Deputies do buffets and tennis at NPC
When Dr David Wong Yau-kar - one of 12 Hong Kong deputies invited to sit in on the National People's Congress Standing Committee meetings in Beijing this week - bought cakes for breakfast on Monday.
When Dr David Wong Yau-kar - one of 12 Hong Kong deputies invited to sit in on the National People's Congress Standing Committee meetings in Beijing this week - bought cakes for breakfast on Monday, some wondered whether he and his fellow deputies were dissatisfied with the food where they were staying, a hotel complex known as the NPC conference centre.
However, Cheung Ming-man, another deputy on the trip, told All Around Town that it wasn't the case.
He said the food was OK, and he was happy about having "buffet for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day".
The deputy, a singer turned businessman, also said that he enjoyed a tennis lesson on Monday evening with a coach that the conference centre had lined up for him.
The NPC deputies have a great place to stay, great transport, and, of course, a Great Hall of the People. But for about half a dozen Hong Kong reporters who flew to Beijing to cover the Standing Committee meeting, work is somewhat challenging.
Firstly, as shuttle buses ensure the delegation land safely on the doorstep of their gated hotel, reporters can only conduct telephone interviews, or wait outside the entrance for those willing to talk to emerge.
Secondly, unlike during the NPC's annual sessions, when most of the Hong Kong deputies and reporters book the same hotel, Hong Kong reporters are now on their own in hotels in downtown Beijing about 6km away from the action, or 30 minutes by car.
It means they have to overcome the challenge of finding a cab in downtown Beijing every time they head out to work on a story.
The good news is that there's a wide variety of food options in the neighbourhood, including high-end restaurants and fast-food cafes plus plenty of local delicacies - and no one raises an eyebrow when one buys one's own breakfast.
A current affairs programme on ATV may have scored an own-goal for the Beijing-friendly organisation that sponsored it, showing an incorrect batch of photos as part of a programme about the dangers of the Occupy Central democracy movement.
On Monday, the free-to-air station ran (its Chinese name translates to the more straightforward ), which mentioned the 1956 Kowloon riots in which pro-Taipei rioters attacked pro-Beijing organisations.
The TV show was hosted by New Territories Association of Societies chairman Brave Chan Yung. It mentioned that the colonial government deported hooligans and members of triad societies to places like Macau and Taiwan in the aftermath of the 1956 riots, it showed pictures of members of leftist groups who took part in protests against the colonial government in 1967.
Were leftists who took part in the anti-British struggle hooligans? Time to improve its research if ATV hopes to renew its licence.
