WITH a brass band playing and a traditional Chinese lion dance snaking along the platform, the Number 97 train pulled out of Beijing's West Station yesterday on a symbolic journey linking the Chinese capital with Hong Kong by high speed rail for the first time.
After 29 hours and a journey of 2,350 km, the train will arrive in Hong Kong today at the same time as a new contingent of Chinese soldiers crosses the border into the British territory to guard it after the British leave on July 1st.
The 66 People's Liberation Army soldiers will augment an advance force of 40 already in Hong Kong. Another 90 soldiers will arrive in two weeks as the links between Hong Kong and China are steadily strengthened in advance of the hand over.
The Chinese Vice Premier, Mr Wu Bangguo, cut a red ribbon to inaugurate the through train service marking a high speed link which cost 40 billion yuan (IR£3. 157 billion) and took three years to complete.
The train will travel to Kowloon railway station on Hong Kong's Kowloon peninsula rather than stopping at Shenzhen, the border city in China, and will cut 11 hours off the rail journey.
In one of the final acts of a staged withdrawal now almost complete, the British army on Saturday closed down a radio station which it had operated for serving soldiers stationed in Hong Kong.
In a further mark of the new reality, Hong Kong police staged a joint exercise with the Chinese police at the weekend to stop illegal immigration into the territory, which will remain a separate Special Administrative Region of China after the British leave. Several sampans crowded with Chinese people being smuggled into Hong Kong by organisers known as snakeheads" were apprehended and turned back.
On Saturday, Hong Kong's provisional legislature passed the first and second readings of bills banning foreign political groups from donating money to local political parties and allowing the police to ban some demonstrations on the grounds of national security. The bills will become law when the government in waiting takes over on July 1st.
Responding to public opinion, the Chief Executive designate, Mr Tung Che hwa, on Thursday announced a dilution of his original plan to amend civil liberties laws.