Protests, pandemic, US-China tensions from national security law: is the party over for Hong Kong?
- Pessimists say city’s best days are over, but others predict it will bounce back
- Beijing’s national security law alarms critics, but businessmen expect it to restore stability
As Hong Kong marks a year since the anti-government movement began, we analyse how key players have fared. This is the sixth article in the series.
For four days in a row, an elderly couple turned up at the Rich Bird Currency Exchange in Sham Shui Po, each carrying a backpack filled with old Hong Kong dollars reeking of mothballs.
They were there to swap their savings for US dollars, and over that period, collected a total of US$1 million (HK$7.7 million).
“The rubber bands holding the wads of dollar bills together looked ready to disintegrate. It seemed the money was kept under their mattress for a long time,” said Eric Wong Wai-lam, owner of the money exchange.
“Every day, our stock of more than US$3 million was quickly snapped up. We’ve had to turn away about 600 customers,” he said.