If you’ve lived in Hong Kong for any length of time, and gotten to know a few local people well enough to visit their homes, you’ve likely seen it: the black leather sofa.

Here's a graph from the government that gave me a shock. It shows that the pollution we generate in Hong Kong fell significantly between 1990 (on the left) and 2007 [1]:

How can that be, when we all know that air quality has got much worse?

Title: Hong Kong on Air

Author: Muhammad Cohen 

Published: 2007

Genre: satire/comic 

Period: 1997 Read more »

Cooler weather will soon be here - time to start thinking of outdoor activities. How about a cycling trip?

Get out from hilly Hong Kong and crowded Kowloon, and there are several places where you can hire bicycles. They're a good option if you're visiting and would like to go ride a bike, or live here and fancy an occasional bike ride without the trouble of buying and storing your own bike.

They usually offer a variety of bikes, from children's to adults, and may also have some more unusual options such as tandems and four-wheelers. Read more »

Title: Love in a Fallen City

Author: Eileen Chang

Published: the stories included in this volume were all published in the 1940s; the volume itself was published in 2007

Genre: short stories; two in this volume -- 'Aloeswood Incense' and 'Jasmine Tea' -- are set in Hong Kong Read more »

If air-pollution is bad, steps towards reducing it should be good, right? I was very pleased to read that a project to build a wind farm (generating electricty from the wind) off Hong Kong's coast took a big step forward last week [1]. But in the same article I was surprised to read there is a local group organising petitions against building the wind farm.

The group is called the Association for Geoconservation. Their website lists their objections, and their homepage [2] shows what they believe the view from Clear Water Bay will look like once the windmills are built: Read more »

Title: Hong Kong

Author: Stephen Coonts

Published: 2000

Genre: judging from its lurid orange cover (with two junks on the harbor outlined in black, of course) and the blurbs on the back -- 'High-octane techno-wizardry!' (USA Today) -- let's call it a 'high-tech, weapons-intensive thriller in the Tom Clancy mode'.

Period: 2000 Read more »

Title: Hong Kong Rose

Author: Xu Xi

Published: 1999

Genre: chicklit that's wearing its one really good outfit as it aspires to literary respectabilty

Period: The groovy '70s! Read more »

Title: Hiroshima Joe

Author: Martin Booth

Published: 1985

Genre: war + prison novel

Period: Just two periods: the WWII years, and 1952. There's also a brief epilogue set in 1985. Read more »

The usual way for your company to help others is for a group of staff to visit and help one of the charities in Hong Kong.

But there's another way you can help. It's only available to businesses, and gives regular, ongoing help directly to the person that most needs it: Read more »