🌊 Study for free if you're a star athlete

People choose COVID Coexistence

Nice morning (mornings are not nice).

Harbour Times’ own Cyril Ma and Andrew Work attended the Canadian Consulate General of Hong Kong’s Commemorative Ceremony:

Cyril Ma @Cyrildoesthings

Nice morning (mornings are not nice) covering the @CanCGHongKong Canadian Commemorative Ceremony for @harbourtimes. Much bigger than last year, scouts were cool. Good to see @mrgandrewwork and @dmacostello too. Everybody's here! Except.........

Keep scrolling for our Consular updates!

— Jasmine Lee

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Today on Tide:

1. Athletes study for free

2. Four more countries added to COVID travel ban list

3. See the funniest man in the city (get 20% off tickets)

   Paid readers get access to:

4. Keeping Up with the Consulates

5. Nature lovers see Hong Kong in a different light.

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Athletes study for free

Want to get your post-secondary education for free? Consider becoming a national athlete from the mainland.

The country’s best athletes have been invited by Lam Tai-fai, Polytechnic University’s council chairman, to study at the university at zero cost.

"Our Polytechnic University currently ranks 66th in the world, so we're inviting our national team elite athletes and gold medalists to study here after their retirement."

— Lam Tai-fai, council chairman of Polytechnic University

So my sporty comrades, how about a free degree? For a university that ranks 66th in the world, getting a full ride at a university that costs HK$122,700–$132,925 for two years (depending on the program) sounds like a great deal.

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COVID News

Any non-resident of Hong Kong who has been to Chile, Cook Islands, Luxembourg, or Romania in the last 21 days cannot enter the city due to the presence of the Omicron mutation in those countries.

Hong Kong SAR Government News @newsgovhk

The Government announces that non-Hong Kong residents who have stayed in Chile, Cook Islands, Luxembourg or Romania within 21 days are not allowed to enter the city from December 8 due to the detection of #Omicron cases there

news.gov.hkInbound traveller rules tightenedThe Government announces that non-Hong Kong residents who have stayed in Chile, Cook Islands, Luxembourg or Romania within 21 days are not allowed to enter the city from December 8 due to Omicron cases detected in such countries.

New cases: 9 (imported L452R mutant strain)

According to an online survey by the Society of Hospital Pharmacists of HK, half of Hongkongers who haven’t gotten vaccinated say they don’t plan to get it at all. In the same poll, most of the residents were ready to transition to living with COVID (paywalled) rather than the government’s stringent zero-COVID approach.

Swiss Airlines International has suspended flights to and from Hong Kong for at least a week due to the SAR’s strict quarantine measures for airline staff.

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Events / Exhibitions, etc.

We want to make sure that what we advertise is interesting for our readers, so if you go to an event that you saw here, let us know by taking a selfie and tagging us on Twitter or Instagram ( both @harbourtimes ).

We’ll throw in a free month of Paid High Tide for yourself or a friend!

• Jewish Life in Germany and Escape Destination Hong Kong

For the next month, the German CG and the Goethe-Institute are hosting a group of and events detailing the lives of Holocaust refugees who fled to Hong Kong. The gallery itself shows images from the Center for Persecuted Arts in Solingen and the United Nations Outreach Program. In the Art Centre’s Black Box studio, a multimedia performance QING explores the relationship between dance and the ‘body luggage’ of forced migration.

Where: Goethe-Gallery & Black Box Studio. 14/F Hong Kong Arts Centre. Wanchai
When: 11/11 to 11/12 // 9:00am - 8:30pm (Mon - Fri) 9:30am - 6:00pm (Sat)

Events from our partners

• Humour along my Hairline - Vivek Mahbubani's solo English show

Looking for something funny and fishy this Christmas? Bilingual comedian Vivek Mahbubani’s latest show at Ocean Park is sure to drown you with laughter. Also, he may run out of hair halfway.

“It's the same venue that big names like Jim Jeffries have performed in and this time I'm using the ticking timebomb that is my receding hairline as a reason to do my solo show so people can at least one day say "I saw him when he was still hairy!"

— Vivek ‘yeah I guess that’s pretty funny’ Mahbubani

Tickets are available here.

Paid readers have access to an exclusive 20% off discount code.

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Keeping Up with the Consulates

The latest in the SAR’s diplomatic community.

The rest of today’s newsletter is exclusive to our paid readers. Stay in tune with the latest in the diplomat community in HK with a monthly or annual subscription!