Loyal Hong Kong fan, Vietnamese travel vlogger Nguyễn Lan Minh shares her love story with the city.
By Fami Nguyen
Hong Kong travel vlogger Nguyễn Lan Minh met nearly 100 TVB actors in 2025, including Moses Chan Ho, Linda Chung Ka-yan, Raymond Lam Fung, Helena Law Lan, Nancy Sit Ka-yin, Felix Wong Yat-wah and many more. For the 32-year-old office worker from Vietnam, it is a memorable footnote in her 25-year love story with Hong Kong.
“There are many cities which are more beautiful and modern than Hong Kong. But for me, nowhere gives me this special feeling. Only Hong Kong!” She says.
The Hong Kong loyal fan has come to Hong Kong 18 times in the past nine years, including seven trips alone in 2025. Her company supports her by allowing her to work during her stay in the city.
Her journeys are made possible by a three-year multiple-entry tourist visa that she received in 2025, which allows stays of up to 14 days for each visit. She makes the most of this visa, spending all her permitted days in the city and returning every two months.
Each 14-day trip to Hong Kong costs her between VND 30 million to 35 million (approximately US$1,200 to $1,400). She pays for all her trips without accepting advertising or sponsorship from any brands.
The media administrator for an IT company in Vietnam dedicates all her time outside of work to “Long Nhong Hong Kong”, a Facebook page that has over 29,000 followers.
In 2018, she came to Hong Kong with two childhood friends who share the dream nurtured by TVB. They had so many photos, videos, and memories that they decided to create the Facebook page in 2019 to make a record of the trip.
Nguyễn collaborates with an artist to sell Hong Kong-themed stickers and key chains to sustain the Facebook page. “Others might use their channel to earn money. I make money to feed this channel,” she says.
On the page, Nguyễn shares daily images and street scenes in Hong Kong. For example her breakfasts at Hong Kong cafes or known as Cha Chaan Teng, elderly couples holding hands on the street, trams, the bustling flow of people in Hong Kong, and even the colourful manhole covers in Central, along with her experiences meeting celebrities and stories with local people.
The post of highest interaction, with 8,000 likes is the farewell post for the late actor Benz Hui Shiu-hung in October 2025. Besides that, her everyday life and street videos are the most popular posts on her page, with approximately 300,000 views and 2,500 likes.
“Many followers have messaged the page saying that they see a Hong Kong they love on screen, now much closer and more familiar through my films. I film as I go, but I don’t post immediately. I focus on enjoying Hong Kong while I’m there. I edit and share the videos after I return to Vietnam,” she says.
After visiting more than 20 famous tourist spots and islands like Peng Chau, Lantau, and Lamma, Nguyen shares,: “I am done with the stage of visiting touristy spots in Hong Kong. I now just enjoy sitting by Victoria Harbour, riding the “ding ding” tram and seeing the city, or feeling the first raindrops of a storm. I just need to be in Hong Kong, just seeing Hong Kong is enough.”
She often visits temples and her favourite one is the Wong Tai Sin Temple in Kowloon. “I believe that if you keep loving, dreaming, and praying, your dreams can come true, and I always pray that I will have more opportunities to return to Hong Kong,” she says.
The travel vlogger’s love story with the city began when she started watching the “Journey to the West” (1996 and 1998) from TVB with her grandmother when she was six years old. “That time, watching TVB dramas with my granny was the happiest period in my memory,” she says.
She lost her grandmother when she was nine and her old home to a landslide the following year. The world of TVB dramas then became a treasure trove, keeping her cherished childhood memories alive.
“Before I even knew where Hong Kong was on a map, I knew what it looked like and what its people were like. I had a dream that I must get to Hong Kong before turning 25. I wanted to go to the city that has a big role in my childhood memories,” she says.
She saved up for years, but when she contacted a travel agency for a visa in 2015, her application was not approved. “They said that as a young and single woman who had never travelled abroad, applying for a visa to travel alone was not easy,” she says.
On February 9, 2017, Nguyễn finally set foot in Hong Kong with her elder brother. “Why does Hong Kong look exactly like the old neighbourhood I have lost?” She wondered when she found the architecture and the atmosphere of her vanished childhood home in the old quarters in Hong Kong.
She was overwhelmed by a feeling of déjà vu that went beyond the movies when she walked on the street for the first time in Hong Kong.
She visited the TVB headquarters on her first trip to Hong Kong. “The first time I saw the TVB building with its mascot on the rooftop from afar, I stood there and cried. I never imagined that the land I saw on the small screen when I was a child would now appear before my eyes. Even my brother thought I was crazy for crying just from seeing the TVB building,” she recalls with laughter.
In 2019, she began learning Cantonese, taking classes twice a week for six years. “I feel incredibly happy to be able to speak Cantonese, even if it’s just a simple phrase like ‘Jo-sun’ or Good Morning in Cantonese,” she shares.
This effort has helped her connect with local Hong Kong residents. Nguyễn met a Hong Kong family at the Doraemon exhibition at K11 MUSEA in August 2024. They kept in touch and became close friends. In 2025, Nguyễn celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival and Christmas with the family.
“I believe that if I treat Hong Kong gently, Hong Kong will reciprocate with the sweetest treatment,” the travel vlogger asserts.
Looking ahead, Nguyễn’s heart-compass remains firmly pointing at Hong Kong, but she has no plan to move to the city. “What I have now is already beyond my imagination,” she says.
“I feel the term ‘travel vlogger’ is too strong for me. I don’t see exploring Hong Kong as a job. I record these videos purely out of my genuine love for Hong Kong. I consider myself a Hong Kong lover,” she says.
She encourages others with similar dreams not to compare their journeys to others but to bravely pursue them. “I believe if you have Hong Kong in your heart, you will get to Hong Kong. Everyone has a different path,” she says.
For Nguyễn Lan Minh, the future is a continuation of a love story, one where Hong Kong only needs to be Hong Kong, and she is simply happy to be there.
Edited by Christine Ge
Sub-edited by Winnie Li
