Hong Kong holiday

At 10 o'clock this morning, I walk out of our hotel, Hong Kong's original Mandarin, to get breakfast from the Starbucks a couple of minutes away. This is China's July 4th - National Day - and a major public holiday. Much of mainland China takes the whole week off work, but here in Hong Kong, business is only closed for a day. In the street outside the Mandarin's back entrance, the city's thousands of Filippina domestic helpers are already taking advantage of their well earned day of rest. They are beginning to gather in cheerful groups in every corner of the public spaces in the dense downtown area - Chater Road is closed to traffic for the day (as it is every Sunday and holiday), and I walk by gaggles of women who've set up camp on mats, in the shade of bus shelters, walkways or even on the concrete space under HSBC's Norman Foster tower. The HSBC spread is especially popular because it's shady all day and large enough to house hundreds of helpers. By midday, it'll be packed. Even at this early hour, I see women playing bingo, giving each other pedicures and practicing the tango. Later they will feast on elaborate picnics, chatter on cell phones to relatives back in the Philippines and show off family photos. And tonight there'll be music and fireworks over the harbor - I hope to have a good view of these since we're lucky enough to have a room on the twentieth floor with both water and city outlooks.

Mike is at the office (no rest in the news business), and I'll head out to the South side of the island for a swim and a walk around Stanley. Late afternoon yesterday, I took a ride up the Peak Tram - the island's funicular railway which has operated since 1888 and never ceases to amaze with its near-vertical ascent. Originally built for the British who lived in the colony's fanciest residences on the Peak, it's now so crowded with tourists that it's impractical to use it for a regular commute. At the top we have a favorite walk around the contours of the Peak, but yesterday I decided to follow a path I hadn't taken before - to walk all the way down the mountain to Central. I set off at 6pm down Old Peak Road, whose first stretch is car-free and drops down quickly through dense greenery. I'd forgotten how quickly night falls here, and by 6:30 it was growing dark but at least cooler, and quite a few walkers were out for their daily exercise. I knew I was approaching Mid-Levels because the apartment towers of this popular residential area were getting close. I turned right along Tregunter Path, which follows the contour towards May Road.

I learned from the GPS on my iPhone (there's a first for me!) that I'd soon be at Branksome Towers - an address of special significance because it was where my parents made their first home together after the war. Then it was a few stories high, and now of course it's a completely redeveloped modern tower but the position is unchanged - in a prime spot near the May Road station on the Peak Tram and (on a cool day) within walking distance of Central. I know from photos that Max and Audrey had an unobstructed view from their balcony down to the harbor - that has long since been sacrificed to the thicket of other buildings, but behind the apartments the hill is still green and nearby people still enjoy the pool and tennis courts of my parents' club, the Ladies Recreation Club.

Max was one of the first wave of British administrators to return to Hong Kong after the Japanese occupation ended in August 1945. He arrived in early October, to manage the restoration of civil air service at Kai Tak airport, and found a territory devastated by war and occupation, but one that would get back on its feet remarkably quickly. The very first British men and women to reassert control of the colony were those who'd never been allowed to leave, but had spent nearly four years interned in Stanley camp - sadly today I've learned of the death one of those great survivors, the father of a good friend. I'll be thinking of them as I go by Stanley today.