      
12:30 pm, 6/30/97 -- The Post Office opened specially on the last day of British rule despite the holiday, so that people could get the last legal British postmarks from the Colony.
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1:15 pm, 6/30/97 -- The view from the Star Ferry of the new Hong Kong Convention Center, where the official Handover ceremony would be held later that night.
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4:00 pm, 6/30/97 -- European tourists consult the backpacker bible, the Lonely Planet Guide, on Peking Road, the heart of the tourist shopping district in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon. After all the hype over the handover, many people outside Hong Kong thought that they would be unable to get hotel reservations for the weekend. Although hotels originally had excellent bookings for the Turnover holidays, hoteliers reported that they were not fully booked and that in fact, many people cancelled their reservations at the last minute, apparently wary of the expected crowds.
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6:00 pm 6/30/97 -- Handover dinner for some young Hong Kong Chinese. On an unrelated note, McDonalds in Hong Kong is the second cheapest in the world despite the fact that Hong Kong is one of the world's most expensive cities, making the Egg McMuffin a staple of the underpaid photojournalist.
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7:45 pm, 6/30/97 -- For me, this was the most touching moment I encountered during my coverage of the handover. While I was in a restaurant trying to get photographs of people watching the Handover proceedings on television, this man, obviously moved by the significance of the day, stood up and started taking pictures of the events happening on the television. Through the whole day and night walking the streets trying to show the authentic sentiment of Hong Kong's Chinese residents, I encountered--almost without exception--a lack of visible emotion. This moment was the exception.
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8:00 pm, 6/30/97 -- Acrobats from the mainland (PRC) take souvenir snapshots backstage at the semi-official extravaganza held at the Happy Valley race-course.
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8:25 pm, 6/30/97 -- Chinese performers from the mainland watch the handover ceremonies on TVs placed backstage at the Happy Valley extravaganza.
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11:20 pm 6/30/97 -- A Hong Kong policeman shows off the new insignia that he will put on his cap for his first rounds as a policeman in the Special Administrative Region (SAR). Note the bauhinia flower at the top of the insignia, which is the symbol of the SAR.
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2:00 am, 7/1/97 -- For many journalists the day never ended. BBC World Service correspondent Fergus Nicoll announces the day's news from a temporary studio built just for the handover, while producers and engineers try to iron out some technical gremlins that popped up during the broadcast.
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3:00 am, 7/1/97 -- For young Europeans and Americans, the Handover was an excuse to party. Bars were standing room only, making it difficult even on the dance floor.
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3:45 am, 7/1/97 -- After what looks like was a hectic night out on the town, a partier talks on a cellphone outside a club in Wan Chai.
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10:00 am, 7/1/97 -- The first papers published in the Chinese Special Administrative Region (SAR). Demand was so heavy with people buying multiple copies of the day's papers, that many vendors sold only to customers who had pre-ordered.
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11:15 am, 7/1/97 -- Filipina domestic workers hang out in Central. Hong Kong may or may not be a "City of Survivors" as Newsweek suggests, but it is unlikely that the Filipina "domestic" workers will survive as a group in the coming years. With plenty of Mainlanders ready and willing to take these menial jobs, Beijing is likely to opt to in the future to import maids from China instead of the Philippines. The man smiling in the advertisement is Hong Kong's new Chief Executive, Tung Chee Hwa.
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1:00 pm, 7/1/97 -- More rain in Tin Hau. It never seemed to stop raining.
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9:50 pm, 7/1/97 -- Father and daughter watch the fireworks display over Hong Kong Harbor, one of the most expensive shows of fireworks ever produced. The fireworks displays on both nights were the only publicly organized official events that all Hong Kong residents could participate in.
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11:30 pm, 7/1/97 -- A full day of Chinese sovereignty almost over, members of the fundamentalist Christian group "Gospel House", some of whom had been imprisoned in China, demonstrate for religious freedom on the streets of Mong Kok. Members said they are "guardedly optimistic" about the future of religious freedoms for Hong Kong under Chinese sovereignty.
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12:00 midnight -- The first day over, people go home on the subway. |
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