Rickshaws

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 05/20/2010 - 03:44

When I was stopped in HK briefly earlier this year, I saw four refurbished rickshaws for sale.  Instead of the usual green and red colors, they were painted black and grey (very dull colors).  They were the only ricksaws I saw in HK.

I was told that HK government had ceased to issue licenses for rickshaws back in the early 1980s making them completely extincted by the year 2000.

Did rickshaws have high accident rate?  What are the reason behind the government making this HK trademark disappeared?  Rickshaws had been part of HK history since the early 1800s and I was so outraged to find out that they were no longer.  Whoever in the government making that decision needed to have his/their heads examined!!!!! 

 

Permalink
Submitted by
sf (not verified)
on
Thu, 05/20/2010 - 08:42

Rickshaws is considered degrading and even racist in modern HK. The image of a skinny Chinese rickshaw driver pulling a European passanger was especially offensive to the political correct type.

The laws are still on the books.  How to license your rickshaw:

http://www.legislation.gov.hk/blis_ind.nsf/CurAllEngDoc/5FF6E24ACDD0C24…

It is official Transport Department policy to protect people by not allowing them on the roadway with cars, trucks and buses.  This is a very sane policy. 

I ask you though, what kind of city permits a trade that requires people to walk or run with their noses 3 feet from a double decker bus exhaust pipe while hauling another person equally exposed to such street pollution.

When my brother visited about 15 years ago, he hired a rickshaw, and then asked the driver to sit in it while my brother pulled the rickshaw around the usual tourist lap at the old Star Ferry area.  The driver thought it was very funny, but I was amazed that they did not get this request more often.

Just like dai-pai-dong licenses, the Govenment wanted to "modernize" and get old-style street businesses off the streets.   Look back in history and you will see that rickshaw drivers were usually drug addicts. 

See the debate on the pedal rickshaws in London as recently as 2004 http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2004/nov/01/london.transport.

 

Oh no, I hope the government is not thinking about doing away with "dai-pa-dong" license also.  If so, I will never go back to HK again.  The 3 weeks we were in HK, we practically ate our every meal at different "dai-pa-dongs".  Both my partner and I enjoyed the "wok hey" (the aroma emitted from a frying wok) and the excellent cooking tremendously.  It seems this current government is trying too hard to be westernized and has completely forgotten our Chinese traditional root so many people are deeply attached to.  Replacing the "dai-pa-dongs" with McDonald's and Burger Kings is a great disgrace to our culture.  No wonder childhood obesity is getting to be a problem in HK. 

Hi there,

Actually the Government had loosen up a bit concerning the licensing issues and some of the remaining Dai Pai Dongs are very likely to be allowed to continue.  It was in the news some time in March 2010, I think.

Best Regards,

T