[Leica] Hong Kong Mainlanders

[cummer at netvigator.com (H&ECummer)]

Hi Luggers,
Funny that Richard should mention Mainlanders' suitcases. I'm afraid I may 
have influenced him with my diatribes about how many day trippers from the 
Mainland
come with their suitcases to buy milk powder and antibiotics - since they 
don't trust the quality of what has been produced and regulated in PR China. 
A couple of years ago several hundred babies in China died from consuming 
adulterated milk powder so you can understand their concerns. About the 
numbers - Hong Kong has a population of 8 million and in 2013
there were 54 million visitors - of which 23 million stayed over night - 
meaning 31 million walked the streets with their suitcases and clogged the 
MTR (subway system) and the above ground buses and trams. Almost all 
suitcase pullers refuse to take the elevators in the MTR stations although 
signs and announcements urge them to do so and there are going to be serious 
accidents on the escalators eventually. The Government of Hong Kong Tourist 
Board is happily predicting 70 million tourists by 2017 and 100 million a 
few years later. I can't image the congestion from such numbers - most of 
which will be day trippers with suitcases - since Hong Kong won't be able to 
build hotels fast enough to accommodate overnighters and there is already 
discussion about whether scarce land should be used for hotels or local's 
accommodations. So you can perhaps see where my fixation on suitcases on 
public transport has begun . . . .Hong Kong needs to take a leaf out of the 
King of Bhutan's book and encourage more low volume high value tourism IMHO.
And now back to talking about photography.
Howard (feeling cramped in Hong Kong)

Date: Wed, 29 Jan 2014 00:25:18 +0800
From: Richard Man <richard at richardmanphoto.com>
Subject: [Leica] IMGs: Jan 25, with a usable link
To: Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org>

Sorry about the previous link for the Jan 23 set, I will fix that next.

(Mainlanders) with suitcases, full of milk powder and medicine? People
eating, people shopping, people selling, people make meager wages
cleaning... welcome to Hong Kong.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152176412349324.1073741830.780609323&type=1&l=9ceecbfbc7