{"id":232589,"date":"2025-12-14T15:25:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T15:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/232589\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T15:25:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T15:25:13","slug":"k-pop-star-rain-gets-hong-kong-races-off-to-electric-start-thousands-pack-into-sha-tin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/232589\/","title":{"rendered":"K-pop star Rain gets Hong Kong races off to electric start, thousands pack into Sha Tin"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Tens of thousands of racing fans packed into Sha Tin on Sunday for the climax of the Longines Hong Kong International Races week, hoping to see stars like Romantic Warrior and Ka Ying Rising add to their storied reputations.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Visitors from South Africa, Japan, Australia and mainland China mixed with celebrities such as Chinese actor Yu Shi and local dignitaries, in the largest gathering in the city for a sporting occasion since the fire at Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po claimed the lives of at least 160 people last month.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">But many Hong Kong government officials who had been expected to attend opted against doing so, as the city continues to recover from the tragedy.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">For those who did go through the gates, K-pop star Jung Ji-hoon, who performs under the stage name Rain, got things started with a 20-minute appearance, during which he performed songs such as \u201cLa Song\u201d and \u201cRainism\u201d.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Serjio Hot, a RedNote blogger from Guangzhou, was among those who made the trip from across the border \u201cjust for my favourite celebrity\u201d. He was alongside those who filled the parade ring to overflowing, and said he planned to stay on to watch some of the racing and maybe place a bet or two.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Kana (left) travelled from Japan just to see Romantic Warrior. Photo: Stephy Zhang\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/04f9c7e2-82b8-4dbb-8074-814a4423104e_ba2600ce.jpg\" title=\"Kana (left) travelled from Japan just to see Romantic Warrior. Photo: Stephy Zhang\"\/>Kana (left) travelled from Japan just to see Romantic Warrior. Photo: Stephy Zhang<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cI haven\u2019t set a limit for myself. I might start with one or two thousand, and if I get carried away, maybe more,\u201d he said, adding that he plans to come every year from now on. \u201cThe live atmosphere is amazing. It\u2019s like being at a concert.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tens of thousands of racing fans packed into Sha Tin on Sunday for the climax of the Longines&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232590,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[264],"tags":[1128,381,18,117,68614,43554,4202,123999,19,17,386,124002,123998,337,25410,123996,124001,5258,124000,123997],"class_list":{"0":"post-232589","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-china","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-everest","13":"tag-guangzhou","14":"tag-hong-kong","15":"tag-hong-kong-international-races","16":"tag-ie","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-japan","19":"tag-jung-ji-hoon","20":"tag-ka-ying-rising","21":"tag-music","22":"tag-rain","23":"tag-romantic-warrior","24":"tag-sha-tin","25":"tag-south-africa","26":"tag-voyage-bubble","27":"tag-yu-shi"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115718621019704649","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}