TOM CLIFFORD Staff writer HONG KONG -- The Hong Kong handover three years ago provided some of the most contradictory TV images of our age. An imperial drama, a colony being returned, was played out in the dying days of the 20th century. All that was missing was the setting sun.
The lashing rain put paid to any golden disc sinking behind the Pearl River Delta which panning TV cameras had been positioned to capture with reporters hoping to lace their commentary with the then ubiquitous phrase of "the sun finally sets on the British Empire."
Hong Kong returned to Beijing's ultimate control, after 150 years of British rule, amid a downpour and a flowering of umbrellas as the British departed in an outdoor ceremony before the final part of the handover took place indoors in the air-conditioned chill of Hong Kong's Convention Center.