Hong Kong Dolphins The Travel Show

Now on BBC News, The Travel Show.

Coming up on this week's Travel Show.

Oh, no, OK!

Three o'clock, three o'clock, three.

I'm in Hong Kong to find out how their famous pink dolphins

are being affected by the fast pace of development here.

We meet one of Asia's top chefs to get a new take

on traditional Cantonese cuisine.

We're in northern Canada to discover how to use an iceberg

to make a cup of tea.

I actually know him!

And going underground in London, we meet the people who help to keep

the trains running all night.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the handover

-- This year marks the 20th

anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong to China.

Since 1997, the pace of development here has been rapid,

as Beijing pushes ahead with its transitional "one country,

two systems" formula.

A plan that will eventually see Hong Kong merge economically

and politically with the Communist mainland, in 2047.

But environmentalists fear that one of Hong Kong's most iconic creatures

may not survive that long.

The pink Hong Kong Dolphin was actually a symbol

of the handover of Hong Kong from British back to

Chinese rule 20 years ago.

But now, their future is under threat.

The dolphins' vivid pink colour isn't caused by pigmentation.

It happens as blood vessels expand and contract as a result

of thermo-regulation.

It's a system the dolphins used to control their body temperature.

The dolphins are meaning good luck in Chinese culture and also they go

beyond Hong Kong border to Chinese waters, so it's sort of a unity

between Hong Kong and China back in the handover days.

So it's sort of a symbol of unification between

Hong Kong and China.

They're also a good luck and energetic symbol.

Unfortunately, you know, their numbers are in decline.

So it's not such good luck now.

Figures from Hong Kong's Fisheries And Conservation Department show

that the number of pink dolphins here have crashed, from 188

in 2003 to only 65 in 2015.

And although nobody is exactly sure how accurate that figure is,

there's no doubt that numbers are falling.

I've been coming to Hong Kong for around 20 years now and I'm

ashamed to say I had no idea there were dolphins

in the waters here.

But of course you won't find them in Victoria Harbour

where the tourists are.

To be in with a chance of seeing the dolphins you have to leave

Hong Kong Island and go west towards the airport.

Land reclamation, population growth and pollution

are all being blamed for destroying the dolphins' habitat.

Huge new infrastructure projects like this new bridge and tunnel

to Macau may be good for the economy but environmentalists claim it is

playing havoc with the dolphins' natural environment.

The Hong Kong government has announced it will create a new 2500

hectare marine conservation park in northern waters to help counter

the effects of building another runway at the airport.

The conservationists say that the marine Park is in the wrong

place and won't help the situation.

So, when we go out to see we use a long lens to take

high-quality photos, as you see, because there

is the information we used to identify the dolphin,

just like the fingerprints on your hands.

Like this one, there is a round tip and a big notch.

So from this one we can know exactly this individual has been

seen, when and where.

We need at least 2000 dolphins to sustain the long-term survival.

But in the current situation, no matter how many times

we run the simulations, the population is

doomed to extinction.

So that's a very worrying scenario.

What needs to be done?

What we are proposing is, protect what is important

to the animals first.

Now, it's not just about quantity, about how many kilometres square

of habitat is being protected but also where it is protected.

Those core areas should be highly prioritised areas to be protected

in terms of stopping the development, lowering

the fishing effort.

Basically reducing the pressure on the animals.

So, give them a place to survive.

Well, determined to try and see something dolphins,

I headed to Lantau with an advocacy and ecotourism group

called Dolphin Watch, who have been working to promote

marine conservation here for two decades.

Many of the dead ones that are found every year are juveniles or babies.

I'm going to show a dead dolphin.

If you're very sensitive, then you may wish to not look.

Just looks like it's sleeping.

So, what could have happened to this dolphin?

OK, there's no crisscross scarring, it didn't drown in a net.

What are we going to see today?

Are we guaranteed to see dolphins?

No, no.

It's a 97% success rate and if we don't see any then people

will get to go again free, assuming they have the time here,

but that's a pretty rare occasion because after 20 years of doing this

we have a pretty good idea where the dolphins will be,

given the wind and rain and time and tides, but they are wild animals

so we can't make promises.

You'll see lots of garbage, lots of concrete, lots of boats

and hopefully lots of dolphins but, you know, I have to lower

expectations because some days it just doesn't happen.

I really hope we see a dolphin.

The conditions are in our favour, it isn't too windy and where we are now

in these waters is near the mouth of the river sowed

the sea isn't too salty.

This is their usual habitat, this is what dolphins like.

For awhile while there's nothing and then as we head into the western

waters of Lantau Island, we suddenly get lucky.

Oh, gosh, there's one over there!

Oh, I missed it.

Got to be quick.

It's a pink one, is he going to come up again?

Yep, yep, yep.

Oh, no, no.

Three o'clock, three o'clock.

OK, over there!

People love concrete here.

Where is the tipping point where you say the dolphins

are no longer sustainable, if you like?

And even if they are, the gene pool is going to be

shrinking with fewer and fewer dolphins so, by the time you list

something as endangered, it's quite often too late.

As a cosmopolitan city which is very wealthy,

we have the resource to make a balance between development

and conservation of the environment.

We can do both.

We have to strike a balance.

We can have all the development that we want but at the same time

we also need to build up the capacity for the dolphins

to withstand all the threats.

We use the dolphin as the mascot, the symbol of the handover

so it's our responsibility to ensure that they will be here for a long

time, not just for us, but for the next generation

and future generations to come.

Time now for the last in our series of films looking at the people

who keep London moving, long after most people

have gone to bed.

And this time we meet Latoya, who works overnight

at one of the capital's busiest tube stations.

My name is Latoya Raymond and I'm a customer service assistant

here at the London Underground.

And I work for the infamous Oxford Circus station.

Since the launch of the 24-hour night tube last year,

we actually run 24 hours on Fridays and Saturdays.

My role begins the minute you walk through the station and if you need

assistance along the way, anywhere, I'm here.

That's what we're here for.

That's fine, if you want to touch your Oyster card.

On there?

Yeah, that's it. There you go, my love.

Sound result that for you.

And that's done.

Thanks so much.

You're welcome, take care.

At night, this is where Oxford Circus comes alive.

Central London comes alive during the night.

Everyone's coming out, everyone is going out

and having a great time, especially on Fridays.

You finish work, you don't want to just rush home,

so they take advantage of the nightlife, they take

advantage of the pubs, the fact that we have

24 hours services.

People enjoy it and the atmosphere is always amazing.

It's great.

I am a people person, I've always been a people person.

So you are the actual Monopoly man!

It is fun, it is absolutely fun.

So we've done all the 26 pubs.

On the Monopoly board?

Yes.

They come down the stairs singing.

We join in!

I don't know how you're still standing.

Take care.

Along with persons that are going out, having fun,

going to clubs, we have persons who work and these pubs.

I actually know him.

I'm sorry, I have to run and hug him.

Now they can just come through and go home.

If you can imagine working throughout the night and then having

to wait another two hours for the trains to start

running, it's not nice.

We go out as well, you know, we aren't all about work,

work, work.

We're a great bunch, we get on.

This is a family.

Where did you go?

Yeah, there is no more trains for the Bakerloo.

At nights, at the moment, we only have five lines

that are running.

So the problem with that is, most persons, they aren't quite

aware of what lines are running and how to get home.

So again, this is where knowing the job, knowing the stations

and knowing how to help persons.

We have all the resources we need to make sure that we can

get everyone home.

So now that the last Bakerloo line has left,

it's time for us to shut the gates so no one else can enter.

They can always use the northbound or southbound Victoria line

or the Central line if they need to get home but for tonight,

there's no more Bakerloo line trains.

Stay with us because still to come on this week's show.

Coming up next, we eat out here in Hong Kong with one

of Asia's top chefs.

Chrysanthemum is not traditional for this dish but it really

as a nice floralness and we got this inspiration from having snake soup

in Hong Kong.

And head to the far north of Canada to meet the local people who survive

some of the harshest winters on earth.

The Travel Show, your essential guide, whether you're heading.

Up next, here's another in our series of films to mark

Canada's 150th birthday this year.

And this week, we're off to the far north of the country to meet some

of the people who live in the town of Qikiqtarjuaq,

inside the Arctic Circle.

Well, to finish off this week we're heading back to Hong Kong,

a melting pot of Cantonese and western cultures and an amazing

place to visit if you love food.

May Chow was voted Asia's best female chef earlier this year

and she is building a reputation as the driving force behind

a new generation of chefs who are specialising in what's

being called neo-Cantonese cuisine.

We were lucky enough to go behind the scenes at her Happy Paradise

restaurant in Hong Kong to watch her cook one

of the most popular dishes.

Today we're going cook for you a three yellow wine chicken.

So basically it's originally a Hong Kong dish but at

Happy Paradise we do neo- Cantonese food so we're going to do

it with more Cantonese techniques, having a bit more refined.

What we have here is a local breed three yellow chicken.

We've already slow cooked it.

For the breast, we've cooked it at 58 degrees.

For the thigh, we've cooked it at 83 degrees and for the feet,

just a little garnish, because Chinese people don't notice

the tail first.

We're going to do a rice on top with seasonal mushrooms,

a little bit of chrysanthemum butter just to lighten it a little bit,

to make it more floral and it's going to be finished

with a Shaoxing broth.

We're going to put the chicken in.

It's already fully cooked so what we're really doing

is reheating it.

We're going to start the broth.

This broth is shiitake based.

You can really smell a lot of shiitake mushrooms in there.

We also have Shaoxing wine.

Shaoxing wine is the most commonly used cooking wine for Chinese people

but when you cook it with something like yellow wine chicken,

we're quite aggressive with adding the Shaoxing wine.

We're going to stir-fry the mushrooms.

In Cantonese terms, it's actually called chicken mushrooms.

So that's why we're adding it as well.

We're trying to get a bit of colour.

Then we're going to add, this is really nice,

this is the chrysanthemum butter.

That's going to add a really nice floralness to the fried rice.

We're layering the flavours into the chicken.

Just a little bit more of that Shaoxing wine.

So that's where we'll put aside for garnish.

Just going to chop the chicken.

The chicken should be ready.

So we're going to take the chicken out.

Now we're just going to ladle the rice on top.

Now we're going to garnish with a bit of chrysanthemum.

It isn't traditional for this dish but it really adds

a nice floralness.

We got this inspiration from having snake soup in Hong Kong.

The chrysanthemum also represents chicken feathers.

And then, table-side, we garnish with the soup.

So this is our version of yellow wine chicken.

Refined Cantonese food with super comfort levels.

Well, that's all we got time for in this edition

of the programme.

Coming up next week:

As Pakistan prepares to mark 70 years of independence,

we go to Karachi to get a taste of life in the city.

There's just so much more to Karachi than we know.

It has depth in terms of the people who live here,

the cultures that exist, the lifestyles, the architecture,

there's so much to see.

Well, I hope you can join us for that if you can.

Don't forget, if you want to join the rest of the travel team

on their journeys, in real-time, you can sign up to us

on our social media feeds.

All the details should be on your screen now.

But until next time, from me, Carmen Roberts and the rest

of the Travel Show team here in Hong Kong, it's goodbye.