Every so often, Hong Kong features in 'surveys' that show we are rude, ignorant, dirty, sexless or dull. If these results were believable, we would all pack our suitcases and head for places packed with excitement (Singapore?), that are clean (London?) or where people are outstandingly polite, such as New York.
The Big Apple? Polite? Yes, according to the latest dubious poll - this one produced by the world's dullest publication, Reader's Digest. It said New York was the most friendly of 35 world cities it examined. Hong Kong ranked 25th, well behind the riot-littered streets of Paris.
London ranked 15th; does this mean that after some drunken street lout kicks in your teeth outside Covent Garden he says: 'thanks, guv'nor' as he steals your wallet? It's all nonsense.
Last week, I conducted my own poll in the New Territories. I presume the Reader's Digest survey team stuck to Hong Kong and Kowloon. My findings show that, up in the rural backblocks, we've got nothing to worry about.
I wandered around Tai Po one busy midweek lunchtime. Paul, the shop assistant in a shoe outlet, was charming and chatty. He was also tremendously knowledgeable about what sort of footwear I needed to tramp the country parks: I doubt if you'd find his equal in Manhattan.
Going into a dim sum restaurant - where the chaotic cacophony came complete with 96-year-old grannies in wheelchairs and four-year-olds playing football with balloons - a plump, middle-aged waitress beamed as she offered me turnip cake.