Category: Hong Kong

Don’t live above a nightclub.


Mong Kok inferno kills 4, injures 55
Firemen die fighting major apartment blaze
Austin Chiu, Ng Kang-chung and Agnes Lam
SCMP Aug 11, 2008
Two firefighters, an elderly woman and a person believed to be a nightclub employee were killed yesterday morning in one of Hong Kong’s worst commercial and residential building blazes in a decade.

At least 55 people aged five to 77, including three firemen, were injured in the alarm No 5 fire at Cornwall Court, Nathan Road, Mong Kok and were admitted to four hospitals.

A 26-year-old man, at one point critical, was last night in serious condition along with two other men and a woman, while 18 people were in stable or satisfactory condition. The rest were treated and discharged.

The six-hour blaze broke out at about 9.20am and was extinguished at 3.13pm. It began in a nightclub on the first floor of the building, Fire Services Department director Gregory Lo Chun-hung said.

A nightclub employee, who identified herself as Ms Law, told the South China Morning Post she set off an alarm after workers sleeping at the club were awakened by a loud noise shortly before 9.30 am.

“About six or seven of us were sleeping at the nightclub,” she said. “We heard a loud noise and woke up and ran downstairs. We saw lots of smoke and so I broke the fire alarm. But one staff member didn’t leave with us. We still have not heard from that staffer.”

The Fire Services Department said no smoke-prevention door was installed at the nightclub.

The two firemen killed in the blaze were 46-year-old Siu Wing-fong, a 24-year veteran and father of a 12-year-old girl, and Chan Siu-lung, 25, who had joined the department just a year ago. Both were from the Mong Kok fire station.

A 77-year-old woman was found dead on the ninth floor, while another body, as yet unidentified but believed to be female, was found in the nightclub.

Mr Lo said investigators would probe the cause of the fire and the deaths. Rescue operations were hampered by the intense heat, heavy smoke and narrow passages inside the building, he said.

“Our colleagues found the two firefighters [who later died] on the top floor of the building,” Mr Lo said. “When the rescue team found them, they were still dressed in full protective gear, but were already unconscious.”

The two men had entered the building from the ground floor to search for residents.

The division commander for Kowloon Central, Lau Chi-ho, said: “It was very difficult for us to get into the upper part of the building. The intense heat was trapped in the staircase, and the heat could not be released. The temperature was too high and the smoke was very thick.

“When we arrived, the mezzanine was filled with smoke, and the thick smoke … raged through every floor of the building.” The firemen had to use ladders to rescue residents waving for help on the upper floors, as it was so difficult to reach them from inside.

Speaking to reporters at the scene yesterday, Secretary for Security Ambrose Lee Siu-kwong offered his condolences to the families of the dead firefighters. “We are deeply sorry about the deaths of the two very brave firemen,” he said. “I, together with the chief executive and the chief secretary, send our deepest condolences to the families, and we will do everything possible to help them to get over this very difficult period.”

Acting Chief Executive Henry Tang Ying-yen, Director of Home Affairs Pamela Tan Kam Mi-wah and Mr Lee visited victims in hospital.

“We admire the two firemen’s bravery and their professionalism in their work. We visited families of the two firemen and the elderly woman. They are deeply saddened and heart-broken. I am in deep sorrow, too,” Mr Tang said.

Blackest day yet for air pollution
Olympic equestrian competitors shrug off concerns over heat and record smog levels
Cheung Chi-fai and Melanie Ho
SCMP Jul 29, 2008

Hong Kong was hit by its worst-ever air pollution amid exceptionally hot weather yesterday, raising fears that similar conditions could affect competitors and spectators at next month’s Olympic equestrian events.

But organisers and competitors said they were confident they and their horses would be able to cope with such conditions.

In the latest extreme in a year that has already seen one of the longest cold snaps on record and the wettest June, the air pollution index hit 202 on the outlying island of Tap Mun – a point higher than the previous record of 201 set at Tung Chung in 2004.

The Observatory recorded a maximum temperature at its Tsim Sha Tsui headquarters of 34.6 degrees Celsius, although higher levels were found elsewhere including 36.6 degrees at the equestrian host town of Sha Tin, where the air pollution index was an unprecedented 173. The roadside readings in urban areas were much lower, however, hovering around 100.

The Environmental Protection Department blamed the fringe effects of Typhoon Fung-wong for the hot conditions and still air that trapped pollutants, and an active photochemical process in the air that generated ozone, the main pollutant.

University of Science and Technology atmospheric scientist Alexis Lau Kai-hon said the weather would normally become hot and air quality turn bad whenever there was a typhoon near Taiwan. He said that while yesterday’s westerly wind had brought hot air and pollutants from the mainland, the city had also made its own contribution to the dirty air.

“The pollutants travelled to the city and mixed with locally generated ones under the strong sunshine, giving rise to high concentrations of ozone in the air. But the question of why the reading was so high remains unanswered,” he said.

Ground-level ozone is a secondary pollutant produced by a chemical reaction of nitrogen oxide and volatile organic compounds under sunshine. A high concentration can lead to eye irritations, coughing and even chromosome changes

Lobo Louie Hung-tak, an associate professor in Baptist University’s department of physical education, said he was surprised to learn that the pollution reading in Sha Tin was so high.

He said the equestrian event organisers should consider postponing competition in such conditions.

“Even if the well-trained riders and horses can cope with the pollution and heat, the spectators, who are not allowed to use any umbrellas, might still be exposed to the health risks of hot weather and poor air quality,” he said.

But three equestrian teams already in Hong Kong downplayed the impact of pollution and hot weather and said they believed conditions would be acceptable.

“We have no concerns at all. These are the horses that we flew over from Florida, where it’s been 37 and 38 degrees for the last few weeks,” said Canadian team leader Michael Gallagher. “We’ve noticed the haze, but it’s not black like it is in Beijing.”

Hans Melzer, of the German team, which had its first training session yesterday morning, said: “The horses were quite sweaty but nobody was too tired.” Australian Brett Mace said the hot weather was not unique to Hong Kong.

Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen said during a visit to the equestrian venues that he found the weather no problem at all: “The city of Athens might be hotter than us. All players have to prepare for a fair competition, be it in a cold or hot place.”

The Equestrian Events Company refused to say if it would postpone events under similar conditions and said it had received no complaints about air pollution from the teams.

HONG KONG – THE mother of one of Hong Kong’s richest tycoons paid nearly 77 million US dollars (S$103.7 million) for his release after he was kidnapped by a notorious gangster, a report said on Wednesday.

Ms Kwong Siu-hing, the 79-year-old chairman of Sun Hung Kai Properties, met gangster Cheung Tze-keung, known as ‘Big Spender’, days after he kidnapped her eldest son Walter Kwok in September 1997, The Standard reported.

Accompanied by one of her younger sons and Mr Kwok’s wife, Ms Kwong offered Cheung 600 million dollars to get her eldest son back.

The ransom in 1,000 dollar notes was packed inside 20 large carrier bags and driven in two Mercedes saloon cars to a quiet lane in Central district, the report said, quoting a source close to the family.

Cheung and his accomplice drove the two cars away with the cash.

The report said the family did a global search of previous ransoms paid and decided to make the offer to Cheung by tripling the amount of the biggest ransom ever paid after the gangster kept changing his demands.

Mr Kwok was later found alive by his family in a wooden container box in a village house, according to the report.

For years rumours had circulated that Walter’s two younger brothers, Thomas and Raymond, were reluctant to pay the ransom.

The report on details of the kidnapping emerged during an ongoing family row over control of Sun Hung Kai Properties, the city’s largest property firm.

Walter Kwok was ousted from the chairmanship in May and his mother, the widow of the company’s former chairman Kwok Tak-seng, has since taken over the reins.

The ouster came the day after Mr Kwok, who had been on leave from the company since February, failed in a last-ditch legal bid to try and prevent a board meeting where the company’s directors were to vote on removing him.

Mr Kwok has accused his brothers, both vice-chairmen and managing directors of the firm, of falsely asserting that he had a mental disorder, court documents showed.

The rift was reportedly caused by Walter’s involvement with a female friend whom it was alleged had become increasingly influential on the married tycoon and his firm.

Gangster Cheung was tried and executed in mainland China in 1998. — AFP

SCMP, June 7, 2008

People wade through flood waters during heavy rains in Hong Kong’s Sheung Wan district.
— PHOTO: REUTERS

HONG KONG – STREETS in Hong Kong were flooded by torrential rain on Saturday, leaving two people feared trapped after a wall collapsed due to the downpour, media reports said.

The Hong Kong Observatory said more than 200 millimetres of rain was dumped in the city overnight which experienced winds of up to 70 kilometres.

Two people were rescued after a wall collapsed in the New Territories area of Hong Kong, but firemen were still trying to rescue two others believed trapped, local broadcaster RTHK said.

‘Because of seriously flooded roads and inclement weather conditions, you are advised to take shelter in a safe place and stay there,’ the Observatory said in a statement.

The downpour caused severe flooding across some streets of Hong Kong island.

Water was almost up to the windows of parked cars as people rolled up their trousers and waded through knee-deep floods in flip-flops.

Amid thunder and lightning people tried to continue their journey on foot as water flowed over pavements in the heavily hit western district of Sheung Wan.

‘This is the heaviest rain I have seen in years,’ said Mr Edmund Kwan, an office worker, who was waiting for his girlfriend at the nearby MTR (Mass Transit Railway) station.

Shopkeepers stacked sandbags in an effort to keep their businesses watertight. Streets in the city’s Wan Chai business district were also under heavy water.

The rain caused several delays at Hong Kong’s International Airport on Lantau Island, one of the worst-hit spots in the territory, an Airport Authority spokesman said.

Passengers were advised to contact their airline for more information about their flight. The main road to the airport was closed because of flooding, RTHK said.

The city’s schools and courts were closed, while child care centres and elderly services centres were closed to the public, the government said in a statement.

Hong Kong is regularly hit by severe rain and even typhoons during the summer months

Offer of HK$20,000 convinces fisherman to free whale shark
Clifford Lo, Austin Chiu and Ng Kang-chung
SCMP Jun 07, 2008

A whale shark netted by a fisherman yesterday was spared from ending up in shark’s fin soup when a hawker offered HK$20,000 for its release.

The five-metre example of the world’s largest fish – a vulnerable species and protected in some waters – was accidentally trapped in the nets of the trawler in waters off Ocean Park at about 10am.

The owner of the 10-metre trawler, who gave his name as Mr Cheung, said the shark swiftly gave up struggling and floated to the surface like a log of wood.

Mr Cheung took the shark to the Aberdeen fish market and called officers from the Agriculture Fisheries and Conservation Department and Ocean Park experts to look at it.

But he got into a heated discussion with the officers when they asked him to release it. After five to 10 minutes, according to witnesses, seafood hawker Mark Gon stepped in, saying later that he had paid HK$20,000 for the shark’s release.

“There are not many of these sharks in the sea and they are kind in nature. I do not want to see them go extinct,” said Mr Gon, 24, popularly known as Kai Tsai, who said he had previously paid a fisherman to release two small sharks.

Mr Cheung said later he had not received any money, although he had been seen negotiating with Mr Gon.

Shark expert Suzanne Gendron, zoological operations and education foundation director at the Ocean Park Conservation Foundation, dismissed any need for panic.

“The animal is very gentle and would pose no danger to swimmers or human,” said Ms Gendron, who however warned against getting too close to it for fear of abrasions from its rough skin.

Although the species is not dangerous, the Leisure and Cultural Services Department said it would cancel all activities at the two water sports centres in Stanley today.

Shark warning flags were also hoisted at 10 beaches in Southern district.

Shark nets at the beaches had been checked and all were said to be in good condition, according to the department. “Swimmers at the 10 beaches are advised to swim within the shark protection net area,” a department spokeswoman said.

But Southern district councillor Wong Che-ngai said yesterday he believed tomorrow’s dragon boat race would go ahead as planned. “I think we need not overreact. After all, our races will be held in a typhoon shelter,” he said.

The whale shark, or Rhincodon typus, feeds on plankton, small shrimp and fish that it filters from water sucked into its huge mouth and expelled through its gills.

It is fished commercially and its population is unknown but it is considered vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.

It was the third discovery of sharks in Hong Kong waters in the past three weeks. On Wednesday last week two 50cm white-spotted bamboo sharks, a harmless species, were found in a rock pool at the western end of Shek O Beach. On May 20, a young shark about a metre long was found dead at Cafeteria Old Beach, Tuen Mun.

Not long ago, the city’s time was said to be over. Not anymore. Like an indestructible kung fu champ, it’s kicking back—big time. Karl Taro Greenfeld gets right into the action

We’re downstairs at King of the King, a Cantonese seafood restaurant in Hong Kong’s Central district. Behind lacquered–wood partitions, mah–jongg players shuffle tiles, making that noisy rattle—like a thousand impatient women tapping their fingernails. But the eight of us seated around a white cloth–covered table are playing poker, not mah–jongg. While the cards are dealt, the talk is of deals and business and opportunities and new properties. A hotelier, Jason (who brought me here), is wondering about selling out to a Russian businessman, and Ben, the scion of a wealthy family, is discussing investing in some property in Beijing, and Chris, a trader for a hedge fund, says that the thing to do is borrow in Hong Kong dollars at two and three–quarters percent and deposit in Australia at five and three–quarters and use the spread to buy a new Ferrari. Then the guys are talking about Full House, one of the Korean soap operas sweeping greater China and starring the actress Song Hye Kyo, who is so fine—a little chubby, comments someone, but she’s still so leng lui, dude. But the conversation, between hands, keeps going back to deals and opportunities and property: the development in Kowloon West, Korean equities, new hotels, better cars. As I wait for my cards, I look around and notice that everyone at the table is wearing a better wristwatch than I am. When I ask Chris, who is next to me, what time he has to go to work in the morning, he shrugs. “Whenever.”

In Hong Kong today, it seems that no one is bothering to earn a living because everyone is too busy making a killing.

In between noodles with pork, bowls of fried rice, and crab and corn soup, I find that I am losing track of the half–Cantonese, half–English conversation and become slightly impatient, so I go all in with two pair, kings over sevens, and this guy Scotty across from me in a hoodie sweatshirt, a Nike visor, and his cell phone dangling from a lanyard around his neck calls me and has kings and jacks. I’m about to buy in for another sixty dollars when I look around the table and wonder who the easy money is and realize that it’s me.

I fold my cards and explain to Jason that I have to meet someone, which is true, and I take my leave—past the clattering mah–jongg tables, the fish tanks stocked with garoupa whose bulging eyes make them look as if they are taking pity on my losing ways—and head up the stairs and out the door and onto Queen’s Road, where the air is hot and damp and smells of wet concrete and Victoria Harbour.

There are the usual crowds of well–dressed Hong Kongers out for the evening: businessmen in summer–weight suits and wire frame glasses; pretty girls with hennaed hair, artisanal T–shirts, and treated denim jeans; gweilo—Western women in shiny tops, jeans, and strappy heels. The sidewalk is hard going: The pavement is being torn up. Steel pedestrian bridges laid down over scars in the concrete reveal tangled layers of fresh plumbing and fiber–optic cable. The city, apparently, is rewiring.

I ride up an escalator at the Entertainment Building, cross over an air–conditioned pedestrian bridge to Central Tower, then another to the Central Building, then to The Landmark complex, Alexandra House, and the Princes Building and I’m back in the Mandarin Hotel—all the way across Central Hong Kong without setting foot outdoors. I’ve always enjoyed this particular route, not only for its convenience but also for the feeling of being above it all and for the perspective it provides into Hong Kong’s psyche. In the past, I observed that it took me by two Prada stores (just in case I’d forgotten to pick something up at my first Prada opportunity, or, even more worrying, something I’d bought at the first shop had gone out of fashion before I reached the second). Then, in the bleak early years of this century, the route took me past shuttered boutiques, the occasional bum, and, for a time, anxious pedestrians wearing surgical masks. I recall making the walk in the opposite direction, from the Mandarin to the nightlife district of Lan Kwai Fong, and not seeing another soul for most of the trip. That was in early 2003, at the height of the SARS scare.

My family and I moved away from Hong Kong in 2004, after living in the city for more than three years. When we left, the territory was still reeling from SARS, the lackluster leadership of Chief Executive Tung Chee–Hwa, and paralyzing pro–democracy marches. Unemployment was stuck at ten percent. The property market, still the main economic driver in Hong Kong, had plunged fifty percent from its late–1990s highs, leaving 200,000 homeowners in this city of seven million people in a negative equity position in which they owed more on their flats than they were worth. Luxury hotels were closing. Restaurants were nearly empty. I would occasionally find myself the only shopper in swanky boutiques.

It was as if everyone’s worst fears about Hong Kong’s return to China had come true. With reunification, it seemed that Hong Kong’s advantages—rule of law, convertible currency, world–class service, a large and sophisticated business and financial community—would gradually be arbitraged into irrelevance as Western businesses bypassed the Fragrant Harbor (the literal translation of Hong Kong) and headed straight for Guangdong and Shanghai. Who needed Hong Kong anymore, the reasoning went, if you could deal directly and more cheaply with the Chinese? There was a creeping sense that this city, which had once seemed a world metropolis on a par with New York, London, and Tokyo, was no longer even the most important city in southern China.
Continue reading “Hong Kong Reloaded” →

‘You can feel like you are on holiday’
By Kitty Go
Financial Times

Published: December 8 2007 00:22 | Last updated: December 8 2007 09:54

Austrian Christian Rhomberg, 51, is the co-founder and director of the 97 Group, which he established in 1982. He now owns and manages 12 restaurants in Hong Kong and Shanghai. He is also executive director and founder of Kee, one of the city’s most exclusive dining clubs.

I came here with the foreign service as deputy Austrian trade commissioner. Hong Kong has been my home for 25 years, since I was 26 years old. I fell in love with the entrepreneurial spirit of the city and it inspired me to open my first restaurant, 1997, with some friends in 1982. I was young and I found the city very mysterious, sexy and exotic, especially coming from Austria, which was the complete opposite. The reason I wanted to leave Europe was because I wanted to go somewhere completely different, to an exciting and vibrant place that had a lot of growth potential.

When I was in my 20s, I met friends in nightclubs but I couldn’t find one I really liked, so I opened one myself. When I first arrived in Hong Kong choices for dining and drinking spots were confined to hotel outlets and a few pubs but not trendy western cafés or restaurants. My friends and I talked among ourselves and decided we should open one because that was what was obviously missing. My office was in the financial district yet, for an international city, at that time, entertainment was virtually non-existent.

In Hong Kong, to make a successful party you have to surprise people with a unique location. Five years ago, for the Kee anniversary, we rented a warehouse and an amphitheatre to host a party for 2,500 people. We had a circus and an Hermès fashion show amidst gardens, fountains and elaborately decorated stages. Ten years ago we found an old fashioned, sleepy amusement park, which doesn’t exist anymore, in Lai Chi Kok. There was a Chinese-themed garden with ponds, tea houses and a replica of the Great Wall. We didn’t tell our guests the location until the last minute and they came in costume. We flew in top impersonators of Michael Jackson, Madonna and Elton John from Las Vegas to perform.

Unfortunately Hong Kong has become very serious in business and people work too much. In my first 10 years of operation, we had a lot of business people coming in for leisurely lunches. These days, people rush back to the office. Business is very exciting, yet demanding, nowadays. I really wish the city would invest more into making it clean and green in terms of air and water quality. I don’t think it would require that much work – just a little more vision on the part of the government. Singapore and Sydney have shown us that there is a lot of potential [for cities] to be beautiful. Doing so will really make Hong Kong the “pearl of Asia” or the Monte Carlo of China. I think that would be really nice. In Monte Carlo you can still swim in the harbour between the yachts so why can’t we do that here?

I am from Innsbruck and grew up as a good skier and I am very much a sportsman. I still have family there and we have a beautiful home there. Normally I spend two to three months of the year in Europe and I am also working on something very different for that market. We have a beautiful property there with two lakes where we will build a transcultural health centre for preventive health and also a museum. Since I come from Austria, I like nature and, with a little effort, there are lots of walks in Hong Kong. Every morning I walk on the Blacks Link trail for an hour. On weekends I take my kids to [one of] the many country parks or we go out with friends on boats. You can really feel like you are on a tropical holiday in Hong Kong but you have to make a little bit of effort. Equally, the city is not a cultural desert; there is a lot of theatre, concerts and exhibitions where visual arts are expanding very quickly.

The quality of living in HK is expensive and then you also have to make an effort. Right now the market it very “brought through”, so there are not as many opportunities as in the early days. The fun in my business is to constantly reinvent ourselves and that makes it exciting. Kee is a sophisticated restaurant during the week and a trendy nightclub on weekends, which is a concept we chose on purpose. These days, there is every concept, every cuisine and entertainment you can imagine hosted in very interestingly designed venues.

You have to be up to date with global trends because the Hong Kong market is very demanding. In general, the western-oriented market has developed and become very sophisticated. In the beginning there were a handful of restaurants and bars similar to what we have in our group. These are operated both by foreigners and local Chinese who have travelled and wanted to do something they saw abroad.

Ideally, you should own your own property. When it comes to business it’s important to find the right location and, if you can’t own your own property, have a partnership with your landlord. Otherwise you will be exposed to exorbitant rent increases every three years.

Austria’s main business is tourism, yet there is very high taxation and bureaucracy that make it very difficult to make money there. Of course it’s also not as dense as Hong Kong. Innsbruck has 150,000 inhabitants and a third are students, so it is a good place for small cafés, bars and restaurants. And the Austrians love to eat and go out as much as the Chinese so this is not the problem. Having good staff is a problem in Europe. Europeans don’t want to be in the service profession so you have to work with a lot of foreigners but for a good restaurant to work you have to really work with local people.

Pictures taken with my Olympus E-410