As the world focused its gaze on Hong Kong and the global media swarmed to cover an event unprecedented in history, one South China Morning Post features writer spent the evening with a family in Ping Shan in the New Territories, far from the journalistic frenzy at the Convention and Exhibition Centre.
Wendy Kan was typical of features writers on Monday, June 30. She and her colleagues planned to relate a different story to the high- profile pomp and circumstance of the handover ceremony being broadcast round the world - the story of how it affected the lives of the people of Hong Kong.
'We were all experiencing a significant moment and it was important that we reflected how the everyday people of Hong Kong felt,' Kan said.
From the views of the community to heavyweight political interviews to simple but important details of social events, the features department aimed to give the broadest possible coverage to what was one of the most important news events in Hong Kong this century.
'Part of our job is to go behind the news to try to work out its significance,' said features editor Charles Anderson. 'So, the features writers and those from other departments, such as political editor Chris Yeung and China editor Willy Wo-Lap Lam, picked up issues and told readers what their effects would be, such as the row over the disbanding of the Legislative Council, the race for the Chief Executive, and what was seen at the time to be threats to the independence of the judiciary.' The features department began its major handover coverage in March this year with Tung's Agenda, a series of articles by public policy editor C. K. Lau that studied the areas on which the new Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa would have to concentrate to make the SAR Government run smoothly.
Regular columnists, outside experts in different fields and politicians provided insight and all shades of opinion, while the department maintained a balance with other world and local issues.
In the weeks before the handover, the department ran two major series: My Hong Kong and Era of Change.
'My Hong Kong consisted of first person pieces by the ordinary people of Hong Kong: Chinese, expatriates, whoever had a stake in the place, its past and its future,' Anderson said. 'Era of Change was more wide-ranging. Staff writers put their heads together and came up with a 14-part series that mirrored Hong Kong at that time, from an interview with Governor Chris Patten in which he revealed what he would miss about the place, to a trip to Po Toi to talk to islanders who hardly knew the handover was happening.' One article in the series was by a young Hong Konger with mixed emotions about the change of sovereignty. He told how his family's feelings were split three ways: his grandfather's old deep-seated mistrust of the Communists; his father's optimism about reunification; and his own uncertainty.
There was also a series on how the international media viewed the handover.
As June 30 approached, leading political figures, from Tung Chee- hwa to Democratic Party leader Martin Lee Chu-ming, contributed their views on what lies ahead.
'While it's been exciting and challenging for all of us, the handover did not stop on July 1,' Anderson said.
'In many ways, it has only just begun and we will continue to provide a high-quality forum for features, comment and analysis.'