The English Schools Foundation (ESF) announced that, starting on 1 August this year, families will be able to apply for any of their 22 schools, following the ending of the geographical or ‘zoning’ requirement that was previously in force. At present all ESF schools, other than ESF Discovery College, Renaissance College and the five ESF Kindergartens, operate a system where families can only seek a place for their child in a school that sits within their allocated geographical area in Hong Kong based on their residential address. The new policy will end this practice and will open up all schools to applications regardless of where the…
Author: Anjali Muthanna
Anjali Muthanna
From the Middle East to the Far East and a couple of places in between, Anjali has lived in no fewer than seven cities in Asia, and has travelled extensively in the region. She worked as a lifestyle journalist in India before coming to Hong Kong, where her favourite thing to do is island-hopping with her daughter. You can check out her musings on motherhood, courtesy her Instagram profile.
The third Happy Hong Kong Gourmet Marketplace will open on June 3 and 4. The free-to-enter two-day event will be held at the Vessel in Kwun Tong from 10am-8pm and will focus on fine-dining Asian cuisine. There will be 65 booths at which visitors can sample gourmet Asian food. The event will also feature several performances, cooking demonstrations, children’s games, and large-scale “check-in” spots to take pictures at. The first market, which took place in April at the Exhibition & Convention Centre in Wan Chai, featured more than 100 stalls that served hot food and packaged snacks. The second market, which was held…
The Chief Executive approved requests from five of Hong Kong’s franchised bus firms to increase fares, and the hikes will come into effect on June 18. The five operators – Long Win Bus, Kowloon Motor Bus, New Lantao Bus, Citybus, and New World First Bus – will raise fares by up to 7%, which means that, “about 87% of passengers are expected to pay no more than HK$0.5 extra per trip and almost all passengers are expected to pay no more than HK$1 extra per trip,” according to a government press release. Between January and September 2022, the five firms…
The giant rubber ducks that underwent a sea trial at Tsing Yi last week will officially be on display at the Central and Western District Promenade of Victoria Harbour on June 10. The exhibition will mark the 10-year anniversary of when a 16-metre-high inflatable rubber duck first came to Hong Kong in 2013 as part of Dutch artist Florentjin Hofman’s Rubber Duck Project. View this post on Instagram A post shared by AllRightsReserved (@arr.allrightsreserved) When the project first came to Hong Kong 10 years ago, it was on view for a month between May and June and drew more than 8,000,000 visitors. It deflated…
Lai Chi Kok restaurant Very Good Luck Fast Food Shop, which is known for its satay beef noodles, will close on June 1 due to the owner’s ill health, according to a Facebook post. The restaurant – also known by the abbreviation HHW owing to its Cantonese pronunciation – is one of the most popular establishments in the city for popular comfort food. It features regularly on the Facebook group Satay Beef Noodles Concern Group, with members often saying that it serves up the best bowl in the SAR. A bowl of satay beef noodles from Very Good Luck Fast…
Two new pet gardens recently opened at malls in Hong Kong: at Tai Yuen Commercial Centre and K11 Musea. Both gardens are free to enter and feature a variety of fun equipment that furry friends can play at, and their owners can take pictures of. The venues also host pet-friendly events and activities, such as workshops, adoption days, and pop-up stores. K11 MUSEA Pets Garden View this post on Instagram A post shared by K11 MUSEA (@k11musea) K11 MUSEA has transformed Bohemian Garden’s pet-friendly outdoor space into a landscape in the English countryside. Pets can frolic on a green oval…
Hongkongers can attend a Sports Carnival at the West Kowloon Cultural District Art for free on June 16 between 9.30am and 5pm, as part of the 2023 Olympic Day and Asian Games Fun Run event. The carnival is part of the government’s Happy Hong Kong initiative to give residents of the city and tourists the chance to experience new recreational and leisure events in the coming year. Visitors can check out a variety of sports demonstrations and trial counters, as well as mini-game booths, and a Hangzhou Asian Sports Corner. They can also collect stamps from the counters they visit…
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) has come up with its own version of ChatGPT for its students, faculty, and staff members to use. The AI chatbot, which is currently in limited preview, will be launched on June 1 as a protected service for all university members. The platform developed using Azure OpenAI services is based on ChatGPT 3.5 and is a paid cloud service. All users will be assigned a monthly quota and there will be a cap on the number of prompts per chat session. The university recommends that the chatbot be used for “university-related…
The median private home price in Hong Kong fell by 8.7% in 2022, making the SAR the second-most expensive city in Asia to buy a private residence, according to the Urban Land Institute’s 2023 Asia Pacific Home Attainability Index. The median home price in the SAR is now HK$9 million (US$ 1.16 million), returning to 2017 levels. The report provides an overview of the extent to which housing is attainable in 45 cities across nine Asia-Pacific countries: Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, and Vietnam. Singapore is now the most expensive private housing market in the…
The Pokfulam Farm recently reopened to the public after being closed for renovations, and currently accepts bookings for free guided tours. The farm, which is a Grade 1 historic building, had a soft launch last year and accepted only limited bookings for paid tours on a trial basis. The free tours give visitors an overview of the history of the farm, its architectural style, and what goes into its conservation. Each tour is half an hour long, and is conducted from Friday-Sunday, and on public holidays. The current tours will be from June 2-4 and June 9-11 at 12-12.30 pm…