We had sketched out a plan for HK next summer to visit relatives.

[StrumpersPlunkett]

Given current climate anyone with a crystal ball help my processing of how it is going to pan out and if we should be booking or not?

I live in mainland China and cannot imagine a scenario where the Chinese government allow protests to continue for over a year. The more cynical amongst us believe that protests will be dramatically reduced once the universities start back.

We are planning a visit to Hong Kong as part of next year's summer holiday. At present it's just fingers crossed it gets sorted, otherwise it may be back to the drawing board and a new plan.

We aren't planning on booking for a bit though so have some leeway

Good luck.
The weather in HK in summer is utterly shite.
Rather you than me.

I assume the shite weather comment refers to the heat and humidity in HK. There can also be huge storms and typhoons; there was one when is was there last month. The heat and humidity can be pretty debilitating (it's even worse where I live on the mainland) but there is lots to see and it's easy to balance indoor and outdoor activities.

Thanks for the info.
We know about the weather but due to limiting factors for us as a family school summer holiday is the only available time.

@ShanghaiDiva
How much free information are you getting there or is a lot of it blocked?
I am so proud and fearful for my husbands family who are all out protesting every night. His aunt is 93 and totally determined it must be done.

We can access BBC websites and other news sources using a VPN, but a lot of the information on HK is blocked/not being reported on Chinese sites. From talking to my husband's colleagues there seems to be support for taking a hard line with the protestors and they have been called terrorists... which does not bode well.

I live in HK ( 10 years) but tbh if your husbands family are HK Chinese they are probably better placed to assess the possible outcomes than I am. However, fwiw, at the moment, I don’t see a big crackdown ( eg PLA involvement) being imminent. China can afford to let HK fall on its sword economically if it has to ( it has Shenzhen) so the rationale for a crackdown would be fear of the pro- democracy political sentiment spreading to the mainland. At the moment that isn’t happening and in fact one could argue that the HK protests have increased nationalistic sentiment among mainlanders as evidenced by campus skirmishes in Australia etc. I see national day on 1 October as a possible watershed/flashpoint so maybe wait until after then to book.

Brilliant. Thank you. X

All dh’s family have joint Canadian HK citizenships from when the handover happened.

If they feel the need to go, then they will.

As above we are limited to school holidays and for this holiday we need two weeks, and Easter is out due to exams.

We're currently on our way home from Japan where we were told the same, and we've been to Florida several times in the summer - guess we are just used to having to deal with the weather in order to be able to visit these places!

It’ll be fine- although I’d say at that time of year, don’t spend too long here because if you do get bad weather there’s a limited amount to do indoors - we don’t really have many museums worth seeing, for example, especially by UK standards, and you don’t really want to spend your holiday at clip n climb and the trampoline park- ha ha. You may get lucky and get 2-3 clear, sunny days, in which case definitely go to the Peak ( just walk round- don’t waste cash on the observation deck) and the cable car to the Big Buddha. Bus to Stanley is quite nice too.

To be fair one of main reasons we are planning to go is that teenage Dd is hoping to visit every Disney park - and Hong Kong and Shanghai are.m the last two left.

Though obviously we are also keen to visit more of the world too and have been exploring east this year and want to do more so.

thanks @soulrunner
we aren't so worried about the weather as the majority of the time we will be with relatives and visiting ancestors.

We are indeed hoping to take the kids to some of the main sights that DH and his Parents remember from childhood.
heading to Thailand for a week after, before we head home.

My DD was just there and felt quite relaxed rather than us back home. She was able to avoid demonstrations particularly the ones that become hectic. She loved the beach and the mountains as well as key city sights. She felt very sympathetic to demonstrators while there, we were fearful of Airport disruption etc back home. DD is young

I'm travelling Bangkok, Hong Kong and Tokyo in February. I'll be spending a week in each city. My plans won't change.