"It used to be that if you wanted to set up an office in China, you had to go to Hong Kong, hire a lawyer, hire a banker and take them with you to China, " says Coppedge.
Still, you would think that Hong Kong would go to say a Hong Kong-born label like Shanghai Tang, a brand that patterns itself after Ralph Lauren, for its uniforms.
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Consider the plight of Zhejiang Glass, the first privately held Chinese enterprise to go public in Hong Kong.
In Singapore and Hong Kong, I go to the airport ahead of time just to eat.
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The food is very sophisticated in Hong Kong, and I always go back to the same place: Pak Loh Chiu Chow Restaurant.
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By acting now, Pangilinan is trying to make sure First Pacific will not go the way of Peregrine, the aggressive Hong Kong investment bank that went belly up this month.
There is, he notes, legitimate trade where goods go from one part of China to another through Hong Kong.
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One of the latest to go on the market is the ComPass Card in Hong Kong, which works as a credit card, a bank and supermarket card, and even awards bonus points on the holder's birthday.
Wine buyers, who pay the same percentage of the hammer price whatever the value of the sale, will see their commission go up to 22% in New York and Hong Kong and to 17% in London, Paris and Geneva.
Hong, aged 50, liked the fact that there was no recovery time afterwards--she could go right back to work following the 90 minutes in the doctor's office. (Hong happens to be a nurse for the doctor who performed it--a facial plastic surgeon.) It's taken a few months to see the results, but she's pleased so far.
Art world mainstays agree: Hong Kong still has a long way to go before it can be seen as a hub on par with New York, Paris or London.
But if the company were ever to get into serious financial trouble, it is hard to believe that Hong Kong would let its main telecoms provider go bust.
Last Friday BYD, currently listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange, announced that it would go public on the bourse in Shenzhen, a manufacturing hub in southeastern China.
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But as the selection for this weekend's Test against Australia in Hong Kong shows, they are still going to go for the tried and tested in the big matches.
It also will go on sale Friday in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Switzerland, the UK and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
On Monday, Shui On said that China Xintiandi has submitted an application to list in Hong Kong with the stock exchange, and funds raised will go toward expansion.
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Until a few months ago, Japan's investment banks were trawling foreign banks in Hong Kong and Singapore, hawking whole portfolios of loans, priced to go.
Having shaken off a sense of gloom, Hong Kong's retail investors now seem to have forgotten things can ever go wrong.
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Kase Ng, a 24-year-old manicurist and member of the Michael Jackson Hong Kong Fan Club, told CNN by phone she had been planning to go with four friends to his August 1 concert in London.
"The bond-market investigation is not likely to have a negative impact on companies' ability to raise funds in the short term, but some high-risk borrowers, such as local-government financing vehicles, could see their borrowing costs go up, " said Zhu Chaoping, head of research at ChinaScope Financial, a Hong Kong research and data firm.
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