ASIA-PACIFIC ISSUE: ENCHANTMENTS OF THE FAR EAST : An Asian Center of Activity

Our jumbo jet was floating over the city like a feather, and I was just wondering why landing in Hong Kong is always described as “heart-stopping” when we suddenly did a nose dive into the downtown skyline, dropping amid skyscrapers toward a runway that looked about as accessible from the air as Fifth Avenue.

On the ground, the analogy turned out to be even more appropriate. The airport shops were filled with luxury items. The wall clocks were Rolex. Every arriving passenger seemed to be picked up by a Mercedes.

My own Mercedes (a town car complete with an English-speaking greeter provided by my otherwise modest tour package) whisked me to my hotel--a standard modern Omni stuck smack in the middle of a gigantic shopping center.

Where was the atmospheric Asian capital of intrigue and exotica that I had always envisioned? Granted, Hong Kong was famous as a shopping paradise, but I had not traveled 20 hours from New York to spend two weeks in a mega-mall masquerading as a city.

I hadn’t been there two hours and already I hated it.

So do a lot of other tourists until they leisurely explore Hong Kong’s chaotic melange--which some visitors never do, especially if they have just a day or two there as part of a Far East whirl. For the full flavor, Hong Kong needs to be savored like a cup of oolong tea. In two weeks I barely got a taste, but ultimately I came away with not only some wonderful bargains but with an appreciation of the mix of energy and tradition that drives this unusual place.

I also left with a vague sense of disbelief that in less than seven years it could all disappear.

The frenetic pace--every other man in the street seems to have a cellular phone pressed to his ear, and even the escalators run at about twice the speed Americans are used to--is fueled, in part, by increasingly frantic efforts to make a fortune before the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong is returned to the People’s Republic of China on June 30, 1997.

China has pledged to let Hong Kong remain a capitalistic enclave for another half-century after Britain’s 99-year lease expires, but rampant skepticism--especially since the 1989 Tian An Men Square massacre--is already causing a weekly exodus of more than than 1,000 of the colony’s 5.8 million residents, 98% of whom are of Chinese heritage.

Some Hong Kong hotels are already selling packages for people who want to be there on the transfer date, but I would visit sooner rather than later. Just be sure whenever you go to allow yourself the time to seek out the mystery beyond the malls.

In cluttered alleyways off the main streets, merchants carry on ancient trades such as “chop-making”--carving distinctive logos into small ornamented stone blocks used as personal or business stamps (and often still calculating their accounts by abacus).

In Western-style chain drugstores, age-old remedies such as snake’s gallbladder share shelf space with the latest cosmetics. Workers’ scaffolding surrounding even the tallest skyscrapers-to-be amazingly consists of bamboo poles lashed together with twine. The pungent scent of incense wafting out of ornate temples tucked between high-rise buildings recalls how the name came to be Hong Kong, meaning “fragrant harbor.”

At night the city is a dazzler. A backdrop of mountains adds drama to any view of the crowded business district on Hong Kong Island, which after dusk twinkles like an overgrown Swiss village. Across busy Victoria Harbor on a peninsula at the tip of mainland China is Kowloon, the main hotel and shopping area of this two-part city.

The harbor crossing can be negotiated in a minute or so by car or subway, but the choicest means of transport is an eight-minute, eight-cent ferry trip, which is surely one of the best values in the world. For about three cents more you can ride on the upper deck, which provides a first-class view of the assortment of Chinese sampans and junks as well as cruise ships, yachts, tankers, freighters, tugs and hydrofoils continually crisscrossing the choppy water. The numerous narrated harbor tours can add little to this basic commute, which most visitors and locals alike make numerous times daily.

Topping the list of other Hong Kong pluses are dining (the profusion of delicately flavored Cantonese dishes are supplemented by world-class cuisine of every other ethnic bent) and people-watching (amid the workaholics in business suits and stylish dresses you occasionally spot Chinese men and women in black pajamas standing slightly apart from the crush of humanity and absorbed in performing slow-motion moves of tai chi).

And, of course, there is shopping--the best is at the designer-clothing outlets and the most fun is at the thriving street markets.

Farmland and rice paddies make up much of the 200-plus-square-mile inland area called the New Territories, stretching about 20 miles from Kowloon to the border with the People’s Republic of China. There farmers and fishermen in coolie hats seem eons away from new suburban communities just a few miles down the road.

The New Territories are easily reached via the Kowloon-Canton Railroad, which connects with the city’s subway system. (You need a visa to cross the Chinese border, but you can get one in half a day through Hong Kong travel agencies, which also run tours to Canton, now called Guangzhou, and various other Chinese destinations.)

China’s centuries of myth and mystery still infuse the daily lives of Hong Kong’s Chinese, who follow several religions: Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. Fortunetellers abound, and symbols and superstitions crop up everywhere. No building, be it a house or an office tower, goes up without a consultation with “the fung shui man,” who understands the balance between man-made objects and nature.

Good and bad vibrations are believed to come from dragons’ dens in the hills, and doors and windows must be positioned to admit good spirits and stymie bad ones. There is even a fung shui column on the science and health page of a major English-language newspaper.

The best way to absorb the atmosphere of urban Hong Kong, which is conveniently compact, is on foot. You can take brief respites on the chugging ferries, the spotless subways and the London-style double-decker buses and trams--all cost mere pennies and are easy to master, with fares clearly posted.

Taxis are plentiful, with most rides under $5 or $10; just be prepared for drivers who don’t even recognize hotel names in English (ask your concierge to write the name in Chinese for you to carry with you). In general, however, language is not a problem for Hong Kong visitors. Shop clerks and waiters invariably manage enough English for routine transactions.

At restaurants, you will encounter some exotic ingredients, but also familiar dishes. Be sure to try a traditional dim sum breakfast; you choose your dumplings or other tidbits from steaming bamboo baskets wheeled through the dining room.

You can get maps and directions to virtually all points of interest, plus a wealth of free brochures and booklets, at the Hong Kong Tourist Assn. outposts near the Star Ferry on both the Hong Kong Island and Kowloon sides of the harbor.