mangochutney

Hello from my hotel in Hong Kong! Everything has, so far, gone without a hitch. I don't know if I have just dodged everything but it seems very quiet for a Monday night.

Now just to get back out to the airport for flying to Japan tomorrow morning...!

Thank you everyone for your help, I will be back for the return leg in 2.5 weeks (when I'll hopefully actually get to see HK)

JNelson113

Any travelers currently in Hong Kong? How was this weekend?

tom911

I arrived in Mongkok around 8 tonight (Sunday) and no issues over here aside from anti-China and anti-police graffiti on the road dividers along Nathan Road. Today's protest was supposed to be on the other side of the harbour. Several buses from the airport to that area were diverted or cancelled but routes on the Kowloon side running as normal.

christep

It's all a bit messy around Causeway Bay at the moment, But in plenty of other places too. From the MTR site:

Central, Wan Chai, Prince Edward and Mong Kok stations are temporarily closed.
Some entrances/exits are temporarily closed at Yau Ma Tei, Jordan, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong, Causeway Bay and Tin Hau stations

It seems to me that one can reasonably assume something like this to be the case for Saturday and Sunday late afternoon to evening for the foreseeable future.

889

That's my working view too: going out after 3:30 pm or so on weekends there's an increasing risk you might get stranded somewhere if using the MTR. Risk, not certainty, please note.

As well, I also think the best working assumption is that current developments in Hong Kong will continue to develop for the foreseeable future, and that anyone considering a trip to Hong Kong in the foreseeable future should plan on that basis. Can't discuss the whys behind that advice without getting into politics.

SS255

Just curious if anybody has had any experience with getting a taxi out of HKG in the early evening on weekends. I'm due to arrive on Friday evening, and fear protests as it is the start of the weekend. The plan is to take the Airport Express train into Central Station, with a taxi from HKG if the train service is disrupted.

TA

I think the protests are mainly on Sat/Sun, and the authorities have gotten the AEX situation generally under control / preventative measures in place.

kevincrumbs

(Trying to keep this as politically neutral as possible)

What is the general mood in HK if one is not part of the protests? I am a HKer with a trip booked in late November with my GF and her daughter. While I don't really worry about safety, sometimes I feel that in a way it is disrespectful to go to HK and have fun (eg taking the kid the Disneyland, etc.) while all this serious business is going on. I follow a lot of the news both via mainstream outlets and Twitter and I can't get a sense of "normal" life in HK right now. My plan is to wait until after the Chinese National Day passes before I make a final decision as to whether or not to travel.

TA

I was there as a visitor within the last 2 weeks, and I would say that unless anything major changes, observable daily life goes on absolutely normally (except for maybe some leftover Monday morning attempts at disorderliness on the MTR). There are 8M people living their daily lives outside of the few hours of protests on Saturdays/Sundays that several thousand people are taking part in (and even fewer at night). The news only shows that because, well, that is the most dramatic thing they can see happening -- but honestly it is a small exaggerated microscope view. I don't know about National Day, but this is my observation to date.

The flip side of any feeling of disrespect is that probably most of the city would like you to feel that you can be a tourist there again.

helvetic

Don't worry about it, come visit. Disneyland and Ocean Park are serene from what I hear, given the lack of mainland tourists turning them into clusters…

christep

Normal life is carrying on absolutely normally. And it is so nice that there is room on the pavements, the transport and so on. One can get deals and bookings anywhere. It's great. Long may it continue.

The only flipside of this is that needs to be a MAJOR correction in commercial property rents down to more sensible levels for normal businesses catering to HK residents to survive.

Kilian Zoll

On weekdays I would more or less agree, but life is far from 'normal' on weekends in my opinion -- even if you only stay on HK Island.

On Sunday we were in Landmark (arguably the most tourist heavy area on the Island side) and had to go to hospital due to an emergency. It was impossible to get a cab due to the closed off streets because of the protests, so we had to walk to IFC with our newborn in tow. Our hospital of choice in the area (Canossa) was basically unreachable as well, so we had to go to Sanatorium in Happy Valley instead. It took us a good hour before we reached the emergency room (would have normally taken 10 minutes). Only hours after we were in Central with our newborn one of the station exits were set on fire by protesters.

Now, HK is hardly the war zone it is being portrayed as in Western media outlets, but things are FAR from normal at this stage. The company I work for has been actively advising against all business travel to Hong Kong for four weeks straight now. Hotel occupancy rates are the first to be hit (-40% at this stage), but we'll very soon see similar drops in retail and other sectors, and in the end international businesses will flee from and stay clear of HK unless things come to an end. If that's the end goal of the protests (because who knows what the point of all the vandalism is at this stage?) then they've certainly succeeded!

I'm not going to advise against travel to HK for FTers as we're all a savvy bunch that I'd like to believe exercise a great deal of common sense when traveling. But people even on these forums need to know that life in Hong Kong is far from normal at the moment. The city or its residents are not doing themselves any favours by pretending otherwise.

helvetic

You were pretty unlucky in that you were caught in Landmark right as the protests flared up in Central. Perhaps if you could cross Queen's Rd from Landmark, you could have walked up to Wellington or Wyndham Rd… the protests usually end when the streets get smaller and hillier, and the area is full of cabs and expats.

DragonSoul

In an emergency, and considering the traffic issues, why not QM, or even Gleneagles? There was no traffic problems on the west side and you'd be at either one in a lot less than an hour.

Times like this shows that the CC was "not very nice" for taking back the building the Central Hospital was in (which still lies empty!). It's still needed.

Kilian Zoll

QM may have been faster (not accounting for waiting times at the emergency room!) but Gleneagles would be further than Sanatorium (you basically have to pass Happy Valley to get to Gleneagles, unless you go the other way around via Pokfulam/Aberdeen).

Either way, this is just anecdotal evidence how normal life in HK is not "carrying on absolutely normally". It just isn't -- no one who lives here could claim that with a straight face. However, the majority of FT travellers will in all likelihood not be impacted much - if at all. So I would not advise against travelling here, even though many companies do.