ABSTRACT
Since the handover to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, Hong Kong (HK) has remained a modern metropolis famous as a global financial centre and a shopping and dining destination where Western and Chinese cultures meet. Its seven million inhabitants live and work in a dynamic and entrepreneurial economy noted for its efficiency, materialistic culture and consumerism. Hong Kong has been ranked as the world’s freest economy for the eighteenth consecutive year by the 2012 Index of Economic Freedom (The Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal) and aspires to become an international cultural metropolis, recently launching the mega US$2.8 billion West Kowloon Cultural District project, which is perhaps the largest cultural infrastructure project being undertaken in the world today.
