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Food and Drinks
Hong KongHealth & Environment

Hong Kong paralympian applies sports dedication to second love – blog on barrier-free restaurants

  • Ho Yuen-kei is boccia world No 4 and training for Tokyo 2020
  • In her spare time she runs a blog on the most wheelchair accessible restaurants in the city

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When elite wheelchair athlete Ho Yuen-kei is not training, she is blogging about her second love, food, and restaurants in the city. Photo: Felix Wong
Gigi Choy
As Asia’s best female boccia player and world No 4 in her category, Ho Yuen-kei is working full time towards qualifying for next year’s Paralympic Games in Tokyo – but excellence in her precision ball sport, which is similar to bowls, isn’t her only focus.

When the elite wheelchair athlete is not training at the Hong Kong Sports Institute, she is blogging about her second love, food, and restaurants in the city that are accessible for disabled people, or not, as the case may be.

We meet in Caffè Habitu The Table, in Causeway Bay, to discuss both subjects, where Ho gets a cappuccino, her go-to coffee, and crab cakes. She laughs when asked about her favourite food. “I love all food,” she says.

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The 25-year-old launched her blog, “Wheelchair VS Eating in HK”, in April 2016. She started it as a hobby to give the city’s disabled community recommendations for restaurants. She now has 1,500 followers on Facebook and Instagram.
Fourth in the world in her category, boccia player Ho Yuen-kei is training for the Paralympic Games in Tokyo in 2020. Photo: Sam Tsang
Fourth in the world in her category, boccia player Ho Yuen-kei is training for the Paralympic Games in Tokyo in 2020. Photo: Sam Tsang
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“Initially I was sharing food recommendations with disabled people, but as I kept blogging I realised that I didn’t need to limit my audience,” she says.

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