The Hong Kong Brands and Products Expo (HKBPE), lasting for 24 days, has opened at Victoria Park this weekend and will run until January 5th next year. Some citizens have arrived early to queue up at the site on the opening day and successfully snapped up abalones with the prices of merely 1 HKD. At the Expo, some exhibitors have provided discounts and lucky bags to attract customers. As for them, they felt optimistic about the expected sales performance this year, hoping to achieve a growth of 15% to 20%.
The 2025 HKBPE, Photo by Bastille Post
On Saturday morning, some citizens arrived early with trolleys, eco-friendly bags, and other purchase items to queue up, hoping to successfully purchase the 1-HKD lucky bags, containing abalones, bird's-nests, and shrimp roe noodles, etc. The stall offering 1-HKD abalone lucky bags would have 20 quotas available each day. Nevertheless, all the lucky bags provided for the opening day were snapped up rapidly after the Expo was unveiled. The citizens who have successfully purchased the lucky bags expressed their excitement and planned to spend several thousand HKD at the Expo to buy dried seafood & tonics. Besides, some citizens have also bought half a kilogram of semi-Dried oysters for merely 300 HKD, which was cheaper than the market price. They said that they would visit the HKBPE every year, since the Expo would provide plenty of goods choices. As for the purchase plan this year, they expected to spend 3,000 HKD on purchasing New Year's goods.
The 2025 HKBPE, Photo by Bastille Post
Some exhibitors revealed their optimism about the sales performance this year, expecting a growth of 15% to 20%. In order to attract customers, they have prepared sufficient stock quantity and planned to release a series of promotional activities and new products.
Dr Wingco Lo, the President of the Chinese Manufacturers’ Association of Hong Kong, said in the opening speech that in the face of the dual challenges of the complex and volatile external environment and the transformed consumption patterns, the industrial and commercial circles have been actively seeking a transition pathway. Driven by the development of the local mega events economy, the popularity and prosperity of consumption in Hong Kong have revived. He also mentioned that the queuing up of visitors on the opening day could be regarded as the best proof of local consumer confidence.
Over 900 booths will be installed and divided into 12 themed exhibition areas at the HKBPE this year. Meanwhile, on-site bars and dining zones will also be set up. The organizer of the Expo expected that the 2025 Expo would attract 1.3 million visitors and generate sales figures of 1 billion HKD, which would be similar to the data of last year.
The 2025 HKBPE, Photo by Bastille Post
OSWIECIM, Poland (AP) — Animal-shaped stencils a mother made from a concentration camp shoe and gave to her son for Christmas are among items in a new permanent exhibition at the Auschwitz museum, located on the site of the largest Nazi death camp.
Other items on display as officials unveiled the exhibition Friday included a paper bag for holding cement that was used as thermal underwear, and drawings made in secret by prisoners. The objects, detailing the everyday experiences of Auschwitz prisoners, were displayed in blocs 8 and 9 of the former Nazi concentration camp.
Magdalena Urbaniak, the exhibition's coordinator, said it was difficult and painful to imagine what the woman went through when she crafted the stencils from a shoe.
“It’s hard to describe this feeling, we can’t even understand this situation, the extreme situation in which this mother found herself in the camp, what emotions she experienced to do something for her child, to lift his spirits and contribute to his survival,” she said.
The new exhibition illustrates elements of the camp routine from the morning gong, through washing, meals and forced labor to evenings in the camp barracks. It gives visitors a glimpse into the feelings experienced by prisoners, from extreme hunger and cold to fear and hopelessness.
“Witnesses are passing away, the world is changing, technologies are changing, and new generations are emerging, requiring a new approach to the subject," Andrzej Kacorzyk, the deputy director of the Auschwitz museum, told The Associated Press. "Hence the need to portray humanity, the need to portray this individual fate.”
Nazi Germany built more than 40 concentration, labor and extermination camps at this location in occupied Poland during World War II.
The Nazis established the Auschwitz I camp in 1940 to imprison Poles, while Auschwitz II-Birkenau was opened two years later and became the primary site of the extermination of Jews during the Holocaust.
Nazi German forces ultimately murdered some 1.1 million people at the complex.
While most of the victims of the Holocaust were Jews killed on an industrial scale, Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war, gay people and others were also targeted for elimination.
The museum operating today on the site of the former Auschwitz camps was established in 1947 and is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
The museum is currently in the process of changing its permanent exhibition, which had been in place for decades. Officials say the idea is to reflect new knowledge about Holocaust history as well as the evolving demographic of visitors.
The new permanent exhibition is being built on the ground floors of six blocks of the former Auschwitz I camp. The first phase of the museum’s modernization is complete with the opening of the exhibition in blocks 8 and 9.
A second phase, including an exhibition dedicated to the Holocaust in blocks 6 and 7, will be finalized in 2027. The third and final stage, represented by an exhibition describing the camp as an institution, located in blocks 4 and 5, is scheduled for completion in 2030.
FILE - The sun lights the buildings behind the entrance of the former Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau in Oswiecim, Germany, Dec. 6, 2019. (Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)
FILE - The railway tracks where hundred thousands of people arrived to be directed to the gas chambers inside the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz Birkenau, or Auschwitz II, are pictured in Oswiecim, Poland, on Dec. 7, 2019. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, file)
Photographs from prisoners personal file cards displayed in its new permanent exhibition at the Nazi death Camp Auschwitz in Oswiecim, Poland, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Rafal Niedzielski)
A photojournalist takes photos of sketches made by survivors after their liberation from Auschwitz and displayed near a whip, used in the Camp, in its new permanent exhibition at the former Nazi Death Camp Auschwitz in Oswiecim, Poland, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Rafal Niedzielski)
