Headline, August09, 2013

'''HONG KONG : THAT BEWITCHING

 WHIFF OF EASTERN PROMISE'''

Hong Kong is a glamorama : part saucy minx, part colonial grande dame, all style and handbags of content. It is well over two decades since the handover, when the British colony reversed to China and tears flowed freely when the Royal Yacht Britannia sailed from Victoria Harbour for the last time, complete with the Prince of Wales and the Governor Of Hong Kong, Chris Patten, leaving the world's favorite Chinese Mandarin, David Tang, figure of the future, bowing to the departing past from the quayside in the pouring rain.

Of all the cities, Hong Kong is the one defined by its classic hotels and their individual characters. Tea at the Peninsula was a benchmark of Far Eastern travel, with a stratospheric white-glove factor. The late Mark Birley said the Mandarin Oriental had the best service in the world, an accolade from the maestro. Hong Kong was and has been revived as  - a city of excess.

Fast forward and the Four Seasons is the new superstar: 45 floors. The Mandarin Oriental has $150 million renovation intended to make one feel the whole thing is exactly the same only better, on the ''You're looking marvellous, dearest'' principle.

A city of excess indeed. One tycoon paid HK $ 1.4 million for a ''I LOVE U'' number plate. At the I-Spa at the Intercont, Oprah Winfrey's eyebrow expert Anastasia Soare, was flown in to train the beauticians to pluck and tweak Hong Kong's finest. Of course there are spa wars. At the Four Season you can be rubbed with gold, frankincense and myrrh.

Yet the old Hong Kong is still there in the winding back streets, glimpsed from the shinning escalator bearing you up through the old town, past Wyandham Street and Elgin Street and the funny spooky little shops where you can buy ''ghost money'', made of paper, and paper Rolexes   -even paper mansions to send with deceased loved ones into a luxurious afterlife.

Shopping is Hong Kong's lifeblood; the new IFC mall  -the architectural design dubbed the Nose Clipper-  is umbilically linked to Four Seasons and has every label in the universe. In the Mandarin, tailor James Chen remains superb at copying; William Yu is your man for handmade shirts and Loro Piana cashmere suitings on Kowloon; Sandra d'Auriol does fabulous jewellery and accessories on the Hollywood Road. Seek and ye shall find anything your heart desires. The Mong Kok market has all the fun of the fakes.

The point of Hong Kong is that it is supremely sophisticated, with a visceral undertow  -you don't get ore visceral than decapitated frogs-. It always was sophisticate, probably the most sybaritic thing those jolly old Sloane Rangers of the 70s and 80s, swigging G & T's in the Captain's Bar, had ever encountered. Now it is international sophisticated stardom : Joel Robuchon, Alain Dicasse, Nobu, London's MINT club. Philippe Starck has his paws all over JIA Boutique Hotel  -total Chick on Causeway Bay.

Play hard, work hard, live fast, but nobody seems to die young. After colonisation, occupation, handover and changeover, Hong Kong has reinvented eternal youth.

With respectful dedication to the Students, Professors and Teachers of Finland. See ya all on the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless: ''Where Class is Permanent''

Good Night & God Bless!

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless