Hong Kong

[compatibility mode]

I think horse races are on Wednesdays? That is a good time, get some draft beers and place some silly bets, see the spectacle.

If you want to get out and see some nature, head to Sai Kung town, take the bus up to Pak Tam Ao, and hike out to one of the beaches. Should definitely be warm enough to take a dip in the water so bring a towel and stuff if you want. I would almost only recommend getting HK style fried noodles from a small village like the sort you pass through on this hike. Much better than the salty MSG bombs you generally got throughout the city. This will take most of the day, though.

Suggestion 4 in this article has more concrete directions:

https://www.sassyhongkong.com/fitness-outdoors-best-beach-swimming-hikes-trails/

Yokozuna Ramen in Yau Ma Tei is good but probably not the best in the city or really a destination in itself, but has a special spot in my heart.

I checked out the Giant Buddha last time I was there and it was exactly what its namesake advertises.

[joe]

Loving it here, but Soho is definitely a shit show. A lot of sloppy drunken tourists/transplants. Not sure if I would stay in this neighborhood next time, but it is really easy as a home base since everyone speaks English, it's very walkable, and I love using the escalators as my transportation home for the day.

[LloydChristmas]

what's the best way to do Hong Kong on a budget?

not like super backpacker shoestring budget but I also understand it's one of the most expensive cities so yeah, what do?

Pretty expensive to live in, but not that expensive to travel to. More expensive than most other asian destinations, but probbaly not as bad as going to anywhere in Europe. Comparable to Singapore I guess.

[office plant]

just as long as the toilets are clean

[Det. Bobby Gold]

*

[dusky]

can weed be got?

yes but not a good idea

[dusky]

speaking of which, my visit to Taipei & Hong Kong forced me to finally quit vaping.

[joe]

had a blast, though the rain slowed things down quite a bit in the middle of the week. cut into plans to do more hiking/swimming.

thoughts/recommendations:
- club mihn for good techno/house and proper vibes in sheung wan: http://www.mihn.hk/
- kam's roast goose in sham shui po was my favorite meal
- my favorite consistent quick snacks were shanhai style buns at Cheung Hing Kee and sweet/savory pastries across the street at Tai Cheong Bakery
- i drank a lot of fancy cocktails and the old man in soho was clearly the best
- chi lin nunnery near the diamond hill mtr was a very peaceful place to wait out a rain storm
- really enjoyed a day at Cheung Cha island. It was during the bun festival, but it was still very relaxing and chill. had a nice swim on the beach, but watch out for bristle worms Toggle Spoiler
- second the touristy recs of victoria peak, big buddha via cable car, kowloon park, hong kong park/botanical gardens (in that order).
- as I said earlier, I wasn't a huge fan of soho, but I liked riding the mid-level escalators between places and how easy it was to have a home base there.
- if you go to macao, the bus system is pretty simple and recommended over dealing with taxis and hustlers. no cell service on tmobile, fyi, so be prepped. eating street food and hanging around the historic district was a nice daytrip. I guess you could spend more time if you like casinos/gambling, but I don't.

there were a lot of things I didn't do, partly because we often had a group of five which was difficult to wrangle. might try a smaller solo trip sometime in the future to just glide through the city more

[joe]

[office plant]

hey thread, i wasnt gonna bump this but then i got outside of some lime chu hais from 7-11, 9% abv, it's such a travesty that you can't really buy these in korea. im here till sunday and staying in the damn chungking mansions. looking into the internal vent? shaft? things inside the building that are opposite the elevators is like looking into actual hell but it's kinda nice on the roof. maybe i'll go up there again later and drink the other one of these chu hais. Umm i dunno i had the classic bun and eggs + beef noodle breakfast/brunch and some random noodles and fried chicken for dinner. the noodles and chicken were a set which rips imo. i rode some ferries and shit like that too today of course. well. i dont know of any fancy cocktail restaurants or anything so idk what to say about that. tomorrow not sure what to do. go to the beach perhaps. i wonder what this building was like when wong kar-wai grew up in tsim sha tsui. submit post

[Montague Terrace]

I was entirely too poor to go here. stayed in wan chai for work and had a hard time just "living" - you know, times when I didn't want to go to a restaurant/bar, etc.

favorite parts of the trip were tsim tsa tsui and lantau for sure. wish I had been able to head to the south of the island but never got around to it. someday I'll come back when I actually have a real job.

[Rumours]

i live in north point and things been pretty wild this week. ama.

[Swelling Itching Brain]

Do you think a bunch of people are gonna get shot?

[Rumours]

Do you think a bunch of people are gonna get shot?

the lack of guns in hong kong would mean that china would be directly intervening with force which sadly I think is an extremely real possibility.

I don't think the protests could de-escalate unless Carrie Lam steps down or they completely withdraw the extradition bill, but China won't suffer the loss of face of either of those actions.

Police are already firing rubber bullets, but I expect to see a larger skirmish than the one below (one block from my apartment) tomorrow when the protesters roll back through.

[dusky]

fucking China

[tgk]

Not good

[dusky]

shit

[Reliable Tradesman]

This is super scary. This can’t get better now that China feels Hong Kong has lost control.

[tgk]

[Cronos]

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/19/world/asia/pepe-frog-hong-kong-protests.html

[nice pass]

Can someone explain to me what exactly the fuck is going on there

[Rumours]

Can someone explain to me what exactly the fuck is going on there

Hong Kong was a colony of the British Empire until 97 when it was "handed over" to China. It was done with the idea of "One country, two systems" for the next 50 years (til 2047) with "high degree of autonomy" but little fleshing out what that would mean at the time.

The overwhelming majority of people here identify as Hong Kongers, rather than Chinese, and its culturally much different than China given it's history of economic openness the past century.
As China has started to creep and infringe on HKer's perceived autonomy, tensions rose first in 2014 when China got to prescreen Chief Executive nominees to "love China and Hong Kong".

The year an extradition bill was proposed that drew immediate response given China's recent history of legally shutting out its political opponents.
The bill was suspended but not fully withdrawn.

Protestors have 5 demands:
1. Withdraw the ELAB
2. Chief Executive and perceived China pupper Carrie Lam must step down.
3. Government retracts rhetoric of "riots" over violent clashes between a majority of peaceful protestors and police (note: while China's rhteroic has been laughably propaganda in this regard, the length and intensity have made this aspect a little harder to achieve imo).
4. Complete inquiry into police action. (just last night police were caught on camera beating up defenseless masked non-black shirt passengers in the Prince Edward mtr. Statement today was that police assumed they were protestors who changed clothes quick).
5. Unconditional release of everyone arrested in protests.

Carrie Lam, presumably with little bargaining power from her superiors, has only been able to advocate dialogue. China will not lose face and give in to any demands and protests have yet to lose steam. Repeated violent incidents involving police reignite passions every weekend. With neither side close to de-escalating, I'm not sure anything is going to change with China's direct involventment and some sort of curfew.

A big day to watch out for is October 1st, the National Day of the People's Republic of China and a public holiday here as well in celebration. If things are still hot this time next month, I'm expecting something major.

[Rumours]

UPDATE: Carrie Lam has withdrawn the bill officially, meeting the first of the 5 demands set by protesters since demonstrations started 13 weeks ago.

IMO, this could have eased tensions completely 6-7 weeks ago, but I think the protesters will see this as too little too late as the interim violence by police must be accounted for.

[Rumours]

hipinion,,,, hello

[Rumours]

I'm not sure what coverage is like back in the us, but Friday night, after the anti-mask emergency regulation ordinance, was probably the most destructive night yet.
Absolute awful precedent set by the HK Govt by using emergency powers for first time in 50 years, and seemingly out of nowhere. Instead of realizing the the Oct 1st holiday could have been much worse all hype considered, the govt basically provoked the movement instead of continuing towards dialogue/deescalation.Horrid miscalculation at best, cynical provocation at worst.
MTR completely shut down Saturday and barrrre bone service the past two days.

[traced out]

i saw this on twitter:

[joe]

It's hard to figure things out from here. Thank you rumors for your continued updates

[Big Stinker]

i realize that video is terrifying but

"oh my god. oohhhhhh my god. they're - ohhh ohhh my gooddd"

[palmer eldritch]

its pretty much not getting covered here because our president doing crimes and the joker movie

[murderhorn]

I saw some graffiti on a transit station wall that said "see you next week" and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. this was before the mask thing too. I have found Wong Ping's instagram to be a good(?) resource for following events etc - https://www.instagram.com/nowhynowhy/