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A day of victories for Hong Kong fans
By Tonny Chan & Eddie Luk (China Daily)
Updated: 2004-09-08 01:41
For 66-year-old sports fan Huang Jinyi, it was a day of great rewards.
With a never-give-up attitude, Huang netted a haul of autographs from five mainland Olympic gold medallists as the top athletes began their second day of public activities in the SAR.
Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang signs autographs for sports fans Tuesday in Hong Kong. [newsphoto] |
The intrepid autograph hunter left his home in Tin Shui Wai at 6:30 am, setting off for Golden Bauhinia Square in Wan Chai. Three hours later, he greeted the athletes.
Wasting no time, he hurried on to Tsim Sha Tsui where some of the gold medallists turned up later.
Following their whirlwind activities on the first day, the athletes started their second day of visits with a public appearance at Golden Bauhinia Square at 9:45 am after which they split into groups to proceed to Tsim Sha Tsui, Sha Tin and Tsing Yi to meet the public.
Huang was just one of the hundreds of autograph-hungry fans who flocked to meet the athletes.
China's diving prince Tian Liang autographs a notebook from a Hong Kong fan Tuesday. [Xinhua] |
In Wan Chai, about 3,000 people crowded into Golden Bauhinia Square. In Tsim Sha Tsui, about 500 lined up at the Avenue of Stars and hundreds more waited in Sha Tin City Hall. All shared one longing -- to meet their heroes.
"I'm very happy. They are our pride," Huang said as he enthusiastically showed to China Daily the five rewards of his morning struggles: autographs of Du Li, Zhu Qinan, Luo Wei, Zhang Ning and Zhang Yining.
"The situation of Hong Kong is not bad. If Hong Kong can continue to be stable and its people united, it will really be the Pearl of the Orient. The atmosphere nowadays is still alright," he said.
Golden Bauhinia Square
In Golden Bauhinia Square when Liu Xiang, Tian Liang, Hu Jia and others appeared, primary-six pupil Fanny Chau from Kei Wei School made her voice heard. She called out to Liu Xiang, urging him to "fight hard and strive for winning more gold medals for us in the Beijing Olympics" in 2008.
"He is so tall and strong. He looks different from what I have seen on television," she said.
"On television, he was cool and quiet. He also seldom smiled even at the gold medal award ceremony. Today, I find him a nice and patient person. He kept smiling at us and shook hands and signed autographs for us," Fanny said.
Kitty Lo, an English teacher at Wong Chuk Hang Catholic Primary School, said that since the mainland and Hong Kong athletes won medals at the games, more students have joined school activities in badminton, table tennis and others.
"The visit by mainland athletes will help local students be more aware of the need to do physical exercise and maintain a healthy lifestyle," Lo said.
Avenue of Stars
In Tsim Sha Tsui, 75-year-old Chan Tsing-wah and his wife from Mong Kok arrived at the Avenue of Stars two hours ahead of the athletes. Hiding under an umbrella from the sun, Chan said it would be wonderful if he could shake hands with the athletes. "It is not a problem even if we can't," he said as the couple waited.
"It was tremendous that China won two gold medals at the start of the games. Our results are very good and China is famous in the world now. I hope our country can score even better results in the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008," Chan said.
The elderly couple tried to get into the crowd to see their heroes when Liu Xiang, Tian Liang, Zhang Yining, Chen Yanqing, Chen Jing, Tang Gonghong and others got off their vehicle about 11 am.
Sha Tin City Hall
Across the peninsula in Sha Tin, City Hall was packed with students and residents of the districts when badminton gold medallist Zhang Jun, volleyball athlete Zhou Suhong and a group of others arrived.
Answering a question from the audience, Zhang said that by the time of the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008, he would be 31 and that if he was physically allowed, he would wish to take part in the Beijing Games.
Zhou also told the audience it was important to make psychological preparations ahead of a match and to stay cool in the course, recalling that it was this spirit that enabled the female volleyball team to defeat tough rival Russia in the final.
Assistant to the Director of State General Administration of Sport, Xiao Tian, said again that the achievement in Athens was a moment of great pride for all Chinese.
Diving gold medallist Peng Bo told the press while visiting Lantau Link View Point in Tsing Yi with his teammates that he looked forward to coming to Hong Kong again to shop around as an ordinary traveller.
The 68-strong delegation led by Director of State General Administration of Sport, Yuan Weimin, arrived in the SAR on Monday for a three-day visit.
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