Category Archives: Blog

The Standard on the delights of cramming (‘welcoming’) more tourists into an already jam-packed city… As Hong Kong welcomed over 600,000 visitors in the first three days of the National Day Golden Week, the city faced severe traffic congestion across … Continue reading →

What was the cost per kilometre of the high-speed rail to Shenzhen? HK$2 billion? I guess this is a bargain in comparison. Still, the government somehow spends HK$450,000 widening a short stretch of sidewalk in order to accommodate photo-taking Mainland … Continue reading →

The Standard, for anyone who needs reminding, is a free paper that largely comprises brief English translations of Sing Tao articles. It is tycoon-owned, virulently talks up the property market at every opportunity, and is resolutely pro-Beijing/Hong Kong government. But … Continue reading →

The SCMP reports on the latest obscure/offbeat attempt to rejuvenate Hong Kong’s economy… Hong Kong is seeking to establish a cross-border individual travel scheme for yachts, with discussions under way with Guangzhou counterparts to ease maritime travel for private vessels … Continue reading →

The US National Catholic Register has a piece on Cardinal Stephen Chow Sau-yan, Bishop of Hong Kong… “Beijing wants to keep religious freedom intact in Hong Kong, because Hong Kong is important for China,” the cardinal contended, according to a … Continue reading →

The number of registered voters falls again… The 2025 registers of electors, released on Thursday, showed a total of 4,138,992 people registered as voters in the city’s geographical constituencies – the only category of lawmakers open for the public to … Continue reading →

From HKFP, some pics from the typhoon, and some more (especially for fans of felled trees). And a clip via the Standard of people in Macau catching fish in flooded streets. On other matters, the government gives up… Hong Kong … Continue reading →

Who cares whether it’s Signal Number 1 or 3, or 8 or 10? HKFP explains them. The system dates from the era of sailing ships. As a mean editor who can trim 1,000 words to 300 with no problem, I … Continue reading →

The government announced a ‘Number 1 Standby’ (ie ‘nothing is happening’) signal just after noon yesterday, even though the typhoon was more than the usual 800 kilometres away. It then announced that it would put up the Number 3 by … Continue reading →

There’s nothing Hong Kong loves more than an excuse to panic-buy… Residents have begun to accumulate supplies in anticipation of the impending arrival of Super Typhoon Ragasa, while some retailers warned about potential price increases.  In the flood-prone area of … Continue reading →