HONG KONG reopened for business yesterday after a three-day holiday to celebrate reunification with China and faced an immediate crisis: coping with the devastation wrought by some of the heaviest rains in 50 years.
Commuters returning to work had to negotiate roads and railway lines closed because of landslides; all schools were shut for an extra day as the tropical rain cascaded down for the fourth straight day without relief.
After a gruelling round of receptions and parties, the new Chief Executive, Mr Tung Chee-hwa, got down to the business of running the former British colony, which at midnight on Monday became a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China.
Mr Tung held talks with Taiwan's senior negotiator with China, Mr Koo Chen-fu, about the continuation of a Taiwan travel agency which acts as a visa-issuing office in Hong Kong. In Beijing a Foreign Office spokesman said all contacts with Taiwan must have prior approval, and it is assumed Mr Tung cleared the meeting with Beijing.
Much of Taiwan's huge trade and investment in the Chinese mainland passes through Hong Kong because of the absence of direct exchanges with the mainland. Mr Tung's family business, the Orient Overseas (International) Ltd, has substantial dealings with Taiwan companies.
The first act yesterday of the new Provisional Legislature was to mend fences with the Democratic Party which lost its political role with the dissolution on Monday of the elected legislative council. It announced it would take no action against its leader, Mr Martin Lee, who staged a pro- democracy protest on the balcony of parliament on handover night.
It "regretted the unauthorised action of this group, and strongly reprimanded their irresponsible way of operation", the legislature said in a statement apparently designed to lower the political temperature and avoid a confrontational legal challenge. The protest could have been ruled illegal under controversial laws passed by the Provisional Legislature on Tuesday which set new conditions for holding protests. But the Legislature's president, Ms Rita Fan, said legal action against Mr Lee would be a waste of public money.
A demonstration of a different kind took place yesterday when more than 400 illegal immigrant children from China and their families turned up at Hong Kong's immigration department to seek residency rights.
Under Hong Kong's Basic Law, effective from July 1st, children born to Hong Kong permanent residents, many of whom crossed the border to marry, are entitled to live in the SAR. However, Mr Tung has said children who came from China without proper clearance would be repatriated.
"I've read the Basic Law, there's no doubt that my children can enjoy the right of abode immediately," Mr Wong Shui-ching told a reporter. His wife and three children were smuggled into Hong Kong after years of separation.
The immigration department promised not to deport the illegal minors before their identity was confirmed and to review 1,000 cases in which children were served removal orders before July 1st. Other children are still in hiding.
The Hong Kong government could face legal challenges trying to enforce limits to prevent educational and social chaos. Some 60,000 children from separated families are waiting to settle in Hong Kong but the quota is only 66 children a day.
Thousands of Hong Kong residents also queued for the first SAR passports, a blue document embossed with gold letters in Chinese and English and the seal of the People's Republic of China. More than 700,000 application forms have already been distributed. Holders will be considered Chinese nationals as well as Hong Kong permanent residents.
So far about 40 states, including Ireland and Britain, have said they will grant visa-free or easy-visa access to SAR passport holders. Up to now holders of Hong Kong documents had to apply for visas to travel abroad.
Some 5.5 million people out of the population of 6.3 million are eligible for the new passport.
Three million people also hold British National Overseas (BNO) passports which allows easy travel but not British residency rights.
It was business as usual when the Hong Kong stock exchange reopened to close scrutiny from financiers around the world. The Hang Seng Index Rose by more than 1 per cent to a new record, then dipped back as property stocks fell amid fears about Mr Tung's plans to increase housing supply in one of the world's most overcrowded cities.