Pure fiction, of course. Nothing to do with this.
The story starts in 1940, with Japanese forces invading southern China. A penniless teenager called Cheng flees his home for the relative safety of Macau, where a jewellery shop owner agrees to let him sleep under the counter in return for doing odd jobs. Over the years, the plucky youngster learns the trade, and marries the goldsmith’s daughter. (Yes, it’s corny.)
After the war, the couple move to Hong Kong to open a new outlet, and start a family. The jewellery business proves lucrative, and by the late 1960s, Cheng is investing in Macau’s casino/tourism industry and expanding into Hong Kong real estate – two emerging gargantuan money-making machines.
Fast-forward to the 1980s-90s, and Cheng is one of Hong Kong’s biggest billionaires. Thinking ahead, he decides to give number-one son Henry the job of managing director. He also becomes Honorary Consul for Bhutan. Viewers may wonder why the scriptwriter put this apparently irrelevant detail in the plot. But could the little side-gig with the ancient and mysterious Himalayan kingdom come with a curse?
Henry initially proves less than dazzling as the prospective heir to the family’s business empire, and Cheng feels a need to retake control for a while. But the aging patriarch cannot hold on forever, and in the mid-2010s, he dies.
By the time he gets the hang of running a major conglomerate, Henry himself needs to think about succession. His first-born son Adrian seems the obvious choice, with all those hereditary business-acumen intelligence genes. (The second-born male is Brian, the third Christopher. A, B, C – geddit? His only daughter gets shunted to the back of the alphabet with the name Sonia.)
Adrian is a hip and arty guy who (allegedly) can’t tie his own shoe-laces but has launched several projects, including an upscale shopping mall in Kowloon, the air in which is permeated with a scent of his own choosing.
As he assumes more responsibility for the family business, the young Adrian sees dazzling opportunities in luxury cultural concept lifestyle-type real estate, driven especially by the rise of wealthy Chinese consumers. This prompts a mega-brainwave in 2018: a massive shopping mall out at Hong Kong airport. Rather than go to their hotels, tourists would head straight for the designer-label stores next to the terminal. Or, rather than go straight to the departures lounge after checking in, departing passengers would load up with handbags and watches first. Or they would splurge on luxury goods both upon arrival and before leaving.
The development, on land provided by the airport as a HK$1.8 billion-a-year rental play, totals 3.8 million square feet, which would house 800 stores and restaurants, an entertainment-something, as well as extensive office space. The banks are more than happy to help finance the HK$20 billion project.
No-one stops to consider economist Herbert Stein’s dictum – if something cannot go on forever, it will stop. And the never-ending Mainland-shopper phenomenon shudders to a halt in the early 2020s, after Covid and the bursting of China’s property bubble.
Tragically, 11 Skies turns out to be a wretchedly bad idea. Adrian leaves New World by mid-2025 to focus on public service and philanthropy. In September 2026, lumbered with some HK$120 billion in debt, the company hands the – mostly never-occupied – development to the airport, with over HK$3 billion by way of contract-release, plus an option to buy cut-price shares in the family business. The smaller parts of the conglomerate entrusted to Sonia remain profitable.
In the final episode, the family try to sell their collection of Gold Bauhinia Medals on eBay.
Hong Kong used to be so much fun. Remember when tycoon Joseph Lau married one of his mistresses as part of a deal whereby her brother donated a kidney to him?
Headline of the Day, from HKFP: ‘China National Day: Hong Kong leader hails Five-Year Plan as astronaut sends greetings’.
The Standard reports ‘Long queues at Tsim Sha Tsui cross-border bus terminus after National Day fireworks’. They don’t mention the Mainland woman interviewed by media who said she had come to see the display with her husband and two kids. Their budget for the day was 200 Yuan. To save money, she had brought bread and milk to Hong Kong.
Japanese news agency Kyodo News says it has found evidence that the Chinese military was prepared to suppress the 2014 Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong…
Sources familiar with the matter suggested that China did not resort to armed intervention due to concerns over potential international isolation similar to that faced by the country in the wake of the 1989 military crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.
China Talk interviews Logan Wright, who estimates that China’s economy is currently experiencing negative growth as investment contracts…
[China’s situation] is the result of distinct policy choices about how the financial system operated.
After the global financial crisis, China saw the largest single-country credit expansion the world has seen in at least the last century, possibly many centuries. China added a third of global GDP to its bank assets in just eight years. We’ve never seen anything remotely like it.
First, there was a deliberate attempt to provide countercyclical support in response to the global financial crisis. The extension after that was essentially path dependence. Growth was strong, it was dependent on investment, and it became too difficult for authorities to shut down without imperiling the overall economy. That facilitated the growth of the shadow banking system, and credit growth became increasingly disconnected from the real economy. A lot of it went into the property sector and local government infrastructure.
Transcript or podcast on YouTube.
It seems that CTFE is also on the hook for paying more than HK$1 billion to fellow shareholders of Giordano (709) in a few weeks for past naughty behavior. I am not very fluent in English financial legalese and don’t really understand the details of the case, but I do know that my claim was approved and that I should be receiving a check soon.
Does anyone know if this was one last gift from David Webb, RIP? He was a major shareholder.
Funny how that works
https://www.thestandard.com.hk/news/article/218084/New-World-scoops-eight-awards-in-Institutional-Investors-Annual-Rankings-with-Adrian-Cheng-retaining-Best-CEO-title
David Webb is deeply missed
It appears that many, if not the vast majority, of visitors to HK from the mainland are coming for the day over one of the land crossings. Some have one night in a hotel or sleep in McDonalds. They travel around on the MTR and look at things recommended by the same online guide they all use: the view from Forbes St in Kennedy Town, the rubbish mural in Graham St, etc. They spend little, many bringing their own food or using 7-11 and Circle K. They can be seen walking round Lan Kwai Fong but not actually going into bars.
I have no issue with people coming for a trip here and seeking to do it on the cheap, but it does beg two questions:
1. Is there actually any economic benefit to Hong Kong in wanting more of these types of tourists to come here?
2. If the government spent absolutely nothing on tourism promotion, wouldn’t they still come anyway?
@Revolution
1. Is there actually any economic benefit to Hong Kong in wanting more of these types of tourists to come here?
– Not much, since they don’t spend much, and the large numbers deter tourists who would spend. It’s hardly a high-value, elite holiday experience if you are in a huge crowd, hot, sweaty and struggling to get around.
2. If the government spent absolutely nothing on tourism promotion, wouldn’t they still come anyway?
– Related to 1. For many Mainland tourists, HKG is a quick & ‘cheap’ option. It ticks a box on ‘things to do this weekend’ & they can bring over their own supplies & head back in the evening.
From experience, whereas a few years ago Mainlanders came here for the experience, to buy branded goods / safer products and for the bragging rights of ‘We went to HKG and bought this lovely bag tax-free ‘, now it’s the Douyin crowd – going to the same (frankly sub-par locations) and mass tourists from tier 3 one-goat villages who are traipsed around tour group-linked ‘shit dian xin and forced shopping’ experiences simply so they can tell other villagers that they’ve been to a big city and even seen foreigners.
Even relatively wealthy tourists don’t see the point of eating in restaurants or spending money on F&B or experiences when they can get more bang for the buck in the Mainland.
That’s exactly why Hong Kongers flee to SZ & such at the weekend: to avoid the crowds and get cheaper food, drinks, and massages.
But the HKG government has to be seen to be doing its 5 Year Plan, One Country, Two Systems Performance Piece and frankly, they also don’t have any other novel ideas
Load Toad, I saw a report this week that HKers are beginning to tire of SZ – the previously good-value food prices are also heading north, while the pain of getting across the border and back at the weekend crush hours is a horrendous ordeal. I suppose it won’t affect the massage crowd, the power of boners and all that, but for the average folk, it’s not worth the trudge any more.
I suppose that’s what the new port is for, though.
We are never provided with a tally of the costs involved in coping with the ‘Golden Week’ inundations. Triple the usual staff at border crossings, rail stations, etc. All those extra patrols of beaches and country parks. Setting up and manning the many hot lines, reservations for scenic sites, etc. Cleaning up the mess. Pressure on landfills. Costly rescue services when they fall over a cliff taking selfies. These are just a few that come to mind.
Then the negative impact on locals with nowhere to go because of the crowds on beaches, in country parks, Mac D’s. Trying to get around immoveable objects glued to mobile. Waiting in queue at supermarket, etc as they try to find an app that works.
As for the purported arrivals, certainly not in the malls. I was in Pac Place this evening around 7pm and it was almost empty, and that was the ground floor.
And all the crap about them coming to experience local lifestyle. So why are Chagee branches full while Canto restaurants and cha chan teng continue to close down?
But hey, its in the 5-Year Plan so zip it up.
How much money heads out of HKG as the city becomes unattractive and unlivable for residents as mass tourism is favoured would be interesting
Chagee means penis in Korean.