HONG KONG – I was boarding a cab at the Hong Kong airport after touching down in the city to start my posting as The Straits Times’ Hong Kong correspondent when the cabbie took one glance at me and snarled in Putonghua: “I don’t take renminbi. Hong Kong dollar only!”
As I tried to open the taxi door to get in, he jabbed angrily at a small label at a corner of the window and growled, in Putonghua again: “Don’t touch it! It’s an automatic door. Can’t you read English?”
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