Coronavirus and changing behaviours

The number of cases of coronavirus in Hong Kong really haven't dramatically increased.  There are a couple new reports here and there, but it really doesn't seem to have ballooned or jumped at all.  Fingers crossed that this continues to be the case, but based purely on the numbers currently available, there definitely seems to be a disproportionate response to the coronavirus by the general population.  Surgical mask prices continue to remain sky high (though there don't seem to be shortages anymore as there are now plenty of stores stocking them), hoarding of random goods is still happening, and there continues to be large groups of people terrified of even going outside.

The food and beverage sector as well as the retail sector have been hit hard.  Another sector which has been particularly hard hit are taxis.  Some people have stopped taking taxis entirely because of a concern that they can't be sure who the taxi drivers have come into contact with.  It's created the odd scene that I've never witnessed before of long ranks of taxis at the taxi stands with no lines of people.  This happens even during the evening rush hours in the CBD. 

Unsurprisingly, a lot of the initial panicked behaviours have now backfired.

Rumours and terror drove people to clean out the shelves completely of toilet paper and rice (though not the brown rice....), but the stores of course responded with the restocking orders.  It seems like there never actually was any real shortages, just shortages in locations due to the sudden surge.  Now there is too much rice and too much toilet paper in the stores.  Since most people went out and bought about two years worth of both, some of these stores may be stuck with an oversupply of these products for a while....

Through all of these problems and issues, there have been some occasional bright spots.  One of the big responses to the coronavirus in China has been a near complete shutdown of the businesses and industry on the mainland.  Shops have been shuttered and factories have now remained closed since Chinese new year.  In Hong Kong, this industrial shutdown has meant the most prolonged clear skies I've seen in my time living in the city.

The air has been fresh and from my apartment in the Mid Levels, the lack of any haze means that I can see all the way across to the hills in the New Territories.

Placebo or not

I've never been a good sleeper.  I often struggle to get to sleep and then I'll toss and turn through the night.  I'm not sure what the cause of it all is, but it's definitely annoying.  I remember when I was in the dorm rooms at boarding school, after lights out, I would lay there slowly trying to sleep.  Meanwhile, some of my fellow boarders would be dead to the world and snoring within five minutes.  I was always incredibly jealous of their ability to fall asleep so quickly.  It seemed like a gift to be able to sleep without effort.

Lately, I've been reading a bit about the benefits to sleeping of the "weighted blanket".  I've even got a few friends who have started trying it.  The concept seems to be simple enough, that sleeping with a greater weight helps to push down on your body like a kind of "hug" which in turn helps a person sleep.  There don't seem to be that many actual studies on whether it works, but there are plenty of anecdotal reports about its effectiveness.

Now, I realise that anecdotal evidence is the weakest of all the different types of evidence, but I didn't see the harm in trying it.  For the risk of a small amount of money, I could improve my sleep and that seemed like a very fair gamble to take.  So I jumped on Amazon and made my purchase.  Within a few days it arrived at work and I had the fun task of lugging it home (at 20lb, it's definitely not light).

After a few nights, I felt like I was sleeping better.  I had no actual way of telling other than I did notice I was able to get to sleep more quickly and I didn't seem to be waking up so much during the night.  The most interesting observation of all was that I found that I was generally waking up in the same position as when I went to sleep.  It seems to be a success so far.

Coronavirus and the retail apocalypse

Hong Kong feels extremely strange at the moment.

The last year or so has been pretty rough for many businesses with the impact of the protests, but this is another level entirely.  Malls and other shopping areas have been emptied of people and businesses are starting to struggle.

During the worst of the protests, you could still generally avoid the most heavily affected areas.  If you weren't around the areas where there were protests, you life would still continue on for the most part without any disruption.  In fact, if you weren't actively following it on the news and your public transport wasn't impacted, you wouldn't even really know that the protests were happening at all.

This time, the impact has spread across most of the city.  Tourist numbers, particular from China, have completely collapsed.  I have read that the daily inflow of visitors from China has dropped from approximately 100,000 people a day, down to less than 1,000 a day.  These visitors from China represent the vast majority of all tourism into the city.  Everywhere you go, you'll see restaurants and shops closing, sometimes temporarily, sometimes permanently.  The shopping malls are incredibly quiet, with some of the more famous brands actively slashing their prices, something which you don't normally see in Hong Kong.

It doesn't seem to be hitting any particular area or class of shops either.

The fanciest malls, such as Pacific Place in the Admiralty area is extremely quiet and the crowds of high end shoppers are gone.  On the other end of the spectrum, even the McDonalds near my office has emptied of people.  It was incredible to see it so quiet at lunchtime on a weekday.  It's normally full of people at lunchtime jostling to get to the front of the queue.  Restaurants all through Hong Kong have been trying to deal with this problem through scaledowns or through outright closure.  It would be an incredibly tough time to be working in F&B at the moment.

After watching a movie on Saturday night, I decided to walk home with my friend.  We were both shocked at the lack of cars as we approached Central.  The intersection is normally crowded with taxis and other cars, and even the streets themselves normally have people wandering around.

Instead, there was nothing.

As we walked further along, we saw a cab rank with at least a dozen taxis patiently waiting.  It's a far cry from the days when it's the people who were patiently waiting for a cab.

More running

The lights of Hong Kong from up on Bowen Road are incredible.

The weather in Hong Kong is perfect for running right now.  It's nice and cool and even the humidity is down.

Running along Bowen Road at night is one of the strangest, but also underrated experiences I've had in Hong Kong.  The road itself winds its way through the forests halfway up the mountain.  It should be dark and tucked away.  To an extent it is, you feel the nature around you and you get the benefit of the peacefulness of being in the mountain.  Yet at the same time, you can't escape the city.  The glow of the city lights are so intense and they illuminate the path. 

Running through the forest, you hear the nature, the animals, the water and the rustling of the trees as the wind blows through.  Meanwhile you still see clearly.  Nothing is shrouded and you almost feel as though all of the natural surroundings sit within an even larger artificial construct.  To an extent, that's probably the best way of thinking about it.

Coronavirus and toilet paper madness

This is getting ridiculous.  People have completely lost their collective minds in Hong Kong.

After some rumours came out that there were manufacturing issues in China that could impact the production of toilet paper, people in Hong Kong decided to go completely CRAZY.  People descended on the supermarkets and vacuumed up all of the toilet paper they could get their hands on.  Stores were left completely barren of toilet paper....

The rumours are that either the factories making the toilet paper have all been shut down because of China's precautions with regards to the coronavirus, or that these factories have had all their raw materials stripped from them to go to the manufacture of surgical masks.  Whatever the "reason", I don't buy into it.  This seems far more like a fake rumour that has spiralled out of control and led to another case of panic in Hong Kong.  Even if there "was" a shortage, I don't see the need to go and buy several hundred rolls of toilet paper at once.  Some may say that there are people who are taking advantage of the situation and hoarding for the purpose of resale (which is entirely possible), but it's also clear that a significant number of people are just panicking and losing their grip on their good sense.  Why else would you need to buy several hundred rolls of toilet paper in one go?  Looking at some of the volumes purchased, I could only think that such an amount would probably last me more than two years.

A few days before, the shelves had been stripped bare of rice.  That seems to be a slightly more reasonable thing to be worried about... until you consider that most of the rice in Hong Kong seems to come from Thailand these days.

On top of that, it seems like people are all a little bit picky in their desperation.  Even with all the white rice completely gone, it seems as though people would still prefer to starve over eating brown rice....

I've never experienced anything like this before.  This collective hysteria cannot be healthy and I can understand why experts warn that this type of panic can often be more damaging to a society than the actual diseases themselves.

Coronavirus and mask madness

It's been about a week of coronavirus craziness.

Masks have become the main discussion topic in Hong Kong (and possibly the entire region) as supplies have run out.  The prices for masks have risen dramatically and there's even a market for used masks.... truly horrifying.

Luckily for me, I was in Thailand when everything started to go crazy and I was able to buy up enough masks for myself and for some of my friends who requested that I bring them back.

Unluckily for me, I didn't fully appreciate just how bad the shortages were in Hong Kong and I lost a golden opportunity to bring back as many boxes of surgical masks as I could possibly lay my hands on.  Little did I know, but the supply of masks in Hong Kong would completely disappear.

Either way, I managed to bring back a decent haul of masks (and some antiseptic gels) from Thailand that I was able to provide to some friends who were in need.  I bought myself a Hong Kong shopper and packed all my stuff into it, then checked the bag through on my flight.

It's a very strange mood in Hong Kong.  Normally when people are sick, you would see the sick person wearing the surgical masks if they were Chinese in background.  You would very rarely if ever see anyone from any other racial background wearing masks when they were sick.  It just wasn't part of the wider culture.  That's changed completely now.  Everyone, no matter what their background, has jumped onto this craze and is now wearing face masks wherever they go.  It's created a strange scene in Hong Kong, something akin to the beginning of a Hollywood movie about a pandemic spreading.

The result of the fear has been clear to see for everyone.  Businesses in Hong Kong have slowed down.  The streets feel more empty.  The speed of my normal commute to and from work has dramatically increased as the bus has only a fraction of its normal passengers.  Restaurants are emptier.  More and more people are working from home and avoiding going outside entirely.

One very surprising outcome from this entire saga has been the rise in increasingly black humour.

Memes and photos have circulated ad nauseam, often reappearing in your phone having been sent to you by various friends or acquaintances.

 Some are simple jokes and a play on the names or the shortages.

 Whereas others have definitely taken a more sarcastic turn.

Either way, we might as well try and find some humour in this annoying situation.