CRIME

Hong Kong is generally a safe place to live, work and bring up a family. The 24-hour nature of the city means that there are people of all ages on the streets till all hours. Taxis are ubiquitous so it’s never difficult to find one to take you back home; nightbuses also run between Hong Kong and Kowloon.

Hong Kong is definitely one of the safest places for women in Asia. That said, indecent assault is alarmingly common – a recent survey found that about 60% of women had been indecently assaulted on public transport. I count myself in this statistic. Petty thievery and apartment break-ins have also happened to friends of mine. If you are a victim of crime, report it as soon as possible to your local police station. I have found the police efficient and friendly.

Triads won’t bother you if you don’t bother them: avoid black spots such as Mongkok and Sham Shui Po late at night. Mongkok, by day the busiest part of Hong Kong – its name means ‘busy corner’ – is overrun with markets and has a wonderfully colourful, bustling atmosphere. But police activity, drugs, gambling dens and prostitution make parts of the neighbourhood unsafe after dark.

Crime

Hong Kong is generally a safe place to live, work and bring up a family. The 24-hour nature of the city means that there are people of all ages on the streets till all hours. Taxis are ubiquitous so it’s never difficult to find one to take you back home; nightbuses also run between Hong Kong and Kowloon.

Hong Kong is definitely one of the safest places for women in Asia. That said, indecent assault is alarmingly common – a recent survey found that about 60% of women had been indecently assaulted on public transport. I count myself in this statistic. Petty thievery and apartment break-ins have also happened to friends of mine. If you are a victim of crime, report it as soon as possible to your local police station. I have found the police efficient and friendly.

Triads won’t bother you if you don’t bother them: avoid black spots such as Mongkok and Sham Shui Po late at night. Mongkok, by day the busiest part of Hong Kong – its name means ‘busy corner’ – is overrun with markets and has a wonderfully colourful, bustling atmosphere. But police activity, drugs, gambling dens and prostitution make parts of the neighbourhood unsafe after dark.

Religions

Hong Kong’s colonial history and freedom of religion means that there is a profusion of religious communities operating in this quintessentially materialist culture. Although their impact on politics and governance in the territory is difficult to assess, the head of the Catholic Church, Bishop Zen, has been outspoken in his defence of democracy, whilst Buddhist leaders are often seen shoring up Beijing’s influence. Somewhat ironically for the secular mainland, ‘Buddha’s birthday’ was officially made a public holiday in Hong Kong after the 1997 handover.

An estimated one third of the Hong Kong population practise a form of Taosim which includes elements of Confucianism and polytheism. Ancestor worship is common – public holidays twice a year are given over to grave-sweeping and burning paper money, etc. – as is seeking the blessings of popular gods thought to protect fishermen, businesses or family/fertility. Small red shrines adorned with jaffa oranges and joss sticks are common in the homes of the older generation, and are often observable at outdoor sites, too. The Chinese almanac is also important when it comes to choosing lucky dates for business, marriage and the compatibility of partners.

Larger religious groups in Hong Kong include Buddhists (600,000), Protestants (300,000) and Catholics (250,000):

• Christian. Protestant denominations include Baptist, Lutheran, Adventist, Anglican, Methodist and Pentecostal. Two weekly publications, The Christian Weekly and The Christian Times, are published in Hong Kong. The Sunday Examiner is the local English language magazine published by the Catholic church. Church notices and times of services appear in the Saturday edition of the South China Morning Post.
• Jewish. Hong Kong’s Jewish community includes three main congregations: the Ohel Leah (Orthodox in the Sephardic tradition), the United Jewish Congregation (Reform/Conservative) and the Chabad Lubavitch. More information is available from the Jewish Community Centre (www.jcc.org.hk; tel.2801 5440).
• Muslim. There are about 80,000 Muslims in the city. The largest masjid is the Kowloon Masjid and Islamic Centre on Nathan Road in TST. Other masjids include Jamia Masjid on Shelley Street and the Masjid Ammar and Osman Ramju Sadick Islamic Centre in Wanchai.
• Hindu. The Hindu temple in Happy Valley functions as the centre for Hong Kong’s 15,000-strong Hindu community.
• Sikh. The Sikh temple in Wanchai serves the Sikh community.

Other religious communities include the Mormons (22,000), Russian/Greek Orthodox Church and Jehovah’s Witnesses.

The Political System

Under the Basic Law agreed with Britain prior to the handover in 1997, Hong Kong is supposed to enjoy a high degree of autonomy and to suffer no drastic changes in the way its government is run. In practice, Beijing has the power to interpret grey areas of the Basic Law and overturn decisions made by Hong Kong’s Legislative Council (LegCo), as happened in the infamous ‘Right of Abode’ case.

The LegCo has about 60 members, of whom 24 are democratically elected members of geographical constituencies. Thirty other members are elected from functional constituencies with a limited electoral base – ‘functional constituencies’ here roughly translates as ‘business sectors’. A further six members are hand-picked by an Election Committee of 800 people. The Chief Executive is also chosen by the Election Committee, which in turn is elected by about 163,500 voters, including corporate voters. Unsurprisingly, then, Hong Kong’s political elite are often criticized as being out of touch with the grass roots – or as one commentator put it:

Major political parties include the Democratic Party, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong and the Liberal Party.