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SCMP Reporter

AN almost unknown fishing settlement south of Shanghai is about to be catapulted into national prominence as the first place in China to witness the dawn of the new millennium.

 Exhaustive calculations by mainland astronomers have determined that the first rays of sunlight will shine on the coastal town of Shitang in eastern Zhejiang province at 6.46am on January 1.

 True to form, the government propaganda machine has been hard at work. The state-run Xinhua news agency reported that elaborate preparations are being made to guarantee the 'capture' of these first rays.

 A live broadcast will relay the event to a nation still in darkness. The rest of the world is also being offered the chance to log on through the Internet, at http://www. tz.zj.cnifo.net .

 There are even plans to run reports glorifying the fishing traditions of this small town that is about to become famous, simply due to an accident of geography.

But ever anxious not to be left behind, Beijing plans to mark January 1 even before it arrives on the mainland.

 Celebrations will begin at 8pm on December 31 - when the first dawn of the new millennium strikes New Zealand - with a drum and cymbal ceremony along the Great Wall.

 That will be followed by a one-minute prayer for world peace at 11.59pm Beijing time in which tens of thousands of people are expected to participate.

 Not bad for a supposedly atheist state, where some officials still insist the new millennium will not really dawn until 2001.

Meanwhile, staff at the Provisional Urban and Regional Councils have stopped handing out business cards bearing the logos of these doomed bodies in the run-up to their scrapping at the end of this year.

 But, having successfully forced through the abolition of these two bodies, the Government now seems anxious to give them some face by not being seen to try to trample them out of existence prior to January 1.

 Orders went out to avoid any premature disclosure of the logo for the new Leisure and Culture Department, which is to assume many of the axed councils' responsibilities.

 But like most government secrets, it never stood much chance of being kept. Especially as arts and culture bodies had to prepare publicity materials for New Year performances bearing the logo of their new sponsor.

 So Quarry Bay can reveal that the tightly-guarded logo features two basketballs intertwined with the Chinese characters for culture. Which hardly seems like something worth going to great lengths to keep secret.

Move over, Tung Chee-hwa. And Chief Secretary for Administration Anson Chan Fang On-sang as well.

 Quarry Bay has discovered that the government official with his name in more places than any other is not one of these big shots. Rather, it is the lowly Law Yu-wing, a chief engineer at the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department.

 It is Mr Law whose name is on the government safety certificates displayed in Hong Kong's 150,000 lifts. Since the SAR's six million inhabitants are estimated to use these, on average, eight times a day, that adds up to a potential 48 million sightings.

 Which is the kind of audience Mr Tung and Mrs Chan can only dream of.



Casting the Net for the first rays