Matt Fleming

A mere a two-hour flight from Hong Kong, the former capital of the Philippines is well worth exploring, especially after cosulting this list of best things to do in Cebu.  Fin a plethora of fun activities to partake in once you arrive. The difficult part? To choose between them.  In Cebu City there are a bevy of bars and restaurants to suit all budgets, while in Lapu-Lapu you’ll find a wealth of history to uncover—but don't forget about the glorious beaches surrounding the island.  Done something on this list and loved it? Share it with the hashtag #TimeOutDoList and tag @TimeOutEverywhere. Find out more about how Time Out selects the very best things to do all over the world.

  Louise Choi slips on a kinky collar, enters a dungeon and discovers a thriving fetish community in Hong Kong. Photography by Calvin Sit So there I was. Strung up to the ceiling in just my bra and knickers, hands restrained, unable to move an inch. I surveyed the ‘dungeon’ around me, packed with onlookers – an unfamiliar mixture of latex-clad, mask-wearing, strangely shaped revellers hell-bent on seeing how readily I would take my initiation into the world of whips and chains. For anyone who hasn’t experienced a BDSM party, this must seem like a scene conjured up by the most depraved mind in history – think Marquis de Sade or the writer of a porn-horror flick. However, terrifying it wasn’t. It was anything but. This surreal experience soon became an exciting, entirely pleasurable few moments of my life. And it felt comfortable and safe too, despite the stinging of the whip. My initiation into Hong Kong’s underground world of BDSM was nothing like you’d expect. I was game to try anything – nay, everything barring sexual activity itself – just so I could understand what makes the people at these parties tick. I offered up my poor little body to the whim of the devilish group – and to the pieces of kit they brought with them, including the most painful of them all, the ‘single tail whip’. They heard my cries of pain when that weapon struck home – but they also heard my tales of delight when I later thanked them for a memorable, if surreal, experience. Welcome to Hong Kong’s BD

Business is good for metalheads in Hong Kong this year. After Metallica blew the audience away at AsiaWorld-Expo in January, another of thrash metal’s ‘big four’ is coming to our eager city. This Wednesday Californian legends Megadeth bring their Dystopia World Tour to KITEC. Pioneers of thrash and creators of seminal albums such as Peace Sells... But Who's Buying? and Countdown to Extinction, Megadeth are still going strong more than 30 years after their formation, winning their first-ever Grammy last year courtesy of the single, Dystopia.But in all those years of shredding and touring, they’ve never come to Hong Kong, until now. Ahead of their perfomance we chat with bassist and founding memeber David Ellefson about keeping set lists fresh, the rise of Asian metal and what they’re looking to get up to when they hit town... Hi Dave! So Megadeth play Hong Kong on May 10 and we’re excited! Is this the first time you’re played our city?Yes, really glad we are finally making it to Hong Kong! This is our second tour of China, so happy that Hong Kong is part of this tour.What is it about Hong Kong, and Asia for that matter, that’s so appealing when it comes to staging an epic gig?Our first trip to Asia was Japan in 1987 on the “Peace Sells…” tour. We noticed even then, that our music reaches across all borders, ethnicity, politics or creed. It’s truly a music for all people in all nations. At the same time, each nation has its own peculiar style, which we find fascinating as perfo

For a city so associated with Cantopop, Hong Kong is a surprising hotbed of heavy metal activity. A look at the lineup at venues like Hidden Agenda and The Hang Out shows them groaning under the weight of heavy metals acts. Now, even giants of the genre are coming to Hong Kong –  we talked to Metallica ahead of their gig here in January and Megadeth are playing Star Hall in May.What’s better than one superstar band? How about five of the greatest guitarists alive playing together on stage at the same time. That’s what Generation Axe promises. Headed by legendary axeman Steve Vai, a multiple Grammy Award winner who’s played with the likes of Frank Zappa and Ozzy Osbourne, the line-up also includes Swedish icon Yngwie Malmsteen, former Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Zakk Wylde, Nuno Bettencourt of Extreme and Tosin Abasi, founder of Animals as Leaders. The quintet tore it up across the US and now they’re ready to bring the rock to KITEC. We talk to Vai ahead of the gig to learn what’s in store for Hong Kong’s metalheads...So you’re playing at Generation Axe on April 12 in KITEC’s Star Hall. What’s this night all about?I had an idea many years ago to create a show with one backing band and these exceptional guitar players. I was just waiting for the right moment to do it. And one day I had a phone call from [American music and entertainment guru] Miles Copeland who was looking to organise a guitar festival. So I presented my idea because I really wanted to do something different which

Escape rooms used to be spaces where you crammed in with a team of six people and tried to solve a few clues over the period of an hour or so, leading you to getting a whole host of number combinations that can then help open a series of locks hidden around the place. Well, many rooms still are like this but there’s a new beast at play in this unique brain-teasing pastime: technology. And one of Hong Kong’s most popular escape room organisations has just unveiled their newest sign of the times: augmented reality. Welcome to Lost HK’s new hi-tech puzzle-solving experience. AR, which is a live direct or indirect view of the real world as augmented by computer technology, comes to Lost HK in the form of electronic tablets which are used as part of a game. At the moment these tablets have been rolled out in the Inferno game, which is based on a real fire that happened in Shek Kip Mei on Christmas Day, 1953, when a blanket caught fire and flames engulfed a room before they quickly spread and thousands of wooden homes were destroyed, with 41 people losing their lives. The AR used in this game, which is based on a tragedy that some Hongkongers will remember, sees team members viewing on the tablet’s screen how the living room where the fire started looked before the flames were lit. This is despite the fact that the real room the team stands in is actually set during the inferno, hence the game’s name. It’s a way to use the AR technology to view different time periods at exactly the

Nothing beats a set dinner. Sure, ordering à la carte gives you the power of choice but if all you can choose is set menu A or set menu B, you know you’re in a restaurant that’s confident of the quality of its offerings. Chez Ed in Causeway Bay’s Zing! building is indeed confident of its offerings. And so it should be because its offerings are incredible. Just choose the eight-course menu or the 10-course extravaganza and then prepare to be dazzled. Chez Ed opened last summer on the 15th floor of the restaurant-heavy building and it’s done a roaring trade ever since. It’s helmed by a man who’s well-known on the Hong Kong dining scene. Chef Eddy Leung pioneered our city’s private kitchen industry more than 10 years ago with Poison Ivy and he’s also worked for some of the biggest restaurants in the SAR as executive chef, including at The Ritz-Carlton. He’s the boss of eateries like G7 Private Dining and Lobster Bobo in Central but Chez Ed is certainly his flagship restaurant. Chez Ed oozes class. It’s minimalist and chic when it comes to the interiors and it boasts both an open kitchen and a small terrace outside that looks over Happy Valley racecourse. There’s an air of luxury in here although it also suits the casual diner and families too. The staff are super-friendly and explain each dish in the set menus in minute detail, plus the wines on offer that pair so well with the food. The dishes themselves, which boast international flavours and ingredients but also feature a lit

We pick out Hong Kong's best dim sum restaurants that'll get your mouth watering. Not sure what dim sum to go for? Check out our Dim Sum 101 for the low down on the dumplings. 

Prepare to tie your mothers down, Hong Kong. Queen is coming to town. Possibly the biggest rock band in history graces AsiaWorld-Expo on September 28 as part of an Asia tour that’s taking in Japan, Singapore, Thailand and China. This is the first time the group, the creators of super-hits like Bohemian Rhapsody and We Will Rock You, has ever played Hong Kong – or China, for that matter, with a gig in Shanghai too – and it should be a right royal performance. Sadly, Freddie Mercury died a while ago and bassist John Deacon won’t be here but one of the world’s true guitar legends, Brian May, is leading the charge, as is superstar drummer Roger Taylor. And they’re joined by Adam Lambert, who first shared the stage with May and Taylor on the final of American Idol in May 2009, a series he was runner-up on. The team have already performed more than 70 sold-out shows together across the globe in the past few years, taking an awesome light show and special effects with them. Expect the same multi-sensory experience here alongside the same sense of nostalgia, the same singalong choruses and the same ter-riffic May lead solos. But don’t take that from us. Take it from Taylor, Lambert and the axe god themselves… So, you’re playing our city for the first time...Taylor: It’s fantastic. We’re very excited about coming to Hong Kong for the first time ever. We’ve never played in China and never played in Hong Kong. We very much look forward to it. We’re really interested to see the reaction

Few Hong Kong popstars ever make it big on a global scale. Despite the sheer number of people here, our SAR just doesn’t seem to produce many major international music icons. GEM, which stands for Get Everybody Moving, though, could, maybe, just go and change all that. She’s got the looks, the voice, the creative talents and now the growing global profile, meaning she has a real shot of representing Hong Kong and China in charts across the planet in the coming years. GEM isn’t everyone’s cup of cha. She’s taken some criticism in our city over the past couple of years, whether it be for her perceived political stance or just for the fact that some people don’t like her music. But millions of fans would dispute that. And, since she shot to regional fame in Hunan Television’s I Am a Singer reality singing show in 2014, she’s amassed an army of supporters on the Mainland. And clearly she’s popular in the USA and Canada, too, as she’s working with the likes of Avril Lavigne and Ashley Tisdale in a new animated fairy-tale, Charming, over on the other side of the world. Despite being born in Shanghai on August 16, 1991, GEM is all Hongkonger. She went to school here and started her career in the city, debuting in 2008 with self-titled EP, GEM. She is now one of the city’s best-selling artists, thanks to her I Am a Singer success, her diverse range of songs, her popular tours, her team at Hummingbird Music, including mastermind CEO Tan Chang and creative director, Lupo Groinig, and h

A veteran local journalist and author, Mark O’Neill is a former correspondent for the South China Morning Post. O’Neill has written six books on the history of China and talks about his latest, The Miraculous History of China’s Two Palace Museums, which details how artefacts from Beijing’s Palace Museum found their way to Taipei before the Communist victory in 1949.A lot of your work is about Asian history and politics. What has inspired you to write about this region rather than your home in Europe?I’ve been living in Asia since 1978, including more than 16 years on the Mainland, three years in Taiwan, three-and-a-half-years in Japan and more than 10 years in Hong Kong. This has given me the opportunity to learn many things about Asian and, in particular, Chinese history. It’s a topic of limitless interest, especially the individuals involved. My six books have all been about people. I find their stories moving and fascinating. Readers do also.Has your journalist’s background helped with the research for your most recent book, The Miraculous History of China’s Two Palace Museums?Yes. During my time in Beijing and Taipei, I had the opportunity to visit both palace museums. No-one who goes to them cannot be unaffected. A journalist’s training gives you the techniques to do research and write quickly: try to use every hour usefully and not waste it on material you can’t use. Both museums were very helpful in providing materials about their history, especially the one in Taipei.

Hung Hom isn’t home to too many bars. There’s a wealth of restaurants, sure, but watering holes are thin on the ground. We often hit the booze at the ferry pier’s V King and we’ve also been known to frequent the local bars up towards To Kwa Wan. But classy hotel drinkeries with harbour views and reasonable tipples? Not too many options. Until now. The Harbour Plaza Metropolis’ alfresco bar just got a makeover and is now The Patio Bar, sporting top harbour views from its ample space outside the hotel’s famous buffet eatery, Promenade. Neon is the key, particularly the glowing LED furniture which is placed around the area, itself boasting plenty of greenery, palm trees and a gushing water feature to give the venue a super-chilled ambience. Tables and chairs are neon and even the lamps and menus glow once nighttime arrives. The colours change, too. You may find yourself trying to guess the next hue... As jazz and blues play, we hit up happy hour, between 5pm and 8.30pm, to enjoy 30 percent off most tipples, including the cocktails. A Jacky Cheung concert rages at the Coliseum next door and the buffet rages inside. But here, the scene is tranquil so we try one of four signature cocktails, the Patio Pudding ($85). Rum, advocaat, Kahlua, Grand Marnier and an egg combine, making for a silky, creamy concoction that tastes like a sweet pud. The Harbour Sunset ($85) is also ace, with gin, blue curaçao, tonic, lemon juice, syrup and raspberries. A G ‘n’ T with sweet ‘n’ sour tones. As f

Here’s a different sort of restaurant for you to hit up. The Blue Lagoon is actually a 24-hour dining outlet on board the SuperStar Virgo cruise ship which is sometimes docked at Ocean Terminal Hong Kong when not out on the waves. The Star Cruises eatery serves up some wonderful Southeast Asian delights such as bak kut teh and Hainan chicken rice. So book a cruise on this fab vessel and eat in the Blue Lagoon for days on end!

In the heart of Lan Kwai Fong, yet another new bar has opened – but one which sports a ‘homely’ motif. Launched by the owners of Privé, Casa (which means house in Spanish) has certainly gone for the relaxed, high-end market. And it clearly wants to give customers a feel of being at home. Well, that only applies if your home happens to be an antiquated-yet-classy apartment which sports traditional décor and furnishings. The problem with Casa, however, is that upon entering you want it to have a Spanish touch. And it just doesn’t. There is tapas available but little else screams Castilian. We were disappointed about this lack of a Spanish vibe, particularly after the name promises much. However this doesn’t make it a bad bar. On the contrary, there are many luxurious plus points to Casa. The venue boasts a 4,000sq ft area, complete with a private outdoor terrace, primarily for the smokers. It’s plushy, it’s chilled and the upmarket clientele, mostly sat in quiet groups on the Friday evening we visited, seemed to enjoy the lazy ambience. There is a hallmark of quality stamped onto the space, with lavish décor – ornaments include a gramophone and a beautiful antique mirror – juxtaposed with candlelight and dim lilac neon lighting from the bar area. And our favourite fitting has to be the tropical fishtank built into the wall. After a few cocktails you’ll lose yourself in those tranquil depths... When we graced Casa, there was a fantastic acoustic guitarist crooning out Creed and

↔↔↔↔ Verdict All the fun of Oktoberfest in TST If you’ve been walking in Hong Kong today then you’ve probably passed a King Ludwig. There are five KL Beerhalls in the city – but the brotherhood has been joined by its ‘hipper, younger’ cousin on top of the Miramar Shopping Centre in TST. King Parrot Group’s latest venture, Prost, ‘partially opened’ its doors in February but has just ‘fully opened’ now its rooftop garden has been completed. And what a rooftop beer garden. This undercover alfresco drinking area is like a mini-Oktoberfest den, and comes with a German ‘beer bike’ and a food truck in a 3,000sq ft space that, indoors, sports an open concept dining room. On the menu are the trademark German dishes and beers. Nestled in the beer garden, we taste a half-litre glass of Arcobräu Schloss Dunkel ($66), a lager-style almost cola-brown beer. Notes of caramel shine alongside the heavy malts. It goes gorgeously with the pulled pork brioche with salted chips ($95), straight from the food truck that once operated in Canada. Then we have a preview of a beer that’s not on sale yet – a bottle of Arcobräu Mooser Liesl ($68 from mid-June), which boasts a clear golden colour and is equally malty. The Nuremberg sausage and sauerkraut platter ($145) and the ‘dennete’ pizza with Black Forest ham ($165) pair well. Live music hits the stage indoors as we try out Hong Kong’s only authentic German ‘beer bike’. This contraption serves ale as you sit with up to 17 others, pedalling (but not m

Verdict Good presentation and ideas but too heavy on the purse Sometimes a restaurant opens in Hong Kong and you start salivating as soon as you hear about it. The dishes sound creative, the ingredients sound sumptuous and the culinary direction sounds spot on. And then you see the prices. And they’re high. So, even before taking a peek at the exteriors, you’ve created an image in your head of a taste extravaganza that’s worth a dent in your wallet. We do just this when we hear about Bayta, which recently opened its doors down at the quiet end of Hollywood Road. The Mediterranean-inspired eatery from the same team which owns La Cabane promises to knock up innovative feasts for the eyes and the belly. And the set menu prices – for you can only opt for a set menu here – are $650 for a starter, main and dessert or $490 for a starter with a main or dessert. That’s high. So, we’re expecting a star meal when we enter the simple green exteriors. We don’t get a star meal. We get a decent taste experience. But it’s not what you’d expect for those price points. After settling down at one of the handful of tables in this simple industrial-rustic interior, we tuck into our first course choice of a mini vegetable pie with brocciu cheese alongside a ham and herb salad. The pie is a tough cookie to cut but the crust is tasty enough, although the veggie filling is nothing spectacular. The salad, though, is much better, with its ham and coriander combination adding flavour when mixed in with

We all know what a mama-san is in Hong Kong, don’t we? Just take a walk down Lockhart Road and, if you’re male and going solo, chances are you’ll get a few of these grinning older ladies trying to haul you into their seedy little nightclub dens for some overpriced drinks and, ahem, well, just use your imagination. But this new restaurant in Central is hauling in excited customers for a totally different reason. Great Southeast Asian cuisine, drinks which are worth the price and an atmosphere that screams class. This Mama San doesn’t want you to get to know her girls. She wants you to get acquainted with her grills. Dining Concepts, fresh off a raft of new openings like La Locanda and Toro, plus f***ing great news that British chef Gordon Ramsay is rumoured open a new eatery with the group in LKF Tower in September, has just opened Mama San on Wyndham and it’s been packed with punters since day one. Award-winning chef Will Meyrick – touted as ‘Western on the outside and Asian on the inside’ – is at the helm, creating a menu of innovative Southeast Asian dishes and an exotic atmosphere. It’s his second Mama San, with her glamorous sister in Bali becoming a smash hit. Come inside Mama San As soon as you get inside Mama San, you’re taken back to a colonial era – think Shanghai – with dim lighting, low wood ceilings and spacious tables in a moody-yet-classy industrial setting. And there’s Mama San herself – a huge mural gazing down on her punters. Meyrick has travelled across Asia

From killer toads to venomous centipedes, Hong Kong is home to a number of poisonous critters. We round up the top 10 most deadly...1 Many banded krait As opposed to the black and yellow stripes of banded krait, this snake features thinner black and white banding and is considerably more dangerous, being both more aggressive and more venomous. Known as a shy snake, these nocturnal reptiles feed on rodents and linger around watering holes and only bite in defence or when provoked. Be warned, bites are often painless but if left untreated can kill, and they have taken several humans in Hong Kong.  2 Chinese cobra Our famous friend the cobra is the most prevalent snake in China. You find them hanging around open woodlands and grasslands so if you are roaming around the forest late at night, keep your eyes peeled. Known for their distinctive hood and method of attack, they only strike when threatened and although not a spitting cobra, some can eject venom up to two metres. Bites can lead to serious discomfort and even necrosis (cell damage) but anti-venom is plentiful and the condition is rarely fatal. 3 Sea snakes Between four and five feet long, sea snakes usually live in shallow waters feeding on fish, fish eggs and eels. Since they evolved from land snakes, they don’t have gills and therefore need to come to the surface to breathe air. One large left lung, which stretches the length of their body, allows them to stay underwater for hours. Sea snakes are highly venomous and, i

At a few minutes to 8pm tonight, thousands of thrash fans who’ve amassed in AsiaWorld Arena will be loosening their neck muscles in anticipation of banging their heads and throwing their bodies about in possibly the biggest mosh pit Hong Kong has ever seen. That’s right: tonight sees colossal metal band Metallica’s first ever show in our SAR, a concert that toasts the four-piece’s 10th album, Hardwired… to Self-Destruct, which was released just a few weeks ago. And we’re there to catch the mayhem. Ahead of the show, we’re lucky enough to catch up with Metallica’s bassist, Robert Trujillo. And he’s stoked to be playing the band’s first-ever gig in our city. He says: "Hong Kong is amazing. It's very exciting to be here. We arrived late last night from Beijing and when we got here it felt like there was an energy that felt so good and so fresh." Trujillo, whose wife and two kids are here with him, says he spent his day at the 10,000 Buddhas in Sha Tin which 'just blew our minds' before 'having a nice lunch at Stanley Plaza'. He also added that the band has 'really embraced Asia on this tour' and cited Japanese metal act Babymetal as one of his top supporting acts during their recent run of gigs. "These are exciting times because everything is so fresh. we are just starting this tour cycle for Hardwired, so things are fairly new, so we're playing a fair amount of songs off the new album which is exciting and a challenge for us." Trujillo added that there will also be classics pla

The chef of Alchemy, a ‘restaurant in the dark’ in Central, has died after apparently falling down an escalator at Sheung Wan’s Shun Tak ferry terminal. It’s been reported that Pascal Breant was discovered lying unconscious at the bottom of the escalator on Sunday. He was 52-years-old. It’s reported that the chef was seen checking his phone just before he fell down the stairs. He was rushed to hospital and confirmed dead shortly afterwards. Olivier Caisson, the co-founder of French Creations, the group that runs Alchemy, tells Time Out Hong Kong: “Pascal Breant was a beloved member of the French Creations family. We are shocked and saddened by the news of his passing. Our dear friend will be sorely missed. At this time we are focusing on supporting the family he leaves behind. Memorial details will be announced in due course.” The French Creations team adds that it was an ‘unfortunate accident’ and that he ‘fell badly on an escalator’. Breant, originally from Normandy in France, began cooking at just eight-years-old, helping after school in his family’s bakery. At the age of just 17, he began an apprenticeship at Le Bristol in Paris, which held one Michelin star at that time. He then worked at La Tour d’Argent, a three-Michelin-starred eatery in the French capital at the time, before heading to Issautier in Nice, which held two Michelin stars. He left France in 1989 to ‘seek knowledge in different cultures’. He journeyed across 10 countries from America to Asia but eventuall

You don’t have to go to a restaurant to celebrate CNY. How about buying a celebratory cake? From January 16, Ms B’s Cakery is selling two festive creations. The Rooster Taster ($75) and the Bloom ($1,050 for 500g, $1,680 for 1kg) show off the cakery’s craftsmanship of exquisite sugar art. The Rooster Taster is an auspicious take on the Ms B’s Beetroot Red Velvet cake, featuring 24-carat edible gold. It has been designed to send best wishes to family members, loved ones and business partners. The Bloom is a red fondant cake available in three variations: Chocolate Fudge Cake with Almond Nutella Butter Cream and Crispy Croquant, Beetroot Red Velvet Cake with Toffee Caramel Buttercream and Vanilla Butter Cake with Strawberry Coulis and French Butter Cream. The peony draped on top has been meticulously handcrafted. Various locations inc 39 Gough St, Central, 2815 8303; msbscakery.hk.

One of the most famous footballers in history. A style icon. A growing force in the world of fashion. One of the sexiest men on the planet. David Beckham has a never-ending plethora of monikers. The father-of-four is revered by fans across the globe and the love affair with Becks is strong in Hong Kong too, with his chiselled looks constantly gracing posters across the city. And the love is mutual as he adores heading to our shores regularly. Which, in fact, he did just a few weeks ago as he hit up British fashion label Kent & Curwen’s 90th anniversary bash. We meet Posh Spice’s hubby in his hotel suite in Admiralty as we look out across the harbour at sundown. The 41-year-old is joined by Irish menswear designer Daniel Kearns, who has worked with luxury brands like Dolce & Gabbana, Alexander McQueen and Louis Vuitton. Kearns was appointed creative director of Kent & Curwen in February to oversee all creative aspects of the brand and work closely with Beckham, who signed a five-year partnership deal with the firm, which is owned by our city’s Trinity Group, last September. Together, they’re on a mission to create iconic heritage pieces that appeal to the younger fashionistas out there. And now we’re just a few months away from the launch of the new K&C spring/summer 2017 collection that Beckham and Kearns have been working hard on. And they’re getting set to present the collection later this month ahead of its launch. Some of the details are still being ironed out but what is

Justin Trudeau’s Canadian Chamber sold out Canada-Hong Kong luncheon Q&A going live to Hongkongers next week Canadian PM Justin Trudeau is on a tour of China this week and he’s checking into Hong Kong for one day on Tuesday September 6. And the Consulate General of Canada has just announced that his Q&A session at the Canadian Chamber Luncheon during next Tuesday is to be broadcast live at 1pm on the Consulate General of Canada in Hong Kong & Macao Facebook page. Of course, anyone can watch, not just our city’s Canadian community, which is the biggest expat community in Hong Kong. The visit to our city finishes up a week-long tour of China for the PM, which includes a visit to the Great Wall, a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and flights to both Beijing and Shanghai. He’s also travelling to Hangzhou for a summit meeting of the Group of 20 economic powers. The whole trip is a bid to bolster trade and improve diplomatic ties between Canada and the Middle Kingdom. In Hong Kong, a lot of his meetings will be behind closed doors, however he is putting his time aside for the Facebook Live event so he can connect with Hongkongers. In a statement he sent to Time Out Hong Kong, he says: “Strengthening our relationship with China is essential to growing our middle class and creating new opportunities for Canadian businesses. On this trip, I will strive for a closer, more balanced relationship between Canada and China, one that unlocks the untapped potential in our two countri

If you want to support our SAR's badminton medal hopefuls in the Rio Olympics and also be a part of a passionate Hongkongers' rally then head to Soy Street in Mong Kok for 7pm tonight. Local patriotic groups have organised a live broadcast of the Hong Kong vs China Group A mixed doubles badminton match, featuring Hoi-wah Chau and Reginald Lee from our SAR taking on Nan Zhang and Yunlei Zhao from the Mainland.Tensions could be running high as the broadcast and rally is to be co-hosted by Hong Kong independence advocate Simon Sin alongside the University of Science and Technology student group ProgressUST and Hong Kong Indigenous, a radical organisation that has been accused of inciting the Mong Kok riot in February.These groups are encouraging Hongkongers, however, to support the city's badminton stars, as well as the HK team overall. Sin spoke with us this morning, saying: "We’re just hoping to get the Hong Kong public out on the street to support and cheer our local athletes. Hopefully, we can also raise awareness on how underrepresented Hong Kong athletes are in the media, especially during the time of the Olympics. But, really, it’s just a community bonding activity."Sin says the event came about because he saw that TV channels like TVB were, in his opinion, featuring more on the Chinese athletes during the Olympics so far, compared to our local Hong Kong competitors. He says: "In an ideal world, TVB, the official broadcaster of the Olympic Games in Hong Kong, should play

To all dinosaur fans: do you want a real Tyrannosaurus rex fossil skull sitting on your mantlepiece? Well, now you can, as long as you have a spare US$1.5 million in your wallet. Leading Asian online marketplace for luxury products and experiences, Luxify, has teamed up with American commercial paleontological company Theropoda Expeditions and they're both selling one of the most complete and best quality T-rex skulls in existence. The unique fossil skull is nicknamed 'Rees Rex' and it was discovered in the Hell Creek Formation, Montana, USA, in the spring of last year. Luxify later acquired it and now wants it to go to a good home in Hong Kong or another Asian country in the coming weeks.   A spokesman says: "The fossil is available on a first-come-first-serve basis. The price is no less than US$1.5 million. We will provide information for any serious buyers."   Still wanna buy it? Head, quite literally, to luxify.com for a roaring purchase.

Fact: Time Out Hong Kong has never interviewed the 24-year-old Hong Kong princess of pop before. Another fact: we have now. We’ve shared popcorn and pop lyrics with the stunning singing sensation at a studio in Chai Wan ahead of our exclusive interview, which comes out in the next issue of Time Out on Wednesday July 27. Read about GEM’s upcoming movie with Avril Lavigne and Ashley Tisdale, as well as her plans for a new tour, new songs, a birthday photobook and even a moving documentary on her life which should be out ‘soon’. She also answers her critics and tells us how she’s amazed that different fans across the globe respond to her tracks in totally different ways. Our upcoming issue is also our Olympics issue as our Hong Kong medal hopefuls head over to Brazil with fire in their bellies. And it’s fitting, really, as GEM is also taking on the world with her new projects, new style and new attitude. She even wishes our athletes all the best in the interview. So here’s hoping both GEM and the Olympians all end up as heroes on the international stage. Either way, it’s time to Get Everybody Moving. Don’t miss our next issue!

It's been a week of turmoil over in Britain. But England football legend and global style icon David Beckham is missing the aftermath of Brexit by hitting Hong Kong with British style brand Kent and Curwen, as well as chatting to Time Out Hong Kong about his dashing looks, his love for our city and his new partnership with K&C's design director Daniel Kearns. Becks was here to mark the 90th anniversary of the fashion brand, as well as attend its private dinner in our city. He talked about how the brand's new collection is expected to be launched in November, as well as being showcased in London on June 27. Time Out's editorial director, Matt Fleming, got to chat with Becks over in Admiralty as he came in off his flight and he was keen to let us know that Hong Kong is an 'extraordinary city' - one he loves coming to visit. Expect more visits from the star in the near future, as well, due to his involvement in the Kent and Curwen project. And expect a Time Out interview with Beckham in an issue of our magazine that's not too far away, where he talks about the city, being in business and the K&C partnership, as well as chatting about his own looks and why he's so appealing (particularly to the girls who were in the room). In fact, he blushed when we asked him about his attractive features... So, check out our mag for the full interview! Thank you, Becks!

We've all heard the stories about how mainland Chinese people have packed out Hong Kong's Disneyland resort at select times in the past, annoying certain locals who may take offence to certain types of behaviour. Remember the international headlines in 2005, when our Disneyland opened, because a few Mainlanders were seen doing numbers one and two outside the toilets, rather than in? But, as of today (Thursday June 9), the US$5.5 billion Shanghai Disney Resort has opened, five years after first breaking ground. It's Disney's first Chinese Disneyland, spread over 963 acres and today's 'official launch' is just a week before its full opening to the public. Clearly, however, China's gain is our loss as many Mainlanders who would bring their kids to our shores for our resort will surely now head to Shanghai, meaning a loss in HK tourism. But, wait. Some would argue that China's gain is also our gain. These people have complained about Mainlanders at our Disney before... There's been reports this year of a slump in Mainland visitors to our SAR, both at Disneyland and across the city as a whole. But will there be more people celebrating this or more worried about a loss of tourism income? The debate will rage. But, for now, we're off to our own Disneyland. We need the space.

Many taxi drivers were pleased when police raided Uber's office amid concerns over the car hire app's legality, but thousands of other Hongkongers were outraged. Shirley Foo investigates if HK is ready - or even able - to accept a diversified car hire market If you’ve ever tried to take a taxi in Hong Kong at night or in a popular location, the chances are you’ve also come across a driver who has refused to take you to your destination or tried to charge you more than what is displayed on the meter. It’s frustrating and, though technically illegal, all too common. In August police arrested two taxi drivers for allegedly overcharging passengers, releasing a collective outpouring of frustration from the public that more isn’t done to combat the problem. These kind of arrests are rare, and were likely spurred by a surge in complaints received by the Transport Complaints Unit – there were over 10,000 official complaints against taxi drivers in 2014, up 8.1 percent since 2013. Despite that, approximately only one percent of driver malpractice cases referred to the police are actually brought to court. Dicky Chan is a taxi driver and member of the Motor Transport Workers General Union. He acknowledges that unsavoury behaviour is common in his industry. “I think the reason is that the punishment is not severe enough,” he admits. “If drivers break the law, they should go to jail or have their license revoked.” Chan estimates that offenders who are caught overcharging or refusing fare