There had been nine mentees from HKU for the fall of 2018 semester and seven mentees for the winter of 2019 semester, for a total of 16 mentees for the 2018 -2019 academic year. 10 Mentors from the HKUOAA stepped up to the plate and participated in this program to contribute to the mentees’ experience in Canada and provided support and guidance during their stay. Mentees attended Universities like Toronto, Waterloo, Western, Queen’s and York and covered disciplines such as Medicine, Business, Engineering, Law, Arts, Economics and Actuarial and Social Sciences. Mentees enjoyed hiking, dining and other social events during their stay. Many remained in contact even after they returned home to Hong Kong. It is a way that HKU alumni can give back to the Alma Mater. If you are interested in becoming one of the mentors in the coming year, please contact lilianma@bellnet.ca
Reported by Lilian Ma

On October 14, 2018 the Hong Kong Joint Universities Alumni Association of Ontario hosted a successful ping pong tournament event at the Canadian Chinese Table Tennis Association in Markham, Ontario. It was a team competition with the HKU, Baptist, Chu Hai, and Shue Yan Universities making up a White Team playing against a Red Team that comprises the CU, Polytechnic, Lingnan, City and Science and Technology Universities. The matches included Men’s Singles, Men’s Doubles, Female’s Singles, Mixed doubles. After a fierce competition that stretched over 100 games, the eventual winner was the White Team made up of HKU, Baptist, Chu Hai and Shue Yan Universities.
The evening was wrapped up by a sumptuous dinner in which over 300 alumni and families attended.
The White Team was presented the Hong Kong Cup by the Assistant Director of HKETO while individual players received medals commemorating their success.

Reported by Dan Lam

Click here to view photo album 1
Click here to view photo album 2

Click the following links to view the news articles covering the event.
Mingpao 香港專上校友會2018乒乓賽 白隊奪標
Singtao 辦乒乓隊際賽聯歡宴 港專上校友300人盡興

Our hike to see the famous autumn foliage took place on September 30. We visited the Eldred King Tract which is one of the York Regional Forest Tracts with hectares of trees between Vivian and Ballantrae. The tract is 18 Km long and considered moderately difficult for hikes. We covered 10 Km of the trails and finished the hike in slightly over three hours.
Some thirty alumni and friends registered for the event although several did not come due to sudden sickness. We had about 20 hikers including six mentees and exchange students from Hong Kong. They were particularly excited to see the beautiful autumn colours and feel the fresh air of the woods.

Among the hikers was a special guest – Eric Chui, a HKUAA member from British Columbia, who happened to be visiting Toronto. We were so happy to chat with Eric and exchanged information about alumni association matters. It is hoped that we could have more visitors joining our alumni events in future.

After three hours’ leisure hike, we returned to the starting point and got ready to the next part of our gathering – a delicious meal in a Chinese restaurant in Markham. Some 21 alumni, mentors and mentees included, joined the dinner and had a most enjoyable evening with good wine and good food.

A Gala Dinner will be held in Casa Victoria Fine Dining and Banquet.

2018 HKJU Day, Sunday October 14, 2018
Table Tennis Tournament

Time: 11:00 – 17:00
Venue: Canadian Community Table Tennis Association (CCTTA)
Address: 1181 Denison St. Markham ON L3R 4B2
Phone: 905-475-8899

We have 23 alumni with their spouse including 4 ladies representing us. Dan Lam is the team captain.

Gala Dinner

Time: 18:00 – 22:00
Venue: Casa Victoria Fine Dining
Address: Unit 6, 8601 Warden Ave, Markham ON L3R 0B5
Phone: 905 948 1618
Cost: $45.00 per person

Please mark in your calendar, go to support our players and celebrate with them in the dinner. In order to facilitate reservation process, please register through Romeo Au romeoyhau@hotmail.com (416-529-3361) at your convenience.

We will admire the Fall Colours by having a 10 km loop hike on Eldred King Woodlands Tract and Oak Ridges Trail on Sunday September 30, 2018, followed by a dinner party at Grand Lake Chinese Cuisine & Banquet (太湖盛宴), 8362 Kennedy Rd., at SW Hwy 7/Kennedy, Markham.

Hiking meeting time/place: 1:30 pm Sunday September 30, 2018 at Eldred King Woodlands parking lot. (16232  Hwy 48/ Markham Rd)

Directions: 404 northbound Exit 45 to Aurora Rd. East, pass Kennedy Rd., pass McCowan Rd., turn left on Markham Rd., pass St. Johns Side Rd., go for about 1 km turn left to Eldred King Woodlands driveway and meet at the parking lot at end of the driveway.

The hike should be completed around 4.30 pm or so.

Dinner time/venue: 5:30 pm September 30, 2018 at Grand Lake Chinese Cuisine & Banquet (8362 Kennedy Rd, south of Hwy 7).

Estimated dinner cost is about $30 per head.

Family members and friends are welcome.

Please register with Hannah Cheung via email (emailhcathonta@gmail.com) before September 26 if you are interested.  Please provide your name and contact phone number,  as well as emergency contact person (name and phone).  Please indicate if you will join dinner as well.

All registrants and their guests are asked to read the waiver as follow.* 

Click here to read HKUAAO – Waiver of Liability and Assumption of Risk

Gathered together by Christopher Tam, members and family of the Table Tennis Interest Group of the HKU Alumni Association of Ontario formed a team of 10 to participate in the HKU Walking Challenge organised by the Centre for Sports and Exercise & VP Global Office of HKU. The Challenge took place during the month of May 2018 with the aim of promoting fitness and healthy body and healthy mind for students, staff and alumni. Within a short time, we came out with a team name: Toronto Walkers, and a Google Spreadsheet was set up to record the steps made by each team member. With each other’s support and encouragement, we all continued to push ourselves to the limit in order to take more steps and achieve better health for ourselves. More importantly, we established a habit of walking and exercising on daily basis. At the end of the Challenge, our team accumulated a total of 3,719,528 steps, ranked 14 out of 150 teams in the Highest Total Steps, and ranked 33 in the Highest Average Steps: A very impressive result.

Our members would like to share their stories with you below:

I enjoy being challenged. I also love to exercise. As a healthcare professional, I know first-hand that it is difficult to motivate my patients to exercise and improve their personal health. When I saw the HKU walking challenge, I jumped at the opportunity to join so that I could literally “walk the talk.” I approached a few of our alumni to take up the challenge. Luckily, more showed up voluntarily and the group was formed within 24 hours. I was hoping to be a 300k member and also challenged my friends to push themselves to become a 300k member. Now, most of us are proud members of this 300k club and one even challenged the rest of us to take this to another level – to walk until our group accumulates enough steps to walk around the world! I think we are ready.
– Christopher Tam, M.B.B.S 1984

The walking challenge has been a game changer  to do something for my sedentary life style after work which is sitting down to watch TV after a day of sitting  and  watching the screen at work. At 72, I have to push myself to move and walk more. So going out to play golf on the weekend  or after work did the trick.  I am the lowest scoring member, yet I am not unhappy and vow to keep this up even after June 1.
– Lilian Ma Yan Yan, BSc 1967

Being a retiree, I have been leading a healthy life style for many years. Birding at parks, playing table tennis and practising Tai Chi are almost my day to day activities. Joining the Walking Challenge programme has enabled me to visualize the level of physical activities which I achieve when compared to my teammates. The team has motivated me to walk more and exercise more when I noticed my steps were behind the team average. A small increment in steps is a great achievement in keeping me in good shape! Although the Walking Challenge has come to an end, the good practice will keep going on for me! 正是: 腳下衆小歩, 健康一大歩!
-HK Pong , BSc (Eng) 1980, MSc (Eng) 1985

四月的某一天，收到今年的驗身報告，還是老樣子，應高的不高，應低的不低，醫生說：小心。
回到家裏，太太Wendy說收到HKU Walking Challenge 的電郵，建議我們一起參加，太太說：恆心。
五月的第一天，步行月的第一步，湊巧在南太平洋一個小島上開展，島名復活節島，那天我們各行了約二萬步，Wendy說：若能持之以恆，您可以復活了。
五月廿九日，我們Toronto Walkers大聚會，感受到大家的興奮和健康的笑聲，丹田之氣充沛十足，持續步行，果然是靈丹妙藥。
想起了當年金句，冥冥中自有靈光一刹，由此普渡眾生。感謝HKU Walking Challenge, 您就是這道靈光，指引我們步出彩虹！感謝Toronto Walkers全體隊員，沒有大家的互相鼓勵，我這個月沒可能行了三十多萬步， Wendy也不可能行了四十萬步。與您們同行，是我們的幸運！天長地久有時盡，持續步行無了期，Toronto Walkers共勉之！
– TC Kwan,BSc (Eng) 1981 & Wendy Lam, BSocSc 1982

There are so many quotes about the benefit of walking such as “walking is the most ancient exercise and still the best modern exercise”,  “An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day”, “Thoughts come clearly while one walks” and so on.  However, not until you really are doing it, you cannot actually enjoy the benefits.  Many thanks to the HKU Alumni Walking Challenges initiative which triggers so many of us to get into walking.  Very likely, our “Toronto Walkers” walking team including our immediate family will continue on the walking exercise after the challenge.  Let’s put in our effort to live a healthy life. For me, it is definitely a good start.
– Jimmy Tang, BSc 1982

I was the last one who joined this walker group. Being an active sports player, I think it will be easy to reach 300K in a month. But after two weeks, I have the least number of steps within the group and far below the average of 10k per day. My family then starts suggesting me to walk to nearby grocery store, library and restaurant together instead of driving as we used to. I find it very enjoyable to walk leisurely with my family members in such a nice weather. I wish everyone can enjoy a leisure walk with your loved one every day.
– Steve Fung, B.Sc 1982

四月初剛剛退下工作線，正值組隊步行，想不到一向不愛運動的愛妻也一口應承参加。當知道目標是每日要行一萬步，就開始有壓力好擔心。
五月開始，每日想盡辦法為了達標: 行山，觀鳥，逛商場，走 treadmill, 附近的公園都給我倆走遍。
有時三更半夜，就到零晨時，太太知道尚未夠數，立即從電腦前彈起，在客廳氹氹轉，氹氹轉，臨尾衝刺。當到達一萬步就停止，又再坐回到電腦前。
五月將盡，太太發覺數年來長期奮鬥的目標，居然可以一個月內達到(減磅三磅)，實在太高興了。佢的終身幸福，終於實現了。真係要多謝HKU Walking Challenge。
– Edmond Cheng,B. Soc. Sc. 1985 & Elza Lee, B. Sc. (Comp. Studies) 1985

I got a fitness tracker more than a year ago but I failed to meet the 10,000 steps per day goal from time to time. Thanks to the HKU Walking Challenge and the Toronto Walkers, I am able to become a 300K club member in 26 days! The peer pressure always works. The team spirit has motivated me to leave my office desk or my comfortable home to walk no matter how busy (and how lazy) I am. I have navigated different routes and walked through most parts of the University of Toronto campus and my neighborhood in the last 31 days. It’s a blessing to establish a healthy lifestyle with friends from the HKU family in Toronto. Let’s extend this challenge after May and aim to walk around the globe together. Three cheers to Toronto Walkers!
– Alice Chow, BFin 1998; MEcon 2001

Compiled by HK Pong

Group Photo of Toronto Walkers team
Front row from left to right: Edmond Cheng Elza Lee Lilian Ma Yan Yan Alice Chow Wendy Lam TC Kwan
Back row from left to right: Steve Fung HK Pong (Captain) Jimmy Tang  Christopher Tam

This year our spring hike took place in Heber Down Conservation Area north of Whitby.

Heber Down Conservation Area is host to a mosaic of plants and animal communities. It is located within the Lynde Creek drainage basin; it is a part of the provincially significant Heber Down Wetland Complex.^[1] The area is composed of two types of broad terrain units: a valley formed by the creek and the Glacial Lake Iroquois beach.^[2]  Close to the city, yet country quiet, Heber Down Conservation Area is a great place for a quiet walk.

Twenty-eight members and friends registered for the event. All but one showed up. It was a pleasant afternoon and we hiked along the trail leading to a small pond. We finished the 7 Km hike in about three hours. After the hike, twenty-two of us went along to a big feast in a restaurant in Markham.

Reported by Hannah Cheung

The 33th HKUAAO annual dinner, held at Premier Ballroom & Convention Centre on April 27, 2018, was well-attended by alumni, mentee, families, friends, as well as guests from other university alumni associations from Hong Kong. As the dinner coincided with the visit of a delegation team of HKU deans and senior professors to Toronto led by Professor John Kao, Vice-President and Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Global), we welcomed as our guests of honor a number of deans and professors from various faculties of HKU.

The president, Wilson Chan, gave the welcome message and thanked all alumni, founding and current board members, supporters and volunteers for their invaluable support.

Ms. Kathy Chan, Director of The Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office was also in attendance, and delivered her greetings and welcome to the HKU delegation. In addition, she updated dinner participants on the latest economic situation of Hong Kong and the city’s active participation in the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Bay Area.

Professor John Kao, our keynote speaker, gave an informative presentation to update us on exciting new developments at our alma mater. His presentations were followed by those of other deans and professors, including Ms. Juan Du (Associate Professor at the Department of Architecture), Professor Dong-Yan Jin, Associate Dean (Internationalization and Partnership), Graduate School, Professor Ying Shing Chan, Associate Dean (Development & Infrastructure), and Professor Quentin Parker, Associate Dean of Science. A short message was also delivered by Ms. Monica Wong (Associate Director, Alumni Affairs).

Other highlights of the dinner include recognition of alumni Peter Chang, who is one of 23 people appointed to the Order of Ontario, the province’s highest honor, an entertaining song guessing game featuring golden oldies, and of course the various rounds of lucky draws.

We thank Margaret Law and Eddie Ho, our excellent MCs, as well as many alumni and volunteers who together delivered another successful and memorable HKUAAO annual dinner.

Reported by May Fung

Click here to view photo album