China in your hands

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To say Hong Kong works like clockwork is an understatement. If the old mechanical timepiece had functioned as smoothly as the former British-run colony the digital watch would never have been invented. 'Made in Hong Kong' was always a contentious phrase. To some it said cheap, and often not so cheerful, to others it spelled the loss of manufacturing control.

Over the years, Hong Kong has undergone a transformation from a low-cost producer of goods, into a trader and owner of intellectual property. Nothing has hastened this change more than the handing over of Hong Kong to the Chinese in 1997. From that moment, Hong Kong became a gateway to the huge production capacity within mainland China.