04-025 Payphones

04-025
Payphones

I recently came across an article describing Hong Kong as the perfect portrait of a cyberpunk city. Having lived in the city for so long, I was not aware of the term ‘cyberpunk.’ ‘What does that mean?’ I wondered. Out of curiosity, I checked Wikipedia. To my surprise, without realizing it, I have actually watched quite a number of cyberpunk movies. Some of them are even my favorites! Blade Runner, The Terminator, Ready Player One, just to name a few.

To gain a deeper understanding of the meaning of cyberpunk, I rewatched the 1999 cyberpunk classic, The Matrix. I had watched this movie before, but it was a long time ago. I could hardly remember its plot. For me, it was just like watching a new movie.

The Matrix is really a good movie. It perfectly captures the essence of cyberpunk. Is Hong Kong cyberpunk? Now, I have an answer. And my answer is, sort of. It is very cyber and it is quite punk. But we do have some beautiful countryside and comparatively fewer homeless people.

Phone booth in The Matrix

However, the movie reminded me of an interesting piece of news. It was about New York City removing their last payphone back in 2022. Payphones serve as the teleport between the ‘real world’ and the Matrix in the movie. I wonder how Keanu Reeves would come back from the Matrix nowadays, as there are no more phone booths on the streets of New York.

I have written several posts about telecommunications in my city. I have talked about terrestrial TV, cable TV, satellite TV, and radio broadcast. I have also briefly mentioned our internet service and introduced various streaming and OTT video platforms that are popular in Hong Kong. Now, I think I should also spend a few moments talking about the very basic form of telecommunications in my city, the landline and payphone system of Hong Kong.

Who invented the telephone?

Most people in the world would say Bell. The French may disagree. But anyway, the year is always 1876. And just one year after the invention, there was already phone service in Hong Kong. This sounds very advanced, right? Not quite! In the first decade, phone service was only for the elite of the city. Back in 1890, there were only 52 phone users in the entire Hong Kong, and service was only available on the northern coast of Hong Kong Island.

In general, most people had no access to the telephone system at that time. The general public may have heard about the telephone but did not understand the working principle behind it. They called the telephone a ‘mysterious voice machine’ introduced by Westerners.

In 1905, telephone service finally reached Kowloon. But it was not until the formation of Hong Kong Telecom (HKT) in 1925 that the telephone became more and more popular.

First Generation of Payphones

The first payphone was introduced on New Year’s Day in 1920. It was installed inside the sedan chair depot adjacent to the Peak Tram station. However, it was not placed inside a phone booth but in a room called a ‘pay station.’ This was because coin-operated telephones had not yet been introduced. The pay station was staffed by telephone company attendants who collected immediate payment for calls placed.

The First Phone Booth

Over the subsequent decades, an increasing number of payphones were installed throughout the city. In 1953, the government of Hong Kong decided to regulate payphones. By the end of the year, 15 trial phone booths had been installed on Hong Kong Island and Kowloon, with the farthest one located in Shek O, the southernmost tip of Hong Kong Island.

After a year of testing, the first official phone booth was opened on 16 January 1954 on Wyndham Street, Central. At that time, the charge for a phone call was 40 cents, which was considered very expensive.

The Boom of Payphones

Public payphones were installed steadily over the next decade. By 1965, there were still fewer than 200 payphones in Hong Kong. However, starting from the late '60s, the number of payphones increased dramatically, mainly due to the population increase as many people fled from mainland China during the Cultural Revolution.

Cost of Making a Phone Call

Even though regulated by the government, there was no fixed fare for payphone use. In the city center, the fare was typically 30 or 40 cents per call. In the New Territories, due to longer distances and higher installation and operating costs, the fare could be double, at 60 cents per call. In 1968, the fare was standardized to 30 cents per call, regardless of the payphone’s location. The fare increased to 50 cents per call in 1975 and further increased to HKD 1 per call in 1983, where it has remained frozen until now.

Decline

Like many other places in the world, due to the popularity of mobile phones, the use of payphones in Hong Kong has been declining since the late '90s.

The most significant decline of local payphones occurred in 2016. In the last week of 2015, Shinetown Telecom, the sole provider of payphone service in metro stations of Hong Kong, announced that they had decided not to renew the service contract with MTR upon its expiration. The contract expired in early 2016, and all their 400 payphones were removed gradually in the following months. ‘As there are ten million mobile phones in use in Hong Kong, fewer people are using the payphones,’ said the spokesperson. Since no other service providers were interested in replacing Shinetown’s role, MTR stations became the first payphone black hole in the city.

Shinetown decided to quit in 2016,
leaving the entire metro system of Hong Kong
in a payphone black hole

Other payphone providers were not faring well either. PCCW-HKT, the largest telephone and internet provider in Hong Kong, reported that more than half of their payphones earned less than one dollar per day, and some even less than one dollar in an entire year! In 2016, they had around 3100 payphones installed in the city. Half of them were in roadside phone booths, and the other half in public facilities or government buildings, such as hospitals, prisons, sports stadiums, shopping malls, etc.

Discussions about reducing the number of payphones began in 2017. In 2019, the government decided to remove half of the roadside phone booths.

Maintenance costs for in-building payphones are much lower than those for roadside phone booths, and there are landlines in the buildings that needed to be maintained anyway. However, this does not mean that in-building payphones were spared from reduction. For instance, before the pandemic, there was an array of payphones in the arrival hall of the Hong Kong-Macau Ferry Terminal. The terminal underwent renovation during the pandemic, and after the renovation, the payphones were no longer present.

Locations of Payphones

The Office of the Communications Authority (OFCA) provides a list of phone booth locations on their website. The list only includes those phone booths installed in public areas.

At the time of writing, there are 718 phone booths installed in the public areas of the city. PCCW-HKT has installed 708 of them, and the remaining 10 are installed by HGC. Although the number of public phone booths has been reduced by half in recent years, they are still ubiquitous in the city. You can download the list from the OFCA website and should be able to locate one near you. However, there is no guarantee that the phone inside the booth is operational.

Many payphones in the city are in a despair condition

As mentioned above, other payphones are installed inside public facilities. The services are mostly provided by PCCW-HKT, except for the HKBN payphones installed at the Hong Kong International Airport. But their numbers and locations have not been disclosed. It is also challenging to find one. Nowadays, almost all websites or floorplans of a facility will not mention payphones anymore. Finding a payphone inside a building is like encountering an old friend on the street.

Design of Phone Booths

As a former British colony, many might think that we use the same red wooden phone booths as in the UK. Not quite! Even during the colonial era, our phone booths had no standard color. We do have some red wooden phone booths, but there are also green ones.

I remember when I was young, the phone booths I saw were orange in color and made of aluminum and plastic. Due to the humidity in Hong Kong, most of the phone booths are not made of wood, and most of them do not have doors.

Nowadays, PCCW-HKT’s phone booths are blue, while HGC’s phone booths are green.

Latest design of PCCW-HKT phone booth, with a door

Another identical phone booth but this one takes credit card.
Don't be misled! The card reader is not working anymore.

PCCW-HKT phone booth with a similar design, but no door

Do you know what is the usage of the rack on the right side of the phone?

 

Older design of PCCW-HKT phone booth can be found in some rural areas

The rack, this time on the left side of the phone, is for the phone book.

A proper phone booth should provide illumination at night.

This phone booth is in old design
but the payphone installed inside is a new model.

Non-enclosed phone kiosks exist here, but are not so common

HGC phone booth is bigger in size but without a door

Emergency phone kiosk on mountain trail

In-building payphones are simply hung on the wall without a booth. However, there are exceptions. The most notable phone booths are the two British-style wooden phone booths installed inside Western Market. They are authentic phone booths, but because they are located inside a shopping mall, they are not listed on the OFCA list.

New model PCCW-HKT payphones installed inside a hospital

Older model of PCCW-HKT payphone found inside a park

Private payphone inside a herbal tea shop in Causeway Bay
This kind of payphone is very rare now

British style red wooden phone booth inside the Western Market

There are 2, one on the left and one on the right

Inside the wooden phone booth looks like this

Both phones are installed by PCCW-HKT

The one on the left is number PP14166

The one on the right is number PP14165

Similar red wooden phone booths can be found in Hong Kong Parkview and Fairview Park. They are installed in private areas, and the service is provided by PCCW-HKT. Again, you will not find them on the OFCA list.

Hong Kong Parkview, a luxury condo located inside the hill

Hong Kong Parkview is also an area with many Westerners staying

A distinguishing red wooden phone booth is located right outside the supermarket

It says TELEPHONE at the front

And you can still find the crown on it!

The booth is totally British!

The rack for phone books is still there! Impressive!

Even though not too many people are using payphone nowadays,

there is still a lamp inside the booth and it is on. Wonderful!

Another British style red wooden phone booth found inside a farm

The booth is real but the phone inside is fake

Models of Payphones

I managed to find six different models of payphones in the city. However, I am not an expert on phone models, and information about payphone models is also scarce on the internet. I will just show their photos here. I suspect they are British-made, but they look somewhat different from those I found in the UK. If you know their models and the names of their manufacturers, please let me know.

The most common one is this white-colored new model used by PCCW-HKT. Most of the payphones installed in roadside phone booths are of this model.

The newest model of PCCW-HKT payphone

A close-up photo showing the panel

It takes coins, PCCW smartcard and credit card

But PCCW smartcard was discontinued and credit card payment was disabled

The more rectangular-shaped payphone in silver color is an older model. Only a few of them can be found inside roadside phone booths of PCCW-HKT, but they are more commonly found indoors.

Older model of PCCW-HKT payphone

It seems to be the same model as the Mercury payphone in UK

This older model payphone has less button than the new model

It takes coins and used to take credit card

But credit card payment was disabled
and most of the card readers of this phone model are sealed

Another less common model is this one in a brownish color. It accepts coins and magnetic phone cards. PCCW-HKT has stopped selling magnetic phone cards for many years, so the card reader is obsolete. However, you can still use coins, if you can find any.

Payphone model that takes coins and PCCW stored value phonecard

However, stored value phonecard was discountinued for more than a decade

The card reader does not read credit cards

But a number for operator assistance is available
for making credit card calls to Japan, USA and Canada

Not sure if this number still works

Most of the public payphones are made of metal. They are tough and durable. This yellow-colored plastic payphone is not. It used to be very common in the past; they were placed in restaurants, supermarkets, and newsagents. Before mobile phones became popular, there was always a high demand for payphones. Some shops would rent these yellow payphones from PCCW-HKT and place them in their shops to earn extra money. They are very rare now, and I only managed to find two in the city: one in a Chinese herbal tea restaurant in Causeway Bay and the other inside the British-style wooden phone booth in Hong Kong Parkview.

Yellow colour plastic payphone and the rack for phonebook underneath

The model is "Payphone 100" by Landis & Gyr
It takes only coins

After lifting up the handset, the 7-segment LCD display shows "d1AL"

When a free call is dialed, the display will show "FrEE"

Another rare model is this HGC payphone. There are only ten: two in Central, four in Tsim Sha Tsui, and four outside the Shenzhen Bay Border.

HGC payphone
It is the same model as those previous Shinetown payphones installed in MTR stations

The phone uses dot matrix display

The last model is this unique blue-colored payphone provided by HKBN. HKBN payphones can only be found at the Hong Kong International Airport. Although their operation is the same, they are not traditional landline phones but IP phones. HKBN is not a telephone provider but an internet provider. This is the only payphone that accepts credit cards.

HKBN payphone

Payphone User Guide

It doesn’t take a genius to use a payphone. However, all payphones provide instructions on how to use them. Below, you’ll find different versions of user guides that I’ve come across in the city. The differences mainly depend on the service provider and the type of payments that the phone accepts.

PCCW-HKT payphone User Guide

The guide is for the new model payphone that takes coins, Smartcard & HELLO Phonecard

Another version of PCCW-HKT payphone User Guide

This guide is for the older model that does not take Smartcard

Also for the PCCW-HKT payphone,
this guide is for the payphone model that takes magnetic stored value phonecard

For phone kiosk, due to limited amount of space,

the user guides are mounted on both sides of the payphone

Many PCCW-HKT phone booths still show this sign
Not sure if the number still works

Instructions on how to use the "Payphone 100" can be found on the phone itself

The lower part of the instructions listed out all free call numbers

HGC payphone User Guide

Evolution of Phone Booths

PCCW-HKT has made many efforts to counter the decline of payphones. Since PCCW-HKT is also an internet provider, they have converted many of their phone booths to provide Wi-Fi service since the mid-2000s. This was successful for a while. At the time of 3G, mobile data was scarce. I saw people standing around the phone booths, holding their mobile phones, watching YouTube. Not anymore. Not after the launch of the 4G network. Definitely not in the 5G era.

PCCW-HKT Smart Kiosk

Recently, I observed another evolution of phone booths. PCCW-HKT has replaced two traditional phone booths with ‘HKT Smart Kiosks.’ The kiosk has an information panel that provides weather, transport, and news information. It also offers free Wi-Fi, USB charging, and, of course, phone service. The dial buttons have become a touch panel, and instead of accepting coins, the kiosk only accepts digital payments. The smart kiosk looks fantastic, but unfortunately, I have never seen anyone using it.

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06-010 China Manned Space Exhibition

06-010
China Manned Space Exhibition

Poster of the China Manned Space Exhibition

A few weeks ago, a poster inside a metro station caught my attention. It was about the China Manned Space Exhibition organized by the China Manned Space Program and the Hong Kong government. On one of the weekends, I went there with my son.

Hong Kong Science Museum

The exhibition took place in the Hong Kong Science Museum instead of the Hong Kong Space Museum. En route to the exhibition hall, there was a big red billboard welcoming all visitors. 

The title of the exhibition: Chasing Dreams across the Heavens

The exhibition had a title: Chasing Dreams across the Heavens. The hall was not very large. It only took me half an hour to visit all the exhibits. But the exhibition was still quite informative. It was a limited-time exhibition. At the time of writing, the exhibition had already ended. I am going to show you here what I saw inside.

Enterance to the exhibition hall

The 2 slogans -- Dream Paradise & The Quest Begins

The entrance to the exhibition hall was decorated in the style of a traditional Chinese garden. On the left side of the entrance, there were two slogans, one saying “Dream Paradise” and the other saying “The Quest Begins”. On the right side of the entrance, the slogan showed “Starry Palace”. The three slogans were actually showing the three milestones of our space program that we have achieved so far. First, we had a dream of space travel. Then we started our quest to the space and now, we have built our starry palace. Tiangong space station literally means “Sky Palace”.

Screen at the enterance showing the Shenzhou-13 mission

Astronauts Zhai Zhigang and Ye Guangfu were writing
Red banner inside Tiangong Space Station

Wang Yaping was decorating Tiangong for Chinese New Year

At the entrance, there was a big screen showing the brief history of our space program and the life inside the Tiangong Space Station. Visitors could see how our astronauts celebrated Chinese New Year inside the space station.

Panel showing details of the re-entry module

Re-entry module of Shenzhou 13

It is the real one!

The most eye-catching exhibit was definitely the re-entry module of Shenzhou-13. It was not a model but the real one. Re-entry module may sound like a bit old school but it was not only a heat-resistant capsule with a parachute on top. There were also retrograde rockets at the bottom to ensure a soft landing.

Models of  the Long March-5B Carrier Rocket and the Long March-7 Carrier Rocket

The other eye-catching exhibits were the two large-size 1:15 models of our existing rockets, the Long March-5B Carrier Rocket and the Long March-7 Carrier Rocket. Long March-5B was used for human transport while Long March-7 was for cargo.

Model of the Tiangong Space Station

End effector of the robotic arm, the real one

On the other side of the exhibition hall was another large-size 1:15 model. This time it was the Tiangong Space Station. Next to it was the end effector of the robotic arm used on our space station. According to the exhibition, “The end effector is used by the robotic arm to crawl, grab, connect and release objects, and can support astronauts’ extravehicular activities. Equipped with an integrated binocular camera, the effector can conduct high-definition inspection and high-precision target measurements on the cabin surface. It is capable of capturing target spacecraft with mass up to 25 tons.” The effector displayed in the exhibition was not a model but a real component.

Introductory of the China Manned Space Program

14 system components of the program

Let us move on to see the side panels in the exhibition hall. The first section was a brief summary of the achievements of the China Manned Space Program. The first panel showed the 14 system components of the program. Components included Astronaut System, Space Application System, Manned Spacecraft System, Cargo Spacecraft System, Long March-2F Carrier Rocket System, Long March-7 Carrier Rocket System, Long March-5B Carrier Rocket System, Jiuquan Launch Site System, Wenchang Launch Site System, The Tracking, Telemetry & Command and Communication System, Space Laboratory System, Space Station System, Landing Site System, and Xuntian Space Telescope. Apart from the last component, all other 13 components had already been achieved.

Space Application System

This panel shows brief summary of the system

Other panels show the details

The next panel showed the details of the Space Application System. The system “utilizes manned spacecraft as a platform for conducting scientific experiments and research in areas like space life sciences, microgravity fluid mechanics and combustion science, space material and fundamental physics in microgravity. Additionally, it carries out astronomical and Earth observations, validating new technologies for space applications, thereby advancing the field of space science and benefiting technological applications.” The remaining parts of the panel showed the achievements in detail and different stages of the space station.

Astronaut System

The center part of the exhibition hall showed the Astronaut System. This system involves training and providing comprehensive support for the astronauts. Some training photos were displayed on the panel. It also disclosed that a total of 39 astronauts had been trained in 3 batches and 20 of them had already embarked on space missions. 5 astronauts, Chen Quan, Wu Jie, Pan Zhanchun, Zhao Chuandong & Li Qinglong, had retired without flying. Names of the remaining 14 candidates had not been disclosed yet. They all belonged to the third batch.

Other panels show the details of the Astronaut System

Another panel showed the manufacturing of different components of the Astronaut System. But the most interesting part was the equipment that supported the life of our astronauts. Apart from photos shown on the exhibition panel, there were some real samples of the equipment inside the hall.

Food refrigerator of Tiangong Space Station,
probably one of the most expensive fridge in the world

Chinese Medicine Diagnostic Device
I wonder how it works!

The first one was a food refrigerator. The same model was being used on Tiangong for storing space food. The other interesting equipment was the Chinese Medicine Diagnostic Device. It looked like a very complicated blood pressure monitor. No explanation was given on how it worked. But imagine that you were feeling sick in a space station and being treated with Chinese medicine, that was cool!

Flight Manuals

Another exhibit was the aviation logbooks. Too bad that we were not allowed to see what was written inside. I really wanted to know how detailed their space journeys were recorded.

Space Food

Mixed fried rice and Fried noodles with ham & carrot

Roasted pork chop, White king oyster mushroom, and Chinese spring roll

Pickled spinach, and Beef with potatoes

Cabbage dumplings
That was my first time to see dumplings in a can!

Condiments: Sweet & sour sauce, and Sweet & chili sauce

And the most interesting exhibits were definitely the space food. Let us see what our astronauts were eating inside the “Sky Palace”. For dishes made with staple foods, there were mixed fried rice, fried noodles with ham & carrot, and cabbage dumplings. As in most Chinese restaurants, condiments were also important even in space. We saw bottles of “space” sweet & sour sauce and sweet & chili sauce. Since it was also new year time, special Chinese New Year dishes were shown in the exhibition. There were roasted pork chop, white king oyster mushroom, Chinese spring roll, pickled spinach, and beef with potatoes. All 5 new year dishes had special Chinese names symbolizing good fortune.

Urine treatment subsystem

After talking about the food part, it was time to also talk about the toilet part. Water is essential to life but is also a very heavy substance. Lifting water up to the space is very expensive. To become an astronaut, one must accept that there would not be any fresh water in the space station. Water up there was all recycled. Yes, astronauts were actually drinking each other’s pee. And this was the machine to purify the urine to make it drinkable again.

Models of future spacecrafts

The New Generation Manned Spacecraft

The final section of the exhibition was about the future of the China Manned Space Program. Three models were shown here. The first one was a model of the new generation manned spacecraft in 1:4 scale. The new generation manned spacecraft was a reusable spacecraft, designed to carry three astronauts in lunar missions or seven astronauts in low-Earth orbit missions.

The Lunar Lander

To complete a lunar mission, a lunar lander was needed. Another model in 1:4 scale replicated our future moon lander. “The lunar lander is designed for transporting astronauts between the lunar orbit and the lunar surface. It can carry a lunar rover along with several scientific payloads. Comprising a landing module and a service module, the lunar lander serves as a centre hub for survival on the Moon, providing services such as energy supply and data management to support astronauts’ habitation and activities on the lunar surface.”, according to the exhibition panel.

The New Generation Manned Carrier Rocket

To lift a bigger spacecraft up to the space, we needed a bigger “engine”. A large model in 1:25 scale showed the future generation of manned carrier rocket.

Manned Lunar Exploration and Development

The last panel shows the ambition of our space program

The last panel showed the ambition of our space program. We expected to land our first taikonaut on the moon “in the foreseeable future”. And by 2050, we expected to have our first Mars landing. Could we do this? Let us see.

Photo Album of the Visit of
China Manned Space Delegation to Hong Kong

Autographs of (from top to bottom)
Liu Boming, Zhang Lu, Lin Xiqiang, Wang Yaping, and Chen Dong

Last but not least, a guest book was displayed at the exit of the exhibition hall. The China Manned Space Exhibition was kicked off with the visit of four taikonauts to Hong Kong. Inside the guest book were the autographs of the deputy director of China Manned Space Agency, Mr. Lin Xiqiang, and the four visiting taikonauts, Liu Boming, Wang Yaping, Chen Dong, and Zhang Lu.

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