As the city sees a fifth straight day without any new COVID-19 infections, Hongkongers are kicking off the long weekend by turning out in droves to the picturesque island of Cheung Chau.
Despite the fact that the annual Cheung Chau Bun Festival’s parades and bun scrambling competition have been canceled for the first time in over 100 years, daytrippers are still flocking to island’s sunny beaches and cafes to mark the beginning of the four-day weekend.
The week-long festival typically draws tens of thousands of visitors, but SCMP reports that 5,900 people took the ferry from Central to Cheung Chau this morning — about 50 percent down from last year. However, Headline Daily reports that many of the island’s restaurants are full, while a bun seller told RTHK that he estimated that he would sell 40,000 buns this year (a 30 percent reduction from previous years, but still pretty good considering that there’s a pandemic going on).
Shopping districts like Causeway Bay and Tsim Sha Tsui have also seen a marked uptick in visitors over the past two weekends as the number of new coronavirus cases has dwindled down to single digits, while anti-government “Sing With You” and “Lunch With You” protests resumed late last week. Protesters are expected to take to the streets tomorrow for the annual Labor Day march, despite the organizers’ application for a public procession being rejected by the police.
The government has repeatedly urged members of the public (or pubic, which is what they actually wrote) to refrain from social activities and grave-sweeping — you know, the two main ways we like to spend our holidays — and continue practicing social distancing.
