Best of HKFP 2023: Our top 15 features and most popular stories of the year
Hong Kong Free Press
This year, HKFP expanded its team, joined the Trust Project, launched our first podcast, won two awards, joined two journalism bodies, and followed a number of key court cases – namely, the Stand News, 47 Democrats and Jimmy Lai trials. We also followed the opposition-free local elections, the ongoing national security clampdown, and the relaxation of Covid-19 restrictions.
We also invested heavily in original reporting. This year, we examined the city’s efforts to boost the economy and tourism, went hiking with the Countryside Volunteer Search Team, learnt about how latte art was bringing couples together, spoke to disgruntled Cathay pilots, and interviewed journalist Bao Choy about her legal battle. The team also looked at Hong Kong’s library book bans, the city’s fading neon heritage, an anti-food waste initiative, and we checked in with the “patriots only” legislature.
Our best original features of 2023
Our Top 100 stories of 2023 by traffic:
- 11 hospitalised as Cathay Pacific flight aborts take-off at Hong Kong Int’l Airport
- Furious pilots and a lack of trust: Why aircrew at Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific are quitting what was once a dream job
- Cathay Pacific pilots, crew removed from flight duties after aborted take-off as Hong Kong gov’t expresses concern
- Two shoppers dead in brutal stabbing at Hong Kong mall, suspect arrested
- Silent night: Hong Kong tourist traps are empty, locals stay home as gov’t drive to revive evening economy begins
- Hong Kong Policy Address: Travellers will no longer need to unpack carry-on luggage for airport security scans
- Hong Kong distributes bedbug warning leaflets at airport amid outbreaks in South Korea, France and the UK
- In northeastern China, farmers reclaim ghost town of mansions abandoned by housing developer
- Registration opens for Cathay Pacific’s free flights from Hong Kong, website in simplified Chinese only
- Typhoon Talim: Hong Kong raises storm signal 8, as city shuts down
- In Pictures: Hong Kong hit by widespread flooding, landslides as record-breaking rain paralyses city
- US Republican Senator Jeff Wilson arrested over carrying gun into Hong Kong, barred from leaving city
- Super Typhoon Saola: Hong Kong issues highest T10 storm signal, first since 2018
- Registration for free Cathay Pacific tickets from US, Canada to Hong Kong to open Thursday
- 17-year-old Hong Kong boy, missing for 7 days, found alive in country park
- Murder victim, rape survivor, porn star’: How Hong Kong media treats women reveals a wider issue, scholars say
- Tropical Cyclone Talim: Hong Kong may hoist T8 storm signal early Monday, as rain expected all week
- Super Typhoon Saola: Hong Kong raises T8 storm signal, as city shuts down
- Hong Kong police impound sports car with ‘8964’ licence plate on Tiananmen crackdown anniversary
- Super Typhoon Saola: Hong Kong shuts down as Observatory to consider rare ‘direct hit’ hurricane warning
- Typhoon Koinu: Observatory issues T3 storm warning, harbourfront ‘Night Vibes Hong Kong’ events cancelled
- Winners of Hong Kong’s ‘free’ flights say additional charges more than expected
- Hong Kong nat. security police decline to confirm activist Agnes Chow’s ‘patriotic’ China trip in exchange for passport
- Hong Kong mall double murder: Police say no evidence suspect knew victims, as public urged not to share vids
- Typhoon Koinu: Hong Kong’s T8 and black rain signals in effect, after hundreds stuck at airport – T3 signal at 11.40am
- Partygoers left with burns and light sensitivity after Hypebeast event at The Landmark
- Hong Kong woman faces jail for removing devices from home of sister arrested under security law
- Man with white flowers arrested in Hong Kong on China’s National Day holiday
- Tropical cyclone Saola forecast to enter within 800 km of Hong Kong on Wed, Observatory says
- Hong Kong private club closes pool for cleaning after dozens of monkeys spotted swimming, lounging poolside
- Typhoon Talim: Storm signal relaxed to T3, but Hong Kong may see another typhoon next week
- Over half of Hong Kong professionals considering leaving the city within 5 years, survey finds
- Typhoon Koinu: Hong Kong to see storm signal 1 on Wed night as city braces for wet weekend
- Guide: How to claim Hong Kong’s 2023 HK$5,000 consumption vouchers
- Typhoon Koinu: Hong Kong raises T9 storm signal, MTR commuters left stranded as Observatory to consider T10
- Not Prada but Praya: Mainland Chinese tourists use social media to search for memorable Hong Kong locations
- Hong Kong busker deported, banned from Macau after being detained for several hours
- HK Express flight giveaway opens on Tuesday, with free fares from Hong Kong to Japan, South Korea, Taiwan
- Super Typhoon Saola: Hong Kong hoists T3 storm signal, gov’t prepares city for for T8 shutdown on Friday
- Super Typhoon Saola approaches Hong Kong – T3 storm signal by Thurs afternoon, as China issues highest alert
- Typhoon Koinu: Hong Kong raises T8 storm signal
- EXCLUSIVE: Beijing demands consulates in Hong Kong submit data of all locally-employed staff
- Chinese pop idol Cai Xukun denies wrongdoing in sex scandal
- Hong Kong film star Chow Yun-fat laments Chinese censorship at South Korea film festival
- Video: China’s attempt to interrupt UN testimony by son of detained Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai rejected
- Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific suspends crew accused of discrimination against non-English speakers
- UK launches express service for BNO visas, with Hongkongers able to pay for 5-day processing
- Hong Kong Budget 2023: HK$5,000 consumption vouchers for all eligible residents
- Super Typhoon Saola: Hong Kong issues rare T9 storm signal, as city bunkers down
- 2 companies fined total of HK$352,000 after dancers injured at Mirror concert
- Hong Kong police arrest mother suspected of murdering 3 daughters at Sham Shui Po home
- Uncle Roger’ comedian banned from Chinese social media after joking about Xi and surveillance
- Uncle Roger’ apologises and deletes video featuring fellow YouTube star who criticised China
- Mainland Chinese flock to Hong Kong for higher interest rates, financial security, amid growing economic woes
- K-pop star Blackpink’s Lisa and Hong Kong actress Angelababy banned from Chinese social media platform
- Over 144,000 Hongkongers move to UK in 2 years since launch of BNO visa scheme
- Social media influencers among 6 arrested as Hong Kong police probe unlicensed JPEX crypto exchange
- Video: HK$2bn ‘Hello Hong Kong’ campaign gives away 500,000 plane tickets to help reboot tourism
- In Pictures: Whale carcass found in Hong Kong waters, days after marine mammal was seen with suspected propellor injury
- Why do int’l music acts appear to be shunning Hong Kong?
- Hong Kong issues 100,000 work visas in first 9 months of the year
- Super Typhoon Saola: Hong Kong assesses damage after hurricane-force storm batters city
- In Pictures: Hong Kong’s hostile architecture designed to keep homelessness off the streets
- Hong Kong’s Cathay flight attendant scandal: Can we all grow up?
- Hong Kong national security police issue HK$1 million bounty each for 8 self-exiled activists
- Why I am giving up writing about Hong Kong politics
- Chinese University fires Tiananmen crackdown scholar after Hong Kong gov’t rejects visa extension
- Mother’s Day: ‘Why would anyone want a kid?’ – How Hong Kong’s fertility rate sank to the world’s lowest
- Covid PCR test requirement for cross-border travel between Hong Kong and mainland China scrapped from Monday
- Hong Kong woman jailed for 6 months over removing potential evidence against sister arrested under nat. security law
- Clockenflap 2023: Yoasobi, IDLES, Caroline Polachek, PULP, Joji among line-up for Dec festival
- Hong Kong’s migrant domestic workers unfairly represented in media, research finds
- Mother who abandoned 12-year-old son at a hospital condemned by Hong Kong leader
- A decade on, giant duck once censored in mainland China returns to Hong Kong as double-bill installation
- 37 Hong Kong students took own lives this year; health official says trend causes ‘serious alarm’
- Hong Kong issues over 120,000 work visas in first 11 months of year, with nearly 78% going to mainland Chinese
- Something in the water: Hongkongers appear unfazed over ban on Japanese seafood following Fukushima discharge
- Plans for 500-strong Hong Kong taxi driver strike over Uber thwarted after carpark operator refuses to offer venue
- Clockenflap 2023 guide, schedule and map: Hong Kong abuzz for mask-free, sold-out festival this weekend
- Wanted in Hong Kong, self-exiled activists in Britain decry ‘harassment’
- Give new parents HK$10k and tax breaks to hire domestic workers, Hong Kong lawmakers say amid low birth rate
- Why Beijing and Hong Kong’s complaints about Fukushima wastewater are hypocritical
- US inches closer to closing Hong Kong representative offices, as local gov’t slams ‘malicious slander’
- Hong Kong should never have sent solar panels damaged during Super Typhoon Saola to landfillsÂ
- Ex-Hong Kong Observatory head urges MTR to review T9 typhoon plans after thousands of travellers stranded
- Super Typhoon Doksuri: Hong Kong to hoist T1 storm signal as city faces ‘serious’ pollution
- Covid-19: Elderly, high-risk groups should get booster this year, Hong Kong experts say
- Hong Kong nat. security police charge man over wearing alleged ‘seditious’ shirt at airport
- At least 2 dead after Hong Kong battered by record rainfall, severe flooding
- Hong Kong’s exam stars are all scientists – should we be worried?
- Lowest-ever turnout for Hong Kong’s District Council election; 6 arrests during opposition-free polls
- Behind slashed prices at a Hong Kong property, an idle seafront site hoarded by developers for 20 years
- As fewer mainland Chinese tourists visit Hong Kong for shopping, finance chief says city must maintain ‘momentum’
- Recovery efforts underway in Hong Kong after historic rains, as body found in New Territories river
- Rare whale sighting in Hong Kong waters delights locals, intrigues experts
- US Republican state senator Jeff Wilson arrested over carrying gun into Hong Kong, barred from leaving city
- Hong Kong activist Nathan Law’s family released after being questioned by national security police – reports
- Mainland Chinese tourists flock to Hong Kong for first post-Covid National Day holiday, but do not plan to stay long
- Hong Kong Tourism Board to give residents HK$100 dining vouchers in bid to boost local spending
- Hope, heartbreak after Hong Kong court decision on LGBTQ partnerships
Support HKFP | Policies & Ethics | Error/typo? | Contact Us | Newsletter | Transparency & Annual Report | Apps
Help safeguard press freedom & keep HKFP free for all readers by supporting our team
Original reporting on HKFP is backed by our monthly contributors.
Almost 1,000 HKFP Patrons made this article possible. Each contributes an average of HK$200/month to support our award-winning original reporting, keeping the city’s only independent English-language outlet free-to-access for all. Three reasons to join us:
- 🔎 Transparent & efficient: As a non-profit, we are externally audited each year, publishing our income/outgoings annually, as the city’s most transparent news outlet.
- 🔒 Accurate & accountable: Our reporting is governed by a strict Ethics Code. We are 100% independent, and not answerable to any tycoon, mainland owners or shareholders. Check out our latest Annual Report, and help support press freedom.
- 💰 It’s fast, secure & easy: We accept most payment methods – cancel anytime, and receive a free tote bag and pen if you contribute HK$150/month or more.
HKFP has an impartial stance, transparent funding, and balanced coverage guided by an Ethics Code and Corrections Policy.
Support press freedom & help us surpass 1,000 monthly Patrons: 100% independent, governed by an ethics code & not-for-profit.