Vietnam

Dear Chinese guy

What is the issue with China and Vietnam?

Richard.

Dear Richard

Erm.... I'm thinking you probably mean the Spratly Islands whereby there have been slight skirmishes in the waters around there..... heh a slight skirmish in the Gulf of Tonkin caused a massive war. The Spratlys being 400nm from China while only being 83nm from Vietnam. They've been contested for decades if not centuries. Tbh. With potential oil fields in those there waters who gets them gets the $$.

Stranger things have happened. For instance the UK lays a claim to the Falklands which are over 8000 miles away compared to Argentina which is in spitting distance. 2010 oh look oil has been discovered there...... maybe.

But it's simple, money and power.

We unfortunately live in a world where the right thing is not always done and MIGHT IS RIGHT. To hell with the consequences. Most countries are guilty of this sort of behaviour at one time or another when you are bigger and badder than the other guy. Though remember China got its ass handed to it in 1979.



Or

163 years ago a joint task force imposed its might against Imperial (the shadow of) China and got multiple concessions, various opened ports and then some.

Or

Diego Garcia whereby we exiled the natives to build an airbase on their homelands.

Etc etc.... its just power playing might is right BS. I'm not even going to take sides or say who is right or wrong I'm simply not going to go there at all!

Oil spill Dailan

Meh....

You thought your job was shit?

Dear TCG

I saw this in Beijing recently what the fuck?



T2200


Dear T2200

There is a by law in Beijing and many cities in China whereby there is no shitting in the toilet you are supposed to shit by the side of the hole and not in the hole.

A bloke comes and literally carts off the shit in a wagon sized bucket, heh this reminds me of the the bucket of shit fight in the hostel in 2009. Again something in my book, I already give far too much away about my book on this subject.

Anyway the reasoning behind this is toilets without running water to flush away the faeces has this by-law, as if people did shit into the toilet hole without water it would quickly clog up. That it effectively it, the toilets in western hotels and the ones nearby the big tourist attractions are all plumbed in and therefore you will usually see this in hutong more than anywhere else. These are cleaned up daily and when walking around Beijing late night or early morning I would see rather smell such men with carts cleaning out the hutong toilets. Which makes them 'relatively' clean. Compared to say the toilets of government house in Wanchai before 1997, the Manchester Hacienda or the horrible toilet in Azerbaijan and Mongolia whereby I opened the lid and it was filled to the brim and made me sick at the sight of them

TCG

Is the tap water in Hong Kong drinkable?

Dear Chinese guy.

Is the tap water in Hong Kong safe to drink? , I've heard all sorts of stories from my parents who were born in Hong Kong but emigrated to London in the 1960s.

Simon



Dear Simon

The answer to your question is yes and no, bet that helped didn't it?.

The government says yes it is perfectly safe , but you know they would say that wouldn't they?. However water from the water treatment facilities and the water imported from China which, due to China's reputation for pollution confuses the matter even more.

I have consumed plenty of water from the tap/faucet in Hong Kong, but only in the small villages, in that the issue is not the source of the water but the plumbing. In the New Territories things are generally newer than in Kowloon and Hong Kong Island itself. The buildings and the plumbing is the problem. In that if you go to Mong Kok or TST buildings there were mostly built in the 1960s or 1970s. Chungking Mansions is a case in point. Built in the 1970s the plumbing is ancient and nobody wants to pay to upgrade it. You can go up onto the roof of block A or B and look down the inner wet walls and look at the decay, nobody will go in there to fix the pipes and thus they leak are full of cracks and the water is most definitely NOT safe.


Many Hong Kongers are a bit die hard about this and will only drink water that has been boiled, but then even this only kills the germs but does not get rid of the heavy metal from pipes and chemicals that may leech into the water.

An easy guide as to if the tap water is safe or not is just generally look at the condition of the building, if it looks older than 10-15 years the pipe work will be badly corroded and thus the tap water will not be safe to drink. If you are that concerned just go to a 7-11 and buy a bottle or something most you'll pay is $7 for a half litre bottle of water. Heh the problem is that in the heat you drink so much water that this $7 builds up considerably.

So you pays yer money you takes yer choice.