headed by the President of the Legislative Council who serves as the speaker. Judges are appointed by the Chief Executive on the recommendation of an independent commission.

The implementation of the Basic Law, including how and when the universal suffrage promised therein is to be achieved, has been a major issue of political debate since the transfer of sovereignty. In 2002, the government's proposed anti-subversion bill pursuant to Article 23 of the Basic Law, which required the enactment of laws prohibiting acts of treason and subversion against the Chinese government, was met with fierce opposition, and eventually shelved. Debate between pro-Beijing groups, which tend to support the Executive branch, and the Pan-democracy camp characterises Hong Kong's political scene, with the latter supporting a faster pace of democratisation, and the principle of one man, one vote.

In 2004, the government failed to gain pan-democrat support to pass its so-called "district council model" for political reform. In 2009, the government reissued the proposals as the "''Consultation Document on the Methods for Selecting the Chief Executive and for Forming the LegCo in 2012''". The document proposed the enlargement of the Election Committee, Hong Kong's electoral college, from 800 members to 1,200 in 2012 and expansion of the legislature from 60 to 70 seats. The 10 new legislative seats would consist of five geographical constituency seats and five functional constituency seats, to be voted in by elected district council members from among themselves. The proposals were destined for rejection by pan-democrats once again, but a significant breakthrough occurred after the Central People's Government accepted a counter-proposal by the Democratic Party. In particular, the Pan-democracy camp was split when the proposal to directly elect five newly created functional seats was not acceptable to two constituent parties. The Democratic Party sided with the government for the first time since the handover and passed the proposals with a vote of 46–12.

Legal system and judiciary

Hong Kong's legal system is completely independent from the legal system of Mainland China. In contrast to mainland China's civil law system, Hong Kong continues to follow the English Common Law tradition established under British rule. Hong Kong's courts may refer to decisions rendered by courts of other common law jurisdictions as precedents, and judges from other common law jurisdictions are allowed to sit as non-permanent judges of the Court of Final Appeal.

Structurally, the court system consists of the Court of Final Appeal, the High Court, which is made up of the Court of Appeal and the Court of First Instance, and the District Court, which includes the Family Court. Other adjudicative bodies include the Lands Tribunal, the Magistrates' Courts, the Juvenile Court, the Coroner's Court, the Labour Tribunal, the Small Claims Tribunal, and the Obscene Articles Tribunal. Justices of the Court of Final Appeal are appointed by Hong Kong's Chief Executive.

The Department of Justice is responsible for handling legal matters for the government. Its responsibilities include providing legal advice, criminal prosecution, civil representation, legal and policy drafting and reform, and international legal cooperation between different jurisdictions. Apart from prosecuting criminal cases, lawyers of the Department of Justice act on behalf of the government in all civil and administrative lawsuits against the government. As protector of the public interest, the department may apply for judicial reviews and may intervene in any cases involving the greater public interest. The Basic Law protects the Department of Justice from any interference by the government when exercising its control over criminal prosecution.

Human rights

In general, Hong Kong is perceived to enjoy a high level of civil liberties. The Hong Kong government generally respect the human rights of the citizens, although core issues remain. There are concerns over the freedom of assembly which is restricted by the Public Order Ordinance. The police has been occasionally accused of using heavy-handed tactics towards protestors and questions are asked towards the extensive powers of the police. As to the right of privacy, covert surveillance remains the major concern. There is a lack of protection for homosexuals due to the absence of a sexual orientation discrimination law. There are also comments regarding a lack of protection for labour rights.

Internet access in Hong Kong is not under the censorship, surveillance, and control of the Great Firewall of China.

Administrative districts

Hong Kong has a unitary system of government; no local government has existed since the two municipal councils were abolished in 2000. As such there is no formal definition for its cities and towns. Administratively, Hong Kong is subdivided into 18 geographic districts, each represented by a district council which advises the government on local matters such as public facilities, community programmes, cultural activities, and environmental improvements.

There are a total of 534 district council seats, 405 of which are elected; the rest are appointed by the Chief Executive and 27 ''ex officio'' chairmen of rural committees. The Home Affairs Department communicates government policies and plans to the public through the district offices.

Military

When Hong Kong was a British colony and later, a dependent territory, defence was provided by the British military under the command of the Governor of Hong Kong who was ''ex officio'' Commander-in-chief. When the PRC assumed sovereignty in 1997, the British barracks were replaced by a garrison of the People's Liberation Army, comprising ground, naval, and air forces, and under the command of the Chinese Central Military Commission.

The Basic Law protects local civil affairs against interference by the garrison, and members of the garrison are subject to Hong Kong laws. The Hong Kong Government remains responsible for the maintenance of public order; however, it may ask the PRC government for help from the garrison in maintaining public order and in disaster relief. The PRC government is responsible for the costs of maintaining the garrison.

Geography and climate

Hong Kong is located on China's south coast, east of Macau on the opposite side of the Pearl River Delta. It is surrounded by the South China Sea on the east, south, and west, and borders the Guangdong city of Shenzhen to the north over the Shenzhen River. The territory's area consists of Hong Kong Island, the Kowloon Peninsula, the New Territories, and over 200 offshore islands, of which the largest is Lantau Island. Of the total area, is land and is inland water. Hong Kong claims territorial waters to a distance of . Its land area makes Hong Kong the 179th largest inhabited territory in the world.

As much of Hong Kong's terrain is hilly to mountainous with steep slopes, less than 25% of the territory's landmass is developed, and about 40% of the remaining land area is reserved as country parks and nature reserves. Most of the territory's urban development exists on Kowloon peninsula, along the northern edge of Hong Kong Island, and in scattered settlements throughout the New Territories. The highest elevation in the territory is at Tai Mo Shan, above sea level. Hong Kong's long and irregular coast provides it with many bays, rivers and beaches.

Despite Hong Kong's reputation of being intensely urbanised, the territory has tried to promote a green environment, and recent growing public concern has prompted the severe restriction of further land reclamation from Victoria Harbour. Awareness of the environment is growing as Hong Kong suffers from increasing pollution compounded by its geography and tall buildings. Approximately 80% of the city's smog originates from other parts of the Pearl River Delta.

Though it is situated just south of the Tropic of Cancer, Hong Kong has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen ''Cwa''). Summer is hot and humid with occasional showers and thunderstorms, and warm air coming from the southwest. Summer is when typhoons are most likely, sometimes resulting in flooding or landslides. Winters are mild and usually start sunny, becoming cloudier towards February; the occasional cold front brings strong, cooling winds from the north. The most temperate seasons are spring, which can be changeable, and autumn, which is generally sunny and dry. Hong Kong averages 1,948 hours of sunshine per year, while the highest and lowest ever recorded temperatures at the Hong Kong Observatory are and , respectively.

Economy

As one of the world's leading international financial centres, Hong Kong has a major capitalist service economy characterised by low taxation and free trade, and the currency, Hong Kong dollar, is the ninth most traded currency in the world. Hong Kong was once described by Milton Friedman as the world’s greatest experiment in laissez-faire capitalism. It maintains a highly developed capitalist economy, ranked the freest in the world by the Index of Economic Freedom for 15 consecutive years. It is an important centre for international finance and trade, with one of the greatest concentrations of corporate headquarters in the Asia-Pacific region, and is known as one of the Four Asian Tigers for its high growth rates and rapid development from the 1960s to the 1990s. Between 1961 and 1997 Hong Kong's gross domestic product grew 180 times while per-capita GDP increased 87 times over.

The Hong Kong Stock Exchange is the seventh largest in the world, with a market capitalisation of US$2.3 trillion as of December 2009. In that year, Hong Kong raised 22 percent of worldwide initial public offering (IPO) capital, making it the largest centre of IPOs in the world. Hong Kong's currency is the Hong Kong dollar, which has been pegged to the U.S. dollar since 1983.

The Hong Kong Government has traditionally played a mostly passive role in the economy, with little by way of industrial policy and almost no import or export controls. Market forces and the private sector were allowed to determine practical development. Under the official policy of "positive non-interventionism", Hong Kong is often cited as an example of laissez-faire capitalism. Following the Second World War, Hong Kong industrialised rapidly as a manufacturing centre driven by exports, and then underwent a rapid transition to a service-based economy in the 1980s.

Hong Kong matured to become a financial centre in the 1990s, but was greatly affected by the Asian financial crisis in 1998, and again in 2003 by the SARS outbreak. A revival of external and domestic demand has led to a strong recovery, as cost decreases strengthened the competitiveness of Hong Kong exports and a long deflationary period ended. Government intervention, initiated by the later colonial governments and continued since 1997, has steadily increased, with the introduction of export credit guarantees, a compulsory pension scheme, a minimum wage, anti-discrimination laws, and a state mortgage backer.

The territory has little arable land and few natural resources, so it imports most of its food and raw materials. Hong Kong is the world's eleventh largest trading entity, with the total value of imports and exports exceeding its gross domestic product. It is the world's largest re-export centre. Much of Hong Kong's exports consist of re-exports, which are products made outside of the territory, especially in mainland China, and distributed via Hong Kong. Even before the transfer of sovereignty, Hong Kong had established extensive trade and investment ties with the mainland, which now enable it to serve as a point of entry for investment flowing into the mainland. At the end of 2007, there were 3.46 million people employed full-time, with the unemployment rate averaging 4.1% for the fourth straight year of decline. Hong Kong's economy is dominated by the service sector, which accounts for over 90% of its GDP, while industry constitutes 9%. Inflation was at 2.5% in 2007. Hong Kong's largest export markets are mainland China, the United States, and Japan.

As of 2010, Hong Kong is the eighth most expensive city for expatriates, falling from fifth position in the previous year. In 2011, Hong Kong was ranked second in the Ease of Doing Business Index, behind Singapore. General principle No. 5 of the Basic Law of the SAR suggests that the CPC expects that it shall have brought the economic system of the Mainland and Hong Kong into harmony by 2047, by which time the Chinese economy is predicted to have been the largest by any measure of GDP for decades.

Demographics

The territory's population is 7.03 million. In 2009, Hong Kong had a birth rate of 11.7 per 1,000 population and a fertility rate of 1,032 children per 1,000 women. Residents from mainland China do not have the right of abode in Hong Kong, nor are they allowed to enter the territory freely. However, the influx of immigrants from mainland China, approximating 45,000 per year, is a significant contributor to its population growth – a daily quota of 150 Mainland Chinese with family ties in Hong Kong are granted a "one way permit". Life expectancy in Hong Kong is 79.16 years for males and 84.79 years for females as of 2009, making it one of the highest life expectancies in the world.

About 95% of the people of Hong Kong are of Chinese descent, the majority of whom are Taishanese, Chiu Chow, other Cantonese people, and Hakka. Hong Kong's Han majority originate mainly from the Guangzhou and Taishan regions in Guangdong province. The remaining 5% of the population is composed of non-ethnic Chinese. There is a South Asian population of Indians, Pakistanis and Nepalese; some Vietnamese refugees have become permanent residents of Hong Kong. There are also Europeans (mostly British), Americans, Canadians, Japanese, and Koreans working in the city's commercial and financial sector.|group=note}} In 2008, there were an estimate of 252,500 foreign domestic helpers from Indonesia and the Philippines working in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong's ''de facto'' official language is Cantonese, a Chinese language originating from Guangdong province to the north of Hong Kong. English is also an official language, and according to a 1996 by-census is spoken by 3.1 percent of the population as an everyday language and by 34.9 percent of the population as a second language. Signs displaying both Chinese and English are common throughout the territory. Since the 1997 handover, an increase in immigrants from mainland China and greater integration with the mainland economy have brought an increasing number of Mandarin speakers to Hong Kong.

The majority of residents of Hong Kong would claim no religious affiliation, professing a form of agnosticism or atheism. According to the U.S Department of State only 43 percent of the population practices some form of religion. Some figures put it higher, according to a Gallup poll, 64% of Hong Kong do not believe in any religion, and possibly 80% of Hong Kong claim no religion. According to another gallup poll, Hong Kong is the seventh country which considers religion as an important part of their daily lives, with only 22%. In Hong Kong teaching evolution won out in curriculum dispute about whether to teach other explanations, and that creationism and intelligent design will form no part of the senior secondary biology curriculum

Hong Kong enjoys a high degree of religious freedom, guaranteed by the Basic Law. Hong Kong's main religions are Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism, a local religious scholar in contact with major denominations estimates there are approximately 1.5 million Buddhists and Taoists. A Christian community of around 600,000 forms about 8% of the total population; it is nearly equally divided between Catholics and Protestants, although smaller Christian communities exist, including the Latter-Day Saints and Jehovah's Witnesses. The Anglican and Roman Catholic churches each freely appoint their own bishops, unlike in mainland China. There are also Sikh, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu and Bahá'í communities. The practice of Falun Gong is tolerated.

Statistically Hong Kong's income gap is the greatest in Asia Pacific. According to a report by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme in 2008, Hong Kong's Gini coefficient, at 0.53, was the highest in Asia and "relatively high by international standards". However, the government has stressed that income disparity does not equate to worsening of the poverty situation, and that the Gini coefficient is not strictly comparable between regions. The government has named economic restructuring, changes in household sizes, and the increase of high-income jobs as factors that have skewed the Gini coefficient.

Education

Hong Kong's education system used to roughly follow the system in England, although international systems exist. The government maintains a policy of "mother tongue instruction" () in which the medium of instruction is Cantonese, with written Chinese and English. In secondary schools, 'biliterate and trilingual' proficiency is emphasised, and Mandarin-language education has been increasing. The Programme for International Student Assessment ranked Hong Kong's education system as the second best in the world. Hong Kong's public schools are operated by the Education Bureau. The system features a non-compulsory three-year kindergarten, followed by a compulsory six-year primary education, a three-year junior secondary education, a non-compulsory two-year senior secondary education leading to the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examinations and a two-year matriculation course leading to the Hong Kong Advanced Level Examinations. The New Senior Secondary academic structure and curriculum was implemented in September 2009, which provides for all students to receive three years of compulsory junior and three years of compulsory senior secondary education. Under the new curriculum, there is only public examination, namely the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education.

Most comprehensive schools in Hong Kong fall under three categories: the rarer public schools; the more common subsidised schools, including government aids-and-grant schools; and private schools, often run by Christian organisations and having admissions based on academic merit rather than on financial resources. Outside this system are the schools under the Direct Subsidy Scheme and private international schools.

There are nine public universities in Hong Kong, and a number of private higher institutions, offering various bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees, other higher diplomas, and associate degree courses.The University of Hong Kong, the oldest institution of tertiary education in the territory, was described by Quacquarelli Symonds as a "world-class comprehensive research university" and was ranked 24th on the 2009 THES - QS World University Rankings, making it first in Asia. The Hong Kong University of Science & Technology was ranked 35th in the world in 2009 and ranked second in Asia for 2010. The Chinese University of Hong Kong was ranked 46th in the world in 2009 and ranked fourth in Asia for 2010. Based on the 2011 rankings published by career and education network QS, three of the top five Asian universities are in Hong Kong. They are the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, the University of Hong Kong and Chinese University of Hong kong as first, second and fifth rank, respectively.

Healthcare

There are 13 private hospitals and more than 50 public hospitals in Hong Kong. Among the widest range of healthcare services throughout the globe are on offer, and some of the SAR's private hospitals are rightly considered to be among the very best of their type in the world.

There are two medical schools in the SAR, one based at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the other at Hong Kong University. Both have strong links with public sector hospitals.

With respect to postgraduate education, many Hong Kong doctors have traditionally look overseas for further training, and many took British Royal College exams such as the MRCP(UK) and the MRCS(UK). However, Hong Kong has been developing its own postgraduate medical institutions, in particular the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine, and this is gradually taking over the responsibility for all postgraduate medical training in the SAR.

There are also strong public health systems in Hong Kong, and the Centre for Health Protection, founded after the SARS outbreak of 2003, is particularly worthy of mention.

Culture

Hong Kong is frequently described as a place where "East meets West", reflecting the culture's mix of the territory's Chinese roots with influences from its time as a British colony. Hong Kong balances a modernised way of life with traditional Chinese practices. Concepts like ''feng shui'' are taken very seriously, with expensive construction projects often hiring expert consultants, and are often believed to make or break a business. Other objects like Ba gua mirrors are still regularly used to deflect evil spirits, and buildings often lack any floor number that has a 4 in it, due to its similarity to the word for "die" in Cantonese. The fusion of east and west also characterises Hong Kong's cuisine, where dim sum, hot pot, and fast food restaurants coexist with haute cuisine.

Hong Kong is a recognised global centre of trade, and calls itself an "entertainment hub". Its martial arts film genre gained a high level of popularity in the late 1960s and 1970s. Several Hollywood performers, notable actors and martial artists have originated from Hong Kong cinema, notably Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Chow Yun-fat, Michelle Yeoh, Maggie Cheung and Jet Li. A number of Hong Kong film-makers have achieved widespread fame in Hollywood, such as John Woo, Wong Kar-wai, and Stephen Chow.

The Hong Kong government supports cultural institutions such as the Hong Kong Heritage Museum, the Hong Kong Museum of Art, the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. The government's Leisure and Cultural Services Department subsidises and sponsors international performers brought to Hong Kong. Many international cultural activities are organised by the government, consulates, and privately.

Hong Kong has two licensed terrestrial broadcasters – ATV and TVB. There are three local and a number of foreign suppliers of cable and satellite services. The production of Hong Kong's soap dramas, comedy series, and variety shows reach audiences throughout the Chinese-speaking world. Magazine and newspaper publishers in Hong Kong distribute and print in both Chinese and English, with a focus on sensationalism and celebrity gossip. The media in Hong Kong is relatively free from official interference compared to mainland China, although the ''Far Eastern Economic Review'' points to signs of self-censorship by journals whose owners have close ties to or business interests in the People's Republic of China and states that even Western media outlets are not immune to growing Chinese economic power.

Hong Kong offers wide recreational and competitive sport opportunities despite its limited land area. It sends delegates to international competitions such as the Olympic Games and Asian Games, and played host to the equestrian events during the 2008 Summer Olympics. There are major multipurpose venues like Hong Kong Coliseum and MacPherson Stadium. Hong Kong's steep terrain and extensive trail network with expansive views attracts hikers, and its rugged coastline provides many beaches for swimming.

Cityscape

{| |- | | |}

Architecture

According to Emporis, there are 7,650 skyscrapers in Hong Kong, which puts the city at the top of world rankings. It has more buildings higher than 35m (or 100m, or 150m) than any other city. The high density and tall skyline of Hong Kong's urban area is due to a lack of available sprawl space, with the average distance from the harbour front to the steep hills of Hong Kong Island at , much of it reclaimed land. This lack of space causes demand for dense, high-rise offices and housing. Thirty-six of the world's 100 tallest residential buildings are in Hong Kong. More people in Hong Kong live or work above the 14th floor than anywhere else on Earth, making it the world's most vertical city.

As a result of the lack of space and demand for construction, few older buildings remain, and the city is becoming a centre for modern architecture. The International Commerce Centre (ICC), at high, is the tallest building in Hong Kong and the third tallest in the world, by height to roof measurement. The tallest building prior to the ICC is Two International Finance Centre, at high. Other recognisable skyline features include the HSBC Headquarters Building, the triangular-topped Central Plaza with its pyramid-shaped spire, The Center with its night-time multi-coloured neon light show, and I. M. Pei's Bank of China Tower with its sharp, angular façade. According to the Emporis website, the city skyline has the biggest visual impact of all world cities. The oldest remaining historic structures including the Tsim Sha Tsui Clock Tower, the Central Police Station, and the remains of Kowloon Walled City were constructed during the 19th and early 20th centuries.

There are many development plans in place, including the construction of new government buildings, waterfront redevelopment in Central, and a series of projects in West Kowloon. More high-rise development is set to take place on the other side of Victoria Harbour in Kowloon, as the 1998 closure of the nearby Kai Tak Airport lifted strict height restrictions.

Transport

Hong Kong's transportation network is highly developed. Over 90% of daily travels (11 million) are on public transport, the highest such percentage in the world. Payment can be made using the Octopus card, a stored value system introduced by the Mass Transit Railway (MTR), which is widely accepted on railways, buses and ferries, and accepted like cash at other outlets.

The city's main railway company (MTR) was merged with the urban mass transit operator (KCRC) in 2007, creating a comprehensive rail network for the whole territory (also called MTR). This MTR rapid transit system has 152 stations, which serve 3.4 million people a day. Hong Kong Tramways, which has served the territory since 1904, covers the northern parts of Hong Kong Island.

{| |- | |} Hong Kong's bus service is franchised and run by private operators. Five privately owned companies provide franchised bus service across the territory, together operating more than 700 routes. The two largest, Kowloon Motor Bus provides 402 routes in Kowloon and New Territories; Citybus operates 154 routes on Hong Kong Island; both run cross-harbour services. Double-decker buses were introduced to Hong Kong in 1949, and are now almost exclusively used; single-decker buses remain in use for routes with lower demand or roads with lower load capacity. Public light buses serve most parts of Hong Kong, particularly areas where standard bus lines cannot reach or do not reach as frequently, quickly, or directly.

The Star Ferry service, founded in 1888, operates four lines across Victoria Harbour and provides scenic views of Hong Kong's skyline for its 53,000 daily passengers. It acquired iconic status following its use as a setting on ''The World of Suzie Wong''. Travel writer Ryan Levitt considered the main Tsim Sha Tsui to Central crossing one of the most picturesque in the world. Other ferry services are provided by operators serving outlying islands, new towns, Macau, and cities in mainland China. Hong Kong is famous for its junks traversing the harbour, and small kai-to ferries that serve remote coastal settlements. The Port of Hong Kong is a busy deepwater port, specialising in container shipping.

Hong Kong Island's steep, hilly terrain was initially served by sedan chairs. The Peak Tram, the first public transport system in Hong Kong, has provided vertical rail transport between Central and Victoria Peak since 1888. In Central and Western district, there is an extensive system of escalators and moving pavements, including the longest outdoor covered escalator system in the world, the Mid-Levels escalator.

Hong Kong International Airport is a leading air passenger gateway and logistics hub in Asia and one of the world's busiest airports in terms of international passenger and cargo movement, serving more than 47 million passengers and handling 3.74 million tonnes (4.12 million tons) of cargo in 2007. It replaced the overcrowded Kai Tak Airport in Kowloon in 1998, and has been rated as the world's best airport in a number of surveys. Over 85 airlines operate at the two-terminal airport and it is the primary hub of Cathay Pacific, Dragonair, Air Hong Kong, Hong Kong Airlines, and Hong Kong Express.

See also

Public holidays in Hong Kong

List of cities with most skyscrapers

Notes

Footnotes

References

Further reading

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External links

; Government

Discover Hong Kong – Official site of the Hong Kong Tourism Board

; Other

Hong Kong at Encyclopædia Britannica

HongKong at ''UCB Libraries GovPubs''

WikiSatellite view of Hong Kong at WikiMapia

Category:1997 establishments Category:Chinese-speaking countries and territories Category:English-speaking countries and territories Category:Former British colonies Category:Independent cities Category:Metropolitan areas of China Category:Pearl River Delta Category:Populated places established in 1842 Category:Port cities and towns in China Category:South China Sea Category:Special administrative regions of the People's Republic of China

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name	The Kings
background	group_or_band
origin	Vancouver, BC, Canada
genre	Rock, pop
years active	1977–present
current members	David Diamond Mister Zero Peter Nunn Sonny Keyes Peter Kadar Todd Reynolds
past members	Gary Craig Greg Chritchley Josh Broadbent Marty Cordrey Max Styles Randall Coryell Rich Roxborough Whitey Glan Atilla Turi
notable instruments	}}

The Kings are a Canadian band formed in the 1970s, best known for their 1980 North American hit "This Beat Goes On/Switchin' To Glide".

Recording history

The Kings were formed in Vancouver, British Columbia, and Oakville, Ontario in the late 1970s. The original lineup included David Diamond (bass, lead vocals), Sonny Keyes (keyboards, vocals), Max Styles (drums), and Mister Zero (guitar) with Mister Zero and David Diamond serving as the main songwriters with contributions from Sonny Keyes. The Kings were originally known as WhistleKing and rehearsed, performed club gigs, and wrote a considerable number of songs for more than three years.

In early 1980 the band went into Nimbus 9 Studio in Toronto to record their first album. While recording, renowned producer Bob Ezrin visited the studio, listened to the band, and liked what he heard. Together they created the album ''The Kings Are Here'' featuring the hit "This Beat Goes On/Switchin' To Glide". Two other singles followed and the band began touring extensively with Bob Seger, Jeff Beck, The Beach Boys and Eric Clapton. During 1980, their rising commercial fortunes culminated in an appearance on Dick Clark's ''American Bandstand'', and the closing spot at the major Heatwave festival in August.

''Amazon Beach'', the 1981 follow-up to ''The Kings Are Here'', produced little in the way of sales, and the band was soon dropped from their label Elektra Records. The Kings soldiered on and released the EP "R.S.V.P" and the live album ''Party Live '85'' on their own Dizzy label, while continuing to tour Canada and the US throughout the remainder of the 1980s. Max Styles left the band in approximately 1982.

Comebacks

The late 1980s were a difficult period for The Kings as they lost their drummer and their record label. As it were, the group was on the verge of a major revival as the single "This Beat Goes On/Switchin' To Glide" became a huge radio hit in Chicago getting major play on all of the main rock stations: Classic rock WCKG, Alternative rock WXRT, and Mainstream Rock WLUP, as well as Top 40 powerhouse WLS-AM. The unavailability of the Kings records led Chicago DJ Bob Stroud of WLUP to record his own version of the single with his band Rockestra . Elektra Records unfortunately remained unaware of the burgeoning hit and never reissued the single or album.

The single "Parting Of The Ways" appeared on Bullseye Records compilation ''Unsigned, Sealed and Delivered'' in 1991. This comeback prompted The Kings to return to the studio to record ''Unstoppable'' produced by John Punter, David Diamond and Mister Zero in 1993. ''Unstoppable'' produced several hits in Canada including "Lesson To Learn", "Shoulda Been Me", "Tonight I Got You", "Parting Of The Ways", and the title track "Unstoppable". A phone call in 1999 from Mister Zero to Alan Fletcher at Warner Canada led to the green light needed for Warner to re-issue ''The Kings Are Here..and More'' which allowed fans to get their hit "This Beat Goes On/Switchin' To Glide" on CD, which was fully remastered from the original 2 track tapes by Zero . ''...and More'' also contained a few re-mixed tracks from Unstoppable and two previously unreleased tracks -"If The Stars Come Out Tonight" and "Right To The Top". A remixed and more mature version of "If The Stars Come Out Tonight" appeared on ''Because Of You'' released in 2003. Combined original sales and cd sales have passed the platinum mark in Canada but no certification is allowed because of the bonus tracks on the cd, which are the only way the band makes money from that project.

Throughout the remainder of the 1990s, The Kings continued to tour and play live shows around Toronto, but Sonny Keyes' role with The Kings diminished and only Mister Zero and David Diamond remain as permanent members from the original lineup. Sonny Keyes continued to contribute when called upon by Zero and Diamond.

Drummer Atilla Turi and keyboard players Peter Nunn and Rich Roxborough joined Mister Zero and David Diamond on the 2003 Bullseye Records release "Because Of You" (Josh Broadbent - Diamond's son - was also recruited into The Kings to contribute his vocals). "Because Of You" would be The Kings' strongest effort to date with Harry Hess recording alongside producers Zero and Diamond. A video was made for the title track, "It's Up To You" and "The Fools Are In Love" was re-mixed from the ''Amazon Beach'' release. Sonny Keyes co-wrote "A Way You'll Never Be" with Mister Zero.

A reunion of the original lineup of The Kings occurred in the winter of 2001 with Max Styles and Sonny Keyes joining their old mates for Alan Frew's (Glass Tiger) children benefit concert for Camp Trillium in Toronto. They played the benefit concert again in 2002.

In late 2005 The Kings had a full length reunion concert in Toronto which was filmed for inclusion in the DVD documentary being assembled by Mister Zero. The first part of this film to be seen is the incredible video for ''This Beat Goes On/Switchin' to Glide'', released October 2006, which gets thousands of plays on youtube.

Another focus for The Kings was to put as many songs as possible on iTunes, thus having the catalog available worldwide instantly. The album ''The Kings Anthology One'' is the latest addition, 12 songs from different eras including never before heard epic rockers from Whistleking.

In to 2008, The Kings continue to play live shows across southern Ontario and, from time to time, the northern United States. The Kings are also finishing new songs for their next studio album.

Lineups

The Kings 1977 - 1982 # David Diamond (vocals, bass) # Mister Zero (guitar) # Sonny Keyes (keyboards) # Max Styles (drums)

The Kings 1982 - 1999 # David Diamond (vocals, bass) # Mister Zero (guitar) # Sonny Keyes (keyboards) #Peter Nunn (1994) (keyboards) #Marty Cordrey, Whitey Glan, Gary Craig, Randall Coryell, Greg Chritchley, Atilla Turi (drums) #Josh Broadbent (vocals) The Kings 1999 - 2005 # David Diamond (vocals, bass) # Mister Zero (guitar) # Atilla Turi (drums) # Peter Nunn (keyboards) # Rich Roxborough (keyboards) # Josh Broadbent (vocals)

The Kings 2005–present # David Diamond (vocals, bass) # Mister Zero (guitar) # Atilla Turi (drums) # Peter Nunn (keyboards) # Sonny Keyes (keyboards) # Peter Kadar (keyboards) #Josh Broadbent (vocals) #Todd Reynolds (Drums)

Discography

''The Kings Are Here'' album (Elektra, 1980)

''Amazon Beach'' album (Elektra, 1981)

''R.S.V.P'' [4-Song EP] (Dizzy, 1982)

''Party Live '85'' live album (Dizzy, 1985)

''Parting Of The Ways'' single (1991)

''Unstoppable'' CD (Dizzy, 1993)

''Unstoppable'' [W/This Beat Goes On/Switchin' To Glide added] CD (Griffin, 1995)

''The Kings Are Here..and More'' CD (Warner, 2000)

''The Kings Are Here/Amazon Beach'' (2 on 1 CD, Wounded Bird, 2003)

''Because Of You'' CD (2003)

''Anthology One'' CD (2006)

See also

Canadian rock

Music of Canada

References

External links

Official website

Bullseye Records

The Kings: Anatomy of a One-Hit Wonder DVD review

Category:Canadian rock music groups Category:Musical groups from Vancouver