HONG KONG-MACAU-CHINA – Part 45

CONFESSIONS OF A GLOBAL GYPSY

By Dr. Chandana (Chandi) Jayawardena DPhil

President – Chandi J. Associates Inc. Consulting, Canada

Founder & Administrator – Global Hospitality Forum

chandij@sympatico.ca

Hong Kong – A Concrete Jungle

As the Manager – Operations for the hotel company in the corporate office of John Keells Group, 1981 was a busy year for me. As I was required to leave for Hong Kong for three weeks, at short notice, I quickly placed many of my projects on a back burner or delegated those to members of my team. Within two days after I was assigned the task of performing a special role of the Guest Executive Chef for a two-week long Sri Lankan and Maldivian food festival, I arrived at the Hotel Furama Inter-Continental in Hong Kong. Compared to what I had seen during my limited overseas travels before, Hong Kong Island struck me as the first, overpopulated concrete jungle I had visited.

The Furama Hotel, with 33 storeys, had opened in 1973 and was taken over for management by the InterContinental Hotels three years later. During my quick orientation by a Swiss German, Peter Luedi, the Executive Chef of the host hotel, I was most impressed with their revolving restaurant on the top floor named ‘La Ronda’. “This is our premier restaurant. Your food festival will be held here for lunch and dinner over two weeks. Our sales and marketing department has promoted the festival very well and we expect all buffets to be sold out. Let me introduce the three Chinese cooks who will report to you during that entire period”, Chef Luedi ushered me to the roof top kitchen. I was pleased that he was very optimistic, helpful and positive.

Cooking and PR

My extra (non-cooking) days before the festival were spent on event planning, fine-tuning the menu planning, special grocery shopping in local markets, advance preparations, public relations and promotional events. The food festival was a big success. By the end of the two weeks, I was exhausted from cooking virtually all of the dishes for sold-out buffets. My three Hong Kong Chinese assistants also worked very hard providing me with support, but they were totally dependent on my food requisitioning, food seasoning and the final cooking. I was also responsible for most of the buffet arrangements and decorations. After my final cooking for each meal and a quick shower, I appeared behind the buffet tables to explain the dishes to hundreds of diners.

I had five free days in Hong Kong after the festival was over. The day after the festival, I planned to rest the whole day, but I was woken early in the morning by the Public Relations Officer of the hotel. “Chef Chandana, you need to get ready quickly. We finally managed to arrange a spot for you to appear on the most popular TV show in Hong Kong, this morning!”, she said enthusiastically over the telephone. “What time is the interview?” I asked. “In three hours. I will drive you to the TV studio. The interview will take place simultaneously while you cook the most popular Sri Lankan dishes for TV. Let’s get ready!” she said in an excited voice.

I realized that this was the first time over a million Hong Kong TV viewers would see how popular Sri Lankan dishes were prepared. I quickly got ready and ran to the hotel stores to organize the ingredients I needed for my assignment at the TV studio. I was a bit relieved to hear that the show would be a pre-recorded program. When I arrived at the studio for the food demonstration, I was treated like an exotic, celebrity chef and an ambassador for Sri Lankan cuisine. I took that mini assignment very seriously and enjoyed my work in front of the camera.

A Tourist in Hong Kong

After that busy day, I took time to explore tourist sites of Hong Kong Island which was a very small area of 29 square miles. While Hong Kong Island then had around a quarter of a total population of over five million (five million population (today over 7.5 million). Kowloon and New Kowloon areas had half of the population of Hong Kong. Hong Kong had a high population density.

My tour guide explained that Hong Kong in Cantonese mean ‘Fragrant Harbour’. Hong Kong had been inhabited since the Old Stone Age three million years ago. Later, it had become a part of the Chinese empire, starting out as a fishing, farming and salt producing village. Then it had gradually become an important, free port and eventually a major, international financial centre.

This small island situated off the south-eastern coast of the Kwangtung Province of China had been under the British rule for 139 years, since the Qing dynasty ceded Hong Kong to the British Empire in 1842 through the treaty of Nanjing, ending the First Opium War. Hong Kong then became a British crown colony.

Japan occupied Hong Kong from 1941 to 1945 during the Second World War, and by the end of the war in 1945, Hong Kong Island had been liberated by joint British and Chinese troops and returned to the British rule. Hong Kong greatly increased its population with the refugees from Mainland China, particularly during the Korean War. In 1981 I sensed that in general, Hong Kong residents felt fearful and uncertain of their future if and when the territory goes back to Chinese rule in 16 years’ time.

My tour of Hong Kong was very interesting. I enjoyed the beach area of Repulse Bay, fishing towns and food streets. The panoramic view of Victoria City and its harbour from Victoria Peak, 1,800 feet above sea-level, was breath-taking. When I asked the tour guide about the beautiful, blue hills visible from a distance, he said, “That’s Kowloon and beyond.” Then he suggested, “You should join me tomorrow on a special day-long tour to Kowloon and New Territories.” I did not require much persuasion to join that tour.

Kowloon and New Territories

After winning the Second Opium War, Kowloon had been ceded to the winning side, the British, by China in 1860. The New Territories had been leased by the Chinese to the British for 99 years in 1898. While getting ready for my second tour, I accidently bumped into a few British tourists who used to visit Hotel Swanee frequently, when I was the Manager there. They were my friends and insisted on hosting me for dinner at their hotel. They also took me on a long, shopping walk on the famous Hankow Road.

Kowloon (meaning nine dragons) was different from the Hong Kong Island. Large ‘H’ shaped blocks of flats in resettlement estates were occupied by thousands of Chinese refugees who fled from the Communist China. As we travelled to the New Territories, more agricultural communities were visible. We also had a glimpse of the Shumchun River, the natural boundary between the British colony and the China. After that tour, I was determined to cross that invisible ‘Bamboo Curtain’. I thought of my father’s advice to me to visit China, and booked a two-day tour to Macau and Southern China.

Macau – Smoke-filled Casinos

The next day early in the morning, I left Hong Kong in a hovercraft boat to Macau. This very small (two square miles) island and the close by mainland areas of the territory added up to just six square miles. Macao had been under Portuguese rule for over 400 years. Although 95% of its population were Chinese, the official language was Portuguese.

The tour group which was predominantly British and Australian, enjoyed visiting many historic ruins, gardens and casinos. This was my first time visiting a casino, but because of the totally, smoked-filled atmosphere, it was not pleasant. For me, the most memorable thing I did in Macau was visiting the memorial house of Dr. Sun Yat Sen. The tour guide explained to us that Dr. Sun Yat Sen was considered as the ‘Father of Modern China’ and the ‘Forerunner of the Revolution’ in recognition of his instrumental role in the overthrow of the Qing dynasty during the Xinhai Revolution in 1911.

Southern China – Unprepared for Tourism

After visiting Macau we were taken in two tour buses to the south of the Pearl River Delta in the Cantonese-speaking province of Guangdong, for two nights. Wherever we went locals paid some attention to me as they were not used to seeing non-white tourists in China in 1981. We visited the city of Zhuhai which had been identified in 1980 as one of the original four special economic zones, as well as potentially one of China’s premier tourist destinations, being called the Chinese Riviera. Then we proceeded to the city of Zhongshan which is one of a very few cities in China named after a person. It was named after Dr. Sun Yat Sen (who is known in Mandarin as Sun Zhongshan).

Compared to Hong Kong, Southern China appeared to be totally underdeveloped in 1981.

Nevertheless, I loved the experience of being one of the early tourists in modern-day China. In terms of tourism in 1981, China was at a very early developmental stage, much behind small countries such as Sri Lanka. When he heard that I visited China, my father was pleased that I had commenced following his footsteps in becoming a frequent global traveller.

In 1981, it was difficult for me to imagine how China would become one of the four top tourist destinations in the world within 35 years. It is simply an amazing success story. In the year 2019, the World Tourism Organization also identified China as the # 1 source country in tourist spending for the year 2019.

Back in Hong Kong

I returned to Hong Kong just in time to attend a farewell dinner for the Sri Lankan and Maldivian delegates who attended the tourism promotion events. Hotel Furama Inter-Continental was grateful for my work as the Guest Executive Chef. I was thankful for their hospitality and support. The food festival was considered a great success in terms of publicity, food quality, diner satisfaction, revenue and profits.

The experience I gained in Hong Kong in 1981 was helpful in later years, when I organized four more large Sri Lankan food and culture festivals in Singapore (1982), Oman (1988), Guyana (1994) and Jamaica (1996), as the Guest Executive Chef and Event Coordinator. I considered organizing a large food festival in another country as the ultimate challenge in outside catering. Based on my experience in Hong Kong, I prepared a detailed checklist for organizing food festivals, which I shared with my team as well as with students of the Ceylon Hotel School where I was requested to deliver a series of guest lectures on my return to Sri Lanka.

Over the next couple of decades, I returned to Hong Kong a few times.

In 1991, I was able to arrange a Management Observer period at then the best hotel in the world – the Regent of Hong Kong. I was proud to hear that the resident band of this great hotel was the well-known Sri Lankan band, The Jetliners. My friends Tony Fernando and Mignonne Fernando (band manager and the lead singer of the Jetliners) arranged my assignment.

In 1992, I returned to Hong Kong to present a case study from Sri Lanka at the Pacific Asia Regional Tourism Education Forum, organized by the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) and the World Tourism Organisation. I was proud to meet two Sri Lankans leading PATA at that time – Lakshman Ratnapala, President & CEO and Renton De Alwis, Vice President – Asia.

In 2001, I returned to Hong Kong, to present a case study from the Caribbean. This was at the International Hospitality Industry Evolution Conference, organized by the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Cornell University, USA. On that fourth visit, I felt the changing political climate of Hong Kong, under the Chinese rule.

In 2010, l was asked by my then employer, George Brown College, Toronto, Canada (where I worked as a dean), to spend three weeks in China to lead work assignments. Two members of my team of professors accompanied me. Our work was mainly at the Guilin University of Technology, with whom, George Brown College had an educational pathway agreement. During that trip I spent interesting periods in Guilin, Beijing and Shanghai.

In time to come, I will narrate stories about these memorable return trips to Hong Kong and China, in this column.