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On the Inside Looking Out: Doing life in HK’s maximum security prison
Mario de los Reyes is gasping for air. It’s just after midday on a hot afternoon in late May and the sun is baking the concrete yard where the 64-year-old has been playing football with fellow maximum security inmates at Stanley Prison. But this isn’t just the heat and exertion from exercise; something is wrong. This ...
Long reads
Wild life: A day of rescuing animals in Hong Kong’s urban jungle
In the battle to save the city’s animals from harm, you pick up some war stories. Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) inspectors are full of them. Stories of...
HK’s Bazaar Battle: Second-hand sellers push for greater freedom to trade on the streets
The streets are still dark when Ms. Tsoi and her husband head out from their flat, pushing a handcart overflowing with used shoes, clothing, pans and other bric-a-brac. The pair...
Sent packing: Hong Kong’s elderly cardboard collectors
Her fingers are bent from 20 years of collecting cardboard from Hong Kong’s streets, but Au Fung-lan says she has no desire to give up the grueling work. At 67-years-old she...
Hong Kong’s Luxury Timber Problem: Major stockpiles, minor prosecutions
Hong Kong has a timber-trafficking problem. Held in 50 cargo containers at secure sites, a stockpile of more than 1,200 tons of seized tropical hardwood attests to the city’s...
Falling through the cracks: Homelessness in Hong Kong
Last August, as Hong Kong braced for one of the strongest typhoons in its history, Jose Ramundo M. Gabriel was on a footbridge in North Point, searching for something, anything,...
Risky Business: Driving for Uber in Hong Kong
It was almost 5am on Jan. 1 when Prius (not his real name) parked his Toyota Prius (his real car) outside the Police Tactical Unit compound in Fanling and began what he calls his...
Old but not old enough: Architecture advocates worried post-war buildings will disappear
The “form follows function” ethos of modernist architecture shaped Hong Kong in its post-war boom years. But now, experts and advocates fear gems from the period are...
Green Burials: Why Hongkongers remain reluctant about alternative funerals
In the Fu Shan Garden of Remembrance, Heaven Kam attended two of the shortest funerals he has ever been to. Within 15 minutes, the priests said their prayers, and family members,...
The Sun Writers Club: Meet the maids reporting Hong Kong’s hidden stories
After she finishes cooking dinner, cleaning up and reading her employer’s children a bedtime story, Marites Palma aims to be in bed by 9pm — especially if a deadline is...