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Once a Model City, Hong Kong Is in Trouble

nytimes.com

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Re: Once a Model City, Hong Kong Is in Trouble

#211

Post by seanmcdirmid »

contingencies wrote: post #135

I just crossed back to Shenzhen from Hong Kong yesterday. A few random observations... In HK, a lot of the taxi drivers are old guys who can barely read, don't speak English or mandarin, and are a real hassle to deal with unless you are a Cantonese speaker. A lot of the taxis have weird fare manipulation lookup tables instead of correct metering. Although the mass-transit oriented stored value card, Octopus, was esta…

I've never encountered a taxi driver in HK who didn't at least speak mandarin, many could even speak English. Perhaps it's just most of my interactions were to and from the airport?

Re: Once a Model City, Hong Kong Is in Trouble

#212

Post by rz2k »

emodendroket wrote: post #193
contingencies wrote: post #135

I just crossed back to Shenzhen from Hong Kong yesterday. A few random observations... In HK, a lot of the taxi drivers are old guys who can barely read, don't speak English or mandarin, and are a real hassle to deal with unless you are a Cantonese speaker. A lot of the taxis have weird fare manipulation lookup tables instead of correct metering. Although the mass-transit oriented stored value card, Octopus, was esta…

I don't know why it's so shocking that the taxi drivers should not be masters in speaking foreign languages. I would find it odder if they were all well educated and fluent in three languages.

It sounded like a contrast to Shenzhen.

Throughout the world, taxi drivers in international cities know a couple dozen words in multiple languages. Paris, Rome, Berlin, Madrid?

Even if they didn't grow up speaking Mandarin, it sounds like a conscious decision, if they don't understand a request in Mandarin from a rider today.

Of course, this is just one person's set of impressions, too.

Re: Once a Model City, Hong Kong Is in Trouble

#213

Post by seanmcdirmid »

spacehunt wrote: post #204
contingencies wrote: post #135

I just crossed back to Shenzhen from Hong Kong yesterday. A few random observations... In HK, a lot of the taxi drivers are old guys who can barely read, don't speak English or mandarin, and are a real hassle to deal with unless you are a Cantonese speaker. A lot of the taxis have weird fare manipulation lookup tables instead of correct metering. Although the mass-transit oriented stored value card, Octopus, was esta…

> There are no electric taxis We did have them, from BYD no less. Unfortunately they kept blowing up. The owners did the only sensible thing, which was to dump them.

I thought exploding electric BYD taxis was a Shenzhen thing?

Re: Once a Model City, Hong Kong Is in Trouble

#214

Post by seanmcdirmid »

rz2k wrote: post #212
emodendroket wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know why it's so shocking that the taxi drivers should not be masters in speaking foreign languages. I would find it odder if they were all well educated and fluent in three languages.

It sounded like a contrast to Shenzhen. Throughout the world, taxi drivers in international cities know a couple dozen words in multiple languages. Paris, Rome, Berlin, Madrid? Even if they didn't grow up speaking Mandarin, it sounds like a conscious decision, if they don't understand a request in Mandarin from a rider today. Of course, this is just one person's set of impressions, too.

There are no English speaking taxi drivers in Beijing. I was freaked out when a taxi driver in Shanghai talked to me in English, it just isn't common anywhere else in the mainland.

Re: Once a Model City, Hong Kong Is in Trouble

#215

Post by seanmcdirmid »

dis-sys wrote: post #188

I'd like to offer my views on the decline of HK - 1. HK was a middleman, it used to connect the mainland China to the world. That worked for HK very well after 1949, but clearly the people living in the mainland do not want to see HK to keep having its cut for the flow of capitals/goods for a very reasonable reason - there are more and more professionals/businesses in mainland China that are eager/qualified/happy to…

Chinese from the mainland still goto HK to shop, if only for the lower taxes and greater selections. The lack of wepay is hardly a concern, and many places in HK actually take it.

Re: Once a Model City, Hong Kong Is in Trouble

#216

Post by vkou »

wbl wrote: post #169
narrator wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Today, HK's GDP is barely 3% of China's, and the ports of Shanghai and Shenzhen together have 3x the throughput of HK. (Just have a look at these pictures: I am really waiting for a NY Times article that has some angle about what China can teach us, not what they should learn from us. For the last 30 years we have been getting continuous dispatches that Communism with Chinese characteristics will fail into economic…

They can teach us how to use political dissidents as organ donors, suppress protests by disappearing opponents, imprison those who point out corruption, and no doubt many other things alien to our way of life.

The United States isn't far behind in making it illegal to report criminal behaviour. Consider ag-gag laws, consider how whistelblowers get punished.

Re: Once a Model City, Hong Kong Is in Trouble

#217

Post by seanmcdirmid »

dis-sys wrote: post #197
FabHK wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, and while there was never universal suffrage, most other civil liberties and the rule of law were upheld, by and large, under British administration. And that is giving way, slice by slice, to Chinese "guanxi" (i.e., "connections", "who do you know") and authoritarian politics. :-/

This is funny given the fact that in HK what school you go to largely depends on how much money your parents have (buy bonds issued by schools) and what is their occupation. This is strictly prohibited in mainland China - a private school recently asked education level of parents on one of its admin forms, that became national news and that school got punished in days. Selling school bonds to effectively bar average…

Because rich connected kids in Beijing don't get into 人民中学 because of their parents money? Let's ignore all the BMW, audis, Mercedes waiting to pickup kids outside the school. That is an example of mainland China's "rule of law", which is largely hypocritical and never what CCTV says it is.

Re: Once a Model City, Hong Kong Is in Trouble

#218

Post by vkou »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #206
caretoomuch wrote: post #41

As someone lived in Hong Kong for quite a while (during the tail of its heydays) but now in the US, Hong Kong is indeed in big trouble. But not for the reasons mentioned/implied in this article. It's very easy to buy into narratives such as authoritarianism vs democracy, communism vs capitalism, China vs Britain/West, tight control vs freedom as the reasons for Hong Kong's decline, but that's just short-circuited thi…

And how are Hong Kong's tycoons any different from the mainland's princelings? The CCP is dealing with what it knows in Hong Kong, and the dysfunctions of both are not that different at all.

They aren't, but they make it difficult to call Hong Kong democratic, with a straight face. Half of their legislature is directly elected by corporations, for Pete's sakes.

Re: Once a Model City, Hong Kong Is in Trouble

#219

Post by dis-sys »

pcr0 wrote: post #205
dis-sys wrote: post #188

I'd like to offer my views on the decline of HK - 1. HK was a middleman, it used to connect the mainland China to the world. That worked for HK very well after 1949, but clearly the people living in the mainland do not want to see HK to keep having its cut for the flow of capitals/goods for a very reasonable reason - there are more and more professionals/businesses in mainland China that are eager/qualified/happy to…

Funny bringing up DJI as an example of a Shenzhen company. They were actually conceived in a Hong Kong university but moved over the border due to cheaper rents and closer proximity to factories.

thanks for confirming that HK is not a good place to start a high tech company. I totally agree with that.

Re: Once a Model City, Hong Kong Is in Trouble

#220

Post by [deleted] »

unityByFreedom wrote: post #173
vitaminbandit wrote: post #170

EDIT: Nevermind. unityByFreedom is a troll https://news.ycombinator.com/reply?id=14667581

> The only difference is, with the exception of Taipei, there is no political history to point to and scapegoat. Sure there is. Politicians allowed foreigners to buy residency/citizenship in Canada to a greater degree than possible elsewhere. There are plenty of political levers to pull that can adjust housing costs. Government has a major role in determining property prices. They set the tax rates and issue permits.…

[deleted]
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