Hong Kong news 18 October

Welcome to today's run-through and interpretation of Hong Kong's news, courtesy of the South China Morning Post (SCMP) and The Standard. The SCMP is chosen because it is the top selling English-language newspaper in Hong Kong, and The Standard is chosen because it is free and people stuff it into my hands when I walk around the city.

Protestors in China smash up a Japanese-made car. Image from SCMP.com.

CHINA AND INTERNATIONAL
The Standard led this morning with a story about anti-Japan protests in China, and anti-China protests in Japan. There was a kerfuffle in the sea last week when Japan and China both laid claim to a portion of the water as its own territory, and both nations are now getting pissy with each other, less so in government, and moreso the man in the street. Interestingly, China banned protests in Shenzen and Guangzhou where the Asian Games are scheduled next month. Maintain pretty picture at all times when cameras might be present. Follow Beijing Olympics as example. It will be interesting to see who the USA sides with, with long-time agreements with Japan being tested against a powerful diplomatic Chinese prescence - one the US doesn't want to piss off.

The Chinese (propaganda) press machine has mounted and distributed an attack on the Nobel chaps for picking Liu Xiaobo as winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace. The People's Daily said that this year's award strayed from the ideals of the Nobel Peace Prize. As if this year was the problem. Did you see who won it last year for doing diddly-squat?


HONG KONG
The SCMP's main story was that Bishop Tong, Hong Kong's top Catholic leader, admitted yesterday that "sex scandals have rocked the universal church, including the local diocese". Later on the page they said that the Titanic sank, apartheid ended and that the USA invaded Iraq.

The poverty-loaded people gap here in Hong Kong is fairly prevalent, much like South Africa, so there must be some sort of resentment in the other front page story of the SCMP: Hong Kong universities are ofering pay packages of up to HK$200 000 (about R180 000) per month to recruit top professors from around the world. Up until 2004, university workers' pay was linked to those in the civil service, but nowadays universities have more control over their own wage bill, and therefore moreoptions when it comes to recruitment. The demand for extra lecturers is due to the commencement of four-year degrees in two years' time and the deficit of educators required stands at about 1000. I have to read more to find out why the change in the tertiary education system though. Either way, the quality of education should not be compromised by unreasonable budgets, particularly in a staunchly capitalist country like Hong Kong.

Paul Zimmerman, chief executive of Design Hong Kong has publically warned that the glut of property agencies and excessive rents that are too high for brand new businesses is going to kill the spirit of entrepreneurship in this city. The investment required in a new business here is to much, and too risky, he says.

SPORT
Graham Henry has fast-tracked Sonny Bill Williams, a rugby league convert, into the All Blacks squad after only playing five professional rugby union games. The NZ squad's next fixture is against Australia in Hong Kong at the end of the month. Piri Weepu is out of the contest after dislocating his ankle over the weekend.

This has nothing to do wth Hong Kong, but Samuel Eto'o again had to confont racist chants when he scored the only goal of the game as Inter Milan beat Cagliari yesterday. Will this ever end? The game was delayed by a few minutes because of the chants directed at Eto'o. The fans should be told that they may not attend the stadium for 10 games, or something hideous like that. It is absolutely shocking that this still continues after all that Football Against Racism wank. Come on Platini, this is your shit to deal with.

There is zilcho Hong Kong sports news from the weekend except for horce racing which I don't understand.

Graham Street Market

(Click image thumbnails to see a bigger version)

Just down from where we’re staying is the Graham Street market: a sloping street with every kind of food you can think of, and many you can’t. Alongside its stands of fruit, (very alive) fish, meat, bread and a whole lot of stuff I don’t recognise – seriously, they have these things which look like apples but they have spikes sticking out of them and I am not sure if it is from a tree or the sea – you can also buy slops, children’s’ clothing, toys and behind the stalls are restaurants and more shops selling food.

A view down Graham Street Market. Photo by Simon Williamson.

It’s a place raging with a bit of controversy as the market, where many local Hongkongers do their grocery shopping, is going to be razed so that residential skyscrapers (who are we kidding? That’s an average Hong Kong building) can be built.

I usually walk to work with my significant other in the mornings and his office is right at the bottom of Graham Street, where the market starts. So I always walk back up it. It is a fascinating set up – a complete balls up from the outside, until you stroll in and join the throngs wrestling their way to where they are trying to barter. The only thing I really buy here is fruit. I far prefer a quick visit to a market than a squish in the teeny tiny aisles they have here in grocery shops, and our closest decent grocery shop is about a 10 min ride up the escalator. According to a few touristy reports I have read, these kinds of markets are the real Hong Kong. The cynic in me finds that hard to believe after our experience in Mong Kok and I have a feeling that places like the Graham Street Market can help rich snooty Hongkongers feel like they are part of their own city – such as Soweto does for urban people in Joburg and Mzoli’s does for Capetonians. I certainly don’t scoff at places like these – the three listed I very much enjoy (ok I finally confess: I actually don’t like Mzolis all that much).

Above: Fish being kept alive, waiting for someone to come and buy them. Below: Fish after this process is complete. Pics by Simon Williamson.

What I cannot deny is that it is closer, cheaper and a far more enjoyable and interesting experience to buy goods in the Graham Street Market than it is in the 7-11 across the street or the Park ‘n Shop up the hill. The first time I saw live fish in the market get their heads lopped off as soon as someone wanted to buy them, or saw a crab being removed from a tank and be systematically tied up, alive, for the customer, I was grossed out. Totally. In fact it’s still something that doesn’t sit so well with the little part of my stomach that tries to prevent nausea. But here in China it is how people buy food. When in Rome... you know?

I do not believe that I am joining in some cultural recess of Hong Kong that no one outside locals manage to permeate. But I do feel like a have a foot slightly further into the East than I would have. I’d be lying if I said that grappling over a price with someone who can only speak Cantonese didn’t thrill me a bit – I’m still convinced I’m being ripped off though. I smile as they yak out words I can’t understand, and we make hand signals to each other amongst a lot of pointing and acting like the animal I wish to buy. Really though, putting my thumbs in my arm pits and clucking like a chicken is not the most absorbing way to buy food as I am one of those people who likes great distance between what is on my plate and what runs around a farmyard.

So when you people do come and visit, take your valloids before we go grocery shopping.

PS. Can anyone identify these things on sale at the Graham Street Market? I'm no foodie so am not sure.

Foraging for food

People filled me up with this wank that Hong Kong was this totally Western city that somehow wound up next to China. Well, let me tell you, get that right out of your head. This is an Asian city - the premier language is most certainly not English (although the language of business is, and all signs are in English and Cantonese) and many Hongkongers only know a few useful phrases.

The most noticeable Asian aspect of this city, though, is the food. There is a McDonalds somewhere in the city, and the odd Western takeway like Subway, but for the most part it is Chinese. I have eaten more noodles in the last fortnight than I have in the previous 27 years of my life, and I've taught myself to use chopsticks - the excuse of being left-handed which I've used throughout my life doesn't fly here.

Restaurants in Hong Kong are pretty expensive, even by Cape Town standards. Pizza is excessively pricey (you won't find one for under R100, and that will be for a small margherita) as is steak, probably due to the fact that everything in Hong Kong needs to be imported - I cannot fathom where would be enough land for farms. Or even just one cow, to be completely honest. It does mean, though, that groceries are also damn expensive, particularly in the central part of town where we live. The South African rand is about 10% stronger than the Hong Kong dollar, so two pieces of lean chicken breast, costing about HK$50 at a Pick n Pay type of store (called Park n Shop, believe it or not) are about R45. So it's almost worth eating out as much as we do.

Every kind of restaurant you can think of is here. Thai, Italian, British which you can easily browse if you're prepared to pay for it.

Our personal restaurants of choice are what translates to "tea shops", called yum cha in Cantonese, if my Wikipedia browsing is anything to go by. This is where it seems Chinese people eat - I have never seen a non-Chinese patron in one of them, other than the two of us. We started going to them less for tea and more for the amount of money they charge for food - which keeps our bank accounts happy - but the quality of food served is also decent. There are stupidity traps though. The first time we went to a tea shop, we were served tea as we sat down. On our second visit to one of these shops, the waitress plonked two cups of hot water down on the table. In the spirit of trying to be Chinese, we sipped on it, assuming it aided digestion or some such shit, until we saw the table next to us putting their cutlery into it. We very quickly pretended we hadn't been so stupid, and ordered from the menu, which, in these kinds of restaurants, is noodles with a meat or soup prepared in some fashion. I find these tea shops are the best place for chicken dishes, but there is always pork (I think it's the most popular meat here) and beef on the menu, and you're looking at about HK$30 to HK$50 per meal. A lot of meals here are served in soup - like sweet and hot pork with noodles (which could conceivably stand on its own, but is served) in a bowl of soup. I assumed that sweet and hot pork was a mistranslation of sweet and sour, but no, they really meant sweet and hot, as the burning in my mouth testified.

On that note, there is a restaurant which all visitors will be taken to called Chilli Haven (we only noticed the name of it afterwards). We were walking around looking for a spot to eat when we came upon this cute little restaurant with affordable prices. In we innocently went and ordered two Tsingtao's (Chinese beer) while we pondered the menu. The beers were served in bowls, and I'm still unsure as to whether this is some ancient Chinese custom, or the staff were snickering around the corner, watching two morons lap up beer from a vessel ill-suited to the purpose. Our waitress, a seemingly innocent twenty something woman (but was actually a totally psychotic bitch) recommended we order the dumplings, a speciality of the restaurant. We took that, some peri-peri chicken dish and a dose of sweet and sour pork. Well, it tasted like these dumplings were grown in an Indian chilli plantation, cooked in gunpowder and were then pissed on by fire ants, and we put our brave faces on as we schlepped through them, wiping sweat from brow and trying to keep the limpid snot from escaping our noses as tears poured out of our eyes. During this process of trying to remember to breathe, I somehow managed to touch my eye with a sauce-covered finger - it caught fire and melted a little bit before I managed to save it by putting an ice-cube beneath my eyelid. We don't really know what the other food tasted like because our mouths were on fire until the following day, when we were distracted by the pain of, well, let's just say the food was digested in a very heated manner.

The one last and most important adjustment we have been forced to make in a culinary sense, is the staggering price of liquor in bars, compared to in grocery shops. In the 7-11, a beer is about HK$8, so not too far off what we pay in South Africa. However, a beer in a bog-standard bar in Soho will knock you back about HK$60 which is even more than you get schmucked for in a London pub. Wine, oir tipple of choice back in SA, is prohibitively expensive here - the cheapest bottle we can find (so our regular selection) is from Chile and costs about HK$45 - double the cost of a Zesty White. So we've had to revert to the amber drink of men - beer. Yes, glorious beer. In fact I am sipping on one right now while I type this.

And not one menu has had dog or cat on it. I am very disappointed.


ERRATA: In the post I mentioned that Tsingtao was a Japanese beer. It's actually Chinese. It's been changed.

Hong Kong news 15 October

Apologies for the lack of news yesterday, but my one-eyed reporting was compromised by my need to go out for dinner. Never fear: I have covered two days' worth of news today.

Please note the change in the title. My mornings are getting quite busy (due to the extra sleep I am getting) so I'll post the news whenever I feel like it. This is from the South China Morning Post (SCMP), a pro-Beijing English daily. Actually, it's the top selling English newspaper in Hong Kong and is about as objective as The Citizen/Daily Mail.

The Singapore skyline. Image hakked from finmath.uchicago.edu. Thanks folks.

CHINA AND INTERNATIONAL
Singapore's economy laughed off the recession as it grew 18.1% in the first half of this year which is the greatest increase since records began in 1975. How weird that these British colonies are better at British things than the British are...? Banking and economics in this case.

Beijing will spend 4 trillion yuang (which is about 4.1 trillion ronts) over five years across key industries: energy, materials, IT, biology and new medicine, aerospace, marine, manufacturing and hi-tech services. How cool would it be if China joined the space race?

The dollar weakend to its lowest level in recent times yesterday, including dropping to 81 Japanese yen. The Hong Kong Dollar is pegged to the US Dollar so the debate as to whether it should be unpegged is raging again, although HK CEO, Donald Tsang says that it is a lifeline (or some such shitty analogy) and that the currencies will remain pegged.

HONG KONG
Chief Executive, Donald Tsang Yam Kuen (basically the president of Hong Kong) gave his penultimate policy address on Thursday. Hong Kong's biggest social problem is housing. Poor people cannot afford to live here because the huge demand for houses, and the trickling supply of them forces the prices sky high. Tsang proposed two initiatives to help people with housing. The first being a rent-to-buy where purchasers rent a property for a fixed term and then decide to buy it - the rent they've paid counts as money spent towards buying the house. The second initiative is to make 20 000 property units available every year to keep the property prices at an acceptable level. Critics believe that neither of these initiatives will work, and as this is the "We love the Chinese Government" English mouthpiece, the SCMP has quoted every critic it can find. At length.

A cab driver was arrested for taking advantage of drunk people who wound up in his taxi in the early hours of the morning. A stiff sentence - 32 months in prison - for stealing from 10 different passengers (wallets and phones and things) while they lay passed out in his car is reflective of the fact that I am not going to flout the law here.

Property magnate and government employee, Lau Wong-fat, the Hong Kong government's Peter Mandelson, a man who's crookedness seems to be reported on every day, has received the backing of Donald Tsang, the HK CEO. Lau Wong-fat probablty owns Tsang's house.

Donald Tsang has promised to table a bill regulating working hours. In yesterday's paper, a woman didn't qualify for a public transport discount because she worked less than 72 hours per week... so there are people that work more than that. Seriaas. It pays to be on the correct side of colonialism, doesn't it?

50%-60% of Hong Kong's waste is recycled. I find this very hard to believe. But the greenies don't even think that's high enough as South Korea allegedly recycles 90% of its waste.

An anonymous threat grounded 14 Cathay Pacific flights (13 passenger, 1 cargo) yesterday. It was later found to be a hoax. I hope they catch this anonymous caller and castrate him (or de-tit her). There is nothing more infuriating. Well, an actual bomb I suppose...

SPORT
China will be sending over 1500 participants to the Asian Games in Guangzhou next month. Insanity.

There is absolutely no sport news regarding Hong Kong. It's all Liverpool, baseball, Chinese basketball... so you'll have to wait I'm afraid. I think the Hong Kong Sixes cricket squads have been announced though, so let me see what I can dig up. Keep an eye on twitter.

Hong Kong morning (afternoon) news 13 October

Today's interpretation of the news. Nothing made up or unsubstantiated of course.

CHINA AND INTERNATIONAL
In an open letter, a group of Chinese ex-politicians and leaders has lambasted China's attitude toward freedom of speech, even comparing it to the colonial era in Hong Kong and Macau (which was colonised by the Portuguese) where democratic rights were established. This is important, because it includes censorship of "Premier Wen Jiabao's repeated calls for political reform and deprive the people their right to learn about it". In fact, a speech which Jiabao made in Shenzen about this topic had parts deleted before it could be considered by the Chinese media. Lots of open letters like this are published in China which usually achieves nothing bar the signatories getting into hot water with the government, however, the high profile nature of the people who signed this doc means they will probably all be fine. Weirdly enough, two people who signed this letter previously worked for the CCP - the Central Propaganda Department. Go figure.

China, her neighbours (meaning the Yank's floozees, South Korea and Japan) and the USA are on the verge of having a squawk about China's actions on the South China Sea. China reckons aggrieved parties (meaning South Korea and Japan) should deal directly wth Beijing. Washington said that it is committed to coming up with a multilateral solution (meaning China should back the fuck up and let South Korea and Japan do what they want before they cock around with easy and cheap US-shipping routes, I'd imagine). Its going to boil down to China telling the States to go away, and the States saying no.

HONG KONG
The Hong Kong SAR government expressed disappointment that the President of the Philippines, Benigno Aquino, has officially announced that he will not prosecute all the officials who cocked up so badly during the hostage situation in Manila which left 8 Hong Kongers dead. Instead, because they are buddies of his, he is going to blame two journalists and aim some tiny charges at high ranking offials.

Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong's airline, over the last two years installed these fancy economy class seats so that passengers could recline without disturbing people sitting behind them. They have moved them off aircraft that serve long haul destinations because of the amount of people who claimed they are uncomfortable. Bully for you complainers... like economy class on all airlines isn't uncomfortable.

I have mentioned Lau Wong-fat before. He is the oke who owns 700-odd properties in Hong Kong and always seems to be in some sort of shit. Well, ithappened again. It was found out that he has leased one of his plots of land to an illegal paint-balling business. Being the owner, he is partly culpable. Oh and he's also a bigwig in government. Corruption is rife around the world, my pretties.

Donald Tsang, CEO of Legco will make some yearly address tomorrow. Listening to a politician speak is totally the most engrossing thing ever, innit?

SPORT
South Korea was given the green light by the FIA during its pre-Grand Prix inspection.

The only story in sport today relevant to Hong Kong is that Colin Montgomerie will be playing in the Hong Kong Open next month. Wank wank wank. He's won it before though.

Finding a flat

The average size of a Hong Kong apartment.

As you know, Hong Kong is full of lank tall buildings - many of which are shoddily-built, cheap, crap accommodation - due to the ever-neccesary need to house the 7 million people dwelling here. Think 10-story buildings with no lifts, 200sq ft studio apartments (divide by about 10.7 for sq metres) going for HK$10 000 (about R9000) per month because flats here are hard to come by and so the price is quite ridiculous.

It's not easy. You are not going to live in a big flat, you will not have a garden. Buying a flat solely on space... well that philosophy will disappoint you - and your prioroties need changing. That being said, you are going to be looking for property amongst the glinty lights of one of the most beautiful skylines in the world, so there are, of course, definite benefits in living here.

It does mean that your factors which decide whether a flat is good or not change. As I mentioned, throw space out of the window. What you want in that sense is storage and place to store furniture. We want a 2-bedroom place, but there's no point in two rooms if one of them is too small to put stuff in (which is the case with plenty). We want one bedroom where we'll sleep, and to use the other as an office and guest room, so it will need a desk and sleeper couch to fit snugly - problem is that with an open sleeper couch in Hong-Kong-number-two-bedrooms is that the bedroom door won't close. I swear, these apartments are that small.

Kitchen space also seems a concern for many prospective renters, as every estate agent we've come across tells us about the size of it. Well, from our point of view, if the house has a microwave in it, a place for the cleaner to wash the dishes and somewhere to keep the beer cold, we're quite pleased.

Furniture in this city is as cheap as chips. Second-hand furniture is, obviously, even cheaper. We are going to check out some oke's spread of stuff this evening, where for about R1000 we will get a couch, tables, chairs, wardrobe and some useful extra appliances thrown in like a rice cooker (hahahaha) and a shoe rack (collectively, Mike and I own six pairs of shoes). It does mean that we don't need to find a furnished place, which we expected we'd have to do when we arrived.

Getting out of this tiny studio "serviced" apartment is goal number one. We're both getting a bit antsy living in such a tiny space - I am starting to be able to empathise with the Chilean miners - and we have way too much stuff to fit in here (and four boxes which are being shipped, currently en route to Hong Kong). We are out of the flat regularly - running every night, eating out, testing out the plethora of bars in this district (we're right near Soho), I often meet Mike for lunch during the day, exploring other parts of Hong Kong as well as planning our first Asia trip, which, currently, is looking like Seoul, but we're not really sure yet.

Hopefully when we do decide to go, it's from a base which we can call home. We're pretty close to choosing one now, so cross your bloody fingers. It's where you're staying when you come and visit.

Hong Kong morning news 12 October

Today's finest from the South China morning post, with added editorial by Simon Williamson.

Today's image lovingly stolen from the Daily Telegraph.

CHINA AND INTERNATIONAL
I start today with the pro-Beijing SMCP’s opinion piece entitled “Did Liu Xiaobo deserve it?”, regarding his Nobel Prize for Peace which he will get to see when he gets out of prison in 11 years time. The opinion page of today’s paper has two articles on it which directly oppose each other. One is a bland highfalutin translation from Kaifang (Open) Magazine by Jin Zhong which says Liu is wonderful because he is pro-political reform and that this award is a golden opportunity for China to begin democratisation. The other column in the page is by Barry Sautman (political scientist and lawyer) and Yan Hairong (anthropologist) who claim that Liu, in statements made in 1988 and 2007, believes that the West is superior to China and therefore is the way that China needs to lean – risking oligarch-like looting of public organisations as industry becomes privatised. The second column maintains that the people of China will not ever choose the system Liu wants for them. Interesting stuff, but real surface and guessy arguments.

On the front page of the SCMP there is a story about the heads of the US and Chinese military meeting in Vietnam today and thawing frosty relations. China is getting pissy because the US is sending in more and more of its army into the Asia-Pacific region, and the US is getting whingy because China is making its army bigger and bigger quickly. I did a once-over of the NY Times coverage of the meeting and from the US view, dialogue seemed far more strained.

HONG KONG:
Donald Tsang Yam-kuen is the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Legislative Council (Legco) and he signed an order to build a landfill in a country park. This pissed off the greenies who began protesting and spiralled into a big mess. Now, Legco reckons it can overturn an order signed by Tsang... so because of this excess litter, the Hong Kong government (well, the little pretend government that China lets it have) could conceivably wind up in the equivalent of the Constitutional Court over who in government can do what.

Mystery attackers are giving law firms kak at the moment. A follow up to yesterday’s story about property gone wrong, this kind of thing also makes me smile a bit. Someone spray painted a law firm’s entrance with red spray paint last week, and then last night someone took an axe to the glass door of another firm. Police are looking for suspects. Umm... why don’t you just see who lost cases in the last month?

SPORT:
Bangladesh are pissed off because Hong Kong has excluded them from the legendary and famous Hong Kong Sixes cricket tournament due to be staged next month. This is probably because there isn;t much tourism, relations or money passed between the two countries, but if I learnt anything during the World Cup in South Africa, it was that there were loads more Honduran people who came over than I imagined...

China wants to host the Olympics again, but this time in Guangzhou. Different attitudes totally from Hong Kong which is still debating whether to enter into the race for the 2023 Asia Games.