LAST SUNDAY AT a Yau Ma Tei wet market, an unemployed woman paid $1,500 for two packets of noodles and a lettuce. Another spent $500 on several bunches of vegetables.
Throughout the day, a female stall holder, whose goods were donated by various vegetable wholesalers, kept calling out: 'Have money, give money: have strength, give strength.' The money collected from the day was given to Red Cross to aid victims of the Asian tsunami.
The weekend before, local singers performed two different concerts and raised $52 million. On Tuesday, several movie stars, among them Cecilia Cheung Pak-chee and Dicky Cheung Wai-kin, rushed to Indonesia to offer their support to people who lost their homes and families.
Today, more than 100 celebrities - including some of Canto-pop's biggest names - will take part in the seven-hour Crossing Borders Fund-raising Show at the Hong Kong Stadium in Happy Valley, to raise even more.
Every day, people stream into Jockey Club branches across Hong Kong to give money. Donations are also coming in to relief funds set up by local newspapers. Schools, convenience stores, shops, bars, clubs and restaurants have all handed over boxes full of cash. The government has given $17.5 million from its Disaster Relief Fund for international charities and helped various fund-raising activities. Private companies have drawn donations from staff members.
Donors include the rich and the poor - from Asia's wealthiest man, Li Ka-shing, who gave $24 million, to security guard Hui Wan Lam who donated $20.
'I am not wealthy, but my living conditions are much better than those who have applied for social security,' Hui says. 'I just try my best to help them [the tsunami victims].'