Should I stay or should I go - Hong Kong [protests]

[ellen10]

In response to 33kfts comments. Qantas still have not contacted passengers to say the flight has been cancelled. In fact if you go into manage my booking it still says the flight is going ahead, But surely not as all flights are cancelled. There are no check in counters manned or open. I would have thought Qantas would have contacted all flight passengers to confirm that the flight is not going ahead. Husband and son ran into an older couple who still thought they should try and get to the airport as they hadn't heard anything from Qantas.

And yes it is stressful trying to sort it out

 

[Hvr]

A site with live coverage of various locations in Hong Kong including HKIA.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=514939005918423

 

[ravager]

First of all, I'm sorry to hear that some of you being affected by the protests in HK. From what I heard from my friends in HK, it is still safe to travel around HK. The protesters will not attack any tourists. However, I advise tourists to stay away from the large gatherings as the police will shoot tear gas and rubber bullets in large number. There are also news report showing triad gangs moving in groups to attack people wearing black shirts (protesters) or even any people. Be sure to stay away from them as the police will not interfere.
Starting from today, there are possibilities of airport shutdown in the coming days due to protest at the airport. It may seems scary to see many protesters but feel free to ask them for advice. I cannot comment on the arrangement of the airlines but Macau's airport may be an urgent solution if your visa allows.

Sorry again for an inconvenience and I hope your trip ends well.

 

[yohy?!]

I'd suggest if you keep to yourself and keep awareness of surroundings and news that the trip is still doable.

Clashes here tend to occur on weekend evenings and are highly localised, protesters are of no risk to foreigners - Police are the ones to be avoided at all costs as they are at breaking point and will not follow international convention around crowd dispersal.

The MTR has been generally fine, as have taxis in tourist areas (obviously excluding last nights extreme violence in Tai Koo and the Yuen Long gangster attacks 3 weeks ago).

Feel free to PM me for any advice.

 

[ellen10]

An update on my husband and son's experience. Its been a very long night trying to sort everything out.

Long story short, they finally received an email 1 hour before the scheduled flight departure (which was 10.30 pm HK time) to say that the flight was cancelled. Up until that time Qantas was still saying by sms to me and showing on their site that the flight was going ahead and to proceed to the airport. Husband and son decided to still go to the airport because they thought that maybe the flights would run later which is what the sms person said also. The stressful time for me was that they (son & Husband) were out of communication with me for about 2 hours and I didn't know where they were and what was happening. They got caught up in a big protest at the train station, couldn't get on a train and took a long time to get back out. Finally got away and went to the nearest hotel which was the Four Seasons.

Qantas emailed them again at 3am (1am HK time) to say they have rebooked them on a CX flight departing on Thursday. (original flights were QF).

Now to sort out insurance policies. They did say that the protesters that they talked to at the train station were polite and husband & son did not feel threatened the protestors just stated their reasons for the protest and would not be letting them through. The protesters did say they should get away from the station as they were expecting the police to arrive and it could get nasty. They even looked up the closest hotel for them and gave directions.

So main thing, they are safe, we will try and contact Qantas again to get on an earlier flight. Having no status with Qantas makes it difficult at these times.

 

[Ade]

Now, I'm reallllyyyy worried as I'm on QF127 (SYD-HKG) tomorrow

 

[Melburnian1]

I just wonder what the protestors have as their goal
And what will happen to resolve this situation. It was inevitable after the handover and took longer than I had predicted to eventuate.

"Longer than I had predicted?"

Didn't the repressive Marxist government in Beijing give the UK an assurance that the situation would stay the same until 2046?

Time for the West to continually speak up and proactively back the people of Hong Kong. Thankfully some in the Federal Coalition Government such as Dave Sharma (NSW) and Andrew Hastie (WA) recognise the grave threat the mainland Chinese government is to Australia and to the world. Recent appointments by the Prime Minister Mr Morrison to security and intelligence posts have been excellent.

Given that so many mainland Chinese travel even though its government slapped a recent travel ban on independent travellers to democratic Taiwan, hopefully many are seeing on overseas television screens how brutal the HK police are and how many millions of Hong Kongers are demonstrating for their five key goals.

 

[Pushka]

"Longer than I had predicted?"

Didn't the repressive Marxist government in Beijing give the UK an assurance that the situation would stay the same until 2046?

Time for the West to continually speak up and proactively back the people of Hong Kong. Thankfully some in the Federal Coalition Government such as Dave Sharma (NSW) and Andrew Hastie (WA) recognise the grave threat the mainland Chinese government is to Australia and to the world. Recent appointments by the Prime Minister Mr Morrison to security and intelligence posts have been excellent.

Given that so many mainland Chinese travel even though its government slapped a recent travel ban on independent travellers to democratic Taiwan, hopefully many are seeing on overseas television screens how brutal the HK police are and how many millions of Hong Kongers are demonstrating for their five key goals.

And which really means not much in these days of political moves! “I trust politicians” said no one ever.

I’m just glad my DILs parents flew yesterday through Singapore from UK as their daughters baby will be born tomorrow and they would not have made it in time, let alone the effect of the stress on their daughter.

 

[Melburnian1]

And which really means not much in these days of political moves! “I trust politicians” said no one ever.

I’m just glad my DILs parents flew yesterday through Singapore from UK as their daughters baby will be born tomorrow and they would not have made it in time, let alone the effect of the stress on their daughter.

Be happy for your relatives, but for goodness' sake try to extend your horizons and be appalled at the viciousness of Beijing-backed HK police. The video is confronting to watch but shows how a demonstrator has shed a large amount of blood upon being arrested by thugs dressed as 'demonstrators':

Hong Kong police top brass face barrage of questions over use of weapons, injuries, undercover tactics | Hong Kong Free Press HKFP

Hong Kong police faced a barrage of questions regarding their use of crowd control weapons on Sunday night, as well as their tactics involving undercover officers and the alleged planting of evidence. Deputy Commissioner of Police Tang Ping-keung admitted that police officers disguised...

www.hongkongfp.com

And you ought also consider that as was the case in Eastern Europe in the late 1980s, communism can be defeated by the strength of ordinary people banding together.

 

[mini2]

So the protesters have spent 3 days over the weekend having a nice little sit-in in the arrival hall but that didn't achieve much. As soon as they've made their way to the departure hall, flights canx so that may become some sort of positive reinfrocement for them. That may set the scene for days to come.

 

[Saab34]

Why are the CX flights getting out last night? There are others leaving at the sane time to other Oz cities too..
Empty ferry?

 

[Melburnian1]

Saab34, good point, but they didn't all leave: for instance, the earlier CX135 to MEL, the one that forms the 0730 hours morning flight ex MEL did not operate.

I'm guessing that the flight and cabin crew may have had to enter the airport via a freight or other vehicular gate (although how do they then get screened by security and immigration?)

 

[JB expat]

I'm not sure the CCP will be very happy about the airport shutdown. It makes it much harder to spin in the state run media when it impacts mainlanders directly. BBC reports that there were 27 million mainlander tourist visits to HK in the first half of 2019 and when you have this sort of thing happening regularly it is going to stir up some discussion domestically that the Chinese govt would rather not deal with.

Also, one inbound flight impacted: Scoot flight turns back to Singapore - Hong Kong-bound flight TR980 is returning to the city state. It took off just past 2pm and was supposed to land in Hong Kong at 6.05pm. The plane is now due to arrive back at Changi Airport in Singapore at 9pm

What would happen with a plane that didn’t have enough fuel to turn around? I want to say “of course they’d be allowed to land”. But is it “of course”?

 

[ellen10]

Maybe they were empty or some transit people. They probably need the plane to get to the destination for the return flight full of passengers or otherwise a bigger backlog.
There were no checkin counters open in the departures hall or security screening. All closed.

 

[Saab34]

What would happen with a plane that didn’t have enough fuel to turn around? I want to say “of course they’d be allowed to land”. But is it “of course”?

Probably divert to Macau. But PIC can essentially land where they please in fuel emergencies regardless of open/closed status. Sealed runway is better than water or field landing. By no means HKG is an unsafe airport or runway, if I was diverting above Iran or somewhere I’d have different reservations.

I just found out CX staff all screen enter via their own building so that was still open enabling staff to get through

 

[get me outta here]

This idiot has been played on Chinese TV to support China's postion to send in their thugs: He can only walk away when treated with more respect and a better argument than his.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1056872871370688

 

[Pushka]

Be happy for your relatives, but for goodness' sake try to extend your horizons and be appalled at the viciousness of Beijing-backed HK police. The video is confronting to watch but shows how a demonstrator has shed a large amount of blood upon being arrested by thugs dressed as 'demonstrators':

Hong Kong police top brass face barrage of questions over use of weapons, injuries, undercover tactics | Hong Kong Free Press HKFP

Hong Kong police faced a barrage of questions regarding their use of crowd control weapons on Sunday night, as well as their tactics involving undercover officers and the alleged planting of evidence. Deputy Commissioner of Police Tang Ping-keung admitted that police officers disguised...

www.hongkongfp.com

And you ought also consider that as was the case in Eastern Europe in the late 1980s, communism can be defeated by the strength of ordinary people banding together.

The police tactics are awful. Never said anything to the contrary. This question was posed by the OP in response to a travel enquiry. Nothing more nothing less. Whether or not I agree with anyone’s actions on both sides is irrelevant to the travel question.

 

[Dr Ralph]

Hope they are ok but must be stressful times. I'm sorry but all the AFFers in this thread who said above they will still go to HK...

I'd still go. No hesitation.

 

[get me outta here]

It is reported that the police are talking to each other in Mandarin (HKGers speak Cantonese). The gangsters who attacked protestors have not been charged with offences leading to 10 years in jail as the protestors have. The protestors have not been attacking people with iron bars. Who knows who has been committing the actual really dangerous activiites, is it the tiads again, others on the side of China maybe. The protestors have achieved part of what they need, international attention.

 

[RooFlyer]

Hope they are ok but must be stressful times. I'm sorry but all the AFFers in this thread who said above they will still go to HK...

We'll... as one of those, I haven't changed my opinion. I'd still go - is up to the airport ( and/ or the government) to open the airport to receive me !! Yesterday's event was at the instigation of the authorities, I reckon to make the protesters sit in at the airport backfire, by inconveniencing tourists.

Still no danger to tourists, as long as Beijing doesnt go feral ( although that can't be discounted).