https://www.scmp.com/rss/130748/feed Originally from Kent, England, former Naval officer and entrepreneur, Stuart Heaver is a full-time freelance writer and features journalist living and working in Hong Kong. He loves his job, the sea and his family but not necessarily in that order. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Mawella Beach is only six degrees north of the equator, so the sun is glowing high above the coconut palms at 7.30am, and the air shimmers. Near the southern end of the beach, a dozen wiry men are attempting to launch their gaudily painted fishing boat, known as an oruwa. They lean on thick bamboo poles threaded through the narrow hull. Edging the heavy vessel towards the sea is laborious work – the boat seems reluctant to make the short journey, as though exhausted from fishing – but trailers,... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3255358/mawella-sri-lanka-unites-keep-its-beach-pristine-tourism-boom-beckons-we-dont-want-trash-place?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3255358/mawella-sri-lanka-unites-keep-its-beach-pristine-tourism-boom-beckons-we-dont-want-trash-place?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 18 Mar 2024 03:15:15 +0000 A curious connection exists between a popular recreation area in the heart of urban Hong Kong and the lush jungles, undulating tea plantations, ancient temples and reef-fringed beaches of Sri Lanka, some 3,900km (2,400 miles) away. Southorn Playground, sandwiched between busy Hennessy Road and Johnston Road, Wan Chai, was opened in 1934 and named after Sir Wilfred Thomas Southorn, Hong Kong’s then colonial secretary. Southorn had spent much of his early diplomatic career in Sri Lanka, where he... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3245756/look-sri-lankas-connections-southorn-playground-hong-kongs-wan-chai-trip-around-island-nation-pearl?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3245756/look-sri-lankas-connections-southorn-playground-hong-kongs-wan-chai-trip-around-island-nation-pearl?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 25 Dec 2023 05:15:14 +0000 A sinister two-metre-tall, horse-headed Hindu deity illuminated by the flickering flames of an open fire provides an unorthodox sense of arrival at a jungle eco-retreat in Sri Lanka’s remote southern interior. A young woman creates hypnotic melodies on a handpan, a metal musical instrument. Toque macaques screech from branches over­hanging the thatched-roof shack that serves as the guest reception zone. An enormous monitor lizard ambles past with an exaggerated swagger. The tourism industry is... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3215277/how-sustainable-tourism-sri-lanka-taking-eco-retreats-countrys-economic-crisis-forces-new-approach?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3215277/how-sustainable-tourism-sri-lanka-taking-eco-retreats-countrys-economic-crisis-forces-new-approach?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 01 Apr 2023 09:15:12 +0000 A dangerous offshore battle, fought intermittently in Hong Kong waters for some 20 years, is to be commemorated by a new installation on the city’s Central waterfront, outside the Hong Kong Maritime Museum on June 24. Since the late 1980s, law enforcement agencies have grappled with large-scale cross-border smuggling syndicates operating purpose-built, high-speed power boats known as dai fei. Many officers were injured, some lost their lives, in pursuing these stealthy craft. “It was a deadly... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3182104/when-hong-kong-was-hotbed-high-speed-smuggling?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3182104/when-hong-kong-was-hotbed-high-speed-smuggling?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 19 Jun 2022 00:15:21 +0000 Even with international travel restricted, Ma Wan is not a place many people in Hong Kong visit, but this tiny, obscure island could have been known around the world. Nearly 230 years ago, British officials considered claiming Ma Wan for their main trading settlement in southern China and sent a party to investigate its potential. Records reveal that if it hadn’t been for some horrible weather, Hong Kong might never have been “Hong Kong” – it would have been Ma Wan, sandwiched between the... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3170957/little-island-could-have-been-hong-kong-british-naval?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3170957/little-island-could-have-been-hong-kong-british-naval?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 20 Mar 2022 23:15:12 +0000 There is no official memorial in Hong Kong to commemorate Charlie Thirlwell. No parks, roads or public buildings bear his name. But his legacy compares favourably with that of any governor or wealthy merchant from the city’s past. This Hong Kong-born lighthouse keeper campaigned vigorously for the socially marginalised Tanka, the ethnic group of indigenous people who traditionally lived afloat in junks and earned their living from fishing. He fought for them to be integrated into mainstream Hong... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3168168/father-fishermen-how-tanka-community-campaigner?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3168168/father-fishermen-how-tanka-community-campaigner?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 25 Feb 2022 01:15:21 +0000 She was almost 100 years old. After a proud career in Sydney Harbour spanning six decades, it was hardly a romantic end for such a historic vessel, launched with much fanfare on Valentine’s Day in 1922. Having survived storms, World War II and even a collision with a whale, the ferry MV Baragoola sunk at her moorings late on New Year’s Day 2022, after years of neglect. It was an undignified end, and a lesson that even the world’s most famous harbours and most popular tourist destinations can... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3166929/proud-sydney-harbour-ferry-sank-after-years-neglect-shows?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3166929/proud-sydney-harbour-ferry-sank-after-years-neglect-shows?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 14 Feb 2022 05:00:18 +0000 January 19 was a black day for Hong Kong’s tourism and leisure sector: Genting Hong Kong, which owns Dream Cruises, Crystal Cruises and Star Cruises, announced it was filing for bankruptcy and appointing liquidators. The chairman and founder, Malaysian billionaire Lim Kok Thay, stood down two days later as the company, headquartered in Hong Kong and once hailed as a pioneer of Asian cruising, found itself floundering. The entire global cruise industry has been devastated by Covid-19 but,... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3164622/fall-cruise-company-genting-hong-kong-once-poised-greatly?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3164622/fall-cruise-company-genting-hong-kong-once-poised-greatly?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 25 Jan 2022 05:19:29 +0000 Completed in 1871, the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens offer a precious green space in one of the densest urbanities on Earth, drawing up to 9,000 visitors per day on weekends, even in the absence of international tourists due to Covid-19 travel restrictions. But the gardens’ 150th anniversary last November was marked by critics who say visitors should be experiencing native wild birds and butterflies in their natural habitats, and certainly not gawping at orangutans and squirrel... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3162499/hong-kong-zoo-stuck-dark-ages-or-inspiring-young?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3162499/hong-kong-zoo-stuck-dark-ages-or-inspiring-young?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 09 Jan 2022 00:30:17 +0000 Felicity Somers Eve was unaware of her great-grandfather’s achievements until she found a cardboard box in a damp corner of the loft at her mother’s house in 2009. And so from West Sussex, England, thanks to hundreds of objects, photographs, letters, technical drawings and other documents, she pieced together the work of David Marr Henderson and his colourful life, with much of his adulthood spent in China. Marr Henderson was a controversial, uncompromising civil engineer who worked for the... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3139429/legend-lighthouse-builder-how-british-engineer?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3139429/legend-lighthouse-builder-how-british-engineer?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 04 Jul 2021 06:15:16 +0000 The earliest Chinese migrants to Britain were employed by the British East India Company. They arrived in the East London docklands in the 1780s, aboard merchant vessels carrying tea, ceramics and silk. The ships docked in an area that was then known as Limehouse, a thriving, industrious entrepot and already the most cosmopolitan district in the most cosmopolitan city in the land. Among the few first-person accounts that exist from Chinese sailors of the period is an oral one given by Xie... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3135218/once-upon-time-chinatown-struggles-londons-first?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3135218/once-upon-time-chinatown-struggles-londons-first?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 29 May 2021 05:15:12 +0000 Nothing could have prepared Keith Gordon for the image he witnessed on the small video display in the cabin of a vessel anchored in the Tasman Sea, about 25km southwest of Hokianga in New Zealand’s North Island. “When I looked at the screen, I just thought, ‘bloody hell’,” says Gordon, one of New Zealand’s most experienced underwater explorers. Some 150 metres beneath where he stood, a yellow, remotely operated underwater vehicle was searching inside the wreck of the steamship SS Ventnor and... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/3111188/chinese-gold-miners-bones-1902-new-zealand-shipwreck-should-they-be?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/3111188/chinese-gold-miners-bones-1902-new-zealand-shipwreck-should-they-be?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 25 Nov 2020 18:30:21 +0000 The southern Chinese island province of Hainan is home to 9.5 million people and is known for its industrial estates and busy seaside resorts. Yet away from the rapidly developing coastal cities, it boasts an estimated 4,200 species of plants, more than 300 species of birds, 104 different kinds of reptiles, almost 100 breeds of mammals and 37 different kinds of amphibians. The towering hardwood forests of the island’s nature reserves are home to some of the most endangered species in the world,... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/3092697/can-chinas-hainan-island-hotspot-wildlife-and-nature-retain-its-rich?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/3092697/can-chinas-hainan-island-hotspot-wildlife-and-nature-retain-its-rich?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 13 Jul 2020 04:15:05 +0000 The phrase “lost at sea” has taken on a depressing new meaning for the likes of Captain Hrisheet Barve, who recently arrived home in Goa, India, after more than seven-and-a-half months on a tanker. “Most of my crew are married and were missing their children, but were stuck on board for eight or nine months. You can explain to your partner you don’t know when you’re coming home, but how do you explain to little kids?” Barve says. Concerns are mounting about the mental health and well-being of... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3090193/mental-health-ships-crews-risk-they-are-stuck-sea-months?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3090193/mental-health-ships-crews-risk-they-are-stuck-sea-months?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 24 Jun 2020 23:15:12 +0000 The modernization of China’s military is widely perceived as a threat in the United States today. Yet some 135 years ago, one US naval officer traveled to the Middle Kingdom to help the country develop its prowess at sea – and it did not end well. Philo Norton McGiffin left the US in 1885 as a naive but determined 24-year-old to serve the Imperial Chinese Navy and was wounded in action. After eight years of intensive officer training, McGiffin failed to obtain a commission in the US Navy... https://www.scmp.com/society/how-american-officer-helped-modernize-chinas-navy-19th-century/article/3089382?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/society/how-american-officer-helped-modernize-chinas-navy-19th-century/article/3089382?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 17 Jun 2020 12:35:51 +0000 The modernisation of China’s military is widely perceived as a threat in the United States today. Yet some 135 years ago, one US naval officer travelled to the Middle Kingdom and was engaged to help the country develop its prowess at sea – and it did not end well. The unlikely and tragic story of Philo Norton McGiffin, who left the US in 1885 as a naive but determined 24-year-old to serve the Imperial Chinese Navy and was wounded in action, is revealed in a new online exhibition presented by the... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3089218/treachery-how-us-officer-who-fought-china-first-sino?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3089218/treachery-how-us-officer-who-fought-china-first-sino?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 16 Jun 2020 21:00:11 +0000 The idea of conscription in Hong Kong was first proposed 50 years ago, and there have been suggestions recently that some kind of community service could offer a solution to the city’s current social unrest and division. When conscription was first proposed by Hilton Cheong-leen in 1969, the controversial idea made headlines at a time when the then British colony was still recovering from months of turmoil in the wake of leftist riots. The former chairman of the now-defunct Urban Council thought... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/3082742/can-youth-community-service-voluntary-or-not-help-social-cohesion-how?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/3082742/can-youth-community-service-voluntary-or-not-help-social-cohesion-how?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 05 May 2020 09:30:13 +0000 Concealed behind the metal security gates of Hong Kong’s Marine Police Headquarters is a unique collection of artefacts that tell colourful tales of piracy, war, kidnappings, smuggling and crime from 178 years of marine law enforcement in the city. The more than 400 historical items in the building in Sai Wan Ho, on the northern shore of Hong Kong Island, include photographs, navigational instruments, machine guns, swords, model ships, flags, bells and cannons. Very few people have had the... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3077139/secret-hong-kong-marine-police-collection-tells-stories?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3077139/secret-hong-kong-marine-police-collection-tells-stories?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 29 Mar 2020 04:30:09 +0000 Ann Pearce is a courageous woman. Three years ago, she faced every parent’s worst nightmare. Her teenage son, Jamie Bruno, a popular student at a Hong Kong international school and passionate street artist, took his own life. He was 15 years old. Pearce did not even know her son was unhappy. No parent can fully come to terms or move on from a tragedy of such terrible proportions, yet Pearce launched an anti-stigma campaign called Weez Week to mark the third anniversary of Jamie’s death on... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/family-relationships/article/3052046/im-still-sad-every-day-mother-whose-teenage-son-took?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/family-relationships/article/3052046/im-still-sad-every-day-mother-whose-teenage-son-took?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 24 Feb 2020 07:00:13 +0000 Works of art depicting coastal China from the 17th to the 19th century comprise what the Hong Kong Museum of Art describes as one of its most legendary collections. The collection could have been much bigger. More than 300 paintings, drawings and maps went missing when the Imperial Japanese Army occupied Hong Kong during World War II, and their whereabouts remains one of Asia’s biggest unsolved art mysteries. The collection was owned by Indian-born Armenian businessman Sir Paul Chater, who... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3051113/why-art-hidden-japanese-eve-hong-kong-invasion-world-war-ii?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3051113/why-art-hidden-japanese-eve-hong-kong-invasion-world-war-ii?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 18 Feb 2020 23:45:13 +0000 Separated from cosmopolitan Singapore by a causeway that spans a muddy strait, the Malaysian city of Johor Bahru tends to be overshadowed by its more illustrious neighbour. Often dismissed as a cheap and cheerful border town for Singaporeans seeking low-cost shopping malls, spas and theme parks, JB, as the locals call it, is challenging that traditional misconception by celebrating its own heritage and Chinese cultural connections. Writer, local historian and Johor Bahru native Peggy Loh has... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3046222/johor-bahru-malaysia-why-singapores-poor-relation-making?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3046222/johor-bahru-malaysia-why-singapores-poor-relation-making?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 16 Jan 2020 23:15:15 +0000 Towering at a height of four metres, the Huang-Ming Yitong Da Tu, a magnificent old map of China, was hand-copied from an original produced by Japanese monks in Nagasaki in 1771. The map, whose title translates as the Unified Atlas of the August Ming, is one of 80 historic maps and nautical charts on display at the Hong Kong Maritime Museum as part of an exhibition called “The World on Paper: From Square to Sphericity”. “Maps both reflect history and are a record of history,” says collector Tam... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3044282/old-maps-china-shed-light-modern-border-disputes-and-how?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3044282/old-maps-china-shed-light-modern-border-disputes-and-how?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 02 Jan 2020 12:00:11 +0000 Enthusiastically adopting kung fu poses, visitors to the statue of movie icon Bruce Lee, on Hong Kong’s Avenue of Stars beside Victoria Harbour, get a kick out of impersonating their screen idol. “I think movie culture is the most important cultural aspect of Hong Kong. Everyone knows the movies and the actors Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Leslie Cheung,” says Paul Chan Chi-yuen, co-founder and CEO of tour group Walk in Hong Kong, as he stands next to the popular tourist landmark. Chan’s company... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3042911/driven-bruce-lee-and-jackie-chan-movie-tourism-rise-hong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3042911/driven-bruce-lee-and-jackie-chan-movie-tourism-rise-hong?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 20 Dec 2019 23:30:12 +0000 The lost boy: I have just turned 88, so I guess I have been an orphan for 81 years. My birth certificate lists my place of birth as 98 Argyle Street, in Kowloon. My mother, Antonina Shangin, was a White Russian who fled the revolution. She married my father, Kalman Tatz, who was Austro-Hungarian, in Harbin, in northern China. They were both artists. My father died in a Kowloon hospital when I was one year old. Our servant, Ah Kai, taught me Cantonese and she was my surrogate mother while my real... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3041797/too-young-know-he-should-cry-wartime-orphan-hong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3041797/too-young-know-he-should-cry-wartime-orphan-hong?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 17 Dec 2019 01:48:22 +0000 The drone video footage taken about 30m above Maya Bay in southern Thailand captures a solitary diver finning in the shallow waters while the dark shadows of reef sharks can be seen swimming around him. “I saw at least 100 sharks yesterday,” says Malaysian coral conservationist Anuar Abdullah, the diver in the video, and the founder and CEO of social enterprise Ocean Quest Global. He points out the rectangular outlines of some of the 120 nurseries his team of coral gardeners has built inside the... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3041670/miracle-maya-bay-how-thai-paradise-island-wrecked-tourism?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3041670/miracle-maya-bay-how-thai-paradise-island-wrecked-tourism?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 14 Dec 2019 01:30:05 +0000 David Kwok Shu-wai, a third-generation Hong Kong fisherman, still remembers working on sailing junks with his father when he was a child. Today, the vessels once ubiquitous in coastal waters around Hong Kong, their distinctive fan-shaped sails long depicted in the tourism authority’s marketing materials, have almost vanished. Kwok, 58, is determined to maintain a maritime tradition, however, and has spent about HK$3 million (US$383,000) on his first junk restoration project. “I am a fisherman... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3041381/fisherman-maintains-hong-kong-maritime-legacy-his-hk3?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3041381/fisherman-maintains-hong-kong-maritime-legacy-his-hk3?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 10 Dec 2019 23:00:06 +0000 Thousands of tonnes of plastic rubbish drift in the seas of Asia, the region environmentalists cite as the biggest source of the petrochemical waste that chokes coastal waters and leaves beaches looking like rubbish dumps. Clearing up the massive piles of refuse is a never-ending task, but a new invention developed by Hong Kong student engineers and scientists could help to make a difference. They have developed a semi-submersible robotic marine rubbish collector, which they have named the... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/3039950/robot-marine-plastic-pollution-collector-hong-kong-students-invented?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/3039950/robot-marine-plastic-pollution-collector-hong-kong-students-invented?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 02 Dec 2019 12:00:12 +0000 Imprisoned in the filthy boarded-up cellar of his house in Beijing and held in solitary confinement by the Chinese government for 27 months, British journalist Anthony Grey made international headlines when he was released 50 years ago this month. “Peking Frees Grey,” was the front-page splash in the South China Sunday Post-Herald on October 5, 1969. The report linked his long detention to civil unrest and violence in Hong Kong as the so-called leftist riots of 1967 reduced much of the city to a... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/3032850/political-hostage-british-journalist-detained-china-27-months-reprisal?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/3032850/political-hostage-british-journalist-detained-china-27-months-reprisal?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 14 Oct 2019 23:45:08 +0000 The economic and social disruption in Hong Kong caused by months of protests has provoked several companies to issue public condemnations of violence and pleas for calm. However, the recent death of shipping magnate Frank Tsao Wen-king serves as a reminder that old-school local tycoons weren’t always daunted by upheaval and unrest. Tsao was a classic Hong Kong tycoon, a titan of Asian shipping and an extremely wealthy individual, whose death last month at the age of 94 provoked an avalanche of... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/family-relationships/article/3025970/why-hong-kong-protests-wouldnt-have-fazed-shipping?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/family-relationships/article/3025970/why-hong-kong-protests-wouldnt-have-fazed-shipping?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 10 Sep 2019 10:00:06 +0000 On October 8, 1892, Hong Kong’s cricket team was returning home from an annual inter-port match in Shanghai when their ship foundered in a typhoon. Of the 148 passengers and crew on board the P&O steam­ship SS Bokhara, only two team members were among the 23 survivors. The China Mail reported at the time that “the wreck seems to have been one of the most appalling that has ever taken place on the China coast”. One-hundred-and-twenty-seven years later, researchers from City University’s... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3025830/when-maritime-disaster-all-wiped-out-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3025830/when-maritime-disaster-all-wiped-out-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 06 Sep 2019 02:45:12 +0000 With Hong Kong gripped by mass protests, the band that was the pioneer of punk rock will perform live in the city as part of the Spirit of ’77 Punk Festival. The event celebrates the year disaffected youth in the UK turned to music to vent their frustration with the political establishment. The Damned predate the Sex Pistols and The Clash and were in the vanguard of the punk movement in London in the mid- to late 1970s. Charismatic, energetic and defiant, they were the first UK punk band to... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3020783/uk-punk-icon-captain-sensible-hong-kong-protests-crazy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3020783/uk-punk-icon-captain-sensible-hong-kong-protests-crazy?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 31 Jul 2019 17:00:10 +0000 A seagoing ship remains one of the most challenging working environments for a woman to succeed in. Traditionally a male preserve, the on-board hours are antisocial, the work is physically demanding, the sea can be rough and you might spend weeks and months separated from home, family and the internet. “Of course, at times it’s tough – I was vomiting all the way from St Petersburg to Brazil, but I never thought of giving up,” says Joanna Kwok Wing-yan, describing her experience on her first... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/family-relationships/article/3019560/why-are-there-so-few-women-shipping-hong-kongs?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/family-relationships/article/3019560/why-are-there-so-few-women-shipping-hong-kongs?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 22 Jul 2019 12:00:05 +0000 “Of all the places I have seen, Canton is the most overwhelmingly interesting, fascinating and startling. ‘See Canton and die’ I would almost say,” wrote the British explorer and travel writer Isabella Bird, in the 1870s. The high-speed railway from Hong Kong makes Guangzhou, China’s third city, less than one hour’s travel from Kowloon station, so exploring what remains of old Canton, the historic port on the old maritime Silk Road, is more convenient than ever. While most Chinese cities have... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3013591/exploring-guangzhous-famous-past-four-historic-sites-keep?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3013591/exploring-guangzhous-famous-past-four-historic-sites-keep?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 09 Jun 2019 07:00:18 +0000 Air rage – or “unruly passenger behaviour”, in the experts’ terminology – manifests differently in Asian and Western travellers, while Chinese air rage may be a genre all of its own. That’s according to a co-author of a report by the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at Hong Kong Polytechnic University. “In general, Asian societies are more [well] behaved, based on common Confucian values. The threshold towards misbehaving is higher, as [is] the tolerance of discomfort,” says Markus... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3011686/air-rage-how-it-differs-west-and-east-and-why-chinese?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3011686/air-rage-how-it-differs-west-and-east-and-why-chinese?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 26 May 2019 11:00:07 +0000 At weekends, parents push babies in strollers and take family photographs in the attractive roof garden that crowns Hong Kong’s Kai Tak Cruise Terminal, seemingly oblivious to the smoke belching from whichever ocean liner happens to be berthed alongside. “It’s rare to have such a nice big space,” says a young mother from West Kowloon, as she enjoys a stroll with her partner and son. Behind her, a plume of filthy rust-coloured smoke belches from the exhaust funnel of the 335-metre cruise liner... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3011607/hong-kong-air-pollution-and-deadly-impact?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3011607/hong-kong-air-pollution-and-deadly-impact?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 25 May 2019 03:00:12 +0000 A small African fish called the tilapia may be vital for meeting the future food needs of humanity, according to scientists, but they are also concerned that a killer disease discovered in recent years could wipe out the species. That, they warn, would have devastating social and economic consequences for China and the rest of the Asia-Pacific region. Although its name may not be widely known, the freshwater tilapia is second only to carp as the world’s most widely farmed fish, and China is the... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3008691/tilapia-fish-feed-world-and-deadly-virus-may-destroy-it?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3008691/tilapia-fish-feed-world-and-deadly-virus-may-destroy-it?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 05 May 2019 21:00:10 +0000 Hundreds of people are searching for treasure hidden across the Outlying Islands district of Hong Kong this month, but it’s not pieces-of-eight or buried chests of precious stones they are seeking. “Hong Kong’s islands have so many treasures – different architecture, festivals, crafts and traditions,” says Simon Go Man-ching, founder of Hulu Culture, a local NGO that is running a project called Treasure Islands, which encourages locals and visitors to explore the rich cultural heritage of Hong... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3006667/history-hong-kongs-outlying-islands-celebrated-treasure?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3006667/history-hong-kongs-outlying-islands-celebrated-treasure?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 19 Apr 2019 00:00:10 +0000 Every day, thousands of tourists, Hong Kong commuters and other locals travelling up and down the Mid-Levels outdoor escalator, in the city’s Central business district, pass a historic site without realising it. The crumbling walls of blue-grey brick and rough stone steps partially concealed behind construction-site fencing near the junction of Cochrane and Wellington streets do not seem like much, but they’re all that’s left of the life of a remarkable woman. Ng Akew (sometimes Ong Akew, Ong Mo... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2189144/hong-kongs-protected-women-forgotten-females?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2189144/hong-kongs-protected-women-forgotten-females?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 10 Mar 2019 08:01:53 +0000 Events have taken an unexpected turn for the worst for the Chinese trade delegation gathered around the conference table, and their lead spokesperson is looking noticeably uncomfortable. Having spent hours trying to reach a consensus with other nations about removing tariffs on specific food items, their entire negotiating strategy has been turned on its head. The team has been handed a “top-secret diplomatic communique” from Beijing, telling them that a life-threatening epidemic is spreading... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/2188642/us-china-trade-war-simulation-gives-students-lesson-negotiation-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/2188642/us-china-trade-war-simulation-gives-students-lesson-negotiation-and?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 05 Mar 2019 18:00:39 +0000 The atmospheric narrow alleyways, or hutongs, of Beijing, which represent traditional life in the Chinese capital, are a major draw for visitors looking for a flavour of the old city – but they are disappearing fast. That trend might change following a visit made to a hutong on February 1, 2019 by Chinese President Xi Jinping. Famous Chinese hutong alleyway bans group tours While touring a hutong in the Qianmen district, to the southeast of the Forbidden City, Xi ordered efforts to protect... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/2188476/hope-hutongs-five-best-historic-lanes-beijing-reimagined?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/2188476/hope-hutongs-five-best-historic-lanes-beijing-reimagined?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 04 Mar 2019 23:45:16 +0000 A major cultural project seeks to remind visitors how Hong Kong has been shaped not only by commerce and trade, but also by outbreaks of disease. Few may be aware, for example, that the 1894 outbreak of bubonic plague sowed the seeds for the introduction of representative democracy in the city. Hong Kong’s plague epidemic points way ahead in face of crisis “Contagious Cities: Far Away, Too Close” is sponsored by the Wellcome Trust, one of the world’s biggest medical research foundations, and... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/2185675/how-plague-hong-kong-sowed-seeds-democracy-changed-urban?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/2185675/how-plague-hong-kong-sowed-seeds-democracy-changed-urban?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 11 Feb 2019 10:06:43 +0000 Two talented young designers have been lured to Hong Kong, not by its culture, cuisine or shopping, but by its rubbish. Studio Florian + Christine is a two-person multidisciplinary design studio founded in London by Christine Lew from the US and Florian Wegenast from Germany. But instead of frequenting the trendy design studios and galleries of the British capital, the pair spent three months last year trawling through Hong Kong’s trash-strewn harbours on a small boat, and combing local beaches... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/2183591/young-design-pair-upcycling-hong-kong-marine-trash-desirable?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/2183591/young-design-pair-upcycling-hong-kong-marine-trash-desirable?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 27 Jan 2019 01:45:30 +0000 In the chilly waters of Hoi Ha Wan Marine Park, in Sai Kung West Country Park, can be found a conservation success story that has the potential to transform the seas of southern China. “Hong Kong is the apocalyptic environment for corals,” says Yu-De Pei, a coral researcher from Taiwan who works with Vriko Yu Pik-fan on a pioneering project run by the University of Hong Kong’s Swire Institute of Marine Science (Swims). Yet, Hong Kong still has corals; against all the odds, they have survived a... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2183633/could-hong-kongs-hardy-corals-be-key-saving?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2183633/could-hong-kongs-hardy-corals-be-key-saving?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 26 Jan 2019 08:00:30 +0000 As China celebrates the 40th anniversary of the groundbreaking policy that triggered the country’s economic renaissance, a museum dedicated to the story of reform and opening up celebrates a pioneer of the policy who is often played down in official accounts. The Shekou Museum of China’s Reform and Opening Up is on the third floor of the impressive Seaworld Culture and Arts Centre, overlooking Shenzhen Bay in Shekou, a district of Shenzhen, the southern Chinese city that borders Hong... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/2179330/unsung-hero-chinas-opening-40-years-ago-remembered-shenzhen?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/2179330/unsung-hero-chinas-opening-40-years-ago-remembered-shenzhen?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 27 Dec 2018 00:15:45 +0000 Amid the tumultuous trade war engulfing China and the United States, a major new exhibition at the Hong Kong Maritime Museum steps back from the brink to explore the distant origins of trade between the two economic giants. The exhibition, which runs until mid-April, illustrates how the thorny issue of trade imbalances is nothing new. Whose economy is in the stronger state to survive the trade war? “The China-US trade is a highly sensitive issue at the moment, but as a museum we can only reveal... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/2178327/us-china-trade-war-how-america-wooed-qing-dynasty-ginseng?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/2178327/us-china-trade-war-how-america-wooed-qing-dynasty-ginseng?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 17 Dec 2018 12:45:45 +0000 Being a frequent flier in economy class on one of the growing numbers of Asia’s less prestigious short-haul carriers can be a stressful experience. One passenger on China Eastern Airlines was so desperate to exit the aircraft while waiting at Sanya Phoenix International airport on China’s Hainan Island in 2014, he activated the emergency slide. Basic economy long-haul flights take off: no frills, you pay for extras   Jonathan Bricker of the University of Washington developed the world’s first... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/2175745/how-fly-budget-airlines-five-ways-cope-air-rage-delays-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/2175745/how-fly-budget-airlines-five-ways-cope-air-rage-delays-and?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 02 Dec 2018 02:00:45 +0000 As Captain Ivan Lebedev stood on the bridge of the armoured cruiser Dmitrii Donskoi on May 29, 1905, and gave the order for his badly damaged ship to be scuttled, he could have had no idea of the financial scandal his command would cause some 113 years later. The warship had been damaged by Japanese torpedo boats and destroyers in the Battle of Tsushima, which devastated the Russian fleet and effectively handed victory to Japan in the Russo-Japanese war. The conflict was waged over rival... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2175521/russian-shipwreck-and-south-korean-crypto-scam?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2175521/russian-shipwreck-and-south-korean-crypto-scam?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 01 Dec 2018 09:00:45 +0000 Never mind the bollocks None of the four of us who formed the Sex Pistols in 1975 came from a musical back­ground. We were just a gang of lads from Shepherd’s Bush, in London, with a love of music and the fashion scene. Someone had a light-bulb moment and said, “Why don’t we learn to play instruments and form a band?” It all started in (punk impresario) Malcolm McLaren’s shop in the King’s Road, west London. Glen (Matlock; bassist) worked there and Steve (Jones; guitarist) and I liked to hang... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2175532/we-dont-want-anyone-have-heart-attack-sex-pistols?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2175532/we-dont-want-anyone-have-heart-attack-sex-pistols?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 29 Nov 2018 07:45:30 +0000 A toxic mix of religious dogma, social ignorance, government inertia and traditional Chinese culture means LGBT students at Hong Kong universities are facing prejudice, stigma and inequality on a daily basis. That was the view of straight and LGBT students who took part in this month’s Hong Kong Pride Parade, which took as its theme “call for the law, equality for all”, and demanded legislation to protect the rights of LGBT people and outlaw sexual discrimination in the city – a law change... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/family-relationships/article/2175396/lgbt-students-face-so-much-prejudice-hong-kong-theyre?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/family-relationships/article/2175396/lgbt-students-face-so-much-prejudice-hong-kong-theyre?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 29 Nov 2018 04:53:57 +0000 It is not often one meets an elite mountaineer in the steamy heat of a tropical summer, but Carina Dayondon is not a typical mountain climber. The fourth eldest in a poor family of 14 children, raised in the sleepy town of Don Carlos, in central Mindanao, in the southern Philippines, she was expected to help bring up her brothers and sisters, not scale the world’s highest peaks. Dayondon was selected for the first Philippine team to ascend Mount Everest (which succeeded, in May 2006), she had... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2174268/filipino-mountaineer-her-journey-scale-seven?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2174268/filipino-mountaineer-her-journey-scale-seven?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 25 Nov 2018 00:45:15 +0000