IF YOU have wondered who is filling all those Hong Kong hotel rooms, look no further than the elected representatives of Western democracies. The Sunday Morning Post has already documented the activities of British members of parliament enjoying the territory's hosptality. Now it seems American legislators find our customs and cuisine to their liking, too. Asian destinations figure heavily on a list of 680 private trips by congressmen in 1991-92, according to a Washington DC watchdog group. Congressional rules forbid foreign travel paid for by overseas governments, but there is no restriction on trips paid for by corporations or organisations. The group, Public Citizen, documented trips taken by congressmen and financed by organisations as diverse as China's People's Institute of Foreign Affairs, Occidental Petroleum, Northwest Airlines and a Taiwanese newspaper. Public Citizen's report warns that voters may think wealthy interests could be using the junkets to buy influence in Congress and it wants politicians to file detailed reports to justify their trips. Public Citizen says in its report that travel by politicians' spouses should be banned - although from the stories we have heard, that might encourage even more of them to travel abroad. WOMAN about town Nancy Jong, who is still fighting a tough battle to shed her married name of Miller, has been telling associates about the extraordinary attraction she holds for men. Miller, sorry Jong, says she gets 300 marriage proposals a year, which, by our rough and ready reckoning, means she cannot even guarantee weekends off from her persistent admirers. While other women of a certain age might envy Jong her popularity, the lady herself says it is not all good news. She still has not been able to find the man of her dreams. WHITHER chef Franz Kranzfelder? Not at Portico in Citibank Plaza by the sound of things. The former executive chef at the Hong Kong Hilton hotel has apparently decided he will not be coming back to the eatery after returning to his native Germany on a three-week holiday. During his sojourn Kranzfelder told associates in Hong Kong he was not going to return, preferring to remain in Europe with his wife and children. Kranzfelder's partners have been left with a severe case of indigestion as they frantically try to find a replacement chef for the California-style restaurant. ARTIST Andy Neilson has become portrait painter to the gentry after his China Club exhibition last week. Portraits of luminaries like Chris Patten, Simon Murray, Sir William Purves, Bonnie Gokson and David Tang were among those to have excited magnate T. T. Tsui, who immediately commissioned Neilson for himself. The strange thing is that Tsui wants Neilson to paint not one, but two portraits of him. We think one of the pictures would look perfect in the boardroom of whichever of Tsui's interests he decides to hang it in, but what is the intended destination of the second? Neilson's outsized canvases rule out a discreet positioning on the wall of his bathroom, even though the acrylics used would withstand the steamy atmosphere better than most. The smart money is on the painting gracing the Chinese ceramics gallery Tsui funded at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
