Alison Appelbe Contributing Writer THE South Ciina Morning Post reported that fisheries authorities seized a one-metre long green sea turtle from 2 floating temple in Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay, and released it into the ocean. The turtle had bees: held in a one-square-metre tank for wo years, and charges of possessing and mistreating, an endangered animal were pending, the article said. The temple owner was angry, but not about the CENTURY-old electric trams clatter along . Hong Kong istand. “THE Bank of China ‘~ Building Is a Hong Kong centrepiece. . seizure of a creature he ‘ claimed had brought good _ fortune to himself and the 10,000 fishermen who wor- ” ship at the houseboat-style ‘Chinese temple. Rather, Leung Yau was upset that the turtle was released before he'd had a ". chance to hold a farewell ceremony to ensure the tem- ple would continue to thrive. - “They showed no respect for 7 my religion,” Leung com- . plained. . . ~2.~ In Hong Kong, old meets new, and East mects West. From my hotel room on the Kowloon waterfront, 1 look our at the ultra-modern Hong Kong Island i a panorama of heights, shapes, textures and colours: silver, grey, rust and gold in the daylight; at night, a riot of neon, Standouts include the Bank of China tower, sug- gesting a fragile bamboo pil- ing sheathed in a thin skin; the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation build- ing, a technocratic jumble of oversize Meccano parts; and The Centre, whose neon facade, in all the colours of other high-rises are set against steep hills clothed in tropical greenery, and front- ed by a busy harbour that, too, changes colour with the city’s mercurial weather and moods. Nestled among all this are ald jewels: the Man Ko Temple, opaque with the smoke of joss sticks burning in homage to the oddly paired Taoist gods of htera- ture and war; the ever-so- English St. John’s Cathedral, where worshippers gather under towering trees (some, to attend services in Chinese); and Flagstaff House, a colonial mansion buile to house British offi- cers, now home to the delightful Muscum of Tea Ware. Old and new combine in a transit system that works. Two networks are a century .old: the spunky green-and- white Star passenger ferries that zip berween Hong Kong Island and Kowlcon, and the double-decker rail- way trams that clank and clatter along the island’s principa! streets. A night-time tram ride along Hennessy Road through the Wan Chai dis- trict, past glittery jewelry shaps and dimly lit street stalls, hints at a vanishing world. Alight from a ferry or tram at any vast, air-con (as they say in Hong Kong) shopping mall and you’re likely near a subway station. The MTR (Mass Transit Railway) runs along the island waterfront, through Kowloon, and into the New Territories. These trains will take you to Kowloon’s electric Nathan Road shopping dis- trict, Yuen Po Strect Bird Garden, and the exotic Temple Street Night Market. From Central, on Hong Kong Island, an outdoor escalator climbs the slope to apartments, stores and cater- ies in the Mid-levels (and reverses direction in the KOWLOON’S Nathan Road is jungle of commercial signs and necn lights. morning to take employees down to work). Passing by character buildings at rough- "ly the second-storcy level, the slow-moving escalator offers glimpses behind a lit- eral bamboo curtain. The subway will also tike you close to Kowloon Walled City Park where, a, decade ago, an infamous tenement city collectively operated outside the law. The wretched buildings are gone now, and today the site” is a Chinese-style park. On a recent day, a festival was underway nearby. Local ghosts were being enter- tained with music and lion- dancing to encourage them to behave themselves. Elderly neighbours were given rice, umbrellas and household items to supple- ment their paltry pensions. Food is serious stuff in London Optical 145 East 43th Street, 981-0400 Park Royal South, 925-3470 Kong Hong. For lunch, my Hong Kong guide and I slurped noodles with shrimp, _and chicken and abalone congee, at world-famous Sweet Dynasty in Kowloon, then for dinner went all out on Western cuisine at a foodie’s delight, The Avenue. Every evening, the trendy Lan Kwai Fong district, packed with restaurants and bars, and the Causeway Bay shopping district, are a sea of shoppers or diners. Ox catch the funicular to Victoria Peak, and have din- ner or lunch at the well- regarded Peak Cafe. Hiking trails run down from the peak, through Pok Fu Lam Country Park. In mid-October, during the lunar festival of Ghung Yeung, Hong Kongers take to the hills. The celebration fora century. VIEW of city and the harbour from Victoria Peak, reachable by funicular railway. . dates to 200 B.C., when a villager avoided a catastro- phe by taking his family toa high place for a day. Legend says that he car- ried food and a jug of | chrysanthemum wine. Today, a well-stocked Hong Kong picnic basket is as likely to contain a cool California Chardonnay. Qg0Q Cathay Pacific Airways flies twice daily between Vanceuver and Hong Kong, and makes regular connec- tions to major Asian destina- tions. Until Dec. 15, it offers the All-Asia Pass, which includes a return flight from Vancouver and stopovers in as many as 15 Asian cities within 30 days, for $1,599. For details, access , call 606-8888, or contact a trav- el ageni. A stack of heavy-duty air-conditioners attests : to.*he insisitence on ics- cool interiors.