SCMP Hong Kong·Sunday, January 4, 2026

SCMP Hong Kong - Sunday, January 4, 2026

10 stories~15 min

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Stories Covered

Hongkongers flock to say goodbye as landmark Sham Shui Po department store closes

Loyal customers and bargain hunters crowded a landmark department store in Hong Kong on Sunday as it closed its doors after three decades of operations. The closure of Sincere Department Store’s Sham Shui Po branch, a neighbourhood fixture for 30 years, leaves the chain with only two remaining outlets. Founded in 1900, Sincere was the first Chinese-owned department store in Hong Kong and remains one of the city’s oldest retail groups. Its branches in Mong Kok and Central continued to operate. On

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Hong Kong ranked fourth for ‘post-Covid air transit connectivity in Asia-Pacific’

Hong Kong ranked fourth in a university study on air transit connectivity at 16 aviation hubs across the Asia-Pacific in 2023. Researchers from the National Taiwan Ocean University’s transport science department also said Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou experienced declines in connectivity following the Covid-19 pandemic. The paper, published in the Asian Journal of Shipping and Logistics in early December, assessed the competitive positions of 16 major hub airports in the region before and...

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Singer among 3 held as HK$7.7 million drugs seized from Hong Kong village house

Hong Kong police have arrested three people, including a local singer, after seizing drugs with a market value of HK$7.7 million (US$988,118) from a village house in Yuen Long on Saturday. Sources identified the singer as Kris Law Kai-chung, 35, who made his debut in 2015 and rose to fame in 2018 on ViuTV’s reality show “Good Night Show – King Maker”. During the show, Law competed with contestants who went on to become stars in the Cantopop band Mirror. Senior Inspector Chow Ka-yun said on...

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Hongkonger who allegedly posed as officer held over burglaries aimed at elderly

Hong Kong police have arrested a 50-year-old man who allegedly posed as a government officer and stole HK$20,000 (US$2,570) from unsuspecting elderly residents in three separate burglaries. Police on Sunday said they had arrested the man, surnamed Chan, in Ta Kwu Ling on Saturday in connection with three burglaries that occurred in December in Cheung Sha Wan, Sham Shui Po and Tuen Mun. The force said that between December 25 and 29, three residents reported that a man who posed as an officer...

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Hong Kong fire-displaced residents told to leave youth hostels by end of January

Residents left homeless by Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades have been told to vacate their emergency accommodation at youth hostels by the end of this month so the facilities can resume their normal operations. The Home and Youth Affairs Bureau on Sunday said affected residents could move to transitional housing, while property owners could use the government’s HK$150,000 (US$19,249) annual subsidy to rent flats elsewhere. It added that discretion could be exercised in cases where they were

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Hong Kong records 72% jump in mainland Chinese tourists over long New Year break

Hong Kong welcomed nearly 660,000 mainland Chinese visitors over the new year countdown and the subsequent three-day holiday across the border, a 72 per cent increase from the same period a year ago. Sector representatives said the surge was a boost for the hotel sector but brought limited benefits for retailers. Data released by the Immigration Department on Sunday showed 659,090 mainland visitors entered Hong Kong between New Year’s Eve and Saturday, accounting for 79 per cent of the total...

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Passengers made 30 million trips in 2025 with Hong Kong’s high-speed rail line

Passengers made more than 30 million trips using Hong Kong’s cross-border high-speed rail link last year, with the figure representing a 17 per cent increase from 2024 and setting a record. The MTR Corporation also revealed on Sunday that the West Kowloon rail terminus set a new single-day ridership record on December 27, when the number of passenger trips reached about 140,000. The company also described last year’s usage figure as a “record high”, while noting that cumulative patronage since..

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‘I thought of pushing wife out window’: Hong Kong fire survivors recount escape

When a Hong Kong resident surnamed Chow opened his front door at Shek Kip Mei Estate on Sunday, he was met by a dense wall of black soot. “[The smoke] was cutting my throat and nose, and my eyes won’t stop tearing,” said the man in his forties as he recounted the harrowing struggle with his wife and dogs, after a fire broke out a few doors away from his home, leaving one man dead and eight injured. As the fire erupted in a cluttered flat on the 21st floor of Mei Yue House on Sunday morning,...

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How Hong Kong can work with Hainan to ease entry to China’s market

Previously, I put forward the argument that Hong Kong’s relevance in China’s opening up lies less in guarding its gateway role and more in developing new forms of partnership. Since then, Hainan has set up distinct island-wide customs operations from December 18. This is a turning point – one that invites Hong Kong to think not only about how to cooperate, but how to co-design the next phase of China’s engagement with the world. Hainan’s transformation is ambitious. Around 6,600 types of goods..

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Hong Kong to boost tech, financial services integration during AI boom: Paul Chan

Hong Kong’s finance chief has pledged to further integrate financial services with technology innovation to foster a thriving ecosystem, following a surge in investor interest in artificial intelligence-related stocks during the first trading day of the year. Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po also stressed on Sunday the importance of Hong Kong’s role as an international capital market in fuelling the growth of mainland China’s frontier tech firms using the city’s funding and liquidity. “We...

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