Hong Kong’s confidence in itself as a safe place to live, work and play suffered a serious blow with the incursion of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in the middle of March 2003. The whole city retreated into itself and huddled beneath a collective veil of masks. Many expats, especially wives and children, returned to Europe, the US and Australia, and didn’t come back.

The effect on morale was dramatic, but – typically for Hong Kong – temporary. By the end of 2003, the number of deaths was put at less than 300; compare this figure with the 3,000+ who died from typical pneumonia in 2002. The number of visitors in December exceeded the previous year’s figure and business was back on its feet.

More importantly, SARS has acted as a wake-up call to the public at large, scientists, the Hospital Authority and the government, who are now much more alert to the possibility of ‘flu epidemics in the city and how to control the spread of infectious disease in the densely populated urban environment. The threat of another SARS or avian (bird)’ flu outbreak is being actively managed through:

• the imposition of stricter controls on importing and testing of birds and animals;
• closer co-operation and information-sharing with mainland Chinese authorities; and
• increased monitoring of travellers.

Public education campaigns exhort people to clean their homes, wash their hands after using the toilet, wear masks if they have colds and open windows to improve air circulation. The message is reinforced by punitive fines for littering and spitting. Improved standards of hygiene in public areas, such as public toilets, have actually made Hong Kong a cleaner city.

ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY

Typhoons and rainstorms

Whilst Hong Kong is fortunate not to lie on any earthquake-inducing faults, unlike its near neighbours China, Taiwan and Japan, the territory is battered most summers by occasional typhoons. There is a sophisticated modus operandi that comes into play when a severe typhoon is spotted approaching: schools, offices, hospitals and public buildings are closed; shops, taxis and restaurants close at their discretion; buses and ferries stop running (although the MTR stays open); and everyone is sent home in good time to batten down the hatches. Whilst typhoons rarely cause fatalities, they can wreak havoc on buildings, structures and parks, causing potentially dangerous situations when scaffolding and windows come loose.

Rainstorms can cause flooding and landslides, which accounts for the ‘spraycreting’ of banks thought to pose a risk. It’s also during a rainstorm you find out whether the ceiling of your bedroom is sound or not. Typhoons and weather warnings are issued by the Hong Kong Observatory (www.hko.gov.hk; tel. 2926 8200) and publicized on TV and radio.

• A Black Rain Warning is issued when 100mm or more of rain is predicted to fall within two hours. People are advised to stay indoors. Amber and red signals are less severe, but signify heavy rain and flooding.
• Typhoon Warnings are issued when a typhoon (a severe tropical storm) is approaching. The warnings are graded. Signal 3 means that kindergartens are closed because strong winds are likely; if the warning is signal 8 and above, schools, government offices and most businesses close and people are advised to return home immediately and not go out. Winds can exceed 220 km/hr.

For explanations of other weather warnings, visit www.hko.gov.hk/textonly/explain/intro.htm.

Air pollution

Air pollution tends to be one of the major complaints from expatriates in Hong Kong, and it is getting worse. Although Hong Kong has controls on vehicle and power emissions, a lot of the city’s pollution blows in from the manufacturing hub of the Pearl River Delta in South China.

Air pollution indices taken from monitoring stations are broadcast daily on the TV and on the government website (www.epd.gov.hk/epd); visit the website of campaign group Clear The Air (www.cleartheair.org.hk) for more information. Pollution is worst in industrial areas such as Kwun Tong and Tuen Mun, and traffic hubs such as Causeway Bay.

Water

As could be expected in one of the busiest container ports in the world, the sea and river water is not exactly pristine. Marine refuse, insufficient sewage treatment systems and pollution of rivers and streams by live animal waste contribute to the pollution of the sea. That doesn’t, however, deter thousands from swimming and relaxing on the beaches throughout the long hot summer. Water quality is monitored weekly during the swimming season, and the results are published in the South China Morning Post and on the website www.info.gov.hk/epd/beach/index.html. Swimming in the sea should be avoided after heavy rainfalls, when runoffs and sewerage overflows get washed into the sea.

Hong Kong’s drinking water comes mainly from Dongjiang in Guangdong, supplemented by Hong Kong’s reservoirs. It is treated and made safe to drink from the tap, but boiling and filtering are sensible precautions. If water runs yellow or brown from your kitchen tap, it could well be that the pipes that are rusty. Mineral and distilled water are popular alternatives. Watsons do both and can deliver dispensers (www.watsons-water.com; tel. 2660 6688).

Noise

One of the things constantly confronting you in Hong Kong is noise. Whether it is the perpetual stream of video advertising on buses, instructions in MTR stations, the barrage of people chatter in restaurants, or the eternal drilling and filling of Hong Kong that goes on day and night, chances are that you’ll be affected. By law, contractors are not supposed to work on public holidays or at night in built-up areas. If your neighbours are playing their music too loud, you can call the police, who will give them a friendly warning.

Many people don’t bother – whatever people may tell you about the communality of Chinese culture, it only goes so far in Hong Kong. The Cantonese are great believers in the right of the individual to do their own thing, providing it is not a physical threat to other people – hence the selfishness of mobile phone users in cinemas, who actually have conversations on their phone. The only places in Hong Kong that ban the use of mobile phones, incidentally, are private clubs.

Rubbish

Unlike other Asian countries such as Japan and Korea, Hong Kong does not have strict requirements for individual household disposal of rubbish, nor is illegal dumping heavily penalized. Beaches are strewn with rubbish after public holidays and there is little systematic recycling. Most MTR stations have paper-recycling bins, so at least you can dump your newspaper there when you’ve finished reading it. But what do you do with the plastic bag that was forced on you when you bought the newspaper? You can find your nearest waste separation bins and recycling collection points for aluminium, plastic and textiles on the Environmental Protection Department’s website (www.epd.gov.hk).

Most of Hong Kong’s 5,956 tonnes of daily domestic waste is buried in landfill sites, but these are being filled up, whilst incineration is strongly opposed by environmental groups. For more information about current environmental issues in Hong Kong, visit the websites of the following groups:

• World Wide Fund for Nature (www.wwf.org.hk/);
• Civic Exchange (www.civic-exchange.org);
• Greenpeace China (www.greenpeace.org.hk/eng/); and
• Friends of the Earth (www.foe.org.hk).

Power

Electricity is supplied by two companies: CLP Power Hong Kong supplies customers in Kowloon, the New Territories and islands such as Lantau and Cheung Chau; The Hongkong Electric Company supplies electricity to Hong Kong Island, Ap Lei Chau and Lamma Island. The latter company owns the Lamma Power Station. The other power stations – at Castle Peak, Black Point and Penny’s Bay – are owned by CLP Power, which also has an interest in Guangdong Daya Bay Nuclear Power Station, about 50 km northeast of Hong Kong. Another nuclear power station, Lingao, is located near Daya Bay. A thermal power station fuelled by natural gas is located at Black Point.

Towngas is manufactured at plants in Tai Po and Ma Tau Kok and distributed to domestic and commercial customers by The Hong Kong and China Gas Company. LPG is imported and stored at Tsing Yi.

The Daya Bay Oil Refinery Plant in Guangdong, scheduled to go into operation in 2008, is 80 km from Hong Kong. Environmental groups have expressed concern over the possible effects of waste gas, polluted water and waste materials on Hong Kong.

Telephone hotlines for gas and electricity services are included in Chapter Five, ‘Accommodation’.

Public hygiene

The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) is responsible for the obsessive road and pavement sweeping and hosing down that goes on round the clock to keep Hong Kong’s streets clean. Recent government initiatives to get the community to take more responsibility for the environment have had some success, but that’s not to say the abundant rat and cockroach populations have packed up and moved away. As a result of SARS, fines for spitting, littering and dog-fouling were raised to $1,500. Residents of public housing estates were also introduced to a scheme whereby dripping mops, illegal pets and other anti-social behaviour attracts penalty points, an accumulation of which can lead to eviction.

Smoking in public areas, including restaurants, schools, offices, beaches and parks, was prohibited on 1 January 2007. Exceptions include bars, nightclubs, mah-jong parlours and bath houses.

Food hygiene

Poor hygiene in some animal and food markets means that you need to be careful when buying meat and seafood. Most imported meat in supermarkets is thawed and should not be refrozen after purchase – there have been cases in the recent past of super markets unwittingly selling contaminated meat and seafood. Some doctors recommend that you don’t eat local and other Asian seafood on a regular basis, as it is contaminated with heavy metals, particularly mercury. Imported fish is available at supermarkets. They also recommend that patients who drink milk should buy the imported Australian variety, as Chinese milk may be contaminated by pesticides in the cows’ feed. Most of the fruit and vegetables for sale at street markets are grown in the mainland and should be thoroughly washed to remove pesticides – Chinese routinely peel fruit like apples and grapes, and rarely eat raw vegetables.

Take care when eating cooked food or snacks bought from street stalls. If you’re in Hong Kong for any length of time, it’s more than likely that you will succumb to at least one bout of food poisoning. Vegetarians are not immune.

FOOD LABELLING

Nutritional and genetically modified (GM) food labelling are in the pipeline, but consumers in Hong Kong are generally unconcerned about issues such as GM. Many Chinese restaurants use monosodium glutamate (MSG) in their cooking, and if this bothers you, look for those that advertise themselves as MSG-free.

INFECTIOUS DISEASES

Malaria and rabies are both absent from Hong Kong, but are prevalent elsewhere in the region. Apart from the odd case of cholera, the largest number of infectious cases annually are caused by tuberculosis and chicken pox. Children in Hong Kong are immunised against tuberculosis, hepatitis B, poliomyelitis, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, measles, mumps and rubella, so the occurrence of vaccine-preventable infectious diseases among children is relatively low.

Before coming to Hong Kong you should ensure, at a minimum, that your TB and tetanus injections are up to date and that you have been vaccinated against hepatitis A and B.

For the latest information on recommended immunizations for those coming to Hong Kong, check the World Health Organization’s guidelines (www.who.int/ith/).

Dengue fever

One disease that tends to make the headlines is dengue fever, a mosquito-borne infection for which there is no cure. The symptoms are fever, coughs and chills, and Hong Kong records around 40–50 cases every year. For more information, visit www.cheu.gov.hk/eng/index.asp. To avoid contracting dengue fever, use mosquito repellents and wear long-sleeved clothing and trousers all day if you are out in country areas – unlike other mosquito-borne diseases, dengue fever is spread in daylight hours.

Avian ’flu

Avian (bird) ’flu H5N1 virus is a type of influenza known to be transmitted from infected live birds to humans. It can result in a high fever, chest infection, respiratory failure, multi-organ failure and death, and there have been documented outbreaks in Hong Kong and the Asia region since 1997. What is still unknown is whether avian ’flu will develop a strain allowing human-to-human transmission – a potentially deadly situation for crowded cities such as Hong Kong.

Many locals prefer to eat freshly killed chickens rather than frozen (or ‘chilled’) chicken, which they say has less flavour. However, in view of the health threats posed by birds, the government is considering whether to ban the sale and slaughter of chickens in Hong Kong. In the meantime, ‘rest days’ for poultry sellers have been imposed, when trading of live poultry is suspended for cleaning, disinfection and inspection of premises.

For more information on avian ’flu, see www.cheu.gov.hk/eng/index.asp.

SARS

SARS is a pneumonia-like disease which can lead to death. To read about the latest developments in Hong Kong and China, visit www.info.gov.hk/info/sars/eindex.htm.

AIDS

There were 3,198 cases of reported HIV infections by the end of 2006; of these, 855 had progressed to AIDS. About 373 new cases of HIV infection were diagnosed in 2006 although it is difficult to know how accurate these figures are, as there is a strong stigma attached to the disease here. The Department of Health runs an interactive AIDS Hotline (tel. 2780 2211) that connects callers to information, voluntary counselling and HIV testing. Information is also available at www.aids.gov.hk.

Other common health problems

Asthma sufferers or people who have breathing difficulties could find Hong Kong inhospitable because of the air pollution. Other side effects can include headaches and nausea. Athlete’s foot, swimmer’s ear and skin infections are relatively common due to the humid climate.

DRUGS

According to counsellors and advisory services in Hong Kong, the drug scene here is similar to that in most developed countries, the exception being that heroin and opiate use has a long history here and so is perhaps more pure and more available. Ecstacy, ketamine and cannabis are the most common drugs, but solvent abuse by younger kids and alcohol abuse are significant problems. Two services that provide bilingual help for drug users or parents and kids with problems are the Kely Support Group (www.kely.org; tel. 2521 6890) and the Community Drug Advisory Council (tel. 2521 2880), both at 12 Borrett Road in Mid-Levels.

Kely runs outreach programmes to English-speaking students, including those at international schools. They also have a confidential hotline, 9032 9096, that anyone can call which operates from Monday to Saturday between 2:00 and 10:00 pm. According to Laura Bennett, a youth worker there, most expat teens know where to get drugs. Joe Pianpiano at CDAC, which provides advice and training, goes further: drugs, he says, are ‘the ultimate network marketing company’. Most kids get their drugs from friends. Buying them isn’t a problem, as most kids have adequate pocket money.

Concerned parents shouldn’t ignore signs that their child may have a drugs problem. Pianpiano says to look for ‘a cluster of changes’ – changing friends, moods, grades, weight and so on, which could mean that ‘there’s something going on and drugs are a part of it.’ He recommends the websites www.drugscope.org.uk and www.adforg.au (the Australian Drug Foundation) to find out more about drugs. Drug statistics in Hong Kong and other information are available from the government’s Narcotics Division (www.nd.gov.hk).