THE 100 day mark arrived last week and all attention is now being directed towards the big moment, when the clock strikes 12 at midnight on June 30th and China takes over Hong Kong from the British.
Hundreds of people gathered to watch the electronic clock in Tiananmen Square register 2400 hours, the last milestone before national dignity is restored and the Opium Wars consigned to history. There was, in fact, a strong sense of history in the making.
One person there, in his 70s, was Ling Qing, a direct descendant of Lin Zexu who a century and a half ago fought a losing battle to keep the British from gaining possession of Hong Kong. Mr Qing played a minor historical role as a diplomat in 1985 when he lodged with the UN the text of the Joint Chinese British Declaration returning the territory to China.
The issue dominates life in China now. The theme of Beijing's ice lantern festival at Longqing Gorge was Hong Kong, with skyscrapers carved from ice. On Friday an exhibition opened in Beijing called "Greeting the Return of the Territory". It has a little mock up Hong Kong street and several stands to educate the public about aspects of life in the territory which they will inherit - such as horse racing.
Big crowds queued to get in to the exhibition. They won't be able to get into Hong Kong so easily after it returns to the "mainland" as it will retain a special status with border fences and immigration controls.
They can, however, play a patriotic video game about the 1839-1842 Opium War, in which Britain humiliated China and seized Hong Kong. It will be released just before June 30th, and will give history a patriotic spin. A Chinese made movie is also to be distributed world wide about the Opium War starring English and Chinese actors and with blue eyed Chinese from the Russian border area playing the role of British seamen.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong and China are receiving an endless stream of top level tourists for the handover. Newt Gingrich was the latest to come and tell the Chinese that the world will be watching their conduct of Hong Kong affairs.
However, the city is making preparations not for doomsday but for a giant party. It will erect the world's longest ever string of decorative lights, depicting a dragon, to mark the transfer of sovereignty. The 3.3 km creature will stretch from the Star Ferry pier on Kowloon peninsula, along the Golden Mile to the boundary of the New Territories.
On a more mundane level, city engineers are carrying out tests on traditional cast iron pillar boxes to see if it is possible to remove colonial insignia without destroying them.
The reality of the pending handover for British citizens is that from tomorrow those who want to work, study or live in Hong Kong will need visas. This brings the immigration status of Britons, who before now could visit, work or study freely in Hong Kong, into line with other foreign nationals. Those who have resided seven years and have land will not lose the old privileges, but many long serving British civil servants are still leaving.
Some who had retired came back to Hong Kong to leave again in style the other day on the last of the ocean liner trips home to which British officials were entitled.
One of the best known Hong Kong Brits, 73 year old Jimmy McGregor, a stalwart of the administration ("You can call me a colonial dinosaur") has said he, too, is contemplating leaving after the handover. He has deep roots and is married into a Chinese family, but says he relates to the past rather than the future.
As the British leave, others scramble to get in. Scores of immigrant children from mainland China are being surrendered to government offices on unfounded rumours of an amnesty which would guarantee them Hong Kong passports after June 30th.
The red flag is now flying over many parts of Hong Kong, including Kam Tin in the New Territories. This walled and moated village, where the 10 year old daughter of the Chinese emperor Gao Zong sought refuge when Mongols attacked China in the 12th century, resisted the British annexation of the New Territories, but was crushed in the Battle of Tai Po. The victors seized the village's metal gates, which were later found in Ireland and returned.
Now the British army in Hong Kong has been reduced to the 550 strong Black Watch regiment which has served 11 tours in Northern Ireland and will formally mark the British withdrawal from Hong Kong by closing down the facilities which will be handed over to China.
They will parade through the Hong Kong in kilts to pipe off Governor Chris Patten as he boards the royal yacht Britannia at the midnight hour, when all the electronic countdown clocks in cities across China, including that in the centre of Beijing, will register zero point zero.