percysmith

But on the other hand, there is no need to abandon non-cancellable travel deposits. You can still come and visit.

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niladri

Hello, any issues with transiting through HKG as of now, w.r.t flight disruptions? My elderly uncle and aunty are transiting on 19th Nov through HKG and I would hate to see them have to do a long layover.

Thanks

Hydro88

[OT discussion redacted by mod]

Airport transit shouldn't be an issue.

IMOA

This is my big concern. We've got a holiday planned for February and while I'm not super concerned (middle aged Australian caucasion) my girlfriend is mandarin speaking chinese malaysian who speaks basically no cantonese and her experience and risk factors are very real and very different to mine. So while we'll be staying in LKF and doing very expat things (we're going to hong kong to eat and drink basically) there is a real concern that things could go badly pear shaped in a case of mistaken identity. I'm certainly a hell of a lot more concerned about this trip than I was when I went to Turkey about 6 weeks after the last coup.

percysmith

If she's speaking in fluent English (or better still, Singlish) and looks more peranakan than northern then I see no problems with mistaken identity

wco81

Perankan?

IMOA

I wouldn't say she looks peranakan, does have fluent english (and not singlish unless she's back in singapore talking with friends. Thankfully.) and her mandarin is more taiwanese accent than mainland (she went to a chinese school in malaysia) but our idea of a holiday isn't making sure she doesn't speak one of her fluent languages and walking around with a passport.

Up till this week we've been of the opinion it should be fine, we're arriving on a Tuesday, leaving saturday morning and staying in LKF walking distance to the airport express/central. We are pretty confident that things like lunch at Robuchon or drinks at old man are still no issue but we also love being very local with food and getting between those places is now a worry as is the change in tactics from the protestors to weekdays and the proximity of major protests to where we are staying/want to visit. That and the people in hong kong may underestimate just how many videos of chinese people getting assaulted anyone who has chinese heritage gets sent by their friends as soon as they find out there's a planned trip to hong kong. Like I said, its just not a threat that applies to me but to us it certainly seems to apply to my girlfriend.

Hydro88

Now, the streets are also full of protesters and police in Central. Other protesters are building barricades to block traffing in Hung Hom. Several of my local friends have been told by their compound security not to leave the house, hotels are giving the same advice.

Hydro88

I would agree with percy that they don't consciously target non-Chinese. If you happen to sit in a petrol-bombed train or car you're out of luck, though. My whole point is that the risks are incalculable and are becoming more and more unpredictable. It's clear that the escalation will continue until something happens...

As I've said before, I whole-heartedly disagree with the "advice" given by some posters on this forum who act like this is something that can be easily avoided and HK is such a nice place to explore atm without all the Mainland tourists. You just need to look at the post above this one to get a flavor of what I mean.

percysmith

Global Times somehow think they can https://3w.huanqiu.com/a/584826/9CaKrnKnKLQ?agt=20

889

Another petrol bomb in an MTR carriage today Wednesday, at University Station. This is at least the third such incident. (Some of these may have occurred in the early morning before the start of service.)

https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/ch/compone...-20191113.htm#

The headline on that RTHK story reads 全港交通混亂東鐵及巴士服務暫停,市民無法上班上學 "Transport Throughout Hong Kong in Disorder, East Rail and Buses Temporarily Stopped, People Unable to Go to Work or School."

The Tsuen Wan MTR line has also been suspended.

EDIT: The Education Department, which has come under a lot of criticism for not cancelling classes today, has just announced that classes will be cancelled tomorrow, Thursday. This is significant because the "strike" was initially announced as a three-day activity, with tomorrow presumably starting to see a reduction in activity, at least until the weekend.

Kilian Zoll

Third day in a row of the city being at an absolute stand-still, with pretty much everyone working from home.

[OT comment redacted by mod]

B7474U3

I just got back yesterday from a holiday in Hong Kong based on that would advise:

1. Use the traffic map overlay on Google Maps - if there are road closures or unusually heavy traffic in a particular area it is probable that there is something going on.

2. Whilst the protests can occur at any time and place, certain areas seem to be targeted more than others. I would avoid staying anywhere in Mongkok / Prince Edward as there seems to be have been a disturbance of some sort every day over the past week. The police have also fired tear gas and the water cannon in the vicinity of the Ladies Market in Mongkok at night.

3. In terms of areas to stay, I would pick “in-between” areas. For example if we look at the past week the area around Temple Street (North of Jordan / South of Ya Mau Tei but not near the Police Station on Austin Road) has been largely unaffected - I suspect because the epicentres seem to be in the adjacent areas of Mongkok, PolyU and to a much lesser extent TST. Temple Street is on the edge of those and doesn’t seem to have been an epicentre recently - although that is of course no guarantee that it won’t be in the future. Equally Sheung Wan on Hong Kong Island doesn’t seem to have been affected as much as other areas.

4. The trouble last week was mostly confined to the late evening and I found that it doing touristy things in the day / early evening was no different to any other trip to Hong Kong. Tactics have changed this week with the daytime now being affected so this has certainly changed and makes it more of a challenge to do touristy things. That said whilst some touristy parts are affected during the daytime now (eg Central), others aren’t.

5. Keep and eye on various Twitter feeds (news / MTR / Bus Companies) as this will help to identify where the disturbances are and how you can get around the city. When there is a disturbance some bus routes stop and others are diverted. You can also ask in the hotel if there are any reports before you head out. Bear in mind the MTR has been suspended or closed early a lot recently.

6. If you see large crowds, lots of people videoing with their smart phones, lots of police or people with face masks on - head in a different direction as many of the locals do. Hong Kong is still a functioning city and whilst the disturbances are taking place, many people continue with their daily lives and successfully avoid the disturbances.

I am pleased that I continued with my trip to Hong Kong - that said I’m a frequent visitor to Hong Kong and know my way around the city fairly well. Whilst disturbances took place while I was there I never felt unsafe - and keeping an eye on the news / Google Traffic to have a better idea of where there may be disturbances helped to ease my mind. I should however add that things have certainly changed this week with daytime / working hours becoming a target for disturbances.

Red259

Unfortunately simply taking a picture, imagine that a tourist taking a picture, can lead to being beaten as happened to a japanese tourist. It doesn't take much to provoke some protesters apparently (although I refuse to believe its more than a small subset of protesters who behave this way) and the amount of tear gas being used is scary. Police have been firing an insane amount of tear gas Long term studies are still being done as to the harm tear gas can do in the long run.I read on another board a person's daughter who was in HK for tourism got exposed to tear gas because it was being fired near her hotel. There are cars trapped in a tunnel at the moment because there are people throwing bricks down off the bridge. I really have no idea what people who do that are thinking. Its one thing to break property but to knowingly endanger innocent people? Non-essential travel to hong kong at this point makes no sense. Honestly, what kind of holiday is it if you have to keep checking your phone every 40 minutes to make sure protesters or police are not heading your way or if you have to constantly worry about transit being shutdown and traffic blocked off.

helvetic

None. Airport is running smoothly as usual.

Massive crowds in Central setting up roadblocks on Des Voeux and Peddler. Police coming in to clear. Just walked right through it.

[Off topic comment redacted by mod]

Being more worried here than in Turkey is totally absurd. Turkey has a massive crime, terrorism, and gun violence problem. The coup you speak of was quite violent, as was the crackdown after it. None of this applies here in HK.

My Chinese friends have had no issues as long as they don't get involved. If your girlfriend stays with you she won't have any issues. Even if she was alone, as long as she leaves the protestors alone, nobody would bother her. She's not the target.