Ventures Dialogue

Now back in Canada after a busy and satisfying trip, I thought I’d share a few more impressions of Hong Kong.

One of the clear differences between Hong Kong and Canada is the sheer number of people in a relatively small place.  The population of about 7 million lives in a small part of Hong Kong.  As I said in my first post, it has caused the city to build up instead of out.  Schools for instance, occupy buildings of multiple floors.  The Canadian International School which I’ll write about in a later story, has 9 floors and is built on a narrow piece of land.  Stores and restaurants can be found on upper floors of a building which give no hint as to commercial space on the ground floor levels, leaving you to wonder how people ever find them. 

In fact, there are stores and market stalls everywhere.  I’ve never seen so many.  Every luxury brand in the world appears to be present in the market, with many locations throughout the city.  Local businesses sell every kind of product imaginable in what, not unlike in Toronto, seem to be themed areas.  For instance, from the window of my car, I observed an area with nothing but sewing items:  buttons by the thousands in one block, fabric swatches displayed from floor to ceiling in another, tiny commercial spaces filled with spools of threads of every colour.  In another part of the city one tiny store after another was displaying lighting fixtures of every shape, colour and size, and so on.  The photo above is from the open market stalls in the SoHo area which sell meats and vegetables as well as other merchandise. Continue reading ‘Parting impressions of Hong Kong’

From across the table at the Lobster Lounge in my hotel over a cup of tea, Duncan Mavin, National Post’s Asia Business Correspondent, found himself on the other side of the questions for a change.

Businesspeople in Canada interested in learning more about the region, need only read Mavin’s articles to learn about the latest economic news in Asia, business people or politicians in the news, or cultural insights.  VENTURES has linked to his stories many times and so I thought it a good opportunity to meet the guy behind the byline.

Hong Kong’s distance from the National Post head office in Don Mills, Ontario changes the way Mavin works.  On one hand, it means that Canadian stories that wouldn’t catch the media’s interest at home, are newsworthy simply because they’re happening on this side of the world.  That’s great for Canadian companies whose corporate announcements often earn more ink here. Continue reading ‘Canadian reporter talks about filing from afar’

Every Hong Kong resident likely eats Canadian food every day and doesn’t even know it.  That according to The Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong.  Canadian beef is visible on the shelves, having never been subject to a ban in Hong Kong.  And one of the up-and-comers is ice wine.  On a quick foray into a wine store I spotted two Ontario wines:  Mission Hill and Pillitteri.  Grocery stores here are filled however with staples of the Hong Kong diet stamped with the maple leaf – vegetable and canola oils, ginseng, and soy sauce and tofu made from Canadian soya beans, to name a few.

In fact, Amoy, the number one selling soy sauce in Hong Kong, uses Canadian soy beans and is planning to market this advantage according to John Zimmerman, Consul & Senior Trade Commissioner with the Consulate General of Canada.  As Zimmerman explained, Hong Kong people know that they “can trust our water, air and soil” and are willing to pay extra for a safe, high quality product.

The significance of our relatively strong safety record hasn’t been lost on the Canadian government.  Federal Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, Gerry Ritz, will visit Hong Kong on Thursday this week to further promote Canada’s commitment to food safety.

Andrew Work of The Canadian Chamber in Hong Kong emphasized that Canadian success in the food and beverage industry doesn’t end there.  As he gave me a tour of the SoHo district in Hong Kong (SoHo stands for SOuth of HOllywood Road although you have to walk ‘up’ to get there from Hollywood Road or use the covered escalators called by the Guinness World Records the world’s longest covered escalator), he explained that Canadians are strong players in every level of the food and beverage industry. 

From agri-food supplies, to restaurants and hotels, Canadians have a very strong presence in Hong Kong.  Later this week I’ll report on my exploration of the lively Lan Kwai Fong district but in the meantime, Work pointed out a few of the Canadian owned restaurants in his neighbourhood. 

Some of them are fairly obvious ( ie. Canucck) while others prefer to be ingognito (ie. Soho Spice).  In fact, in our tour of just a few short blocks, Andrew was able to point out more than half a dozen Canadian eating hotspots and the journey had just begun!

Stay tuned as the Canadian taste tour continues in Hong Kong later this week.  Tomorrow in fact, I’ll be speaking with an entrepreneur whose fast food restaurant just opened to great acclaim in the city.  Any Hong Kong resident who has ever lived in Canada, knows this chain well from its faithful position in malls from Pickering to Timmins.  You’ll never guess who ….

In this another addition to Getting to know the neighborhood series, here’s an introduction to the New Territories and Outlying Islands.

The New Territories include the area north of Boundary Street in Kowloon Peninsula and south of the Sham Chun River, on the border of mainland China. It is about 740 square kilometers and mostly rural, but it is growing rapidly. The Outlying Islands encompasses 260 islands, with Lantau Island, Lamma Island, Cheung Chau, and Peng Chau the most well known.

The New Territories were leased to the United Kingdom in 1898 for 99 years along with Hong Kong Island and Kowloon Peninsula in the Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory or the Second Convention of Peking.

The New Territories contain the majority of Hong Kong’s population: about five million people. Upon arriving to Hong Kong, chances are you will first come to Lantau Island, as it where the Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) is located. Lantou is also the largest island in Hong Kong, encompassing 146 square kilometers. The island is named after its tallest peak, “Lantou”, meaning “ragged head”. The peak, 934 meters high, is the tallest point of the island, second highest in Hong Kong after Tai Mo Shan, and is almost twice the height of Victoria Peak in Central District. Lantau Island is affectionately referred to as “the lungs of Hong Kong” due to its indigenous forest and shortage of high-rise residential developments, very unlike Hong Kong Island and Kowloon Peninsula. In fact, more than 50% of the island is national parks. Continue reading ‘Getting to know the neighborhood: New Territories and Outlying Islands’

In this installment of the Getting to know the neighborhood series, I’ll be focusing on Kowloon Peninsula.

Meet the dragon, enter the dragon…

Home to about one million people (similar to Hong Kong Island, posted yesterday) Kowloon Peninsula lies to the north of Hong Kong Island across Victoria Harbour and east of the Pearl River Delta. Kowloon was the second major area (following Hong Kong Island) established by the British in 1860 with the Treaty of Beijing. The name Kowloon means “nine dragons.” As legend goes, about 800 years ago the then (child) Emperor Ping counted eight hills and said that there must be eight dragons living there (since at the time dragons were thought to live in the hills). In doing this, he also dubbed himself the ninth dragon.

Kowloon was once known as an area with open countryside, but this has given way to shops, restaurants, and new housing and industrial developments. It is also a hot tourist area with hotels, museums, art centers and many of attractions for sightseers. Continue reading ‘Getting to know the neighborhood: Kowloon — Enter the dragon’

In this post, I’ll discuss Hong Kong Island, with particular attention to Central District. Hong Kong Island is home to about 1 million people. Central District, or Central as it is locally known, was first established by the British as a trading post in 1842 by the Tready of Nanking and has since grown into one of most important financial and business districts in Asia. It is also a center for politics as many government and diplomatic headquarters are based here. As you travel through the district, you will notice the modern architecture, hotels, expensive shopping areas with designer shops, restaurants and bars. The expansive office buildings will also stand out. In fact, Hong Kong’s tallest building, the 88 story International Finance Centre (IFC) is in this area. Centrally located, IFC is within walking distance of:

Exchange Square (1 minute)
Central Ferry Pier (2 minutes)
General Post Office (3 minutes)
Star Ferry (5 minutes)
Mandarin Oriental Hotel (5 minutes)
The Landmark (6 minutes)
Lan Kwai Fong (10 minutes)
Soho (10 minutes)
Macau Ferry Pier (10 minutes)
Hong Kong International Airport via Airport Express (23 minutes) Continue reading ‘Getting to know the neighborhood: Hong Kong Island’