bc magazine

Sport For All Day 2017

The Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) will hold a “Sport For All Day 2017” on 6 August 2017 to encourage people to maintain a healthy lifestyle through sports and activity participation and form the habit of exercising at least half an hour a day.

There will be a wide range of free programmes offered across the city from ‘run gait analysis’ to ‘towel exercises for fun’ see the full programme schedule here.

To get you in the mood and habit of exercising the LCSD have created a simple daily stretching programme – the pdf of which you can download here.

Various normally fee-charging LCSD facilities will be open for free on 6 August. The facilities include:

Indoor facilities: badminton courts, tennis courts, basketball courts, netball courts, volleyball courts, squash courts, table tennis tables, American pool tables, billiard tables, sport climbing walls, bowling greens, golf facilities, fitness rooms, activity rooms, dance rooms, cycling track.

Outdoor facilities: tennis courts, tennis practice courts, bowling greens, batting cages, sport climbing walls, archery ranges, a rope course and golf facilities (excluding camp facilities, sports grounds and artificial and natural turf pitches); Public swimming pools (excluding Wan Chai Swimming Pool); and Craft at water sports centres.

Bookings for land-based leisure facilities and craft at water sports centres on 6 August can be made at the Leisure Link booking counters at LCSD venues (except for self-service kiosks) from 9am on 30 July. Each person can only book one free session on a first-come, first-served basis irrespective of the type of facility.

No prior booking is required for public swimming pools where entrance is on a first-come, first-served basis.

Sport For All Day 2017
Date: 6 August, 2017
Venue: LCSD Sports Facilities
Tickets: Free
More info: Bookings from 30 July.
http://www.lcsd.gov.hk/en/sfad/2017/index.html

Leisure Facilities Free Use Day For HKSAR’s 20th Anniversary

In celebration of the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) will hold a Free Use Day on 1 July. The aim is to encourage people of all ages to do more physical exercise and develop a healthy lifestyle and bring exercise into daily life.

Various normally fee-charging LCSD facilities will be open for free on 1 July. The facilities include:

Bookings for land-based leisure facilities and craft at water sports centres on 1 July can be made at the Leisure Link booking counters at LCSD venues (except for self-service kiosks) from 9am on 24 June. Each person can only book one free session on a first-come, first-served basis irrespective of the type of facility.

No prior booking is required for public swimming pools where entrance is on a first-come, first-served basis.

Leisure Facilities Free Use Day
Date: 1 July, 2017
Venue: LCSD Sports Facilities
Tickets: Free
More info: Bookings from 24 June. www.lcsd.gov.hk/en/freeuseday/index.html.

Emack & Bolio’s Fake Off Customers

By 4:30pm today’s hundreds of eager customers were lined up in the stifling heat outside Emack & Bolio’s store on Cochrane Street. Why, because on the 19 June Emack & Bolio’s sent out a press release and announced in their social media channels two hours of Free Ice Cream!

The exact wording of the press release was:
Free Ice Cream for Summer Solstice… celebrate the start of summer with a free scoop of your favourite Emack & Bolio’s ice cream!!! Just visit any of our stores between 5-7pm on Wednesday 21 June, and follow us on FB or IG.
Only one per customer, our decision is final.

Yet hundreds of customers left angry and frustrated because it wasn’t a 2 hour promotion as announced and advertised, it was a 200 scoop promotion. A fact the company didn’t bother to mention in it’s desperate desire for publicity.

This is not the the first time the company has hosted this type of giveaway but obviously they subscribe to the trump pr playbook of telling lies and using fake facts to get publicity no matter the cost or inconvenience to others.

By 6pm the branch staff were outright lying to customers who turned up saying social media had got it wrong. Social media spread the Free ice-cream promotion correctly, Emack & Bolio’s just failed to honour the offer as announced. Adding the extra condition once the promotion had gone viral. Sadly consumers have little recourse to duplicitous companies like this other than to take their business elsewhere.

Twenty-Five Minutes Older @ Art Basel

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2008/Twenty-Five-Minutes-Older-Art-Basel-21-March-2017/i-f2fBdkS

One of Art Basel‘s off-site exhibits this year is Twenty-Five Minutes Older by local artist Kingsley Ng. Ng’s ‘Twenty-Five Minutes Older’ turns two of Hong Kong’s iconic trams into moving camera obscuras, creating an altered reality and allowing passengers to experience Hong Kong in a new way – in reverse.

Moving images of the city, created via a ‘pin-hole camera’ in the side of the blacked out tram, are accompanied by spoken extracts from Liu Yichang’s famous stream-of-consciousness novella Tête-bêche. The live images of passing street life displayed inside the tram blend and flow alongside Liu’s poetic incantations. The familiar re-experienced in a completely new way – it’s quite surreal as the upside down world floats in the darkness as Liu’s words flow from headphones that remove the everyday sounds.

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2008/Twenty-Five-Minutes-Older-Art-Basel-21-March-2017/i-Bqhp7Fs

‘Twenty-Five Minutes Older’, was first presented in 2016 as part of ‘Human Vibrations: The 5th LargeScale Public Media Art Exhibition’ that celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Arts Development Council in Hong Kong, runs on the different parts of the tram tracks until the 28 March. Tickets are free, but must be booked in advance here.

https://youtu.be/4YltmPTlNB8

Macau Chinese New Year Celebrations

Macau’s Year of the Rooster celebrations involve, unsurprisingly, the God of Wealth. There’s a 14 float parade that will wend its way through the city on two separate evenings (30 Jan, 4 Feb). Performers and singers from Macao, Hong Kong and China will provide the entertainment. A massive fireworks display caps festivities on the 30th January.

Macau Year of the Rooster Parade
Date: 8pm, 30 January & 4 February, 2017
Venue: Macao Science Center to Sai Van Lake Square (30 Jan), Rua de Norte do Patane to Iao Hon Market Park (4 Feb)
Tickets: Free

Year of the Rooster Parade Float Exhibition
Date: 30 January – 12 February, 2017
Venue: Sai Van Lake Square & Tap Siac Square
Tickets: Free

Macau Year of the Rooster Firework Display
Date: 9:45pm, 30 January, 2017
Venue: Macau Tower Seafront
Tickets: Free

Chinese New Year Night Parade

The Chinese New Year Night Parade will be held on the first day of the Year of the Rooster (Saturday, 28 January), with a line-up of 10 floats, and 26 international and local performing groups.

Organised by the HK Tourism Board the parade route starts at the HK Cultural Centre, proceeds along Canton Road then Haiphong Road, turns right on Nathan Road, and ends just past Chungking Mansions.

Chinese New Year Night Parade
Date: 8pm, 28 January, 2017
Venue: Tsim Sha Tsui
Tickets: Free

New Years Eve Fireworks

The New Year Countdown Celebrations will be the Hong Kong Tourist Board’s first celebratory event for the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the HKSAR. The fireworks display will be extended from 8 to 10 minutes and feature new fireworks patterns including a mock gun salute. And for the first time and we’ll quote the HKTB “there’ll be lighting effects for a stronger visual impact.”

As if the TST waterfront isn’t busy enough – and with the ‘Walk of Stars’ closed – even more packed on New Year’s Eve there will also be a ‘street party’ at the Tsim Sha Tsui Pier from 10pm where various artists will perform. Why this isn’t in Tamar Park or Central Harbourfront which have far more space is not a question we could get an answer to…

New Years Eve Fireworks
Date: Midnight, 31 December, 2016
Venue: Victoria Harbour
Tickets: Free

HKGCC Free Ride Day – 29 November, 2016

HKGCC Free Ride Day was launched in 2011 as part of events to celebrate the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce’s birthday, which was established on May 29, 1861.

Members of the public can ride on all Hong Kong trams and the Star Ferry for free on 29 November.

HKGCC Free Ride Day
When: 29 November, 2016
Where: HK Trams, Star Ferry
How much: Free