If you’re planning to visit Hong Kong, you’ll no doubt run into someone who’s lived here, or you’ll read a guidebook or website, and they’ll all tell you the same thing: you’re going to love all that great Chinese food in HK! It’s the world’s best!! Read more »

Some good news and bad this week. Bad that last week's skin biopsy tested positive for cancer, then good that it is Basal Cell Carcinoma (BCC), which seems to be just about the most harmless cancer out there. Still, on Friday this week I have to get another six little lumps cut out - I can think of things I'd rather be doing.  Read on for seven tips to keep your skin safe...

When I first arrived in Hong Kong I'd regularly make mistakes with peoples' Chinese names. Here's the Batgung primer to help you do better ...

You've definitely seen the view from the Peak Tower, but have you ever walked along Lugard Road to get the the full harbour view? Here's a preview:

If you're an expat with a young family, taking them on long journeys back home is a part of life. In our case it's a 12-hour flight to the UK, then a 4-hour drive in a hire car to my hometown. Here are a couple of things that helped on this year's trip... Read more »

As we’ve recently had a couple of interesting comments on my initial mixmyth article, I thought I’d post a follow-up.

Daughter Tall, my own nicely mixed daughter, is now four years old. Within just the past few weeks, we’ve had to confront the issue of her mixed race, as her biracial status has just dawned on her.  Read more »

As we enter the fiery heart of Hong Kong’s seemingly endless summer, the minds of all good Hong Kong men converge on a single thought: have I sweated through my shirt yet? Read more »

Mr Tall's piece on rudeness has received several comments in recent weeks. Then last week I saw Crash, a film that uses tensions between different races as its main theme. Finally on Sunday a friend gave me the book, 'Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of Everyday Life'. It got me thinking - it's a common reaction for us expats to think 'people are so rude here', but then what do we do next? Do we let it make the rest of our time in Hong Kong miserable? Read more »

I was chatting with one of my colleagues the other day about schools in Hong Kong. He’d recently watched a documentary about one of Hong Kong’s most reputable secondary schools. He found the students’ – and staff’s – academic single-mindedness and general fervor impressive, but not in an entirely favorable way. He wondered if some of this intensity might be the product of transference – that is, the pious zeal of the some of the school’s staff and supporters who were members of religious orders seemed to spill over into their educational thought and work, shaping the school’s whole culture. Read more »