Octopus cards

The most ingenious item available in Hong Kong is the Octopus card - and today I got mine!

The Octopus card is plastic card with an internal chip, and works like a contact-less debit card. You add value to the card, which maximally can contain HK$ 1,000, afterwhich you can use it as payment. Originally developed and launched in 1997 for the MTR (Mass Transit System - the metro), it can now be used almost anywhere, such as shops, restaurants, fast-food chains, vending machines as well as the MTR.

After filling out some paperwork, getting a stamp from my university, and paying HK$ 160 in an administration fee, I got a student Octopus card which gives a whopping 50% discount on all travel with the MTR (making a 5 minute journey to the Sha Tin shopping malls a meagre HK$ 2 per trip). So it was definitely worth the 5 day wait. No more fumbling around with coins!

The beauty of the Octopus card is its applicability. Over 95% of the Hong Kong population between 12 and 65 years of age have the card, and it is usable in almost any store. There is no pin code, reducing transaction time, which makes the HK$ 1000 buffer a convenient deterrent to crime (is theft really worth the potential HK$ 150 on the card?). Adding value can be done in any store accepting Octopus cards (again, almost anywhere), and it takes 5 seconds. Simply brilliant.

The real question is why this isn't present somewhere like Denmark? Granted, Copenhagen has less citizens than Hong Kong, but even there they have been experimenting with contact-less Metro passes. Apparently there must be several trial runs, but it seems retarded that a system which has worked for almost 15 years in Hong Kong cannot be implemented in a country like Denmark. So until the bureaucratic nightmare ends, Danes are stuck with inefficient clip-cards at prices that are well over 400% more expensive.