Focus

Many Hong Kong parents believe that giving their kids the best start in life means pushing them to study more and to learn earlier. However, some parents are adopting other learning approaches. Varsity chats with these parents and their children’s teachers to learn about their reasons for pursuing ‘unconventional’ pre-school education.

Street performers tell Varsity about their thoughts on the current schemes regulating buskers in Hong Kong - would a licensing system help, or would it impose too many limitations?

Redevelopment in To Kwa Wan is affecting many of its residents, including ethnic minorities and small shop owners. Varsity chats with these communities to see how they feel about the changes. Our map feature also show the various areas that are affected by redevelopment.

There are an increasing number of social enterprises in Hong Kong, but a new tender system for rental contracts has made it harder than ever for social enterprises to compete.

The struggle between development and conservation is being played out in some of Hong Kong's most scenic and ecologically valuable spots - in ecological buffer zones called enclaves. These are plots of private land located inside country parks but excluded from their boundaries. We explain what enclaves are, how they came into being and take a look at some of the controversies surrounding their use.

There are fewer than 40 serving guide dogs in the city, or around one guide dog for every 4,300 visually impaired people; the International Guide Dog Federation says ideally there should be one guide dog for every 100. It's hard to train more partly because existing laws and regulations only acknowledge the use of guide dogs for the visually impaired, not the trainers.

The Hong Kong government is defining the debate over a universal pension as one of the elderly against the young. We asked elderly and young Hongkongers to weigh in.

Anuj Gurung was born in Hong Kong, so he should have gone to school when he was 6, but he just started this year at the age of 7. This is because he is the son of an asylum-seeker, thus his family had to navigate a maze of red tape to get him to school. NGOs estimate that there are around 500 such children in Hong Kong who would be in the same predicament.

Recycling is not a profitable business in Hong Kong anymore. But landfills are filling up, so the government set up a $1-billion recycling fund this year to try and solve the issue before it gets out of control. We look at how the industry works in Hong Kong, and where it could be improved.

Every weekend, tourists descend on the small island of Po Toi off the southern coast of Hong Kong. A tiny population still lives there without water and electricity. Residents, and conservationists consider whether or not the island should be developed, and how much.