I pity those who hung on and waited for a taxi; some arrived at our hotel after noon.

I have to ask: was there any co-ordination between Cunard cruises, the cruise terminal management, port authority, Hong Kong Tourist Association and taxi companies?

Did a message go out over the two-way radio networks of the taxi companies saying "Queen Mary 2 arrives at 8am. Hundreds of passengers disembarking. Require 100 taxis at the cruise terminal by 8.30am"?

Despite its economic might, China's soft-power permeation will continue to be limited by the entrenched dominance of English as the lingua franca that increasingly connects a globally linked audience.

Tech-savvy consumers can rapidly download cultural products from across the world at the click of a mouse from a reliable internet connection. But the more easily digestible and, therefore, most accessed films and e-publications will be in English - the most frequently studied second language in the non-Anglophone world.

These cultural offerings are easier to understand and enjoy without the interposition of subtitles, or a Google translation. Economic domination - objectified by enumerated and universally understood trends in global gross domestic product across the 21stcentury - does not translate into cross-national cultural affinity because the latter relies on the dynamic of spoken or written language.

I cannot see Putonghua supplanting English in its supreme role as the means of international communication for business, education, culture and travel. Having learned both languages in tandem as a child, I, like many others, have found Putonghua far harder to learn and maintain than English; that will prove a perpetual hindrance to China's ambitions.

I read with interest the letter by Clive Noffke ("Net benefit of tourism must match impact", March 14), which says tourism contributes a miserly 1 per cent positive effect to Hong Kong's GDP, not the 4.5 per cent claimed by the government.

I would go further and say that, if a better analysis were undertaken on cost benefits and social returns on investment, the outcome would likely be negative, not positive.

For example, a true balance sheet of the impact that tourism brings should include:

• The cost of supporting the tourism bureaucracy and marketing;

• The cost of extra immigration checkpoints;

• A portion of the cost of infrastructural projects related to tourism, such as the third runway, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge, high-speed railway and the West Kowloon Cultural District; and

• The increased direct load on our transport system.

There are also the intangible costs to citizens of battling overcrowded streets, transport, restaurants and all the civilised amenities of living here.

Yet even that is not the end. There are also lost-opportunity costs, meaning the things we could have done for our own citizens with the money spent.

However, instead of dwelling on this, it would be far more useful to understand the processes used to evaluate policies, decisions and capital investments that would increase the wealth - in its broadest sense - of all people of the community, and not meaningless numbers such as "GDP" and shallow concepts like "the economy".

Could a knowledgeable and independent economist please oblige?

As a person with a visual impairment, I wish to express my concern about the dangers that I face - along with others with the same problem, when crossing the road at night or early in the morning because of the unacceptably low volume of audible signals at traffic lights.

It has been a common practice that the audible signals are turned down from 11pm to 7am for the sake of the tranquillity of the residents nearby. While that is totally understandable, my concern is that they are now too low and hardly audible.

This poses several problems: firstly, the main purpose of the audible signals is to let visually impaired pedestrians know when we can cross. So now we either have to stand and wait until a passer-by offers us help, or risk our lives and cross when we hear no traffic. But at night or in the early morning, when few people are on the streets, the consequence of risking our lives could be tragic.

Secondly, as visually impaired pedestrians depend on the signals to locate the traffic lights, the low volume makes it difficult, if not impossible, for us to do so.

Thirdly, when we cross, we rely on the signals to make sure we are walking in the right direction. With low-volume signals, we are more likely to bump into a rail on the opposite side, or even walk into the adjacent road with traffic on it.

In view of the situation, the government must do something to address the problem.

The volume of the audible signals should be turned up to a level that enables visually impaired pedestrians to cross safely. The Transport Department should liaise with organisations of visually impaired people and collect information on where these unsatisfactory traffic lights are, and improve them without further delay.

I hope my suggestions will be considered and prompt action taken before a tragedy occurs.

I thoroughly agree with Edward Tse's article that companies that do not succeed in China often do so because of arrogance ("Multinational companies must lose their arrogance to succeed in China", April 8).

I've heard far too many gripes that "the playing field isn't level"; China is a sovereign country and has the right to make its own rules.

In many respects, China is far more open to foreign companies than many other nations. If you've tried to secure a work permit for a foreigner in the United States, produce cars in Japan as a foreign company, or sell Chinese-made electric bikes in Germany, you know what I mean.

There are unique challenges in China. Yes, the playing field is not always level. But if the mountaineer asks the mountain to change its slope, what is that, but arrogance?

Your article "Dongguan anxious to turn on the red lights" (April 7), has made me rethink my plan to invest in business or property in the Pearl River Delta's newly established free trade zones, such as Qianhai or Hengqin .

Trucks full of iPads and other goods from the delta were once loaded onto cargo planes to be flown abroad. Now airline companies complain about the increased cost of flying inland to pick up cargo for export.

The delta's former manufacturing hubs, such as Dongguan , must examine the true reasons they are losing factory work, not only to places in other parts of China, but also other countries in Asia.

Saying they "need" the prostitution industry to help sustain their economies may seem like some sort of "sophisticated" argument, but it is simplistic, lazy and immoral.

The interview with Donald Choi, of Nan Fung Development (Nan Fung mulls ways to keep profit margins, April 2), reveals the developer's astonishing lack of humanity.

He had the audacity to suggest that young Hongkongers should move out of the SAR if they cannot find affordable housing here. This is heartless.

I was also shocked by Choi's suggestion that working people are being "materialistic"; it shows a lack of knowledge about basic human rights.

Developers would do well to abandon greed and confront what their civic duties may be.