Monthly Archives: May 2011

Terminating trains on the MTR

Posted on May 30, 2011 by Marcus Wong

The MTR in Hong Kong is one of the heaviest used and most efficient rapid transit railway networks in the world: I have previously blogged about the signalling systems and platform operations used to achieve the short headways between trains, but what happens to trains at the end of the line?

End of the line message on the screen at Tsuen Wan Continue reading →

Posted in Transport | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Welcome (part 2)

Posted on May 29, 2011 by Marcus Wong

Over the past few months my main blog at http://wongm.com/ has been a mix of different topics – with one big scoop of photo essays from Hong Kong, and the rest being whatever topics take my fancy. I have decided to split the Hong Kong related posts onto their own domain, which is what you are reading right now. Continue reading →

Posted in Housekeeping | Leave a comment

US$500 a month and my chores are done?

Posted on May 5, 2011 by Marcus Wong

If you spent yesterday with me wandering around Lamma Island, you might have seen some flyers like these, posted by Filipinas looking for work as domestic help. Buy why are there so many of them?

Community flyers on Lamma Island Continue reading →

Posted in Everyday Life | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Lamma: Isle of the Gweilo

Posted on May 4, 2011 by Marcus Wong

When walking around Lamma Island you would be forgiven for thinking it is a traditional island untouched by the Western world, but you couldn’t be further from the truth – the local community on Lamma Island isn’t like anywhere else in Hong Kong, with a hippy colony reputation. This noticeboard only explains half of the story…

Community flyers on Lamma Island
Continue reading →

Posted in Everyday Life | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Lamma Island: a sleepy little hideaway

Posted on May 3, 2011 by Marcus Wong

After a trip to the tourist island of Cheung Chau, today I’m headed somewhere much quieter – Lamma Island. Compared to Cheung Chau, Lamma covers five times the land area but has a quarter of the population – 6,000 residents over 13.55 km², and the lifestyle is even more laid back.

Boats and fishermens huts on Lamma Island Continue reading →

Posted in Everyday Life, Tourism | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments