Another hidden danger of Hong Kong! Tiny steps on stairways. Have I mentioned this? Back in one of those “random observations” thing? I’ve lasted three months, going up and down flights of stairs with steps about six inches deep. Will I survive another? This is a more pressing concept, again, now that I am back […]

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I’m something of a calendar wonk. In some previous life or civilization I might have tried to find a job as a priest or astronomical observer watching the sun and the moon and keeping track of their movements. Like the guys in Egypt who figured out the two days a year the sun would shine […]

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Every time I go over to Victoria Park to drag myself around the 600 meters of rubberized track, I see them. Off in the equipment areas, in the open area behind the snack stand, in the wider or less-traveled paths. Little old men and women … more women than men, actually … going through the […]

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I work in a newspaper office. I know the global economy has issues. Seemingly half the news stories in any edition of the International Herald Tribune are about the economy. Financial doom and gloom have been staples in the paper since I got here, nearly three months ago. But I don’t really see it. I […]

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I have gone over the availability of sports here, on Hong Kong cable TV. Fifteen-plus sports stations, and nothing to watch. Unless you love the English menu of sports — led by soccer, soccer and soccer and including rugby, cricket, Formula One and, yes, snooker. And I generally don’t love any of them. But I […]

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Have I noted this already? Maybe I have. How it seems to be hard to become a victim, in this town. A victim of crime, or assault. It’s almost as if it’s something you really have to work at. For example, a little walk we took last night.

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Odd that I haven’t written about this sooner. Something I deal with almost daily, and something that in many ways makes my life easier. And saves me money. The HK subway system, known here as the MTR. (Mass Transit Railway.) Which is how most of us in the urban areas of Hong Kong and Kowloon […]

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Hong Kong is modern and progressive in many ways. A great system of public transport. Very little crime. A social safety network that seems to work well. HK is way behind the curve, though, on recycling and other topics environmental. This seems to be a generic “China” issue, in particular. The country seems to be […]

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I’ve noted that Hong Kong Island, the strip of it where everyone lives and works … is severely “challenged” when it comes to flora. (Never mind fauna.) And it’s just now dawning on me that the street I am now on, Thomson Road, may represent an extreme example of “nothing but humans and cockroaches” part […]

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I live on an island with 1.2 million other people, about 90 percent of whom are Chinese … And about 90 percent of them are skinny. OK, not all of them are stick-thin. But the overwhelming majority of Chinese here are not fat. Which is a rate of non-tubbiness we can only dream of, back […]

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