Periscope

Hong Kong consistently tops lists of the world's most expensive city for accommodation. The cost of land and property fuels rising rents, and prices for goods and services and despite various market-cooling measures rolled out by the government, many people remain priced out of the market.

In April 2010, Periscope looked at Hong Kong's "Green Awakening". Now, six years on we explore how far Hong Kong has travelled down the road of environmental awareness and protection.

District councils are meant to serve residents, but in reality they can be out of touch with the public or lack the power to bring meaningful change. Some residents are taking matters into their own hands and forming their own groups to get things done.

Large scale development projects need Environmental Impact Assessment reports, which are supposed to measure how much the projects would the environment and the wildlife living there. But many people say the process is deeply flawed, including conflicts of interest where a developer can hire one of their own branches to do the assessment.

What is national education? Is it teaching students how to salute and raise flags? Should it be producing proud Chinese nationals or critical citizens? Scholars, media representatives and students are concerned that the government's unequal funding may lead to the the dominance of pro-China, one-sided national education in Hong Kong.

Negative reports about o'camp activities regularly make the headlines in Hong Kong newspapers. What lies behind the media fascination and what do students themselves think of the so-called 'offensive' games in o'camps?

A recent survey by The Economist named Hong Kong as the most "liveable" city in the world. The S.A.R. also came in tenth in a...

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong's sovereignty from Britain to China in 1997. That was the year in which most of the reporters working on this issue of Varsity were born. In Periscope, we take a look back on some of the issues that have shaped Hong Kong in the past 20 years.

After Jasmine Choi Yan-yan was arrested during the Occupy protests last year, she was denied access to mainland China. The outcome of the protests left some young people feeling powerless, radicalized others, and made yet others think of different ways of bringing about the social changes they want.

Since 2009, Hong Kong students have been able to enjoy a fast-track to study at selected mainland universities. Now, the trend of Hong Kong youngsters seeking further education in the Mainland has been given another boost - in the form of cash allowances. As Varsity finds out, critics question what kind of education young Hong Kongers will receive in the Mainland and whether it is a good use of resources?