CHINA WATCH

Even Batman’s not man enough to jump into Hong Kong’s harbour water.

According to the the Guardian, there’s just too much nasty bacteria in it for the Dark Knight to survive a swim, so producers of the new film have given a big thumbs down to the idea.

My point is, if you ever try Beijing, you will never think Hong Kong is dirty place. My shoes were still clean as a penny after a long walk in Hong Kong, but they were covered with a layer of dust in Beijing.

And the water, take a look at the lake called “Hou Hai” inside Beijing City – it is no better than the Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong, but many people still swim in it

The article says:

The Dark Knight, a sequel to the 2005 movie Batman Begins, is filming in Hong Kong in and around Victoria Harbour. But a scene where the caped crusader jumps out of a Hercules C130 cargo plane into the sea between Hong Kong island and Kowloon has apparently been scrapped after the water was found to contain such high levels of life-threatening bacteria that the actor, Christian Bale, would have been at risk of catching much more than a cold.

The government has begun cutting the levels of effluent in the harbour, with stage one of the Harbour Area Treatment Scheme, but officials admit the water is not yet ready for swimmers. They say Stage Two, beginning in 2009, will improve matters considerably.