Distance alone was a formidable obstacle; by today’s shortest air route, Hong Kong is 10,611 miles from New York and 7,286 miles from London. It was much farther by ship, and it took weeks to get there. Imperial Airways opened the first regular airline service from Europe in 1936, and Pan American World Airways started weekly transpacific flights in 1937. Early flights from New York or London still required a week, more or less, and although faster piston-engined planes gradually pared down the time, it took the introduction of jet airliners in 1958 to cut the longest flights to approximately 24 hours.
The new Kai Tak Airport, whose 8,350-foot runway juts into Kowloon Bay on a strip of reclaimed land, opened on September 12, 1958, six weeks earlier than the first oceanic jet passenger service. Scheduled ocean liners and cruise ships continue to call at Hong Kong, but four-fifths of all tourists arrive by air at Kai Tak. More than 210,000 of them came in 1961, with Americans and residents of the British Commonwealth comprising the two largest groups. Not included in this total are the 132,000 members of the American armed forces who had shore leave in the colony during 1961. For many years they have been the largest group of colony visitors; liberal spenders and generally law-abiding.
After ignoring Hong Kong effortlessly for decades, Americans had their attention drawn to it by a variety of stimulants. Hollywood motion pictures such as Soldier of Fortune, Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing, The World of Suzie Wong, and Ferry to Hong Kong were of varying artistic merit, but they all helped the tourist business. Television, radio and film personalities—Arthur Godfrey, William Holden, Jack Paar, Ed Sullivan, and David Brinkley—presented documentary reports on the colony. There was even a television adventure serial about Hong Kong, but with the exception of a few on-the-spot film clips spliced in for authenticity, it dealt with people, places and customs unknown to any colony resident.
Tourism stands next to the textile industry as a source of foreign exchange and it has created thousands of jobs for hotel and restaurant workers, entertainers, guides and shop clerks. Recognizing its economic value, the colony government set up the Hong Kong Tourist Association a few years ago. The association beams its Lorelei serenade to tourists overseas, but in its own yard, it functions as a watchdog. Its warning yip is brief: Don’t flim-flam the tourists, or you’ll kill a $120 million-a-year industry.
Transportation facilities in and out of the colony are equipped to handle any foreseeable increase in freight or passenger traffic during the next few years. Seventy-six shipping lines sail to 234 ports around the world. Nineteen airlines operate out of Kai Tak, with the four busiest—Cathay Pacific (chiefly regional), British Overseas Airways, Pan American and Japan Air Lines—averaging two or more arrivals and departures every day.
No one has the exact figures on how many people are employed in all the industries of the colony beyond the registered and recorded factories and including every category. But 1,200,000 have some sort of job, whether working at home, in factories, on farms, at sea or for the government. Government employs about 50,000.
There is no minimum wage. Most workers are paid by the day or on a piece-work basis. Normal daily wages of industrial workers are 50 cents to $1.30 for the unskilled, $1.20 to $1.70 for semiskilled, and $1.30 to $3.50 for skilled men. Women get 30 percent less than men. Overtime is at time and a quarter or time and a half, with the latter prevalent. Incentive pay is given for good performance and attendance. Some companies provide free or subsidized food to compensate workers for cost-of-living jumps. A bonus of one month’s wages is paid by many companies just before the Chinese New Year.
As a rule the European firms and a few westernized Chinese firms provide a cost of living allowance on top of the basic wage. Yet in spite of rapid industrial expansion, inflation has been slight; the index rose only 22 points between 1947 and 1961. The eight-hour day and six-day, 48-hour week are observed by most European companies, but some Chinese companies have an 11-hour day. Women and all workers under eighteen are given a second rest day a week by law. Many big companies, especially those dealing in textiles, provide dormitories and free bedding for unmarried workers; some house the families of married workers, and the government encourages this practice by providing land for such quarters at half the market price. A few companies provide recreation rooms and free transportation to and from the job. Workmen’s compensation insurance has been prescribed by law since 1953. Women, as well as children under fourteen years old, may not work between 8 P.M. and 7 A.M.
Hong Kong wages look tiny to an American worker who earns more in an hour than a colony factory hand receives in a day. But the chasm between the two standards of living is not so vast. The Hong Kong worker takes the bus, streetcar or ferryboat for less than two cents a ride; his lunch costs about ten cents, and his month’s rent is under $5.00 if he lives in a resettlement estate, and below $23 a month if he occupies a low-income Housing Authority development unit.