Suicide Tourism

Only in Hong Kong could suicide be contemplated as a tourist attraction.

In the past eight years, 20 people have killed themselves at Bela Vista Villa on the island of Cheung Chau, most by burning charcoal, a popular method for those loath to jump off a high rise.

An Islands district councillor has floated the concept of turning the suicide hot spot into a so-called ghost town and renting units where suicides had occurred to tourists wanting to spend the night in a "haunted" flat. Local teenagers do this all the time, which is sick, but then two local movies have perpetuated the idea.

Colleagues and villa owners are aghast, and another district councillor has called the idea "'a bad stroke in calligraphy' - a Chinese idiom that means 'a terrible move'".

Rather like suicide.

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