The Young Reporter

With a border checkpoint only a few hundred metres away, Jennifer Jiang, 20, a mainland university undergraduate visiting Hong Kong, hurriedly hid two e-cigarettes in her boots after a friend told her that possessing alternative smoking products was legally prohibited in Hong Kong and may result in a heavy fine. “I felt really nervous. After confirming the law online, my first idea was to throw away my two e-cigarettes, but they were brand new and kind of expensive…. So I thought I’d take a gamble," Jiang said. Finally, Jiang slipped through customs luckily with her e-cigarettes intact. In 2022, the Department of Health banned alternative smoking products, prohibiting the import, manufacture, sale, and commercial possession of e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products. This April, it extended the ban to public possession.  Anyone found carrying more than five e-cigarette capsules or 100 heating sticks in public places faces a maximum fine of HK$50,000 and up to 6 months’ imprisonment. Those carrying smaller amounts face a fixed penalty of HK$3,000.  Under the Import and Export Ordinance, importing e-cigarettes and other prohibited smoking products remains a criminal offence carrying a maximum fine of HK$2 million and seven years’ imprisonment. Despite the penalties, some travellers still bring e-cigarettes into Hong Kong. The Customs and Excise Department detected 2,600 cases of illegal importation involving alternative smoking products and seized about 9.35 million items last year. “Although public education has been conducted, the relatively new legislation still leaves room for improvement in timing and reach, particularly for cross-boundary visitors,” said Kelvin Wang Man-ping, professor at the University of Hong Kong’s School of Nursing, who has more than 15 years of experience in tobacco-control research. Hong Kong’s control points handled a record 334.6 million passenger trips in 2025, according to the Immigration Department. Amid such heavy flows, Customs …

In February, Chiao, 22, saw an AI-generated photo with her face superimposed on a naked body appear in the comments of one of her Threads posts. She was shocked and hoped her family and friends could tell the nude photo was fake, she said.  “I refused to share any portraits of myself on public platforms for months, as I was terrified my image would be turned into pornographic content somewhere out of my sight,” said Chiao, a student based in Taiwan, who doesn’t want to reveal her full name for fear of it happening again. Chiao now works part-time at an influencer marketing agency, where she must publish promotional content on her personal social media account showing her face. The required exposure of the job is stressful, she said, explaining that it recalls her trauma and raises the fear of falling victim again.  Luna, 32, a part-time influencer from Taiwan who also doesn’t want to reveal her full name, said she once received a direct message that included a screenshot of an image showing her face swapped onto an intimate image. Luna discovered this photo had been shared in an online chatroom whose members used anonymous accounts. She saved the chat logs as evidence. The group also contained deepfake content of other influencers in pornographic images, Luna recalled, with group members actively posting new face-swapped images at the time. Both Chiao and Luna said they decided not to report the abuse to police. They said they thought authorities would struggle to identify the perpetrators and that filing a report would do little to address the harm they had already suffered. AI-generated deepfake sexual abuse is an increasing threat for online users, particularly young women who say police can do little to help them. Pornographic images account for 98% of deepfakes, …

Hong Kong will subsidise 30,000 new employment opportunities through internships and full-time jobs for those with limited experience, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said at the 2026 Policy Address. This initiative is under the new “30,000 Youth Employment and Internship Programme” and it aims to facilitate career opportunities among fresh graduates and university students over a period of two years starting from the first quarter of 2027. Of these, 10,000 full-time jobs will target fresh graduates entering the workforce for the first time.  The number of job vacancies open for university graduates fell to a five-year low last year, according to a May report by the Research Office of the Legislative Council Secretariat. The report also attributed the rise in the unemployment rate of those aged between 15 to 24 to the high proportion of first-time job seekers who lack work experience. Within the programme, 10,000 internships for STEM will be offered over two years. Alizhan Ibrayev, 22, from Kazakhstan, who graduated with a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Hong Kong Baptist University this year, interned at “A Grade Energy Limited”, a company based in the Hong Kong Science and Technology Park.  Ibrayev said that internship opportunities at the Science Park are very popular, especially for STEM students.  Hong Kong Science & Technology Parks Corporation, set up by the Hong Kong government in Shatin in 2001, is home to more than 2,400 technology companies, many of which offer student internships. Ibrayev mentioned that after his internship, he was offered a full-time position at the Park, but declined it to pursue his PhD at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He added that other graduates in his cohort are struggling to find part-time or full-time jobs. Hong Kong’s entire labour market has seen a decline in employment, according to …

https://youtu.be/JclqSdmYdas?si=Aj4NY2NJcgZ9LKZ_ Reported by Linnea Hedman, Anne Baguio Edited by Audrey FU Rong Video description: Hong Kong’s largest gelato festival, Ciao! Gelato Fest 2026, has returned to PMQ in Central, bringing together 20 gelato brands from Hong Kong, Italy, Macau and Portugal. The festival features more than 30 limited-edition and debut flavours, including Asian-inspired creations such as Hong Kong French toast, pineapple bun and mochi. The event attracted long queues and a diverse crowd during the National Day Golden Week, with visitors from Hong Kong, mainland China, and more. According to PMQ, daily visitor traffic increased by 12 % compared with last year, averaging 12,000 visitors a day. With free admission, Ciao! Gelato Fest takes place at PMQ from Oct. 1 to 4 and Oct. 9 to 11.

The number of reserved visitors for Sai Kung’s Po Pin Chau on National Day reached 2,420,  exceeding the original official capacity limit of 2,000, yet only 1,160 people visited the spot, according to the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department. That came as the department announced on Aug. 21 that during the weekends, the Mid-Autumn Festival, and the National Day “golden week” from Sept. 5 to Oct. 7, visitors must make an appointment in advance to visit the High Island Geo Trail-Po Pin Chau Section of the High Island Reservoir East Dam in Sai Kung.  Visitors must make a reservation via online travel agency Klook and present both the electronic confirmation and proof of identity to gain entry on the day of visit. On the National Day, environmental NGO Greenpeace conducted a field visit, and said crowding and trail damage remained serious despite the booking system, it said in a statement. Greenpeace called on the authorities to lower the daily quota of 2,000, prioritise repairs to damaged sections of the trail, and consider stronger measures such as seasonal closures or closing degraded segments during peak periods. “In the long run, the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau and the Environment Bureau should implement cross-departmental cooperation to carry out carrying-capacity studies on ecologically sensitive sites across Hong Kong and formulate a conservation-first ecotourism policy,” it wrote. Peng Liqing, Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Hong Kong, said while visitor caps are direct management tools, their actual effectiveness ultimately depends on quota calibration and visitor behavior management. Before the policy was implemented, the East Dam—the starting point of Po Pin Chau—recorded a daily average of 2,900 visitors during this year’s May Day holiday, peaking at 5,700 in a single day, the AFCD said. According to the Policy Address 2026, …

Vivian Chan, a 16-year-old Form Five student in Wong Chuk Hang, had her life trajectory changed three years ago when she was bullied and sexually harassed at just 12 years old. The incident left her isolated, led to suicide attempts, and resulted in a year-long struggle with mental health symptoms before she finally received a diagnosis and started treatment at Queen Mary Hospital. Chan was diagnosed with moderate depression in early 2024, one year after her depression began to arise, which gradually worsened due to extended outpatient waiting times and delayed community intervention, she said. Hong Kong’s public hospital psychiatric clinics have long been plagued by lengthy waiting times and a severely imbalanced doctor-patient ratio, with the longest waiting time for new outpatient cases reaching up to 101 weeks in 2025.  While the government seeks to strengthen community mental health interventions in the hope of shortening clinical waiting lists, the effort is hampered by a shortage of resources for social workers’ early identification and prevention services training.  The number of new psychiatric outpatient cases at public clinics has continuously increased from 47,879 in 2022 to 53,353 in 2025, according to the Hospital Authority.  Around one in five urgent patients faces a median waiting time of one to three weeks for treatment, while the median waiting period for most non-urgent patients ranges from 17 to 76 weeks. After joining Queen Mary Hospital’s waiting list in 2024, Chan eagerly awaited professional medical help, only to endure a 28-week delay.  Chan felt intense pain and helplessness during the waiting period. “Without a diagnosis, I kept overthinking if I was truly sick,” she added.  She once locked herself in her bedroom for weeks to escape from the painful reality.  “I pulled the curtains to block out sunlight, wrapped myself in blankets, and couldn’t hold …

In February, Chiao, 22, saw an AI-generated photo with her face superimposed on a naked body appear in the comments of one of her Threads posts. She was shocked and hoped her family and friends could tell the nude photo was fake, she said.  “I refused to share any portraits of myself on public platforms for months, as I was terrified my image would be turned into pornographic content somewhere out of my sight,” said Chiao, a student based in Taiwan, who doesn’t want to reveal her full name for fear of it happening again. Chiao now works part-time at an influencer marketing agency, where she must publish promotional content on her personal social media account showing her face. The required exposure of the job is stressful, she said, explaining that it recalls her trauma and raises the fear of falling victim again.  Luna, 32, a part-time influencer from Taiwan who also doesn’t want to reveal her full name, said she once received a direct message that included a screenshot of an image showing her face swapped onto an intimate image. Luna discovered this photo had been shared in an online chatroom whose members used anonymous accounts. She saved the chat logs as evidence. The group also contained deepfake content of other influencers in pornographic images, Luna recalled, with group members actively posting new face-swapped images at the time. Both Chiao and Luna said they decided not to report the abuse to police. They said they thought authorities would struggle to identify the perpetrators and that filing a report would do little to address the harm they had already suffered. AI-generated deepfake sexual abuse is an increasing threat for online users, particularly young women who say police can do little to help them. Pornographic images account for 98% of deepfakes, …

Chinese flavored wines drew strong interest from visitors at the Hong Kong Wine and Dine Festival in Central over the weekend from Oct. 29 to Nov.1, with tea and coffee-infused cocktails releases among the most popular offerings. “The innovation has turned once-conventional wines into newly popular, award-winning hits at this year's festival,” said Ken Cheng, 45, manager at a Hong Kong-based Chinese wines distributor. Chinese wine booths drew many tasters at the festival as Chinese producers recorded a strong performance at the 2026 Decanter World Wine Awards in June, where they won 214 medals, including two platinum, 11 golds, and 100 silvers. Cheng said younger consumers are increasingly pivoting toward fresh and distinctively flavoured vintages, adding that the growing demand for such approachable wines is reshaping the global wine market. Ken Yuen, a local wine distributor representing mainland labels, said local consumers are exceptionally open to novel profiles. “Our best sellers here are actually unique infused releases, such as caffeine-free coffee flavoured and tea flavoured wines that align perfectly with Hong Kong’s daily coffee culture,” Yuen said. “Ningxia’s wine exports surged 180% year-on-year, with Hong Kong absorbing nearly half of that total. Winemakers attribute this rapid growth to local consumers’ exceptional openness to novel profiles,” Yuen added. While distributors focus on expanding trade volume, boutique winery owners are also working to build international recognition for Chinese wines. “Our original motivation for founding the winery was simple, giving back to the community and bringing Chinese-flavoured wines to the world stage,” said Rita Kung, a Hongkonger who co-founded boutique winery Mystic Island in Shandong and was one of the exhibitors.  Kung said balancing the company's revenues and costs remains challenging; however, the desire to bring Shandong's locally crafted wines to the world has not wavered. Kevin Lo, an air and sea logistics …

Reported by Kajsa Svedlund Kylsjö Edited by Linnea Hedman In a stunning display of stamina and community spirit, 21-year-old Emeric Payer set a new course record for the 45-kilometres HK360 circumnavigation swim around Hong Kong Island on Nov. 2, 2026. Payer completed the gruelling open-water challenge in a historic time of 10 hours, 22 minutes, and 59 seconds, shaving more than 13 minutes off the previous course record of 10:35:58, set by Waris Mills on Nov. 26, 2025. A dream come true  For Payer, standing at the finish line as the new record holder was a milestone he once thought unattainable. "When I signed up six months ago, I saw the 45 km distance and the fast pace they put me up on and I was telling myself, 'I will never do that,'" Payer said after reaching the shore.  Having never attempted long-distance swims of this scale, Payer trained under Edie Hu, an experienced open-water swimmer who completed the HK360 in 2018. Under her coaching, Payer ramped up his training over six months, joining local races and steadily increasing his mileage. "A couple of weeks ago, he did a 10-hour swim in Repulse Bay, swimming back and forth from the beach to South Bay. It was really nice that day to see his confidence that he could actually do it," Hu said. Braving the dark and unpredictable waters Open-water swim experts and organisers regard the 45-kilometre HK360 as one of the region’s most demanding endurance challenges. Swimmers must contend with unpredictable currents, choppy waters, and heavy commercial shipping traffic. Payer launched his attempt under the cover of darkness at 4 am. When the sun finally rose just before 6 am, it provided a vital mental boost for the long journey ahead. "This morning’s sunrise was magical, one of the most …