Hong Kong, as we know, returned to China on July 1st this year. Crowds gathered in Beijing to cheer the handover ceremony on giant TV screens. The British left and the red flag was hoisted over the governor's mansion. All had changed, changed utterly. Or had it?
Not, apparently, for the Chinese masses on the mainland. In an ironic twist of history, ordinary people in China now find it more difficult to travel to Hong Kong, despite all the propaganda about it being restored to the motherland.
The British, as EU citizens, can still fly into the territory without a visa and stay for three months. But under the "one country, two systems" formula which allows Hong Kong to retain a high degree of autonomy, Chinese people still face barbed wire fences, border patrols and bureaucratic mountains.
Take the case, say, of Zhang Jun, of Guangzhou on the mainland, who wants to visit his aunt in Hong Kong. He must first ask his mother to get her work unit to provide a certificate to confirm the relationship between her and his aunt. He then has to petition his own work unit for a certificate of correct political behaviour, stamped with the official chop. Meanwhile, he must get his aunt to send a copy of her Hong Kong permanent residence permit to China.
With all these documents plus his residence booklet and identification card Mr Zhang may then queue up for a permit at the Public Security Bureau along with fellow citizens going to Hong Kong on a business trip or on a tour group. None of them has a hope of getting clearance in less than 22 working days.
Beijing's policy is designed to stop a rush of Chinese pouring in to see for themselves the glittering national prize, but the effect has been to cut back the number of mainland Chinese visiting Hong Kong, which is hurting the tourism industry.
So too is a big fall in numbers of overseas visitors. For while Zhang Jun and his countryfolk cannot easily get in because nothing has changed, others are staying away because so much has changed.
For some foreigners, Hong Kong has lost its appeal as a colonial curiosity. The last outpost of empire in Asia has become just another Chinese city. American tourists in particular are wary of any destination where the red flag flies.
Hong Kong still enjoys its old ways, and on December 1st was rated the world's freest economy in the 1998 Index of Economic Freedom for the third consecutive year (China came 120th), but so many voices in the West cried "Wolf!" about its future under communism that its future under consumerism has been damaged.
The slide in the currencies of neighbouring Asian countries, which provide three-quarters of Hong Kong's visitors, is another reason for the fall in tourists by about 25 per cent each month compared to last year.
The biggest drop was in the numbers coming from Japan, which were down 61 per cent in October. This was a self-inflicted wound. Some Hong Kong hotels, travel agents, taxi drivers and restaurant owners were callously over-charging the comparatively well-off Japanese visitors.
A two-tier price system was exposed in a classic piece of reporting by the South China Morning Post. It sent a Japanese and a Hong Kong reporter separately to the same hotels and travel agents, with dismaying results. The expose caused a sensation in Japan and tours to Hong Kong were cancelled.
There are deeper, long-term, problems in attracting tourists, a vital part of Hong Kong's economy. The territory has a reputation as a shopping paradise where you can get bargains in everything from cameras and watches to silks and tailored suits. However, in recent years it has gone up-market and its prices are as high as Paris or London, and sometimes higher.
And more tourists - 69 a month compared to 62 last year according to the Hong Kong Consumer Council - are filing complaints about getting ripped-off, mainly by bargain-basement audio-visual shops.
All this is gloomy news for Hong Kong where economic growth is slowing because of the economic turmoil in the region. But, paradoxically, it means that now is a good time to think about a trip to the former British colony, which is still an exotic, exhilarating and vibrant city, combining Chinese tradition with western lifestyles.
Hong Kong's carrier, Cathay Pacific and 69 hotels have combined to offer cutprice (two for the price of one) holidays for the first six weeks of 1998. "We are aiming at reviving the excitement that surrounded Hong Kong as a destination," said Philip Chen, Cathay's deputy managing director.
Deng Xiaoping understood something when he came up with the one-country two-systems formula 20 years ago. Hong Kong has to be different, and exciting, to survive as the Pearl of the Orient. Though for people like Zhang Jun, the end of the China's national humiliation has been replaced by the ignominy of what he has to go through just to get there.