Kerry Fitton has booked her flight out. After a year-and a-half living in Yung Shue Wan on Lamma Island and working as a waitress at The Waterfront restaurant, the 27-year-old Briton is leaving for Australia at the beginning of next month, joining an exodus of young expatriates from the island.
'Quite a few people have left,' Ms Fitton said. 'You notice it in the village, the bars are quieter.' Just weeks remain before March 31 when the last 12-month visas acquired from rushed trips out of Hong Kong this time last year expire and Britons have to obtain work visas. Those with few skills, holding low-paid jobs, have little chance of success at Immigration Tower and have either left already, or are dusting off their backpacks.
From April 1 last year, arriving Britons were given six-month tourist visas with no rights to work or study.
Others on Lamma who do have work visas have tired of the island lifestyle, and have moved to the city.
Change is coming to the streets of Yung Shue Wan and the cluster of villages around it which form the main population centre on Lamma, an island of 4,700 off Aberdeen.
For now, tanks of gasping garoupa lie next to fish and chip shops. Traditional padded silk jackets compete with tie-dye t-shirts. Incense smoke curls not only out of the local Tin Hau temple but also from trendy young Westerners' bedroom windows. And scruffy old China hands, many of whom roll their eyes at mention of the island's hippie image, exchange nods with stooped Chinese old-timers on the narrow streets.
But while a few veterans have forged close links with the villagers, by most accounts locals and newcomers have kept their distance, developing an uneasy co-existence after some initial friction.
