Chitchat|Getting Around in Hong Kong (English)

Explore Hong Kong’s iconic transport system in this episode! We cover the efficient MTR, bustling buses, nimble minibuses, scenic Star Ferry, and charming trams—plus Octopus Card tips to navigate like a local. I’ll share a personal story about my experiences with these modes of transport and the Octopus Card!

Whether you're a visitor or a resident, learn how to master HK’s transit for smooth, budget-friendly travels. Hop on and discover the heartbeat of the city through its transport! 🚇🚌⛴️🚃 #HongKongTravel #OctopusCard #HKTransport

Transcirpt

Chapters

• 2:27 MTR
• 10:16 Bus
• 12:37 Mini Bus
• 17:01 Trams
• 19:28 Star Ferry
• 21:32 Octopus Card

Transcript

0:03

hello hello welcome back to Canto Be Like a Cantonese and English bilingual podcast that helps you learn Cantonese and Hong Kong culture I'm your host Venus I'm a native Cantonese speaker from Hong Kong but grew up around London in the upcoming three episodes we are going to talk about getting around in Hong Kong and for those of you have that have only discovered our show we have already done a three-episode series on grocery shopping in Hong Kong feel free to check that out the series usually follow a format like this so the first episode will be a chitchat session in English to get you up to speed of Hong Kong culture and some easy Cantonese vocabulary and the second episode will be a listening exercise to help to uh recap what we have listened in English but express in simple Cantonese to for you to learn authentic expressions and the third episode is going to be a bilingual Cantonese and English podcast with useful phrases specific to the topic and scenario we're talking about in the week and a bit of housekeeping I want to talk about before we dive into the content so I am the only producer and recorder and like artist content creator marketing people etcetera etcetera um behind Canto Be Like it's a solo gig and I'm doing it part time as a hobby so any input or comment will be really welcome from the community and to help us do that I have linked a DM me for comment and idea in the description down below so you can just click the link and it will prompt you to your Messenger app and then you can just type in the text and I will get it so with that said let's get started on this week our second week topic getting around in Hong Kong alright guys so quick poll raise your hand if you have ever been violently squashed between ten people in an MTR carriage during rush hours welcome to Hong Kong where public transport is brutally efficient but also low key traumatic today we're gonna break down the best way to getting around Hong Kong from minibus havocs to why your octopus card is a complete bliss I gotta start with my favourite and most used means of transport public transport which is the MTR for the listener in America this is our metro and for British listeners this is the tube basically our underground public transportation system maybe because the MTR is very efficient and has a good reputation on operating commuter transportation network it also expanded its operations on underground trains in cities like I think Hangzhou and Shenzhen in mainland China and it also tried to expand overseas for example from 2009 to 2023 MTR won a contract to operate Stockholm's commuter rail network which is I think pretty impressive so in Sweden there were criticism for delays and overcrowding on the lines operated by MTR which I guess the 99% on time rate is not universal across the globe and the reason why the on time rate in Hong Kong for MTR is so high and effective is because MTR can face a very high penalty for delay under the current system the MTR can be fined 1 million Hong Kong dollar so roughly around uh 120 k USD for disruptions between 31 minutes and an hour during non peak hours very very strict although this might be bad news for MTR it's actually super great for commuters because you never need to worry about delays and during peak hour in my case when I arrive at my MTR station there's only a 2 to 5 minutes wait for the next train if I unfortunately miss one so it's really really is easy to to calculate my ETA and to make sure I won't be late for work or a meeting with friends however traveling on the MTR during peak hours is a nightmare you're like a sardine like we say it in Hong Kong like bik doh hoh chi sardine yu gum basically you're rubbing elbows with the dude next to you and it's just quite unpleasant and that's also a funny observation I realized when I first first moved back to Hong Kong and being on the MTR which is that most people have those privacy screen protector or anti spy screen protector which we call from fong tau kuai tip mok and this is just like to stop people from peeking at your screen which I found actually a lot of people do that and to give you some privacy when watching YouTube or texting your boyfriend on the MTR so I would highly recommend you get one if you commute on the MTR to avoid nosy commuters peeking at your screen and the second thing I like traveling on the MTR or using the MTR to get around the city is because it's very convenient and it's actually hard to get lost if you use it with like Google Maps or Citymapper and the announcement are in English Cantonese and Mandarin so and they have like signs and prompts to tell you where you are and the directory and the station pointing you to your destinations are really well designed so when I first moved back to Hong Kong I'm not very familiar with the city especially the part of the city where I'm I don't usually go I find it just super useful and helpful to travel to places with um MTR but my one personal complaint about the MTR is that it's really difficult to get seats and in Hong Kong there's a priority seat culture and if you occupy those seats without being either an elderly citizen a pregnant woman someone with visibly someone who is visibly disabled if you sit there there might be a chance you will get told off by some older people that you shouldn't be sitting there so a funny phenomenon in Hong Kong is that even when the carriage is fully occupied those seats will still be empty I found it like kind of funny and also another thing is that if you live in the outskirts of Hong Kong namely you are not living on the island or some or the heart of Kowloon there's a high chance that you might need to change lines when travelling on the MTR so if you prefer having like a morning commuter routine say read your news sit there and just meditate and have some peace and quiet time or even just watch a whole YouTube video without disruption that's not likely to happen so for me personally I try to read during my commute and it's always hard to do that on the MTR because I have to change lines for like 2 to 3 times to get to work and which in that case riding the bus would be a better idea to get to work or get around the city and another thing I like about riding the bus is that the routes are always scenic like Hong Kong actually has a lot of greenery and the streets are so cool with neon sign and like old buildings and sick skyscrapers it's just a unique city skyline so unlike the underground MTR buses offer views of Victoria Harbour like little mountain roads or old district streets and it's really amazing to get to see the hidden parts of Hong Kong especially if you are a tourist and circling back to the commuting points new buses also have USB ports and I think once I rode the airport bus the seat could also be reclined which is like so cool and for if you are not travelling at peak hours you can always get seat on the bus and it's not sardine packed like the MTR and one actually one thing that a lot of people don't know is that it's cheaper for cross harbour trips for example getting from Central to Tsim Sha Tsui it's actually much cheaper to travel on the bus compared to MTR but obviously travelling on the bus is more subjected to traffic jams so the time is less predictable but one thing the government does like I mean the transport department does to optimise this issue is to design bus lanes that are exclusively used by buses so that the mass public transport people on the public transport get to places quicker than than normal cars which I think is very fair and and should be adopted in more places and coming to the next point there is actually one public transport a lot of local people take on a daily basis but a lot of non Cantonese speaker are bit intimidated by which is the mini buses which we call siu bah in Cantonese the mini buses are very common especially in New Territories to get you to the very remote and distant locations of the district not usually people who take those mini buses are living in the district and so very familiar with the surrounding that's why they don't have I repeat they don't have a announcement system to tell you which stop is the next so you just have to look at look outside and and decide it's time to get off once the minibus is approaching your stop you need to yell yau lok to the driver and then he will put his hand up as like a sign of acknowledgement to say yeah I heard that and I will stop although some newer minibuses have buttons to let you like a bell to let you ring more like a button I don't wanna be misleading not a bell like a button with a stop sign like those bus stop like the stop buttons on the buses so you can press that and and your your set but in a lot of in the cultural our culture it's still more common to yell yau lok like someone is getting off to the driver than using those buttons so it's quite confusing if you're not from Hong Kong another thing that happens on the minibuses is that's such a headache it's a thing called fei zaam which is skipping the station so if you are not quick enough or you didn't tell the driver in advance enough that you are getting off there might be a chance that he will just skip the station and it's like very common and a big headache for even the locals to travel on through travelling on the minibuses a personal story was when I first got back to Hong Kong I was travelling to places in Tuen Mun and I absolutely didn't know the place and I was on my Google map trying to navigate and I I told the driver kinda late that I needed to get off and he was just like yelling profanity at me was like yau moh gao corh ah yau lok nei yau mm zoh d gong like he he swore as well like that and it was a bit traumatizing it was early in the morning I hadn't had my coffee it was a bit of a blur and it was just a typical day in Hong Kong I guess and to wrap things up I would say if you're not working in the CBD or on the island there is a high chance that you will rely on a hybrid of two of the three public transport I just mentioned so maybe you get to the district by MTR to avoid traffic jam on the highway and then you will take a connector bus or minibus to get you to your places which are further out from the MTR stations so I mean you can do it like anyway you want but this is how me and my family do it growing up and I think it's quite an efficient way to navigate the city on a daily basis now moving on to the more niche and touristy mode of transportation which are the star ferries and the trams on Hong Kong Island when you go on Instagram you just constantly see people share the pictures on the trams which we call ding ding and it's such a nostalgic way to travel or sightseeing on the Hong Kong island because it goes all the way across and it's so cheap it's moving at kind of a slow rate that let you scrutinize and enjoy every bit of the metropolitan and it's absolutely amazing and whenever I got time and I am on the island I always go on the ding ding and by the way we call it ding ding because you know when it goes past it just go ding ding ding ding so ding ding like we don't really call it trams and a bit of a personal story about the trams a fun fact is that you can actually rent it out for special events like wedding and parties so my friend got invited to a Ding ding party and they had to dress in like the old Shanghainese kind of 20s Chinese style flapper kind of theme and it's just so freaking cool um and yeah so if you're based in Hong Kong and I'm looking for a cool way to host a party maybe that's an option however the Ding ding is usually packed with tourists and you don't see a lot of local people taking it because it's just too slow to get you to your destination and so if I lived if I were living in on the island I probably wouldn't take it as like a means to get me to places but more like for like a fun chill afternoon with a book and some fresh air kind of situation so if you're just looking for a way to get around probably not the best idea I'd say let's talk about another tourists favourite which is the Star Fairy and I actually take it when I have time to cross the harbour from central to Tsim Sha Tsui because it's so cheap it cost you like less than $10 or maybe just 6 dollar I can't remember and it's just a economical way to go from the island to Kowloon and it's such a chill vibe like you get to see the Victoria Harbour and enjoy a tiny a bit of Sea Breeze if you are not in the aircon compartment and you can always snatch some good pictures if you're travelling around sunset and it's just an amazing way to see the city skyline and get to places and my dad told me back in the old days they actually sell snacks and like a whole meal and breakfast on the ferry because people would actually commute on a ferry from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island to get to their jobs so my dad said he once had a ngau lam mien which is like a beef brisket noodle on the ferry which I found is like such a amazing fact so I love the Star Ferry so much and whenever I have friends from out of town that come to visit me in Hong Kong I always take them on the Star Ferry and it's also a romantic kind of thing to travel on the ferry and so I've been on some been on the ferry of my date a couple of times on the ferry as well so um if you're looking for something economical but romantic you can always try this out so now we've covered a couple of our popular public transportation options I want to talk about something that tie them all together which is the octopus card so this is a card you can get from the I think you can get from the airport or any MTR stations and you just basically pay a deposit of I think when I used to have a physical card I paid like 50 or 100 but that was like 10+ years ago so I'm not sure now but you pay a deposit and then you top up a certain amount and you just simply tap it at the turnstile and then you're good to go and on other transportations like buses mini buses trams ferries you can use it no problem and it's easy to top up at those places especially with a station though you can't top it up at the bus stop or on the bus so be make sure you do have enough balance on your card when you travel I actually want to tell you a bit about the tap in tap out business of the octopus card on different transportations so um on the MTR you tap in when you get into the gates and you also tap out when you get out of the gate when you arrive at your destination and they will just calculate the distance and the stops you have travelled and deduct the amount from your card and for buses and mini buses you just tap once when you get on the bus and you will see from the scanner how much they are charging you and you can also see the balance after you have tapped your octopus card but it's a bit different oh it also applies to the ferry as well so ferry you only need to tap in once but it's a bit different for trams because you don't tap in when you get on the trams you just get on and then when you arrive you tap out so yeah be aware of that and unlike Metro cards and other places Octopus Card can actually use to pay at restaurants convenience store like 7 elevens and supermarkets so it's like a pseudo credit card like pseudo debit card and it's such an integrated part of the Hong Kong city life that everybody has one and there's no way to escape from it for the building I live in I even need to tap in the security gate with my registered octopus card so that's how far the it goes with this card also in the digital age a lot of people migrated their physical card to the octopus app where you can just top in I mean top up and collect your travel subsidies um by the way um the government does give out a traveling subsidies for working adults and yeah so you can do a lot of things with that app and I highly recommend using the app instead of the physical card because that way it's easier to manage your expenses and the topping up thing and I think if you get a student octopus card you can get 50% off travelling on the MTR I'm not sure about the other transportation but that definitely applies to the MTR so if your child is in the Hong Kong education system your um their school will automatically apply for them at the start of the school year or maybe at the start of Grade 7 and grade 9 cause they I think you need to renew when they are in grade 10 or something like that not entirely sure but that's how it worked back in my days and I highly recommend exchange students in Hong Kong to check out this benefit with the Student Affair office maybe you are qualified to have a discounted octopus card and to conclude this session on octopus card I want to share a personal story with regard to this card so as I mentioned before to get a physical card you need to pay a deposit of 50 to 100 dollar so when I was a kid I would pretend I I have lost my card but in fact I just went back to the station and asked for the deposit back and then I would tell my mum I lost my card and she would get me a new one so that I can have extra pocket money I know I was a very cheeky kid alright people so this is the end of today's episode of Getting Around Hong Kong I hope you have enjoyed my personal anecdotes and some tips here and there on how to get around Hong Kong cheaper and in a fun way so as I said let me know in the comment I've linked a a link where you can just click on it and it will prompt you to your text app and you can shoot me a text on what do you think about this episode or what would you want to know more about Hong Kong or Cantonese with that said have a good week and I will see you next week and next week topic would be let me check my note it would be Hong Kong work culture and we shall talk about the Hong Kong workplace alright then I very much looking forward to it take care and see you next week bye