The Opposite House is No More

Will miss the delicious Peking duck at Jin Yaa Tang

I just found out through a social media post that The Opposite House, a hotel run by Swire in Beijing has closed down. The hotel had a blow-out farewell party on June 29 and then closed its doors the next day.

The 16-year-old hotel was part of the complex known as Sanlitun, which featured a shopping mall anchored by Apple and Uniqlo, and when I was there, a Hong Kong-style restaurant that served Cantonese dishes.

The porcelain Mao jacket

Many years ago I got a tour of the hotel, and it was forward-thinking at the time with minimalist interiors, and the lobby was decorated with a larger-than-life cheongsam and a Mao jacket made from fragmented blue and white bowls and plates. 

On the lower ground floor was a fantastic restaurant called Jin Yaa Tang that served one of the city's best Peking ducks. There was an open kitchen where diners could watch ducks roasted over a jujube wood-fired oven.

According to The Beijinger, an English-language magazine, The Opposite House probably closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic and high room rates. Apparently the hotel will be "converted into an innovated retail landmark."

In a sign posted outside the hotel, the Beijing Sanlitun Hotel Management Company Limited thanked people for their support.

"We deeply regret that we made such a difficult decision. We believe that the hotel closure is not a permanent separation, but a new beginning. We sincerely welcome your continued attention and support to Sanlitun Taikoo Li, and very much look forward to serving you in the near future," part of the notice read.

Why is it always spun as "separation", when the hotel is closing down for good? And it wasn't a divorce, it was a business decision that had to be made. 

Looking down on the swimming pool

The Opposite House was the sister hotel to the Upper House in Hong Kong, The Temple House in Chengdu, and The Middle House in Shanghai.

Hongkongers Flock to Warehouse Stores in Shenzhen

Hongkongers are joining tours that take them to Sam's Club

For Hongkongers, visiting Costco in North America is a wide-eye opening experience. 

The members-only warehouse store sells everything from milk to laptops, refrigerators and roast chickens at very good prices. Hongkongers look in wonder at products stacked on pallets and items sold in bulk or in giant containers that would take a while to use up.

There is no Costco in Hong Kong otherwise Park 'n' Shop and Wellcome would be up-in-arms if that kind of rivalry elbowed its way into the city. People would need bigger flats too to store all this stuff in bulk. 

Everything here is much cheaper than in HK

However, there is competition south of the border, as Hong Kong residents eagerly sign up for shopping tours to Shenzhen, where one stop on the itinerary is at Sam's Club, a warehouse store operated by Walmart, and named after Sam Walton, the founder. 

There are 44 Sam's Clubs in 25 cities in China, including Beijing, Shanghai, Dalian, Hangzhou, Xianmen, Chengdu, Shenyang and Ningbo.

As part of the tour, visitors can get a one-year membership for two people for 260 yuan (US$37), which can easily be made back from buying everything from food to giant-screen TVs.

The tours are especially popular with young people who are eager to find deals, as well as products they can only find on the mainland. 

They can snap up fresh seafood, frozen dumplings, Godiva chocolates, Ippudo instant noodles, and even fresh hairy crabs.

Wandering the warehouse store is eye-popping

Who knew young Hongkongers would be so keen to shop in Shenzhen?

But with inflation soaring in the city, it's become a novelty to discover bargains galore in warehouse stores.

PetroChina Official's Affair Spawns Fashion Critiques

Hu and Dong as they walked down "Douyin Street"

There's a street in Chengdu that's nicknamed "Douyin Street" or "TikTok Street", a main pedestrian area where street photographers hang out to catch wannabe models strutting their stuff -- or maybe a Chinese official holding hands with his alleged mistress.

That was what happened to Hu Jiyong, now a former Party Committee Secretary and executive director and general manager of Beijing Huanqiu Construction Co, a subsidiary of PetroChina.

He was summarily fired from his posts and faces an investigation from a disciplinary committee after a video of him and a younger woman was posted on Douyin by a street photographer.

Hu looks much younger in these manga versions

It was after the clip of the couple was posted did some viewers recognised Hu and his supposed mistress, Dong Sijin, who was also a PetroChina employee (also sacked).

In the video they turn heads because Hu wears a pink polo shirt that matches Dong's pink and lime green dress that netizens have described as "a mistress dress" -- now nicknamed "dismissal dress". Not only that, but she was holding a limited edition mini hibiscus Lady Dior handbag that costs around US$6,100.

Perhaps what was even more intriguing about the whole incident was that the couple knew they were being photographed and filmed and didn't act like they had anything to hide.

So Hu has lost his job, probably his girlfriend and his wife too, but he and Dong are forever immortalised in a series of memes from manga to Lego, to a guy in a dress holding hands with another man in a pink polo.

And here's the Lego version

Oh and yes that "mistress dress" is doing a hot trade on Taobao, with some 4,000 orders for the dress. Overwhelmed by the demand, the online store even asked customers to "shop rationally".

There probably isn't the same demand for the designer handbag though.

Nevertheless, some netizens could not understand why someone would want to dress like Dong, while others lamented how it was difficult to pull of wearing pink. One person even defended the dress, writing: "Every dress is probably worn by a mistress at one point. The dress is innocent!"

Mocking Incident Puts Cathay Pacific on Damage Control

Three Cathay flight attendants were fired for mocking passengers

Cathay Pacific's problems continue to prevent it from getting itself out of the rut of the pandemic and now it has to do major reputation rebuilding after some flight attendants verbally mocked some Chinese passengers.

On a recent flight from Chengdu, Sichuan province to Hong Kong, three crew members were accused of making fun of passengers' language abilities by saying in English, "If you cannot say 'blanket', you cannot have it."

A Mandarin-speaking passenger complained about the incident which at first led the trio to be suspended, and then fired.

Lee warned Lam not to repeat the incident

But that was not enough.

Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu waded into the issue, saying he was angered and disappointed, and that he had personally instructed Cathay Pacific management to handle the incident seriously, and that the airline must review staff training and improve its customer service culture.

"These disrespectful words and deeds have hurt the feelings of compatriots in Hong Kong and the mainland, and also undermined the city's existing culture and values of respect, courtesy and inclusiveness," he said.

"I am outraged and disappointed by the fact these bad deeds happened on a Hong Kong flight."

He told Cathay Pacific's CEO Ronald Lam Siu-por the incident was serious and had damaged Hong Kong's image, and urged Lam to ensure the incident would not be repeated again.

For his part Lam apologised in Mandarin to passengers who were affected by the incident as well as the wider community, and vowed to prevent a repeat of the situation.

Lam will ensure training and "customers first"

The CEO said he would lead a cross-department task force to enhance the company's "customers first" culture, and ensure its service had a solemn and polite image, and improve its quality.

Does Lee know that Hong Kong residents disparage mainland tourists on a daily basis? Is he going to punish them too?

Post-Covid there are complaints from the tourism sector that the city is getting the cheap Chinese tourists, the ones who have never visited Hong Kong before and don't mind seeing only the free landmarks and eating rice boxes. 

That's because the tensions between mainlanders and locals were never resolved as far back as a decade ago -- remember the term "locusts"? -- and so it's no wonder these situations have flared up again. 

Trying to get Hongkongers to shut up will be very hard, despite the dependence on these cross-border tourists to get the hospitality industry back on its feet again. 

It's a pity Hong Kong has put most of its eggs in this China basket, when all investors know it's better to diversify to ensure more balanced returns...

Hong Kong Losing its Luxury Lustre

A shopper emerges from Louis Vuitton in Hong Kong

Hong Kong seems to be losing its magnetism to attract mainland shoppers to come and buy luxury brands, losing out to Chinese cities like Shanghai, Chengdu, Guangzhou and even Shenzhen, which is just across the border.

The global luxury conglomerate, that has a portfolio that includes Louis Vuitton, Loewe, Berluti, Rimowa, Fendi, Christian Dior, and Givenchy to name a few, is gradually extracting itself from Hong Kong and moving the regional headquarters to Shanghai along with some of its senior executives.

Christian Dior boutique in Harbour City, TST

Since the 2019 protests till now, Hong Kong has been struggling to lure shoppers back, who used to wait patiently in queues outside these shops to snap up the latest handbag, shoes and clothes, as they didn't have much faith in the same products being genuine on the mainland. It was also a cache to be able to boast purchasing these items on a shopping spree in the city.

But after the three year-long Covid-19 pandemic, it seems like the shine of Hong Kong has gone dull and mainland tourists prefer to go elsewhere or stay closer to home to shop.

For example, duty-free sales in Hainan more than tripled to 49.5 billion yuan (US$7.2 billion) in 2021 from 2019, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. Even during last year's zero-Covid chaos, sales were still more than twice the size of pre-pandemic levels.

Even Macau is getting a slice of the luxury pie. The gambling hub's visitor arrivals have recovered to about 62 percent of 2019 levels over the recent Easter holiday, compared to 44 percent for Hong Kong -- which does not bode well for the latter city.

Shoppers lining up at Gucci in Hainan

As Hong Kong loses its significance in the luxury brand market, it could have a knock-on effect on hotels, restaurants, tourism and retail.

Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu needs to think of another way to revive Hong Kong's economy quick otherwise it's going to die the death of ten thousand cuts. Or this was Beijing's plan all along?

Protests Spread in China

Protesters calling for freedom following the Urumqi deaths

Protests have erupted in several cities in China following the deaths of at least 10 people in a fire in Urumqi, Xinjiang. Video footage shows firefighters unable to get close to the fire because of Covid lockdowns, the water hose missing the fire by a metre or two.

The news hit people hard -- the tragedy may have put them over the edge with the accumulation of the endless lockdowns, being sealed in their homes, not enough food to eat, no access to medicine, the endless testing and mask-wearing.

People mourn at least 10 people died in Urumqi

So people spilled out onto the streets in Urumqi, Chengdu, Beijing, Shanghai to mourn the dead, and the protests became more political, some people daring to call for President Xi Jinping to step down, and for democracy and human rights.

In a move reminiscent to the Hong Kong protests after the national security law was implemented, some protesters held up blank sheets of paper as having slogans on them would have been deemed illegal, people in China followed, also holding up blank pieces of paper.

Instead they shouted slogans like this:

"Give me liberty, or give me death!"

"We want to mourn our people, we want to mourn our citizens"

"Tear down the Great Firewall!"

"We want freedom, we want human rights!"

Protesters hold up blank paper like in HK

"Down with the Party! Down with Xi Jinping! Free Xinjiang!"

One young woman said: "If my fear of being blackened makes me fear the act of speaking out, I think of how much a disappointment I am. As a student of Tsinghua University, I will regret the cowardice for the rest of my life."

In a bid to prevent being shut down by the police, protesters would sing the Chinese national anthem. But there were protests shut down by the police, with some protesters arrested. 

In Shanghai, BBC journalist Edward Lawrence was filmed being beaten and arrested by the police. He was later released, but the reason for the initial arrest? The authorities said it was for his own good in case he caught Covid-19 from the crowd of protesters. 

BBC said: "We do not consider this a credible explanation."

Indeed.

Pro-Beijing supporters claimed Lawrence was proof that foreign forces were involved in the protests... 

How will Xi resolve these domestic protests?

Nevertheless, what is happening in China is extraordinary in terms of the scale and the demands people have.

But sadly nothing will come out of it -- there may be further lockdowns or the government may turn protesters' health codes red to prevent them from going out and gathering, or creating new laws. In some ways the protests echo what was happening in Hong Kong over three years ago, and one may expect the Chinese authoritarian response to be very similar.

However, today's young Chinese are savvy and may not be forced into submission so easily. They are going to find ways to circumvent control.

Xi has painted himself into a corner as China experts have predicted -- the economy is faltering, people are mentally exhausted and depressed, they are tired of zero-Covid and seeing the rest of the world open up and questioning why not them?

State media have even gone to great lengths not to show World Cup footage of maskless fans in the stands -- instead they focus on the players and the coach, otherwise very far views of the stadium. But it's too late. Everyone knows what's really happening outside of China.

How long will the frustration boil over and will it escalate? So far it has been relatively peaceful, but for how much longer...