Businesses Struggle to Stay Alive in Hong Kong

Lin Heung in February 2019, now shuttered

Yesterday Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels which owns The Peninsula hotel chain, released its earnings for the first half of the calendar year.

CNBC listed the hotel's various properties and the percentage of revenue year on year:

Hong Kong         -10%

Shanghai             -48%

Beijing                -21%

Tokyo                 +39%

Bangkok             +262%

Manila                +387%

New York           +320%

Chicago              +70%

Beverley Hills    +76%

Paris                   +455%

It seems everyone has gone to Paris this summer and my social media feed has been flooded with people who have visited the City of Lights as one of the first destinations after over two years of not traveling.

Even New York is impressive with its massive jump in revenue. 

But look at Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing. What do they have in common? 

"Dynamic zero Covid".

Lin Heung's hand painted tableware

Over two years after the Covid-19 pandemic, the world has definitely moved on as can be seen in the numbers plain and simple. 

Shanghai had an arduous two-month lockdown and the numbers show it. Hong Kong is just getting by, but not without constantly pitching staycations, set dinner menus and coming up to Mid-Autumn Festival, selling as many of their signature milk custard mooncakes as they can churn out of the oven.

With Hong Kong's announcement yesterday of moving to three days of hotel quarantine and four days of self-monitoring at home, the -10 percent is not going to budge much, if at all. 

Luckily Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels has deep pockets and constantly says it is here for the long term. It can spread its risk as well as its profits to other properties to keep things going.

But single independent businesses have no where else to turn.

Today it was hastily announced that Lin Heung Tea House on Wellington Street in Central will close its doors this evening after almost 100 years in business.

Braised goose webs, mushrooms and cabbage

It was a favourite for tourists who had a "local" experience of having to rinse their own tableware with hot tea, fight other diners for food, and deal with surly waiters. 

To me it's not my idea of dim sum, but visitors thought it was fun and quirky.

But by sundown, the frenzy of the morning had dissipated and dinners were more civilised. 

Locals came to have old school Cantonese dishes, some homestyle like steamed minced pork with salted fish, or crispy chicken, or roasted meats.

For more decadent occasions and more people around the table (pre-Covid), I was lucky to tuck into some classic delicacies like pig lung soup with freshly ground almonds, braised goose webs, and eight treasure duck. Even though we had a dozen people, we couldn't finish it all, choc full of mushrooms, chestnuts, lotus seeds, and rice among the ingredients.

The last time I ate here was late February 2019 when Lin Heung was threatening to close, but then its owners let the staff run the place, but the restaurant was only open for dinner, and then the protests started a few months later, and then a year later the pandemic...

Feast at Lin Heung before almost closed in 2019

Like many other restaurants it didn't have much of a chance to survive, especially without tourists for dim sum, and Lin Heung didn't have any marketing know-how to keep promoting the place.

So the place is now gone for good, following in the footsteps of Happy Cake Shop, Mido Cafe, and Jumbo Floating Restaurant.