On This DayIn 2016, Pokemon Go fever sweeps Hong Kong as players hunt citywide – SCMP archive

10 years ago, Hong Kong became the second place in Asia to get Pokemon Go, sparking a citywide craze and trespassing warnings

This article was first published on July 26, 2016.

PLA, police ready as Pokemon Go arrives in city

by Zen Soo and Naomi Ng

(Additional reporting by Laura He)

Pokemon Go, the augmented reality smartphone game that has taken the world by storm, launched in Hong Kong yesterday (July 25, 2016), prompting multiple warnings against trespassing and straying onto busy roads.

The city was quickly abuzz with excited talk about the game that allows players to use their phones’ GPS and camera to hunt for virtual Pokemon – short for Pocket Monsters – in the real world.

“I wasn’t really that interested at first, and then I got addicted,” Jamie Sie-to Chuk-man told the Post outside the bustling Times Square shopping mall in Causeway Bay.

Using a cartoon map, the game encourages players to explore and find real locations to catch and collect Pokemon as they appear anywhere randomly.