Wayne Kong Yuk-shan, a branch officer at an Aeon office in the Central business district, says some 100 people, a number of them male, queued every day to apply for the pastel-pink card - and choose their free gift from a selection of Hello Kitty appliances. (These days, the giveaways are Kitty cup noodles and a cushion.) "Hong Kong people are very influenced by Japanese culture, so they like Kitty, " says Kong.

CNN: PRETTY IN PINK SLUMP

The Ko Shan Theatre is also playing host to an increasing number of Cantonese opera performances, with an additional annex, made up of a 600-seat theatre and other facilities exclusively devoted to the genre slated to open next year.

BBC: Cantonese opera returns to Hong Kong

There he became a patron and friend of Li Shan, today a leading Chinese painter with an international following.

FORBES: My Beijing

He searches for the origins of the domestic apple in Kazakhstan to tell an evolutionary tale which explains how every eating apple in the world is a direct descendent of apples in the Tien Shan forest (the bitter taste of apple pips is cyanide, their shape adapted to slip through the guts of a marauding bear unharmed).

ECONOMIST: Trees