THE People's Liberation Army will wait until dawn before entering Hong Kong on July 1st, the day the territory reverts to Chinese sovereignty, rather than rolling in at the stroke of midnight, according to plans for the handover ceremony published in Hong Kong.
The end to more than a century and a half of British rule in China will be accompanied by fireworks, concerts, pop festivals, parades, sports competitions and lavish parties.
However, Chinese leaders apparently do not want the PLA entering Hong Kong under cover of darkness. Arriving at day-break would be less menacing.
Britain's chief of defence staff, Field Marshal Sir Peter Inge, said recently he was given a clear message by the PLA chief of general staff, Gen Fu Quanyou, that the Chinese side was aware of the sensitivity of the situation and would deploy the 6,000-strong garrison in a sensitive way.
Matching the PLA move, the British administration and military forces will perform a sunset ceremony at East Tamar at 5.15 p.m. on June 30th before packing up to leave.
Otherwise the midnight hour will be the climax of official ceremonies and a great deal of unofficial merriment.
At a $2,500-a-head (£1,600) party in the Regent Hong Kong Hotel, revellers will switch from British cuisine to Chinese food at exactly 12 p.m. It is being called a "one country-two parties" bash, after the "one country-two systems" idea promoted by the former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, to allow Hong Kong to continue as a capitalist enclave in a communist country.
At the Hong Kong Convention Centre, a banquet for 4,000 guests will begin at 9 p.m. on June 30th, attended by leaders from both sides and foreign guests, including the US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, and end at midnight with the lowering of the Union Jack, and the raising of the Chinese flag.
Almost immediately, the royal yacht Britannia will steam away into the South China Sea carrying the 28th and last British governor, Mr Chris Patten, along with Prince Charles and Commander British Forces, Maj-Gen Bryan Dutton.
At 10 a.m. on July 1st, the first government of the Special Administrative Region, as Hong Kong will be called, will be inaugurated at the Hong Kong Coliseum.
The Hong Kong media centre is preparing for 6,000 members of the world media, to cover the events.
Britain's 99-year lease on the New Territories, which makes up more than 90 per cent of the land mass of Hong Kong, expires at midnight on June 30th. London will hand back the entire territory as the island of Hong Kong, on which there is no "leave-by" date, would be unsustainable in isolation.