Dr Simon Chau believes the way to an environmentally friendly Hong Kong is

URINE-DRINKING aside, Dr Simon Chau Siu-cheong, author, translator and green activist, has defied the odds and established himself as one of Hong Kong's best public examples of a green life.

When no one was recycling paper in his area, he helped to persuade the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation (KCRC) to install wastepaper collection bins for recycling. When no one was supplying organic food, he helped set up Produce Green, an organic farm that invites weekend farmers to try out their green thumbs. He also founded Green Power and the Vegetarian Society with the aim of changing not only the environment, but people's lives.

'People have the wrong idea of happiness and life and that leads to the destruction we are facing. We have to start with people's hearts,' he said.

For Dr Chau, home is where the heart is. It is a comfortable house, standing three storeys high on the edge of scenic Plover Cove. The upstairs are kept private for Dr Chau, his wife and their two teenage children, but the ground floor is a meeting place and gardening factory.

The furnishings are uncluttered, befitting a couple who shun the consumer lifestyle of strolling through shopping malls and buying for the sake of it. They have only what they need: some second-hand rattan chairs, a small sofa, a couple of tables and a box for paper to be re-used. The walls are adorned with pastoral pictures painted by Dr Chau.

THERE are also shelves covered in pots filled with sprouts, wheat grass and other small plants - food for their vegetarian diet. With this simple lifestyle, Dr Chau sets a practical example for others to follow. But his wiry, non-stop energy takes him further into the hit-and-miss areas of spirituality, meditation and diet.

Every day he practises qigong on the beach next to his house, a form of meditation he finds particularly suitable for Hong Kong people because it involves action rather than sitting still. But every day he also drinks his urine.