The government has come up with an altogether more sensible explanation for what they are trying to achieve with new legislation about discrimination and expat salaries, as the SCMP reports: Provisions for expat packages in the proposed anti-racism law will help rather than hinder companies’ recruitment of the best employees for the job, the deputy…

In Saturday’s SCMP, Albert Cheng was complaining about the government’s lack of plans for digital radio in Hong Kong (subscription required): In Hong Kong, a steering committee was set up in 1998 to look into digital radio. It was assigned to co-ordinate trial tests by public and commercial broadcasters. The test results have been satisfactory,…

Still on the subject of expat pay, Simon points out that David Webb has a letter on this subject in today’s SCMP.  He points out is that although it is widely-believed that Hong Kong has a simple flat-tax system there are actually plenty of ways to pay less tax, one of which is to provide…

The most puzzling story of the week is the one about the government outlawing expat pay packages. The SCMP ran this story (subscription required) on Wednesday: Hong Kong companies will have to justify their offers of generous "expat packages" to foreign employees under an anti-racism bill now in an "advanced stage of drafting". They will…

In Hong Kong it is common for offices to be open on Saturday morning, something that you would not find in the UK (or most other countries as far as I know), and hence we have public holidays on a Saturday (the cause of moaning from those who don’t have to work on Saturday). In…

I had a look around the new CitySuper in Sha Tin.  The space they are occupying is the upper floor of what was once a department store (Yaohan?).  When that went bust, SHKP turned the lower level over to restaurants and the upper level to a weird assortment of outlets (a Wellcome supermarket, a couple…

The Winter Solstice is celebrated on the shortest day of the year (i.e. today) and it is traditional to visit your family for a special dinner (no, sorry, that doesn’t mean a Big Mac and large fries).  I think we are celebrating the fact that from here on out the days get longer – though…

I don’t want to sound like one of those crazy people who write letters to the SCMP, but… When they introduced Idiot TV on buses, I thought most of the complaints were overdone – yes it’s annoying, but I found it quite easy to ignore. Now they have apparently decided to turn up the volume…

Just an ordinary day on Hong Kong’s roads. Watching drivers frantically and pointlessly changing lanes before entering a tunnel where (gasp) they have to stay in one lane for a few minutes. Sitting in a bus that was trying to pull out from behind a broken-down vehicle, watching drivers doing all they could to stop…