HONG KONG has been picked to host part of global celebrations for the year 2000, which include ambitious plans to illuminate the Great Wall from space, the Sunday Morning Post can reveal. Organisers here are working on a show-stopping agenda for when the clock strikes midnight to cap a year of festivities and fund-raising. Hong Kong will be one of 31 sites around the world chosen for special events to track the breaking of the year 2000 as it spreads across the globe's time zones. The London-based Millennial Foundation has asked the Hong Kong Cancer Fund to encourage and oversee celebrations to be held locally as well as on the mainland. Cancer Fund co-ordinator Justine Oliver said the striking of midnight would be shown through television to billions of viewers, starting in Fiji and finishing in the Cook Islands 23 hours later. Each location - including Sydney, Moscow, Paris, London, New York and Rio de Janeiro - will have a five-minute segment broadcast in the run-up to its new year. Hong Kong will be cued in by Tokyo with events shifting to Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Dhaka, India and then Dubai as the world turns. Ms Oliver said it was vital that Hong Kong not be overshadowed by other cities' celebrations. 'If each site chose clinking glasses and fireworks then it would be very boring,' she said. The illumination of the Great Wall from lasers attached to satellites is being planned as Hong Kong's and greater China's piece de resistance. The details and feasibility of the project are being investigated and Ms Oliver warned the scheme had not been finalised. The scale of the celebration would ultimately depend on the amount of sponsorship raised. Discussions are under way with the Hong Kong Government to facilitate the co-ordination of the various projects. The Millennial Foundation hopes to unveil the scheme, including the Hong Kong part, at the United Nations in New York in March. Other activities in Hong Kong will mirror this year's handover ceremony. There are plans for a massive party in the Grand Hall of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre extension, a ball in the Regent Hotel and fireworks over the harbour. Money raised will be spent on local projects to promote the environment, youth and health and on building a special 'Millennium Park' to be a lasting landmark to the historic event. The Cancer Fund is presently registering the name the 'Hong Kong 2000 Charitable Trust' to conduct the local fund raising and celebrations. It is hoped at least four events will be staged in mainland China and Hong Kong throughout 1999 as massive fund raisers. The 'Millennium Park' would be a new Hong Kong landmark and tourist attraction, Ms Oliver said. Sites are being examined in Kowloon. International experts would be brought in to develop projects such as a biosphere housing exotic flora and a house for the 21st century. Other organisations, including the Government and Hong Kong Tourist Association, are expected to develop their own plans to mark 2000.
