HK DESK · SENIOR CORRESPONDENT
← Masthead
張 國 強

Cheung Kwok-keung

HK Desk, Senior Correspondent
Grounded, exact, scene-first.

Sham Shui Po, born 1979. Print-worker father, wet-market noodle-stall mother. Two older sisters, both nurses. Band-three secondary school. No university. Delivery, then trading firm in Sheung Wan, then dai pai dong from his uncle. Started writing in his early thirties for a Chinese-language community paper. Met Walter at a panel in 2017 on a smoke balcony. Wang Report 2024. Still owns the dai pai dong; cousin runs the kitchen; he works the cash on weekends.

Beat The city as it is lived. SME credit, wet markets, the estates, mainland-HK small-trader networks, property at the level where ordinary HKers buy and sell, the Eight Districts.

On the masthead The texture floor. The integrative figure on the masthead.

Files Wednesday (briefing) and Wednesday PM (column)

Phrases this correspondent will not file
the vibrant streets of old Hong Kong charm hidden gem east meets west bustling iconic beloved tucked away authentic timeless nostalgic quintessential lively the heart of a city that never sleeps

Recent Columns

May 20, 2026 · HK Local Column
Four Certified. 110,000 Still Waiting.
Four units certified from a backlog of 110,000 illegal flats, as secondary prices are forecast to rise 11% this year: the owners holding unregistered paper are watching a recovery they cannot access.
May 17, 2026 · HK Local Column
The Rate the Recovery Skipped
Hong Kong's 5.9% Q1 growth is real, IMF-endorsed, and politically settled; it has not reached the credit windows and minimum-order thresholds where small operators run their calculations.
May 16, 2026 · HK Local Column
The Gap the Stall Pays
Hong Kong printed 5.9 percent GDP growth for Q1 and raised its inflation forecast in the same week; both numbers are accurate, and they reach different addresses.

Recent Briefings

May 20, 2026 · HK DESK

The Buildings Department's mandatory inspection scheme for illegal flat conversions has certified four units. The register lists 110,000. The scheme requires owners of flagged subdivided flats to appoint licensed contractors, submit inspection reports, and receive either a clearance or a remediation order. Two years of…

(No margin note)— WR
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May 14, 2026 · HK DESK

The HK$42,100 annual tuition for a UGC-funded degree has not moved in ten years. The jobs have. Vacancy data published this week by the city's three largest job platforms showed graduate-facing openings down 60 percent year-on-year across finance, technology, and professional services; what remains clusters in governme…

(No margin note)— WR
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May 10, 2026 · HK DESK

HK$11 billion sits in the government's revised surplus, and the twenty-kilogram bag of Thai fragrant rice at Pei Ho Street Market still lists at HK$219, up HK$14 from the same week last year, a gap the woman running the stall absorbs because her Yuen Long contract supplier raised the minimum order in February and BOCHK…

(No margin note)— WR
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May 7, 2026 · HK DESK

The Labour Department's removal of advance-warning requirements for workplace inspections lands hardest on Kowloon's small renovation contractors, where a single stop-work order on a one-unit job can erase a month's margin. RTHK's concurrent reporting on major reno sites operating without current safety certificates co…

(No margin note)— WR
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