Hong Kong sights

Hong Kong Local time Thursday 4:12pm

I wish to share a couple of things I have seen so far on my trip in Hong Kong and China.

Whenever I ride the subways, I always get a kick out of the automated announcement whenever a train approaches a station asking riders to “mind the gap.”

This was taken on Hong Kong Island when me and my parents were walking around looking for good deals. The Wall Street Journal had an article in August about Hong Kong’s industry of “tutor gods.” These are the Hong Kong equivalent to the Princeton Review and Stanley Kaplan, except that their brands revolve not around the company but the personality of the head tutor. "Ken Sir" at far left is an English tutor who was mentioned in the article.

“Hong Kong stands out, though, for instructors who boldly tout their success rate -- and their own images. They pay to have their faces plastered throughout the city on 40-foot-high billboards and the sides of double-decker buses. They're also known for buying ads that take up the entire front page of newspapers -- spacemore commonly filled by banks and property developers. One local television station is even preparing to launch a fictional drama series based on the lives of the tutor gods.”

I saw this earlier today in Tsim Sha Tsui. I was very surprised to see a billboard for the recent election in Australia. The only rationale that I can think of is since so many Hong Kongers have emigrated to Australia, this advertising may be targeted toward the ones who have since returned or are on vacation. Kevin Rudd won Saturday’s election and will take office on Monday as Australia’s 26th Prime Minister.

Evangelist Franklin Graham from North Carolina is having a in Hong Kong starting tonight.

I saved the best for last. This is a sticker on window of the tour bus we used over the weekend for our tour of Guangdong. I believe the translation is as follows:

“If you cannot see the scenery because your glasses are outdated, you may break window with hammer.”