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The Governor's "Letter to Hong Kong"
Following is the full text of the Governor, the Rt Hon Christopher Patten's broadcast on RTHK's "Letter to Hong Kong" today (Sunday):
What's the best view in Hong Kong, the one that most indelibly prints the essence, the very nature of Hong Kong on your memory?
Is it the view from the Star Ferry on a fine day as you buck and weave your way across the harbour, looking up at the Peak and the skyscrapers those side-by- side tributes to God and mammon?
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Or is it the view from the top of the Dragon's Back - Shek-O and its silver beaches below, and the deep green hill tops folding and unfolding ahead of you?
Or maybe you prefer Sai Kung, Double Haven, the Lantau Buddha; or any market scene with the red light shades, the exotic fruit, the fish in tanks, the hens in wicker cages; or the window of your favourite baker's; or the back of the shop in any ironmonger's.
Well, there's no shortage of choices. But high up on everyone's list must surely come the spectacle of race night at Happy Valley; Hong Kongers enjoying themselves, doing one of the things they like best. Every visitor I've ever taken to Happy Valley has come away just as excited as I'd told them they would be. The first time my sister came to Hong Kong, she went virtually straight from the 'plane to the race track. She's never forgotten that initial overwhelming sight. There's literally nothing like it in the world.
The crowd and the hustle and the bustle as dusk closes in and the lights around the track and up and down the sides of the valley and on the passing double decker buses blaze across the sky. The yellows and greens and reds of the jockeys and the
flashing swagger and polish of the trainers. The excitement of the races themselves - boards with their incomprehensible mathematical messages to the betting faithful, a squadron of galloping horses cresting the last bend and hitting the gallop for home, the sound of the hooves and the roar of the crowd and the whoosh of relief when it's all over, and the bouquets and the silver trophies and the "bigwigs" from the Jockey Club in the winners' enclosure.