To the Metropark Hotel in Wan Chai, ground zero for Hong Kong’s swine flu panic, to make delivery of a consignment of English-language books for those poor overseas travellers confined to their lodgings for a week. They may have seen precious little of Hong Kong during their stay, but at least they’ll be able to read about it, and I’m pleased to provide alternative entertainment to the censored and repetitive movies on local TV. Regrettably, I can do little about the hotel buffet.
It’s pretty clear the Hong Kong Government has over-reacted with its seven-day quarantine of the hotel — understandable though that is, after the criticism it received from its initial inaction over SARS — and our bow-tied boss Donald Tsang apologized to the unlucky internees yesterday. I hope our box of Hong Kong books will convince some of the travellers to give the city another chance. With the retail economy as it is, we need all the tourists we can get.
That was a lovely thought! Hope you got some positive feedback from some of the visitors.
I’m just glad I didn’t catch anything! But happily it seems that the visitors didn’t think too badly of Hong Kong at the end of their quarantine.