| Opticians in Hong Kong?
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TIP
When you come to Hong Kong at the airport, just After and Before immigration,
Take one of the plastic bags of the HK Tourist association.
These bags are stacked in racks but you could miss them depending on where
you go through the immigration. Look around while you are waiting.
The bag includes a HK map + tourist magazine.
Then go to the HK tourist ass.(HKTA) counter just AFTER customs but BEFORE you
come into the public meeting hall. (you turn left after customs, the counter
is to your right)
They used to have a booklet(free) on shopping in HK called
"The official Shopping Guide".
I have an old copy, from page 114:
"prices for spectacles in Hk are almost unbeaten. "Single lenses will take
only 1 or 2 days to be made up; for bi-or multi-focals, allow four to five days.
The shops listed in the book are for the most part in
Central/Causeway Bay/Quarry Bay (= HK island) or
Tsim Sha Tsui (= Kowloon)
I would recommend these shops as they will carry the HKTA logo.
HKTA is very concerned about image and they will not stand
behind shops of bad reputation.
TAIKOO SHING:
The Digital office in Taikoo Shing is connected to 2 shopping centers.
- Cityplaza & Kornhill.
Cityplaza has 2 shops either side of the ice-rink, one level up plus another
2 on a higher floor, near KPS video store. Same floor or 1 down.
Kornhill has at least 1 shop.
In Jusco, the department store across Kornhill there is 1 shop on the top floor.
So, that is 6 shops within walking distance.
I once checked on the prices of glasses, all quoted about the same price!
2 of these shops are mentioned in the HKTA shopping guide.
(Unit 203, Cityplaza II, The optical shop; Unit 403 Cityplaza 1 HK Optical)
FYI
From the South China Morning Post, an article written this year:
Half of spectacles' lenses substandard.
---------------------------------------
Quote
More than half of the spectacles have inaccurately-made lenses, according to
a Consumer Council survey. And the survey found people with the poorest sight
were most likely to find their glasses unsuitable.
... results of a territory-wide survey were astonishing if not alarming.
...
In a survey of 15 optical shops, the council bought a total of 75 pairs of
spectacles and found 55 per cent were inaccurately made.
...
Most faulty lenses were off by one unit but in the two most extreme cases,
the lenses were off by more than 2 units.
Of the 75 pairs of spectacles prescribed for myopia and astigmatism, 41 failed
the tolerance tests.
But few wearers were likely to detect the descripancy because eyes were very
adaptable. One shop had all 5 inaccurate, 3 other 4 pairs inaccurate.
..
The shops disagreed because :
- these errors are statistical and it requires more than just a few pairs
to get the right picture.
- shops received one mark off regardless of whether the lens was inaccurate
by one unit or several.
- there must have been a mix-up by the council.
HK Optometric Association vp said it was not unusual for worn-out equipment
to become inaccurate. If it's off more than one unit, I would not start to
worry. But under that, it's not too serious, he said.
**** Unquote ****
That doesn't mean that it is anything better in your country ofcourse.
Like the article says, you don't really notice because the eye adapts.
So who knows?
Perhaps it is not much of a problem if you need single focus glasses.
I couldn't make that out from the article but a large part seems to be
with lenses for astigmatism and myopia. I assume that this is a more
complicated pair of lenses.
For sure the Consumer Council doesn't agree with the quality provided by
some shops. (or their suppliers!)
- For me there are at least 4 shops where I wouldn't buy!
- None of these 4 are mentioned in the HKTA shopping guide.
- The HKTA listed shops may not be the cheapest but they will cater for tourist
on short stay and you may expect them to be of good reputation.
Some companies are listed with many shop locations.
I would bet their prices are about the same.
So get the map, get the latest Official Shopping guide
and you should know where to go.
I can also fax you 4 pages if you want.
Best regards
Luuk
Willemse
@hgo.
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| Re .2
Thanks for your lengthy reply, unfortunately you posted it on the day I departed
for Beijing so I didn't read it in time.
The tour of China I was on arrived in HK via train so I didn't get chance to
pick up the tourist stuff from the airport. (Actually, I have the shopping guide
from last time I was there). I must admit, though, that I would instinctively
tend to avoid shops in this guide as, although you can trust them, you can also
trust them to be the most expensive.
You also say that the spectacles would take 1-2 days to be made up at these
places but I was there for just less than 1 day so that would be no good. And I
thought that the UK opticians were slow at 1 hour turnaround.
Anyway, my quest was satisfied long before I reached Hong Kong. I found an
opticians in Nanjing which did free computerised eye-tests with the traditional
eyechart test to confirm the results and made up the spectacles in 1/2 an hour
at a very cheap price. They are comfortable and, as far as I can tell, a perfect
correction.
This left me my few hours in HK to check out what has changed since I was last
there. The big thing is price - things seem to be about twice the price compared
to my last visit in late '94.
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