Hong Kong In 2051

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorCollege, Undergraduate April 2001

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I wake up on my 67th birthday, and while I lie in bed, I hear the message alert from my computer indicating 6 birthday e-cards awaiting me in my mail box. I get out of bed and see my little robot puppy, Bobby, wagging his tail happily. Since the day I have bought Bobby, I have saved a lot of time without the need of cleaning up his wastes, and I don¡¦t have to spend time teaching him all the tricks because they are all build-in! That¡¦s technology! I smile from the heart as I read through all the e-cards sent by both my children and grand children, they are all so sweet and heart touching. Staring into the mirror, I discovered that a few of my wrinkles had disappeared. It must be the work of the new formula face cream I bought earlier this month; I didn¡¦t expect it to be so effective.

I glance at the clock and find that it is already 10:45 a.m., I have only five minutes to get to Central for the tree planting campaign. I get on the monorail at the monorail station next to my building. The construction of the monorail has really brought me great convenience since I no longer have to queer up for buses or fight for taxis on the street. I still remember how hard it was to catch a cab in the past; now the only vehicles I can see on the street are bicycles, and everyone use the monorail for transport as its network reaches every corner of Hong Kong. Apart from this, the monorail is fast and has a large carrying capacity, so there is not reason for not using it.

Before I knew it, I am already heading towards the tree-planting site. This campaign has been going on for more than one year already, and we are now beginning to see the fruit of our hard work. I could never imagine Central becoming so ¡¥green¡¦ in the past. In my mind, Central is always a crowded and polluted area on Hong Kong Island, but now, there¡¦s a tree planted every five steps on the pavement. The businessmen all seem to have lessened their pressure in this soothing environment, and it is really a relief to see that they don¡¦t have to work under intense pressure for the whole day. No wonder the number of cases for excess stress and pressure is going down so quickly. Knowing that our effort has not been wasted, we worked more enthusiastically. Not long afterwards, we have already planted a straight row of trees along the main road, and we are all ready to drop.

My friends ask me to join them for tea, but I refused, bearing in mind that I have to prepare for tonight¡¦s birthday party. I headed towards the Old Star Ferry pier to take the high-speed turbo ship back home. On the way, I see the model of the old version Star Ferry, now serving as the museum of ferries, placed right next to the pier. When I see the small children looking at the boat as if it they are looking at a piece of antique, I think of the old days when I rode on the ferry with my friends. In the past I have always complained about the ferry for being too slow, and too dirty; but now when I take the fast and clean ships, I kind of miss the feeling of the sea breeze blowing on my face as the ferry slowly move across the harbour. I miss the old days so much.

I am so tired that I headed straight to my bed first thing after getting home. When I wake up, it is already 6:00 p.m. I switch on the television to watch the news, and shocking news came my way. Firstly, the rubbish used for land reclamation 30 years ago are beginning to decay and liberate methane gas, which will explode on mixing with oxygen. This led to a methane crisis, and the government is doing all it can to stop the liberation of the gas. Well I guess this is the result of people from my generation who were not concern much about the environment and did not do their best to protect it. Secondly, the first cloned baby in Hong Kong is finally born. The human genome project have been going on since I was a teenager, but I have never been in favour of this idea, and I even think that is unethical to do such thing. Therefore I do not feel at all happy about this piece of news. Anyway, I just feel that the news these days are getting more and more interesting and watching the news has become very exciting.

Party time finally came, our whole family gather together in a restaurant in an undersea shopping mall. This restaurant has the reputation of having the best close up of the Hong Kong harbour, as it has regular clean up and picking up rubbish around the windows of the restaurant by its staff, and its location is the most favourable for fish to show up. While having our dinner, my granddaughter Jenny suddenly point at the window and scream out ¡¥Fish!¡¦, then everyone rush to window to take a good look at this one of the few fishes left in the Hong Kong harbour. Their reaction remind me of the days when I looked at seals and dolphins in the aquarium of Ocean Park when I was young. If the fishermen have took notice of the over fishing situation earlier, the fish would not be facing this critical situation now. After dinner, my son, Jay, approach me and hand me a nicely wrapped present. I unwrapped it, and to my surprise, it is one of those newly invented ¡¥Gene necklaces¡¦, Jay and his whole family made a necklace for me using their genes. As I look carefully at necklace, I could see four tiny rod-like structures in the heart shape ornament, those must be their genes! Wearing the necklace, I could really feel them close to me. This is amazing! Looking back over the past 67 years, Hong Kong has really changed a lot. For instance, the development of the Cyber Port enhanced the use of IT technology in Hong Kong dramatically. It is known worldwide that Hong Kong is the most advanced in technology among the Asian countries because of the successful development of this Cyber Port. I have to admit that the advances in technology have improved the quality of my life, and bought me a lot of new surprises; on the other hand, I think that the society lacks originality, like everything is so scientific and perfect, and it seems to be too fake. In general, I am honoured to have witnessed the changes in these fifty years, and I am very happy that the people¡¦s conscious on environmental protection has risen so much. This makes me think that the effort I have put in environmental protection has not been wasted. Moreover, the advances in the medical field impressed me most. The development of the on-line clinics, and using robots for operations, shows that us Hong Kong people has made good use of the modern technology. Apart from this, the combination for the use of Chinese and western medicine has made great improvement in medical services, and scientists have even found that certain combinations of the two kinds of medicine can be used to cure diseases that could not be cured in the past. The advancements mentioned above all contributed to the rising ranking of Hong Kong in the international level, and I hope Hong Kong will keep on improving and become an even better place to live in.