John Lee Sacks 2 Ministers in Surprise Announcement

Chan (left) and Law (right) are Lee's new ministers

Looks like Hong Kong officials who don't perform actually get sacked.

This morning in a surprise move, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu announced that "after a period of observation" he had removed his tourism and transport ministers, Kevin Yeung Yun-hung and Lam Sai-hung respectively.

However, he repeatedly evaded questions from the media as to why the two were given the sack.

Yeung could not lure big acts to Hong Kong

Director of housing Rosanna Law Shuk-pui replaces Yeung, while Mable Chan takes over the transport portfolio from her boss, Lam.

Lee said Law and Chan would deliver better results with their ability to communicate their policies, and that both had shown they were proactive as senior civil servants.

"I see the strengths of the two new appointed secretaries," Lee said in a press conference on Thursday.

"They will be assisting me more to realise my goal of ensuring results and also doing as much work as possible in the coming years."

He said he needed a team to help Hong Kong catch up after the Covid-19 pandemic and the 2019 protests, and believed both Chan and Law supported his policy direction and could take up more responsibilities.

Sounds like Lee is getting pressure from above to belatedly kick-start Hong Kong's economy and so far it's been quite the struggle. It's been really hard to lure tourists to the city when their governments are warning them not to go because of the national security law.

Lam failed to improve taxi services, regulate Uber

There's also the logistics of planning remote night markets in public spaces didn't go so well, superstar footballer Lionel Messi dissing the crowd and refusing to play in a friendly match, and the Hong Kong Tourism Board hasn't been able to lure big acts to the city, except for Coldplay, which will perform four nights at the new Kai Tak stadium.

The HKTB's goal of having 46 million visitors in 2024 is far from achievable with less than a month to go. Someone on Bluesky calculated they would need an average of 189,000 visitors per day to meet that number.

Meanwhile Lam was unable to rein in the taxi industry, and the idea of encouraging taxi drivers to learn Arabic to cater to passengers from the Middle East was far-fetched, and he still hadn't come up with a way to regular ride-hailing apps like Uber.

Now that Lee has actually sacked two ministers for poor performance, who's next? Some are speculating it could be Secretary for Environment Tse Chin-wan for his failure to implement the waste tax that was so convoluted that it was axed at the last minute.

Coldplay Adds Another Date in HK

Coldplay fans are thrilled for an additional date in Hong Kong

Hong Kong was abuzz when super band Coldplay announced it would perform in the city next April and tickets were snapped up for shows on April 9, 11 and 12 in the new Kai Tak stadium, where the nearest MTR station is about 30 minutes' walking distance.

Then today concert organiser Live Nation said another date would be added.

"Due to incredible demand for Coldplay: Music Of The Spheres World Tour in Hong Kong, one more date has been added at Kai Tak stadium," the promoter said. 

Kai Tak stadium has 50,000 seats

Fans can get tickets for the April 8 show from next Friday. The tickets start from HK$399 (US$51) for the nosebleed section, and then HK$699, HK$1,299, HK$1,699 and HK$2,099. For those who have the stamina to stand for the entire show closer to the stage, that costs HK$1,399.

For those willing to shell out more, there are "experience" packages for exclusive merchandise, early access to the venue, and backstage tours range from HK$2,799 to HK$6,599.

These prices seem more down-to-earth compared to the stratospheric prices for Taylor Swift's last concert dates for the Eras Tour which ends in Vancouver next month.

Today there were tickets released for seats behind the stage -- you may not necessarily be able to see everything on the stage, but you can definitely hear the superstar artist.

An acquaintance told me tonight that she tried to get the tickets but found there were 800 people ahead of her; when it was around 400 people ahead of her, all those tickets were gone. Those tickets were a mere C$16, but now they are selling for over C$2,000.

Vancouver will be mayhem when Swift comes

Some charities have gotten a hold of Swift tickets and are selling them at auction. The Canuck Place Children's Hospice raised C$46,000 for selling four pairs of tickets, and VGH UBC Hospital Foundation raised a staggering C$320,000 at auction for 15 private suite tickets to see Swift.

While a lot of people are gouging Swift fans who are desperate to see her in person, it's great to see charities benefitting from the "Swift effect".