Five years have passed since Hong Kong was reunified with China in 1997, but people are still asking whether the change in status has affected life here. The answer to this question depends on who you ask, of course, but administrative reforms and new legislation do not seem to have made any obvious difference. Investors and large companies appear to have forgotten their anxieties at the time of the handover, and the black clouds have long since dispersed. The transition to Chinese rule was extremely gentle, and this 'city state' enjoys a special status under the Chinese flag that means life goes on here much as before. Including the New Territories, Hong Kong covers an area of only 300 square kilometres inhabited by a population of 7 million. Despite this population density, Hong Kong has an extraordinary dynamism that is evident everywhere all the time. Astonishingly, traffic congestion is minimal.

Particularly on Hong Kong Island (formerly Victoria Island), countless underpasses and overpasses for pedestrian and vehicle traffic, escalators and covered pedestrian walkways linking the awesome skyscrapers mean that life in Hong Kong goes like clockwork.

If you ask the source of this energy and dynamism that motivate the people of Hong Kong, I can find only one answer: money! Most of the giants of the capitalist world have investments in Hong Kong. Everything is to be found here and everything is possible! The world's best economists, best architects and best city planners are all in Hong Kong. The traditional industriousness of the Chinese in general and the competitive instincts of the people of Hong Kong are further clues to the miracle. In Hong Kong people are more enamoured of towering skyscrapers, Rolls-Royces and other expensive cars, luxury houses, exclusive clothes and dazzling jewellery than perhaps anywhere else in the world.

After dark the side streets here are transformed into a riot of colour by the neon lights of the bustling shops and restaurants. The first stop for buses along this route is the Tin Hau Temple in Yau Ma Tei. In the square in front of the temple you can watch worshippers coming and going, street barbers, gamblers and mahjong players. In the same area is the Jade Market, where there is a wonderful array of brooches, necklaces and figurines made of this semiprecious stone. Shopping without bargaining is almost unknown in Hong Kong by the way. If you are still not tired by the end of the day, you can visit the crowded night market on Temple Street. In short, Nathan Road is a colourful and animated world of its own by day and night. The southernmost area of Kowloon is Tsim Sha Tsui, renowned for its hotels, fascinating museum, exhibition centre and gigantic shopping malls. But of all the sights of Hong Kong the most famous has got to be Victoria Peak, from which the view is so breathtaking you will never forget it for the rest of your life.

After the dynamic pace of Hong Kong, Macau is a quiet backwater, but well worth seeing. As for Hong Kong, that is pure extravaganza!

* Izzet Keribar is a photographer and freelance writer.