The theme of my first Hong Kong climate change article was simple: average yearly temperatures here have been going up more less steadily since the Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) starting keeping track of them, but they have skyrocketed in recent decades. Yet over the past 60 years, essentially all of this warming has occurred at night, i.e.

The message from the Hong Kong Observatory is unequivocal: global warming is real; it’s affecting Hong Kong’s recent and current weather in obvious ways; and future trends for the world, and perhaps for Hong Kong especially, are ominous. Read more »

In particular, where do you go to buy TVs, cameras, computers, mobile phones, etc?

Our suggestions about this on batgung are around six years old. Then we wrote about visiting small stores to get a good deal, but these days I find I'm more likely to go to the big chain stores, especially if shopping with visitors.

I feel the difference in price between them has got much smaller - or maybe I've just got more cranky, and can't be bothered visiting lots of shops. So, cranky or rational - that's the question I hope you'll help answer.

Here's where I bought most recently: Read more »

There’s a remarkable article on kids and race in a recent issue of Newsweek magazine (yes, Newsweek actually still exists). The article’s authors, the novelist Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman, have written a book on raising kids they’ve cutely titled NurtureShock. The article is an excerpt. Read more »

20 Oct 1989. That's the first Hong Kong stamp in my passport.

Twenty years already? That's gone past quickly. Will I be here for another twenty?

Our younger daughter is only three, and we want her to grow up reading and writing Chinese. That means another ten years at least. Then even if we did move, where would we go?

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 »