Shortest day. Yes, I know what you've been told, but it so happens that unusually this year it's today. By one second. No, I didn't know that either (thanks twitter.com/mrchrisaddison).

Neither did I know that the sunset has been getting later here each day since the start of the month. Which is nice: evenings are never long in Hong Kong, but longer is better.

It is officially the Winter Solstice today, which clearly the Chinese have known about for ages. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_Chinese_holidays.

Sunrise and Sunset for Hong Kong – Hong Kong – December 2011

Calculations of Sunrise and Sunset in Hong Kong – Hong Kong for December 2011. Generic astronomy calculator to calculate times for sunrise, sunset, moonrise, moonset for many cities, with daylight sav…