Over 4K People Abusing Elderly Fare Transport Scheme

People 60 and over can ride public transport for HK$2

One of the perks of being a senior in Hong Kong is that taking public transportation is much cheaper. When people 60 years old and over take the MTR, bus, and ferry, it costs HK$2 (US$0.26) per ride. 

Naturally it's not surprising to see more elderly people riding 650 routes for buses and ferries, as well as the MTR railway network.

However, the authorities have found that over the past eight months, 4,260 rail passengers were fined for misusing the HK$2 fare concession scheme. 

The government has also found that over the last five years, 1,419 suspected cases of abuse of the scheme were uncovered during monitoring of buses, MTR, ferries, minibuses, trams and even buses to transport residents to and from their apartment blocks.

Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun Yuk-han even mentioned one passenger who was fined HK$14,000 (US$1,800) and had to pay around HK$2,000 in unpaid fares.

He said the Transport Department had asked operators to increase ticket checks and passenger identity verification, as well as strictly enforce penalties.

This is hard for frontline workers to enforce when there are lots of people getting on a bus or ferry, and also what can they do if someone doesn't pay up? 

The scheme costs the government around HK$6 billion in terms of reimbursement of costs to the transportation companies.

In order to make up for the shortfall, lawmaker Peter Koon Ho-ming suggests doubling the concession fare to HK$4 to keep the scheme sustainable. 

"Transportation fares have gone up by around 30 percent since the HK$2 scheme was rolled out. Is it feasible that we keep the concessionary fare at HK$2 and don't increase it? I think we should be more realistic when looking at this," he said.

Koon is the reverend who helped Chan Tong-kai who allegedly murdered his girlfriend in Taiwan and set off the anti-extradition protests in 2019...

Another lawmaker, Chan Siu-hung, suggested placing restrictions on the scheme, such as limiting the number of trips a person could make.

"Whatever it is going to be -- be it a fare discount, a limit on the number of rides or on the fare -- I hope the original purpose of the policy can be maintained, which is to encourage the elderly to go out more," Chan said.

Shelling Out for Vanity Plates

The Transport Department holds auctions for vanity plates

How much is the letter "D" worth?

In Hong Kong it's HK$20.2 million (US$2.6 million) at a recent auction held by the Transport Department.

Apparently plates with a single letter or digit are highly sought after, and the final price proves it.

Single-digit or letter plates are highly sought after

Before the auction there was speculation the plate "D" would fetch HK$10 million, as it stood for "dragon" and "dollar".

On the auction date, the department set the reserve price at HK$5,000, but the first bidder's opening salvo was already HK$5 million.

That quickly escalated in increments of HK$50,000 when two parties duelled for the plate. In 74 rounds the winner finally emerged at HK$20.2 million in about half an hour.

Ringo Lee Yiu-pui, honorary life president of the recently renamed Hong Kong, China Automobile Association, said the single-digit number plates were particularly sought-after because of their rarity.

"There are only 23 English alphabet letters that can be used and Arabic numerals one to nine," he explained. "There cannot be repetitions. But there are a lot more combinations in two-digit or even three-digit number plates."

Some plates are fun to spot in Hong Kong

But the price for the "D" plate isn't the highest one -- that honour goes to "W" for HK$26 million in 2021, while "V" sold for HK$13 million in 2017. "R" was not red hot -- it only went for HK$5.3 million.

So if you see a car with the plate "D", you'll either think the person is "distinguished" or a "dork", depending on your view...

The Day After June 4

A Porsche escorted by police as its plates have "8964" on them

This weekend in Hong Kong saw many arrests (and releases) of people testing what they could and couldn't do to commemorate June 4.

They could not hold up candles -- even unlit ones -- nor books or flowers. Not even a license plate that happens to be 8964.

Punters trying "8964" combination bets

But they can gamble.

Punters at the Sha Tin Racecourse yesterday made quartet bets using various combinations of 4, 6, 8, 9. That said there is no word on if they won or not.

But we'll take it as a win.

The other big win was today, June 5 in Hong Kong.

Bao Choy Yuk-ling, the freelance producer for RTHK's Hong Kong Connection, where she did investigative reporting on the July 21, 2019 attacks on commuters at Yuen Long Station by men in white shirts armed with long sticks. 

There was video footage of the men being transported by vans and showed the license plates. So she went to the Transport Department to trace the license plates to the owners. However, the form did not have an option for journalism or investigative purposes.

As a result the magistrate found Choy guilty of misstating her intention in obtaining the license plate information and was fined HK$6,000 (US$770). 

She appealed all the way to the Court of Final Appeal which today ruled journalism was a valid reason for her to access the official records.

Choy all smiles outside Court of Final Appeal

"The issues of falsity and knowledge were wrongly decided against the appellant because her journalistic investigation into the use of the vehicle on the dates in question did fall into the wide catchall category of 'other traffic and transport related matters'," the judgment read.

Even if it did not, it was 'not an irresistible inference that she knew that to be false," the judgment said. There was no reason that "bona fide journalism" should be excluded from the phrase," it added.

Choy had big smiles outside of the Court of Final Appeal, a stark contrast to when she was convicted in April 2021.

Before the judgment she said: "Over the last few years, we might have found that many things have disappeared quietly," Choy said. "But I believe our beliefs in our hearts can't be taken away that easily. No matter I win or lose today, the persistence [demonstrated]... is already a meaningful thing."

There to celebrate the win was former Hong Kong Journalists Association chair Sham Yee-lan who hugged Choy. 

"This is real happy Hong Kong," Sham said, referring to the current tourism campaign. 

Indeed. The courts are still defending press freedom.

It's a good day.

Vanity Plates in HK for a Price

Just some of the thousands of vanity plates in Hong Kong

If you want a personalised license plate in Hong Kong you need to bid for it, even if you're quite sure you're the only person who's going to want it.

I found this out through a friend of mine who absolutely adores rabbits and so she wanted the license plate "wabbit" as in Bugs Bunny.

Some license plates are just plain amusing...

She had to attend the auction when her license plate came up and (luckily) no one else wanted to compete against her to bid for it so she paid the HK$5,000 (US$640).

But what if it's a license place other people want? 

The other day the Transport Department held an auction the other day of lucky license plates after the Lunar New Year.

The ones up for grabs were:

1388

UU 88

TT 888

VV 8888

292

And one with just the letter "R", considered a lucky plate because it is related to racing cars and the first letter denoting the Year of the Rabbit, raked in a whopping HK$25 million (US$3.18 million).

It is the second-highest amount paid for vanity plates.

Other plates are strictly for the privileged...

Bidding for "R" started at the base price of HK$5,000 and several bidders soon pushed the price up to HK$2 million then HK$9 million. It was finally after 60 rounds that it was finally sold for HK$25.5 million, about 5,200 times the opening price.

Some people commenting on the news story remarked how this was a great way for the government to collect more coffers from the rich rather than further burdening the poor, while others pointed out the pandemic hasn't hurt the wealthy at all. 

The money apparently goes to charities around the city.

With other personalised plates like "God", "Wanker", "I Know", and "U Wish" hints the personalities of the car owners who wanted them -- at any price...

Yuen Long Attacks Changed HK

Men with sticks attacked MTR passengers in Yuen Long MTR

In Hong Kong it is the third anniversary of July 21, 2019.

Two incidents happened -- protesters went to the liaison office in Western district and splashed black paint on the Chinese emblem. That led to Beijing stepping up its management of the protests; it denounced the vandalism of its property, particularly the emblem, and state media began reporting on the protests, calling the people actively involved as "rioters". 

Chinese emblem at liaison office was defaced

Up until that point all the protests had been censored on the mainland.

Then the other event that happened that shocked the city and beyond -- was the attack of innocent people at the Yuen Long MTR station by men in white shirts with sticks ranging from bamboo sticks to metal rods.

These people purposely wore masks and indiscriminately beat people, from young and old, even a pregnant woman. There are horrific images of people bloodied in the face, welts on their backs, screaming for mercy and traumatised for life.

It was a planned attack, orchestrated by whom is unclear, though pro-Beijing legislator Junius Ho Kwan-yiu seems to have been involved, seen shaking the hands of men dressed in white.

And the police were no where to be found, leaving people to fend for themselves.

One reporter was on the scene, Gwyneth Ho Kwai-lam, who was with Stand News at the time, filming not only on the chaos, but herself being beaten by a middle aged man in a pink shirt. Is he in jail? Strangely Ho is.

A chef whose back was covered in welts

Other journalists have tried to get to the bottom of the incident. RTHK produced a documentary on Hong Kong Connection called "7.21: Who Owns the Truth." It analyses and identifies individuals suspected to have participated in the Yuen Long attacks based on surveillance footage that day from nearby businesses.

It also questions the slow police response to the incident, why it took them 39 minutes to finally arrive at the scene.

After the documentary was broadcast on July 13, 2020, the government began dismantling the publicly-funded broadcaster, cancelling hard-hitting current affairs shows, resulting in journalists either being let go or fired. 

That was not all -- the government prosecuted one of the producers of the documentary, Bao Choy, for misrepresenting herself when she filled out a Transport Department form, requesting information on the owners of cars that were caught on camera leaving the scene in Yuen Long based on license plate numbers. 

Choy was convicted for finding info on attackers

Apparently on the form there was no option to choose requesting information for media purposes, and she was convicted of misstating her intentions and fined HK$6,000 (US$764). She had pleaded not guilty.

After that the Transport Department made it harder for people to request information based on license plates, terminating one of the ways journalists can do investigative reporting.

Choy did not let go of the 7-21 incident.

A few days ago she and a few colleagues produced another documentary, talking to three witnesses that night. One couple even took 4K pictures of the assailants that clearly identify their faces. They gave these images to the police but to no avail; only a handful of the over 200 attackers have been charged and convicted.

Choy is now doing a fellowship at Harvard University. But the chances of her coming back to Hong Kong are even slimmer after this latest documentary.

Lam was grilled by reporters the next day

Remember the day after the incident? Then chief executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and her senior ministers held a press conference on the afternoon of July 22 and she was unprepared for the reporters grilling her, in particular RTHK's Nabela Qoser.

She asked questions in Cantonese like: "Did you learn about it only this morning? Were you able to sleep well last night?"

Lam looked like a deer in headlights and cut short the press conference. Embarrassing really for a woman who is known for micromanaging and always wanting to be the best. 

And it was a sign that Lam was no longer in control of the government response to the protests -- Beijing was.

We are all still processing what happened, frustrated there has hardly been any justice for the victims. Another documentary interviewed an elderly woman who injured her knee in the Yuen Long station and had to get surgery. Previously fit and taught dancing to elderly people, she cannot do this anymore, and her mobility is severely restricted by this injury. Thinking back to the event traumatises her, still shocked at what happened.

Looks like collusion between police and attackers

Meanwhile the government has been trying to change the narrative of this incident, now saying both sides were evenly matched which one would like to laugh at, but the injuries were so graphic that one can only have even further resentment at the authorities for not taking witnesses seriously.

They were also caught on camera communicating with men in white shirts, not even investigating or interrogating them.

As a result the Yuen Long attacks also abruptly ended any respect Hongkongers had for the police, from then onwards calling them "black police", not trusting them. Some are traumatised at the sight of these people in uniform even three years later.

So much happened as a direct result of July 21, 2019.

Which is is why we will never forget it.