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Premier Zhu Rongji's wonderful words of support for Hong Kong have put a big smile on the face of Christopher Cheung Wah-fung, the boss of local brokerage Christfund Securities.

Back to 1996, he led a group of brokers to Beijing to discuss the future of Hong Kong's financial sector.

A senior official in the Propaganda Department told him Beijing would, if necessary, use its massive foreign exchange reserves to support Hong Kong after the handover.

Mr Cheung returned to Hong Kong and told everyone he knew about his exciting news and . . . nobody believed him.

Now Mr Zhu has said it himself, along with 'I love Hong Kong' and many other reassuring words.

It has taken six years, but Mr Cheung's doubters have been corrected; he was right all along.

Planely worded crash drill: Some excellent advice for air travellers from the Yantian local government Web site at www.goldencoast.com.cn.

An article 'How to save yourself when the plane is in danger' begins with some soothing words: 'The plane is safe nowadays but the plane flies in the air with very high speed and cannot stop for repair as other vehicles when the hitch appears, so the emergency measures will be take in the flying.'

Now, frequent fliers take note: 'If you are unlucky facing the plane accident, don't push the panic button. You must trust the plane missionaries.'

And what to do in the unlikely event of a plane malfunction?

'When the possibility of descent appears, you should take down the knife-edge thing from you, wear all your clothes, draw on your gloves and hats, take off the high heel shoes, put the sundries into the bag of the seat back, fasten the life belt, put the carpet and pillow on your abdomen so that to less the hurt during the strike.'

There, we feel better about flying already!

Wisdom for the jobless: Bloomberg, the terminal and media company which has the same name as the mayor of New York City, is doing its bit to help needy financial types who lose their jobs.

Readers who have been de-jobbed will be familiar with the immediate frustration caused by the sudden loss of office infrastructure. Now, Bloomberg is offering free terminal software to laid-off customers so they can follow the markets at home and send and receive messages. They can look for jobs, too, using Bloomberg's JOBS ?GO? command.

The Internet-delivered service includes only delayed market prices, not the usual real-time information but, hey, it is free for up to 60 days, and you are unemployed!

Soundly serviced flats: A colleague was in Shanghai on Monday night to attend a media event being held by a Singapore developer. Her host arranged for her to stay at the Hong Kong Plaza serviced flats near the city centre.

Developed by Hong Kong's Lai Sun group, the flats were originally meant to be sold as big luxury units but plans were changed because of the poor property market. A greater number of smaller, high-grade serviced flat units were built instead.

At 2am, our colleague was awakened by the sound of a woman moaning from the adjacent flat. She did not care what her neighbours were doing; she just wanted a good night's sleep.

Eventually, the couple attained their required level of happiness and talked for a while; our sleepless colleague did not follow the conversation in detail.

Then, in the morning, the sound of water running as our couple washed their extremely happy bodies.

Our sleep-deprived colleague suspects the acoustic effects are the result of the change to serviced apartments.

Lai See sees a marketing opportunity here. Hong Kong Plaza could turn the situation to its advantage, describing itself as a 'happy music apartment' where guests are entertained by the sounds from the room next door.

Graphic: whee22gbz



Zhu's pledge is a bonus for Christopher