Good morning,
I’ve been told that I need to make more ‘calls to action’ for readers especially on social media, it drives the algorithm to push us up or something.
Anyway, thank you long time reader Mary Devereux for sending us a pic of her cat Daisy for international cat day!



— Cyril
On Today’s Tide
Culture | Near-centenarian Lin Heung Tea House closes
COVID | Flights to HK up 249%
Greater China | Taiwan has Chinese restaurants = Chinese
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Lin Heung Tea House pours its last cup
Regulars to the near-centenarian Lin Heung Tea House in Soho were shocked to find their favourite dim sum parlour closed yesterday as the restaurant unceremoniously shut down. Their Tsuen Wan branch ‘Lin Heung Tsan’ closed at the same time, however ‘Lin Heung Kui’ in Sheung Wan will reportedly continue to operate.
The news was broken first on social media by the parent company, Hong Kong Lin Heung Group. Surprisingly, not even the managers of the restaurants knew about the closure. Workers, including store managers, accuse Lin Heung Group of defaulting on close to 4 months of salaries.
The restaurant, famous with locals and tourists alike, started its life as the Guangzhou Cake Shop in 1889 in Guangzhou. In 1926, two branches opened in Hong Kong - one in Mong Kok and another in Central. The current closing branch at Wellington Street has actually only been there since 1980. It is one of the few remaining completely traditional dim sum parlours left with cart only service and traditional tea cups. They briefly closed in 2019, but sprang back up in 2020 until finally capitulating to COVID-19 measures.





COVID in Hong Kong


COVID-19 in Hong Kong
New cases: 4045 (262 imported)
Total cases: 1,393,327
New deaths: 3
Total deaths: 9550
Compulsory testing locations: 40
Hong Kongers back in the sky
According to data from Trip.com, the number of bookings for flights into HK literally flew up by 249% as soon as the government announced a reduction in hotel quarantine from 7 days to 3 days (+4 days medical observation). The data also showed that the majority of visitors are mainland students, likely using Hong Kong as the stopover as flights into China are still rare and costly.
Palates Don’t Cheat: Taiwan is China because of Chinese Restaurants
Bit of more fun restaurant related news, spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry Hua Chunying became an accident memelord a Monday when she tweeted a map of Shandong and Shangxi restaurants in Taiwan, saying that “Palates don’t cheat” and that the “long lost child will eventually return home”.



This, as expected, immediately made meme history as maps of KFC, McD branches and even curry shops in the Mainland were quickly tweeted below.


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Where: The Wanch
Cost: Free
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