Some we can be proud of. Some we would rather do without. But as a city of extremes and excesses, Hong Kong has earned a number of inadvertent entries in the Guinness World Records.

A classic example of the city achieving a world record by what it doesn't do rather than what it does do is its listing for the world's lowest birth rate at just 7.34 births per 1,000 population as of November 2007.

Besides procreation, something else Hong Kong apparently does very little of is farming. With Singapore, Hong Kong shares a joint world record for being least dependent on agriculture, a sector that accounted for just 0.1 percent of gross domestic product in each city as of 2004.

Other records are rooted in Hong Kong's notorious population density and scale. The city has the most heavily used roads in the world with 5,565,600 km driven for every kilometer of the city's road network every year, according to 2007 figures.

It also has the world's most densely populated island with 80,000 people living in an area of 1.3 square km - a population density of 60,000 people per square km.

Engineering feats are among Hong Kong's world record. The Mid-Levels Escalator is the world's longest escalator system, at 800 meters, while the Tsing Ma Bridge ranks has the longest bridge span for road and rail traffic.

A lesser-known record is that Hong Kong also has the world's tallest revolving door - the 4.8 meter entrance to the Novotel Citygate Hong Kong Hotel which opened in Tung Chung in June 2006.

Inevitably, Hong Kong holds some records for consumer excess. It has the world's most expensive Snoopy memorabilia - a HK$2.88 million replica of the cartoon dog created by Tse Sui Luen Jewellery and unveiled in 2009.

It also has the world's most expensive bathroom - a solid gold washroom with everything, from the toilet bowl to the toilet brushes, wall tiles and doors made out of solid gold.Recently valued at around $3.5 million, jeweler Lam Sai-wing's little piece of opulence may be worth considerably more today thanks to the soaring price of gold.

(HK Edition 09/02/2011 page4)