10 Hong Kong quarantine hacks to help you survive: pack alcohol, snacks, candles, and a SIM card - there’s no Wi-fi

Devote your luggage space to snacks and condiments, not clothes – you won’t be going anywhere and you may find the food at Penny’s Bay Quarantine Centre bland

There’s no Wi-fi – bring a SIM card with plenty of data – but there is a television with a HMDI port to plug in your laptop and watch films like a king or queen

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Some liken the Penny’s Bay Quarantine Centre to a prison, but it doesn’t have to be if you know what to pack to make your stay a more enjoyable one. Photo: Dickson Lee

Published: 12:15pm, 23 Mar 2021Updated: 6:08pm, 11 Jun 2021

The largest dedicated location for those caught up in Hong Kong’s effort to clamp down on the spread of Covid-19 has proved a source of controversy.

The Penny’s Bay Quarantine Centre – a 3,500-room compound that the government first opened on Lantau Island, the city’s largest outlying island, in July 2020 – sees dozens of residents suspected of being close contacts with Covid-19 carriers enter every day.

Some liken Penny’s Bay to a prison, with surveillance cameras installed outside every room, as well as loudspeakers that instantly spit out warnings for those who set foot outside, or even open the door.

Parents have also complained about the facility’s lack of suitability for young children compared to the hotels others are sent to for quarantine, warning about a shortage of sleeping cots and the absence of refrigerators in the rooms to store fresh food.

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Inside Hong Kong's mandatory coronavirus quarantine camp at Penny's Bay

Some who have emerged from their two weeks in the facility have provided the Post with a sort of “Penny’s Bay Survival Guide”, complete with 10 key quarantine hacks to ensure that you too can come out with your sanity intact.