• Executive burnout

    A toolkit for coping with job’s physical and psychological strains is the souvenir to take away from rehab at The Dawn behavioural health centre near Chiang Mai Resort holidays are the go-to option for burned-out professionals. For decades Hong Kong executives have been prescribing themselves a week or two of massages and medicinal cocktails as…

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  • Grappa’s Cellar closure

    Landlord has not renewed the celebrated Italian restaurant’s lease, amid plans for the Central venue to be turned into a food court A campaign to save famed Hong Kong live music venue Grappa’s Cellar is gaining momentum with thousands of people signing a petition launched after the landlord decided to not renew the popular Italian…

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  • How an Englishman fell under the spell of jade

    Former BBC reporter Andrew Shaw gave up his career in journalism and life in England to become the only foreign master jade carver in China Former BBC reporter Andrew Shaw is the only foreigner to have learned how to carve jade in China. Born and raised in north London, the 62-year-old’s passion for jade was…

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  • Spanish football legend Luis García

    The former professional footballer, who will play for Liverpool FC Legends against Borussia Dortmund in Hong Kong on June 8, recalls his memorable days at the British club Hands off I was born in Barcelona in 1978. My father was an indus­tri­al engineer and my mother had a clothing store. When I was six years old,…

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  • Top destinations from man who has visited 158 countries

    Daniel Herszberg, 26, is aiming to become the youngest Australian to visit every country, but says there are three or four people in the running Hong Kong-based lawyer Daniel Herszberg is in the running to become the youngest Australian to have visited every country in the world. Aged 26, he says he has been to…

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  • Friendship and fabulous parties with Douglas Adams

    Robbie Stamp recalls a brutal period of his life when he lost his firm, his father and his friend, and how making the 2005 film turned everything around Out of Africa My parents met and married in Johannesburg, South Africa. My father moved out there from the UK after the second world war with his first…

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  • What China’s post-war refugee exodus tells us about refugee crises today

    Places such as Hong Kong that accepted refugees benefited from admitting highly motivated people who pushed their children to serve, author Helen Zia says What do American writer Amy Tan, Tung Chee-hwa, Hong Kong’s first head of government under Chinese rule, and former Hong Kong chief secretaries for administration Henry Tang Ying-yen and Anson Chan…

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  • What the new road, rail links mean for retail

    Mainland Chinese spending has cemented Hong Kong’s position as Asia’s most important luxury hub, but the recent wave of Mainland Chinese shoppers — drawn to the city by new transport links — tends to have smaller budgets and different tastes than earlier visitors. With no sales tax, a friendly business environment and a voracious appetite…

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  • Let the brolly wars begin

    Anyone over a certain height is at risk of losing an eye in the city If you’re five foot eight or taller, the rainy season can be a dangerous time. I nearly lost an eye last week. The man toting the umbrella that crashed into my face didn’t even break stride. Surely that counts as…

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  • Gender loving care

    Rise programme focuses on bringing women into a safe environment to work through their substance use, and to see what trauma caused it Growing up in Belfast in the 1970s – in the time of the “Troubles” when there were bombing campaigns and shootings across Northern Ireland – Paula Shields saw a “traumatised generation” around…

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