Good morning.
Get yourself a free tram ride today. Why? Because HK Tramways received the Guinness World Records title of the "largest tram fleet with a double decker system".
Also, help yourself (and help High Tide) to these beautiful and tasty Van Gogh mooncakes! Pre-order the stunning set featuring Hong Kong’s skyline à la Starry Night and receive $50 off – exclusive to our HT readers.
HT earns a commission off of each purchase through our link, meaning that maybe High Tide will live to see another year after all.
In brief: HK’s latest quarantine rules
Get ready for the city’s latest quarantine rules for overseas arrivals, coming into effect on Friday (20 August) at midnight. Due to the contagiousness of the Delta variant, the government has launched more precautions for travellers.
The new rules include:
compulsory quarantine can be no shorter than 14 days, regardless of people’s vaccination or antibody status
only fully vaccinated travellers who have been to high-risk countries can enter Hong Kong, but they have to quarantine for 21 days, take six tests, self-monitor for a week post-quarantine, and take a test 26 days after arrival
vaccinated travellers from medium and low-risk countries must quarantine for 14 days, take four tests, self-monitor for a week post-quarantine, and take tests 16 and 19 days after their arrival
TL;DR It still sucks.
COVID-19
New cases: 3 (2 imported, 1 unknown)
Total cases: 12,040 (78 active cases)
According to a University of Hong Kong study, those who received the Sinovac vaccine are at a higher risk of experiencing facial paralysis as a side effect – double the risk of those with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Anti-sanctions Law
The anti-sanctions law will be written into Basic Law on Friday. A lot remains unclear regarding how the law will affect HK, and when HK will pass local legislation.
Tam Yiu-chung, delegate to the National People's Congress Standing Committee, brushed aside worries that this law would trigger capital flight.
"I don't think [people] need to over-worry. If we formulate the counter-sanction mechanism, the SAR government will be very careful in studying how to enforce [the law].”
— Tam Yiu-chung
Read more about the uncertainties cast on HK’s financial institutions due to the anti-sanctions law on this SCMP article (paywalled).
Other Political Updates
There’s a list of other pertinent political updates in the realm of protests and the National Security Law waiting for you. All you have to do is become a monthly or annual paid subscriber to High Tide!
Unlike Free Tide – which goes out Monday to Friday – Paid Tide readers receive our full edition of High Tide on the weekends too.
Events
Celebrate HK’s Olympians at a parade on Thursday morning. The athletes will be riding in two open-top buses set to arrive at Nathan Road and Canton Road at around 9:40 AM.
Purchase affordable art at (surprise!) Hong Kong’s Affordable Art Fair from the 26-29 August.
Mooncakes worth cutting your ear off for.
If you’re not ready to commit to a paid subscription, you can still support High Tide by treating yourself to Van Gogh mooncakes (get $50 off!) or donating to us on Patreon or PayPal.
You can always just share us with a friend or enigmatic painter as well.