Have a look at the big (Chinese) Lamma story in Ming Pao Weekly today, issue 2234, with lots of photos and interviews of Lammaites.

Somebody's got a direct link to the story online, so we can get it translated into English?

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Great 27-page story about "Living on Lamma" in Ming Pao Weekly this weekend.

Not available for free online, only in print and by subscribing to their online eMag.

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I bought the magazine after reading ur message, good too see people living here are enjoying it, but I am worried about the consequences of more people wanting to move to lamma and the impact on envirement, furthermore there will be moreeeeeeeee buildings everywhere

I was worrying a bit about that as well and was quite surprised that they did such a huge, 27-page cover story. I only expected one of these little, touristy, weekend-getaway stories when they asked me and a few friends for interviews.

But from the tone and content of the story, do you think it would attract the kind of people who could afford high rents, the DbAY kind of commuters, or the more alternative, simple-life, artsy, community-minded type of people? Tigger just described a big part of the Lamma population pretty well as "Lots of eco-friendly people, animal lovers, nature lovers, not to mention the odd drunk, some aging hippies, a few eccentrics, a few icons, and lots of different nationalities. A pretty interesting community."

Lamma could easily absorb a few hundred more of those people, like the ones interviewed in the MPW article, I think. They'd be a very positive influence, w/o driving up home prices even more. The sales/rental have peaked for now anyway, I'd think, a slow "downward correction" is way overdue, not just on Lamma but all over HK....

We have less than 0.1% of HK's population and it's actually slowly shrinking, definitely not growing at all. The vast majority of people, 99.99+%, will always be kept away from Lamma for many reasons, like the ferry commute, stories of dangerous wildlife and the assumed inconvenience of living without any supermarkets, fast food, chain stores, public transport, and "entertainment options". The readers of the article might like the story and pictures, shake their heads at the quaintness of it all, maybe visit for a weekend, walk the Family Trail, eat seafood, take lots of piccies, but ever moving here, NO WAY!

So I wouldn't worry too much of attracting hordes of new residents supposedly "spoiling" the place. The Lamma vibe and atmosphere will change ... slowly ... but it'll survive for many years to come, I hope.

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The article featured ten reasons for living on Lamma, one reason from each of the ten interviewed Lammaites.
Translation by Terry:<OL compact><li>Ms Bobo, Mo Tat Wan: "Don't like shopping as a leisure activity"
<LI>Mr. Martin Bode, Mo Tat Wan: "Birds are his favorite 'music'"
<LI>Mr. Wong Chun Bong, Mo Tat Wan: "Being far away from town makes my neighbourhood feel closer."
<LI>Mr. David Sanders, Pak Kok, "Living close to green is my comfort zone"
<LI>Mr. Or Ming Hong, Lo So Sing: "Working as my daily life"
<LI>Mr. Lau Kwok Leung, Lo So Sing: "Gardens without fences"
<LI>Mr. Daniel Clarke, Yung Shue Wan: "Having a boundary between living and working"
<LI>Ms. Stella, Yung Shue Wan: "Having a terrace or balcony"
<LI>Lamma-Gung, Yung Shue Wan, "Over 60 nationalities in one island"
<LI>Mrs. & Mr. Yiu Kin Yu, Yung Shue Wan, "Children's social network"</OL>

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So why on earth did they not write about the Lamma Bears?

An old Lamma Island tale has it ,that a Chinese Fisherman armed with his sampan or chunk had rescued two Bears in the South China Sea who swam from a sinking ship that had been commissioned to deliver the state circus of Mauritania to Hong Kong.

Later he secretly released his unusual catch at Turtle Bay on Lamma Island HK.

The fisherman only told a few good friends of the strange tale for fear of harm coming to the Bears. The pregnant female Bear was believed to have given birth and raised the younger cub among hidden caves on Pok Liu Chau known as Mount Stenhouse although there has never been a confirmed sighting of Bears on the Island.

The story has remained an old tale shared by a few fishermen and European Expats told over beers on the island bars and has with time been largely forgotten.

However, recent events have rekindled those old stories of the Lamma Bear.

Last Sunday on a hiking trip with his Dad on Lamma Island , a little lucky boy from Wan Chai shot some pictures with his camera and its said that on two of them you clearly can see a little Bear. However the photos hav not appeared in public, perhaps the boy and his father are afraid the Hong Kong Police and the excellent trained and best Soldiers of the Peoples Liberation Army of China will come out in Helicopters and hiking teams searching the Island for the Bear in order to capture the Bear and bring him perhaps to a Zoo or worse.

More recently Expats on Lamma Island eager to snap up their own photographs of the shy Bear have been following up leads that an old man in front of the Tin Hau Temple in Yung Shue Wan has been telling his story how he had rescued two Bears and released them on the Island to listening children only a short time ago..

Will the photographs of the Bear appear soon in the Hong Kong papers or is it perhaps an old prankster retelling the tales of his youth?