Hong Kong Island

Although you can feel caught in a concrete forest in the center of Hong Kong, there are economical and interesting ways to escape. Lantau Island, Cheung Chau Island and the Sai Kung region of the New Territories are accessible by inexpensive public transportation and less than an hour away from the city center. Lantau Island, which is also the home of the new Hong Kong International Airport, is twice the size of Hong Kong Island, with much of its land designated as parkland.

Alarmed by the continuing spread of a deadly flu virus transmitted from birds to humans, Hong Kong health officials prepared today to slaughter the territory's entire population of farm-raised chickens and other poultry in markets and farms. The extreme move, which follows a ban on chicken imports from China, was announced Sunday by Hong Kong Director of Health Margaret Chan after doctors confirmed at least 12 cases of the H5N1 virus, four of which were fatal.

We are ill-equipped: cheap, lightweight binoculars, one copy of "Birds of Hong Kong," a couple bottles of water and a few crusts and leftovers that will pass for lunch. Plus faxed instructions regarding driving route, rules and permits for visiting the fabled Mai Po marshes. Mai Po is a bird sanctuary currently managed and protected by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the organization that in the U.S. is called the World Wildlife Fund.

The voice on the answering machine was one of Italy's best-known television correspondents. She was doing some advance work in preparation for this week's visit to cover the final chapter of British colonial rule in Asia. "Can you put me in touch with Suzie Wong? I hear she's a key figure in Hong Kong," she asked, apparently unaware that the legendary bar hostess was a Hollywood fantasy of East meeting West.

Monday at midnight, the Union Jack will be lowered for the last time over Hong Kong, marking the end of the colonial era in China. The British crown colony once again will be sovereign Chinese territory, after more than 150 years of British rule and more than a century after the gunboat diplomacy of Western nations, including the United States, forced open China's ports to foreign trade. That book is being closed. China will be almost whole again. How will Hong Kong fare under Beijing?

Some are seeking the thrill of participating in a historic event. Some wish to renew happy memories. Others are studying the issues. And, even more simply are looking for an exiting destination for a summer holiday. All will be among the hundreds of Southlanders traveling to Hong Kong to be on hand when the British return the crown colony to China at midnight Monday in the Great Hall of the annex to the Hong Kong convention center.

Though it's still unclear what changes will be set in motion when the British hand over their prize colony to the Chinese on July 1, one thing is certain: Hong Kong's love of good food will never change. This is a city that lives to eat--and one of the few cities in the world that can deservedly call itself an eating destination. Restaurants outnumber banks--and that is saying a lot in this city of commerce. Minuscule noodle shops and congee (rice porridge) parlors are squeezed into every block.

The frenetic pace that makes Hong Kong so addictive is reason enough for the visitor to escape, even for a day, to the fascinating settlement of Macao. The Chinese territory, under Portuguese administration (until December 1999, when it returns to Chinese rule), is 40 miles west of Hong Kong and consists of a small, fat peninsula (about 6.1 square miles), where most business is conducted, and two small islands (Colo^ane and Taipa), all connected by bridges.