@beefnoguy thanks for the reply. I think we are leaning on cancelling and going somewhere else. 3 months is still a long time away but my wife doesn’t feel comfortable.
Bummer bc we were very excited for the trip and had a great itinerary.
We’re almost in the same boat, except we’ll be landing HKG in two weeks. First two weeks or so will be in Xiamen/Guangzhou/Shenzhen. Terminating with a week in Causeway Bay.
What with the protest/strikes in HK, anti-American sentiment due to Trump’s and Taiwan’s escalating friction with China (DW was Taiwan citizen), slightly wary of the (un)welcome we may encounter. Nevertheless, we already have a full itinerary planned and looking forward to the trip.
I’ll post some updates when I can. Hope the unrest will be resolved by the time your trip is up.
Be safe. Appreciate any updates after your trip.
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Interestingly, Shenzhen just north of HK border into China, is a major hotspot now. There are many investors that are pouring serious money into really top notch looking restaurants from high end to mid tier, including some really legit looking Japanese places that would not look out of place in Japan. I don’t have specifics but have seen them on my friend’s social media. I also follow a local HK sushi chef owner’s social media and he opened a branch in Shenzhen couple months ago…literally bringing over trays of super premium brand name/unicorn grade uni for his grand opening that you would see at the top Ginza restaurants (Higashizawa, Hadate, even shiro uni).
Macau would be a perfect place to divert your attention to just for the food scene and in some cases they do HK cafe, roasties, seafood, and even fine dining Cantonese probably just as good if not better. Even the neighborhood blue collar stuff looks mighty fine, inclusive of wonton noodles, bamboo pole noodles, shrimp roe noodles, brisket, beef innards etc and of course stuck in time classics.
Otherwise, Taiwan, Singapore, Korea, and of course Japan, are excellent alternatives.
My take is that this thing is such a big mess right now it will not resolve itself easily. It’s a very complex problem that snowballed and you have too many additional extreme elements introducing chaos in the mix, along with a lot of short fuses of people that add further volatility and unpredictability. Nobody is uniting, compromising, talking reasonably to each other (or willing to listen for that matter) yet plenty are willing to take advantage of a crisis for their own agendas. As recent WSJ articles have reported, some civilians are willing and ready to die for the cause if it gets down to it since a lot of people have already felt hopeless about their own future. We are probably not that far from something like this, some might say it has already happened (at least the war on ideas and ideals).
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@js76wisco We are in the same boat as you - have a trip planned to HK (and Taiwan!) near when you are going as well, and we are monitoring the situation carefully.
FWLIW, I reached out to a friend who is an expat for a multinational corp and just moved to HK. I was planning on meeting up with him in HK when we visit - he told me that on a day-to-day basis, he doesn’t feel unsafe, and his company provides general updates, but there is no cause for any undue alarm. We also have another friend who was just visiting HK in the last week or two and also told us that she felt safe and did not experience first hand any issues.
However, this is all LAST week, and I feel like the situation has escalated since then. While we haven’t changed our plans, we are monitoring it real time as well. Will be good to see what @Google_Gourmet says after their trip.
In case you have time, I’ve also been checking out the below thread on Tripadvisor:
https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g294217-i1496-k12734994-o340-Is_HK_save_to_travel-Hong_Kong.html
Thanks for this link.
They’ve been stationed in HK barracks since 97!
I have local friends in Tuen Mun, Mong Kok, and Central. None of them are worried provided that you keep your opinions to yourself while you’re out and about. Perhaps avoid wearing a white t-shirt just in case…
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Even though I think where we would likely spend most of our time are away from the main protest sites I think this is the straw that broke the camel’s back for us.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/08/asia/us-travel-advisory-hong-kong-intl-hnk/index.html
We’re back after three weeks in South of China. Original plan was to spend the last 6 days in Hong Kong, and return out of HKIA.
I’m sure you’ve been following the news from Hong Kong. Although some progress has been made in amends, Hong Kong is probably not a place to take a couple of kids for a relaxing carefree trip.
We switched out the Hong Kong portion of our trip for Macao, mainly so we can take the Macao ferry directly into HKIA for our flight home. Had a good time in Macao, and the ferry interface was even more expeditious than the HK airport express.
Good luck and have a good time on your trip, whether Hong Kong or otherwise.
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Thanks @Google_Gourmet. We have been watching the news and cancelled our trip. HK does not look like a safe place to bring kids. The violence and escalation of protests are too unpredictable for my family. We are going to Oahu instead.
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