The hope seemed to be that somehow it could remain as separate from the mainland as it had been as a colony.

Indeed, for many it seemed to be a point of pride that any query from the outside world on what had changed since the handover could be answered with a single word: nothing.

True, Hong Kong's separateness had served it well during the early years of the development of the Pearl River Delta, when its manufacturing know-how, capital, trade expertise and links to the rest of the world were things the mainland totally lacked.

But the delta's development in the past 25 years has brought it to the point where distinctions between a 'developed' Hong Kong and an 'undeveloped' Guangdong have long since blurred.

Many of these changes have long been acknowledged - such as a need for better government-to-government ties in the region, for more co-ordination of infrastructure development, and for greater attention to be paid to environmental matters.

But progress in doing anything about these issues was slow. At least, that was the case until the past 12 months, when a host of initiatives pushed forward cross-border ties and co-operation.

Three stand out: first, the announcement in June of the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (Cepa); second, the decision to go ahead with the Hong Kong-Zhuhai bridge; and third, the opening of Hong Kong to visitors from the mainland.

There are grounds for quibbling over exactly how much benefit both Cepa and the bridge will bring to Hong Kong.

In most areas Cepa does little more than allow Hong Kong companies into various sectors a little ahead of companies from the rest of the world.

And while opening up the western side of the Pearl River Delta is a laudable goal, the decision to build a bridge looks to be going ahead just as the true size of the mess in which Zhuhai has embroiled itself over the past decade or so is coming to light.

For years it has been apparent that the government there had heavily overinvested in one project after another - from its notoriously underutilised 'international' airport to its 'Grand Prix' race track.

Both the bridge and Cepa also underline another fact: Hong Kong's continued reliance on its relationship with Beijing to get things it wants, rather than its ties to Guangdong.

It is an open secret that the Guangzhou city government is not keen on the Zhuhai bridge - it would prefer the focus to be on its Nansha port development - but has acceded to pressure from the north to go ahead with it.

In this respect, Hong Kong still appears to have failed to grasp that its relationship with the rest of the Pearl River Delta will be a mixture of co-operation and competition - with competition increasingly predominating as the region closes the economic gap on Hong Kong.

So, while ties look harmonious now, there is the potential for plenty of conflict ahead - especially if Hong Kong does decide to pursue such oddball manoeuvres as attempting to entice manufacturing back to within its borders.

Fortunately, such notions are more than offset by the government's greatly improved ability to move ahead with commitments to foster concrete links between Hong Kong and the delta region.

This leaves one major task outstanding: replacing the traditional view of Hong Kong as being one place and the rest of the delta as being quite another with a new one in which Hong Kong, while remaining distinctly different in character, is a fully integrated part of the delta region.

In this respect, Hong Kong - and the rest of China - should be considering the implications of the other big change of the past year: the decision to allow people from Guangdong, Beijing and Shanghai to apply for individual tourist visas to come to Hong Kong instead of having to come in group tours.

This move allows people from the mainland to visit Hong Kong in their millions annually, instead of their previous thousands.

In the long run, this will have a bigger impact on Hong Kong than Cepa or more infrastructure linking Hong Kong to Guangdong.

The immediate reason for starting the free flow of mainland tourists into Hong Kong may be to cash in on their desire to see China's richest corner.

But the longer term impact will go far beyond this. Hong Kong has long seen itself as apart from the rest of China, whose population was best kept on the other side of a firmly fenced border.

Opening its doors to an almost unlimited flow of visitors from the mainland marks, in a way which it has skirted until now, the admission by Hong Kong that it is truly a part of China.

For the visitors, aside from the shopping opportunities, the upside will be access to Hong Kong's freer atmosphere - where choice is offered as much in the media as it is in the malls, not to mention in other areas such as political debate and access to the rest of the world.

Over time, it is difficult to see how the desire for this greater range of choice will not be taken back across the border - along with other demands, such as to enjoy the same freedom to work here that Hong Kong people have in the mainland.

For Hong Kong and the rest of the Pearl River Delta, this points to integration being a two-way process.

More work is needed to strengthen the ties being established by Cepa, making transport easier via the trans-Pearl River bridge, and opening the way for more mainland visitors - not just as tourists, but also to live and work.

Clearly, for further integration to take place, such barriers need to come down.

So, while the good news of the past year is that finally Hong Kong is facing up to being part of China - in a way it has not done so until now - the part which still needs attention is the human side: confronting the fact that integration will happen not because of stronger economic ties or better infrastructure, but because of the free flow of people between Hong Kong, the mainland and the rest of the world.