Causing a 'stink' in Hong Kong....lecturer's video ruffles feathers

**Ally** · 03-04-2007, 06:51 AM

Passengers on the Queen Mary II were warned told Hong Kong was "extremely polluted" and had "inferior museums" before the luxury cruise liner docked, a news report said Sunday.

They were also told dining in the city was hopeless because no matter how carefully they studied the menu they would be served the wrong dish, the Sunday Morning Post newspaper said.

The warnings were given to passengers last week in a lecture by on-board British archaeologist and historian John Reich and repeated on video screens in passenger cabins, according to the newspaper.

Passenger Donald Lam quoted the professor as saying: "Hong Kong is extremely polluted and there is no point going up The Peak (the hill overlooking the city centre) as you will see nothing."

Lam said Professor Reich, a classical archaeologist who has traveled widely in Asia, also told passengers: "Hong Kong Museum of Art is not worth visiting as it is inferior to those of Shanghai."

Lam tried to complain to the cruise director and informed the Hong Kong Tourism Board about what he called Reich's "groundless and misleading" remarks.

A spokeswoman for the tourism board said: "We have contacted the ship's operator and asked why such a video was shown to passengers."

Michael Gallagher, spokesman for the Cunard Line which operates the Queen Mary II, told the newspaper the company had no control over what on-board lecturers said.

Pollution in Hong Kong comes mostly from neighboring industrial southern China and has worsened considerably in the past 10 years as China's economy rapidly develops.

Smog and related health issues are now the number one concern for many residents of the city of 6.9 million and foreign businesses say the problem is driving some potential investors and executives away.

(Sunday Morning Post)