Category: Hong Kong news
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Since my last post, the government has announced changes to the Joy You scheme (so I was wrong): Maximum of 240 journeys per person per month at the subsidised rate. Users will be charged 20% of the fare if it's over HK$10. The government is calling this the HK$2 flat rate cum 80 percent discount…
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There has been some controversy recently about the HK$2 flat fare for the elderly on public transport. This was introduced in 2012 for people aged 65 or older, and then extended in 2022 to those aged 60 or over. This report says that the scheme costs around HK$4 billion per year (roughly US$500 million). That's…
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The full Tuen Ma line will open on June 27. SCMP predictably came up with a strange headline: Hong Kong MTR: key section of costly Sha Tin-Central link to open by June 27 after repeated delays A key stretch of the long-overdue Sha Tin to Central link, Hong Kong’s most expensive rail project, will fully…
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Seriously, South China Morning Post? Hong Kong is not “in shock” and we are not “stunned”. Here’s the headline: “Hong Kong in shock as Chief Executive CY Leung decides not to seek re-election”. The only person who might have been shocked and surprised would be CY Leung when Beijing told him what to do.
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The story of the week in Hong Kong’s First Free English Newspaper (HKFFEN) seems to be the “revolt” by parents against a fee increase by the ESF (English Schools Foundation). We all know that The Standard (HKFFEN) is run on a shoestring, and in this case it seems clear that the revolting parents have fed…
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Amazingly, the “nude photos scandal” is still front page news in Hong Kong newspapers. The latest non-news is that Edison Chen has admitted he did take the photographs, and also announced that he will quit showbusiness “indefinitely”. Beats me how that is worth more than a few paragraphs in a gossip column, but the SCMP…
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Margaret Chan has been chosen as the new head of the World Health Organization, and the media here has predictably been celebrating this as a great honour for Hong Kong. Yeah, right. If you speak to ordinary people in Hong Kong they still remember what happened with SARS, and regard Margaret Chan as at least…
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Today’s Sunday Morning Post has even more coverage of "the trial that gripped Hong Kong". Mainly "news" about how New York papers reported the story (the tabloids ran sensational stories, the broadsheets were more sober, you’ll be amazed to hear). They also report that Nancy Kissel may have been planning to ship her husband’s body…
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What to do on a Sunday? Why not take the MTR to Disneyland? Nothing to do when you get there (because it’s not open yet), of course. Not that this seemed to deter anyone. At noon, trains from Sunny Bay to the theme park were full of people eager to see the new station. Many…
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In spite of years of watching Crown Court, Rumpole of the Bailey, LA Law, The Practice and Ally McBeal, I am not sure that I am an expert on matters legal. So the Kissel case has me rather puzzled. The defence case appears to be that Robert Kissel was – how can I put this…
Ordinary Gweilo 