People who welcomed Premier Wen Jiabao to their Sars-hit estate on his last trip to Hong Kong say they will happily host him again after he said he 'really wants' to revisit.
Wen, speaking at his final post-National People's Congress press conference, said yesterday that he wanted to speak again to residents of Amoy Gardens in Ngau Tau Kok, which he visited in June 2003, shortly after the severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak.
Wen, who will soon retire, also wants to meet students at the University of Hong Kong, which he also visited in 2003, soon after taking office. It was his only visit to Hong Kong as premier.
William Yip Hing-kwok, chairman of the Amoy Gardens owners committee, said the Kwok family, who hosted the premier in their flat, had since moved, but memories of the visit remained fresh.
'It's not only that he's a leader of the country, but his visit really made us feel there were still people who cared about us,' he said. 'Many Hongkongers were too afraid to step into the estate at that time.'
Some 329 people on the estate were struck down by Sars, and Wen's visit, three months after the outbreak, saw him cradle the child of Kwok Sin-hung, who lost his wife to Sars shortly after the birth.