Colour and contrast

There is nowhere else quite like it, and it's addictive. There is probably no other city on Earth that is at once so stimulating, so varied in the experiences it offers, and so convenient to get around. 

In Hong Kong within the space of an hour, by modestly priced taxi, you can travel from the crowded streets of the high rise central business district to the green hills of the New Territories, overlooking azure waters with not a soul to be seen for miles. It's hard to believe it's the same place. 

"I love the diversity of it all," says restaurateur Michelle Garnaut with an enthusiasm undimmed by more than two decades of residence.

"I like the mountains, I like the hiking, and I like the cosmopolitanism. I love the food, the frenetic pace." 

Like many other long term Hong Kong residents Garnaut - proprietor of one of the city's best known Western restaurants, M at the Fringe - didn't really decide that Hong Kong was to be her home. She just realized one day that that was what it had become.

"I arrived here with a suitcase, and no money, but a sense of enterprise. There was a sense that you could achieve things in Hong Kong. There's a sense of optimism. That whole excitement it has, the feeling that anything's possible," she reflects. 

For Garnaut and for many others Hong Kong has indeed proven to be a land of opportunity. Gregory De'eb came to Hong Kong with the South African consular service and also fell in love with the place. 

He now lives here as a permanent resident, along with his Dutch-Chinese wife and two children, who attend a local Chinese school. He left the consular corps to pursue an entrepreneurial dream, and oversaw the conversion of some pre Second World War underground ammunition bunkers on the south side of the island into Crown Wine Cellars - a state of the art temperature and humidity controlled storage facility now recognized as one of the finest of its kind in the world. 

"Hong Kong has one of the fairest societies. It recognizes hard work and commitment," says De'eb.

"Of course that's true of other places in the world as well, but it's more true of Hong Kong." 

It is also true of the city that people expect to enjoy the fruits of their hard work, and those rewards take the form of one of the most affluent lifestyles in Asia.

About one car in 10 on the roads of Hong Kong is a Mercedes Benz, and the city famously also has the highest ratio of Rolls Royces per head of population in the world. 

Most of those are privately owned, but the most widely recognized luxury limousines in the city belong to the green liveried fleet that transports guests to and from the Peninsula Hotel - one of the city's icons, established in 1928, which by Hong Kong standards is an eternity ago. 

Social life in Hong Kong, as in many Asian cities, revolves to a large extent around five star hotels. Their restaurants, bars and lobbies are among the town's most popular meeting places, and major business and social functions take place in their ballrooms.

Hotel spas, like the deluxe facilities newly opened at the   Peninsula and at the Landmark Mandarin Oriental and Four Seasons Hotels, set the standards for pampering and have a loyal clientele. 

"The Peninsula and many of its competitors have invested heavily in upgrading, and with two new hotels recently opened, Hong Kong probably has the world's finest collection of city hotels, offering international guests great variety and value," says Ian Coughlan, the Peninsula's general manager. 

Like many aspects of Hong Kong those hotels offer an elegant blend of East and West. The town is known for its cosmopolitanism and its international attitude, but the former British colony is very much a Chinese city. 

Western pop stars come to town amid much fanfare to play at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.  

The city has a lively jazz scene, and several internationally recognized star soloists, including guitarist Eugene Pao and keyboard player Ted Lo. 

"There are a lot of good jazz musicians in town, playing at different venues. Because the jazz community is quite close you can hear some really good mix and match combinations," says Elaine Liu, a successful photographer by day who doubles as a jazz singer by night. 

Hong Kong also has a world class symphony orchestra in the Hong Kong Philharmonic, and a lively "fringe" arts scene.   

The city's characteristic cosmopolitanism is partly to do with its colonial history, but also due to the inclusiveness that comes naturally to a trading port strategically located at the crossroads of Asia. 
The world comes to Hong Kong, but Hong Kong people also like to travel, and most who can afford it manage to get away on short or extended breaks several times a year.