Letters | Hong Kong’s Covid-19 rules make flying in a test too tough for tourists
- Readers discuss the experience of flying into Hong Kong, Carrie Lam’s contributions to harbour protection, and corporate responsibility for climate action
After 52 wonderful years in Hong Kong, I have fiercely championed the changes that have taken place since 1997 and more recently, in the hope we would ultimately get it right and life might return to a new kind of normal.
When quarantine was reduced to one week, I took the opportunity to visit my family whom I had not seen for four years. It was a revelation to see that the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe had opened up, albeit with outbreaks of Covid-19 which they appear to be managing.
But arriving in Hong Kong is a surreal experience.
The flight is parked so far from immigration and baggage claim so that we had to walk thousands of steps to arrive at an endless queue to be tested yet again and have our papers checked before we were finally released. These queues are supervised by employees clad in personal protective equipment whose primary job seems to be to wave their arms in the direction that one must circulate. There are mothers with little ones standing for hours after a 12-hour flight, not to mention the elderly.