Ordinary Gweilo

It's not big and it's not clever, it's just a Brit in Hong Kong writing (mainly) about Hong Kong

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Category: Life in Hong Kong

  • Beware of your belongings

    The BBC reports (China dishes up menu translations) that the Beijing Tourism Bureau is trying to improve the English translations of restaurant menus in preparation for next year’s Olympics. Translations such as “virgin chicken” for a young chicken dish and “burnt lion’s head” for pork meatballs are confusing for foreigners, it says. [..] The names of many Chinese dishes have…

  • Euphemisms

    I love it when companies try to get away with whopping great lies. A drive-in cinema opened in West Kowloon at the end of last year, and it has had an advert in the SCMP for several months.  For the last few weeks the advert has solemnly announced that the cinema is closed for a private…

  • Do it yourself

    This comment about a recent post reminded of an article some time ago in The Economist (subscription required as this is so old): MEET your airline’s latest employee: you. You may not have noticed, but you are also now working for your phone company and your bank. Why? Because of the growth of the self-service…

  • Lost and found

    Back in 2004, Readers Digest got themselves some free publicity by claiming that 4 out of 5 Hong Kong people would return a wallet to its owner if they found it (though another prominent blogger of the time doubted that this was true – see Too cynical by half). Now they done it again with an…

  • Odd policies

    An interesting letter from David Webb in Sunday’s paper: Transport policy in need of an overhaul I am responding to David Beaves’ question on why private motorists cannot convert to liquefied petroleum gas or buy LPG cars in Hong Kong (“Government has got it wrong on LPG policy”, July 15). No doubt the government will…

  • Inconvenient (as intended)

    The controversy about where pre-booked taxis can pick passengers at the airport rumbles on.  Today’s SCMP reports that passengers are unhappy with the new location (Airport cab site too far: travellers): Passengers of radio-despatched taxis complained yesterday that the location of the pickup point under a new arrangement at Chek Lap Kok airport was inconvenient. “The new…

  • Go the back of the queue

    If you want to save money when going to or from the airport by taxi, you can book by phone and enjoy a significant discount.  As an alternative, there are so-called “vans” that can take more people and more luggage than a normal taxi.  However, both of these services are “illegal”.  The Airport Authority recently decided to make it more…

  • Journey to nowhere

    I notice that Star Cruises have a new ship, and Paul over at The Valley has also commented on it: It sure does look very sleek. But don’t fool yourself, this ship hasn’t been designed to maximise the comfort of guests but more to maximise the size of the on board casino. Once the ship…

  • Life carries on

    Sunday (July 1st) is the 10th anniversary of the "handover".  Much is being made of this even though 10 years is a totally arbitrary period of time.  Well, it fills up newspapers, I suppose. Back in 1997 it seemed that everyone I met in the UK wanted to know what had changed in Hong Kong…

  • Wet Wet Wet

    This is the rainy season in Hong Kong. Umbrellas – I hate ’em. Obviously they are very useful when there is heavy rain, but then you have to carry them around and try to avoid losing them. If you are caught without one, there’s always that awful decision whether to buy the world’s most over-priced…