Hong Kong
We arrived in Hong Kong on Tuesday and were greeted warmly by our host Professor Patrick Yung from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. We quickly appreciated why Hong Kong is the major gateway to Asia while enjoying the diverse cuisine, people, and events. Unlike the typical urban “concrete jungle,” Hong Kong seems to perfectly balance city life and connection to the surrounding harbor, mountains, and other escapes to nature.
Our first evening, we dined in Oi Suen restaurant at Hong Kong Jockey Club with Drs. Ong and Lo. While we recognized our attempts at Mandarin during the trip were poor, it was hard to accept that our tones of Cantonese were frustratingly worse! However, thanks to our wonderful hosts, we had excellent discussions on Hong Kong culture and history, as well as the shoulder and knee models of care at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
On Wednesday, we ascended at 27 vertical degrees up the Peak Tram to Victoria’s Peak. At the top, we had a bird’s-eye view of the city’s iconic skyline, with plenty of fresh air and flora around us. It was breathtaking!
An in-depth tour of the Hong Kong Sports Institute, where Hong Kong’s elite athletes train for the Olympic and Asian games, followed our hike. We were amazed at the advanced and creative motion analysis for these sports, as well as the enormous cycling treadmill, environmental control room, and hyperbaric oxygen treatments. We were motivated by the mission statement at Hong Kong Sports Institute: “Inspire, Train, Excel.”
That evening, we trekked to Hong Kong Happy Valley race course for their famous horse races. We discussed sports medicine issues of the jockey athlete at dinner with Professor Yung, Associate Professor Ong, and Dr. Law. Our Godfather demonstrated his knowledge of jockey sports medicine performance by picking five winners in a row!
On Thursday, we had an excellent academic day, starting at the Prince of Wales Hospital. Dr. CK Lo and Associate Professor Ong performed an arthroscopic Bankart repair for recurrent instability in the lateral position. We were impressed with the sizeable crew assisting in patient positioning, and the excellent teamwork throughout the operation.
We then listened to the vision and goals of research at CUHK, highlighting the SMART program (Sports Medicine and Regenerative Technology), and translational research on tendinopathy, ACL tendon to bone healing, and rotator cuff repair. We toured the basic sciences lab, sports injury research lab, and physical therapy department. The cohesiveness and scale of the team of PhD’s and clinicians working together under Professor Yung’s vision was very impressive.
We finished the day with the AOSSM-APKASS Traveling Fellows Symposium at the KKOA-Sports Medicine Chapter meeting. At Queen Elizabeth Hospital, we met Professor Wilson Li and were very thankful for his hospitality. The hospital was very busy hospital — seemingly bursting at the seams, with patients on beds lining every hallway. At the Symposium, we debated the ALL/ALC in ACL injuries, discussed Segond fractures, as well as suprascapular nerve entrapment.
On Friday, we had a chance to take a respite and recharge our batteries with a local tour. A special thank you to Jun Li for coordinating our journey throughout the fellowship and being our guide in Hong Kong — we can’t thank you enough!
On Saturday, we left Hong Kong for mainland China to meet with the SLARD Godfather and Traveling Fellows in Shanghai — our next great adventure.
AOSSM gratefully acknowledges DJO Global for their support of the Traveling Fellowship program.