A small piece of advice for anyone who calls me up trying to sell me something over the phone. Gweilo names are not the same as Chinese names and it certainly gets things off to a bad start when you don’t understand that. This is particularly bad coming from a bank that has been dealing…

Our new friend Fat Phil from Expat@Large seems surprised that he has come across the same taxi driver for a second time in 6 years when there are so many taxis here. Yes there are, but the drivers tend to stick to particular areas so it’s not that unlikely, especially over that period of time.…

The Harbour Fest controversy rumbles on. Yesterday Simon, Phil, Conrad and Giles all had a go at this following the publication of an official report on the subject, and now here I am, late as usual! My view is that there was no need for Harbour Fest, the government should never have got involved, and…

The government has announced plans for a new bridge linking Cheung Sha Wan to Tsing Yi. This will eventually form part of “Route 8” from Sha Tin to the airport, the first section of which is already under construction, and the last part of which (Tsing Ma bridge to the airport) has been open for…

There’s a good piece in today’s Standard about the perils of being a pedestrian in Hong Kong: Poor urban planning has turned “world class” Hong Kong into a “pedestrian-hostile city”, which last year led to the deaths of 202 people, says a Hong Kong University professor. “There are more people on public transport here in…

Our outdoor pool opened at the weekend, which cheered me up. Most private-sector estates in Hong Kong have pools, but (as I have mentioned previously) they are often only open for a few months in the summer and close at 7 pm. Fortunately, ours is open longer and later, so I can go swimming after…

This week I have been mainly…discovering parts of the New Territories I never knew existed. I think I have mentioned before that in my time in Hong Kong I have never worked in Central, Wan Chai, Causeway Bay or any of the other typical gweilo haunts.  My current job is in the New Territories, but…

Like most buildings in Hong Kong, our apartment block has a door entry system that requires you to enter a code number to gain entry. However, there are always people coming and going, so you can normally get in without having to bother entering the number. If not, the security guard will unlock the door…

Today is a public holiday in Hong Kong – we all know that. But it’s not a statutory holiday. What difference does it make? Well, not much to most of us, but a lot if you are a domestic helper from overseas. They only get the statutory holidays, which don’t include Good Friday (or Easter…

The MTRC have been making a big fuss about the trains on the Airport Express running every 12 minutes rather than every 15 minutes.  Yes, but up until a year ago, trains were running every 10 minutes.  Then (at the height of the SARS “crisis”) they reduced the service to 4 trains an hour, and it has taken them until now…