(This was written during and after the handover of Hongkong to China in June 1997. Many aspects of life in Hongkong have altered since then. It is intended to update this article in June 2007, allowing for 10 years of reflection).

Hongkong is...

A dynamic futuristic city with a laissez-faire marketplace, people wheeling and dealing all night, from street hawkers selling "Copy Rolex" on Nathan Road, the "Golden Mile", to high finance entrepreneurs doing the latest deal, where negotiation is a part of life and of course, the Dollar is King.

It is a place of Chinese junks and luxury yachts, islands and hills, bright lights and neon, old Chinese superstition and practical Westernization. Rolls-Royces drive past antique trams which in turn trundle past bicyclists carrying dead chickens to the swankiest, marble clad hotels in the world. A slick underground system that provides a train every 15 seconds during rush hour and a McDonald's on every street corner. Brightly coloured laundry hangs out of windows on bamboo poles, air-conditioning units drip continuously onto the greasy, dirty streets below and rats and cockroaches hurry across the road in search of their latest feed. Inside the offices in old Wanchai the air-conditioning carries with it the stench of mouldy odours of decay. A city full of skyscrapers and Mercedes-Benzes, constructing, congested, noisy and bursting with energy.





Introduction |||| Part One |||| Part Two |||| Part Three |||| Part Four |||| Part Five |||| Appendices