Hong Kong’s rumors and secrets exposed

Tycoon Tales!
Ten Thousand Nights
The Rumor: Cheung Nak Holdings tycoon Cecil Chao has slept
with over 10,000 women.
MAYBE
This rumor was perpetuated by none other than
the 79-year-old Chao himself. If he started his
sexual career at 16, that works out to about 158 women per year,
or three per week. We’d never doubt his enthusiasm, but it doesn't
seem to leave much time to build a property empire.
Li-Man, Defender
of Hong Kong
The Rumor: Li Ka-shing is able to employ a force field that deflects
typhoons from hitting Hong Kong on important business days.
MAYBE
When the Hong Kong Observatory declares a
Typhoon Eight or above, the city shuts down,
causing billions in lost business revenue. As the property’s foremost
tycoon, Li Ka-shing obviously doesn’t want that—a fact which has
given rise to the legend that Li is able either to physically deflect
typhoons from striking Hong Kong, or that he is able to pressure
the HKO into not raising the signal on business days. The HKO says
it’s because of differences in temperatures between the South
China Sea and Pacific Ocean—but we know which explanation we
WANT to believe.
Side Chick Shopping
The Rumor: There’s a shopping mall in Hong Kong named after
the developer’s former mistress.
MAYBE
The ONE mall in Tsim Sha Tsui is rumored to
be named for the nickname of actress Michelle
Reis, one-time mistress of property tycoon Joseph Lau. They say
it was on the occasion of her 39th birthday—after, in fact, the
couple had split up. True? We don’t know. But Lau certainly has
a track record of demonstrating his love via the medium of buying
expensive things and then renaming them. Take, for example,
when he dropped a world-record US$48 million on a diamond which
he named “The Blue Moon of Josephine” after his daughter.
HK MAGAZINE FRIDAY, JUNE 3, 2016 9