A city full of technological marvels

Hong Kong local time Sunday 12:39pm

 

One of the many things I am really going to miss about Hong Kong is its array of technological marvels. Over the past three weeks I have seen technologies here that are almost unheard of in the States.

 

The one technology that I use most often is the Octopus card. This is a debit card system that is accepted as the payment method by all public transportation systems (except taxis) and many major shops (such as 7-Eleven). One supermarket chain even uses it to keep track of its customers’ loyalty rewards status. One of my relatives said that the Octopus card has eliminated the need to carry around any spare coins. The closest thing we have in the States to this is Revolution Money being launched by former AOL executive Ted Leonsis. Hong Kong’s law require its residents to carry the Hong Kong Identity Card when out in public. This is a “smart card” with a computer chip that also serves as (I think) a driver’s license and the chip stores information about its owner that is used by providers of government services such as public libraries and government hospitals. In addition to being readily available, much of the technology here is also relatively cheap. I have GSM world phone that uses a prepaid SIM card from PCCW. The card has $98 of value on it and each minute (send or receive to almost anywhere in the world) is only 25 cents a minute. This is equal to approximately 3 cents USD.

 

But the most amazing technological innovation I have seen here is the new ten dollar bill. It is not printed on paper but on a piece plastic elastic that is almost impossible to rip. The material is very similar to the parking tickets issued by the UNC Department of Public Safety. Someone told me this technology was developed by a bank from Australia.

(insert the picture here later on next week.)