London Chinatown... shop by shop

Ever found it hard to remember where exactly on Gerrard Street a particular shop or restaurant is? You won't any more with this view of Chinatown, courtesy of streetsensation.co.uk.

Here's every shop on the north side, laid side by side, complete with business name...


... and here's the south side.

On-board an Oasis Hong Kong Airlines flight

Something I'm sure all bbcs are aware of by now, is the new airline offering low-cost flights from Gatwick to Hong Kong.

I think the general response to the launch of Oasis Hong Kong Airlines was "Yeah, great! Bargain flights to HK!" followed swiftly by "Hmm, think I'll let them do a few flights first before I jump on board."

The early doubts about proved partially right when the inaugural flight ran into problems and had to be delayed but there have been few reports of problems since. Now, for the curious amongst you, here's a chance to see for yourself what the actual plane interior is like:


Check out pics from on board Oasis Hong Kong's 747 here.


If that wasn't enough, here's an in-depth flight report from an Oasis passenger! He seemed to have had a great time, although his experience was probably a bit exceptional (being the first ever flight of a new airline etc.)

Random Pic of the Day (or so)... (RPDOS)

Photo by 'annkatia'.

Judge gives bbcs carte blanche to commit crime!

A judge in Scotland has unwittingly given us bbcs the go-ahead to rush out and commit crimes, safe in the knowledge that it would be almost impossible for us to be identified if caught because we all look the same!

[Sheriff Margaret Gimblett] told Greenock Sheriff Court: “Without wanting to be derogatory in any way, sometimes it is said that all black people look the same at first glance, and the same can be said that all Chinese people can look the same to a native Scot. It’s only when you have time to look that you begin to see the differences.”

Credit to the judge for trying to phrase her comments in as least offensive a way as possible, but you can almost hear the thin ice cracking. There is probably some truth in the fact that one ethnic group can have trouble distinguising members of another ethnic group with which they are unfamiliar but would it really be more difficult to identify a specific Chinese person involved in a specific incident?

You know what this means, though? BBC crime wave here we come! I'm now off to my local KwikSave to see what goodies I can pilfer, thanks to my mask of anonymity*




*I'm joking. Stealing is wrong ;)

Hong Kong's latest attraction, the Ngong Ping 360 Skyrail

The Ngong Ping '360' Skyrail is a giant cable car that runs between the village of Ngong Ping and Tung Chung town centre on Lantau Island, a distance of just under 6km. It officially opened on September 18th 2006 after a number of delays and has suffered a series of technical glitches but is proving to be a popular attraction.

With views of the big Buddha and the airport, it looks like it could be spectacular ride (as long as the weather's fine). Apparently it's a fast way to travel too, as the ride takes about 25 mins and the same journey by road takes about an hour.

Check out the official Ngong Ping 360 homepage here.

Sanney Leung, author of HK Entertainment Review

If you've tried to visit the popular Hong Kong showbiz news site hkentreview.com recently you'll have noticed that the site is no longer up and running and the domain has been taken over by a holding company.

Normally, I would just put this down to a domain expiring and the webmasters 'giving up' on the site. However, hkentreview.com always seemed to be updated regularly so it was strange that the site would just come to an abrupt end like that.

After a quick Google, I discovered the reason. Sadly, the site's main author Sanney Leung was recently diagnosed with cancer and is currently receiving treatment. The full story is explained by one of Sanny's friends over at AsianFanatics.net.

http://asianfanatics.net/forum/about_hkentreviewcom-talk276401.html


hkentreview was a great, invaluable site and perhaps the only places where you could read up-to-date, translated showbiz news from HK. I'm sure readers will join me in wishing Sanney a full and speedy recovery.

U.S. and Asia to get PS3 first

Looks like Europe will have to wait a whole 4 months before ther PS3 makes its way over here.

The PlayStation 3, Sony’s first new game console in six years, is scheduled to debut in Japan just over a week from now on Nov. 11. Then it will hit stores in North America on Nov. 17. It was originally scheduled to go on sale in Europe and Australiasia at the same time but Sony postponed the launch in those regions until March 2007 because of component shortages that meant it wouldn’t have enough consoles ready in time.

I sense a few extra-loaded suitcases coming back from HK around Christmas ;). More on it here

Okay, so what's this blog all about?

Well, there's no specific goal (is there ever one with blogs?) but what I'm going to try to do is just post stuff that might be interesting to other bbc's (that's British-born Chinese in case you didn't know) out there.

It might be articles from the news or bits and bobs I find from surfing around. As the tagline says: Past, present and future. And all of it Chinese-y... in a bbc kind of way. Sound okay?

Let's start with something funny. I found this clip on Youtube (currently subscribed tags: TVB, cantonese) and I thought it was hilarious. Even if you (like me) don't understand half of what the characters are saying, but the comedy genius shines though. Enjoy!