LONG after the Nepalese Gurkhas leave Hong Kong in 1997 a vast monument will serve as a reminder to their link with the British Forces and the territory.
Earlier this month, Chris Hardy, the boss of a Hong Kong firm specialising in the employment of former Gurkhas, returned from a week-long trip to Nepal with the signatures of 50 former Queen's Gurkha Engineers.
Mr Hardy, himself a former British officer, will greet them at Kai Tak airport when they arrive in July to start work on the Tsing Ma suspension bridge cables.
Their training as engineers as part of the British Army and subsequent technical know-how has made them prime targets for Cleveland Structural Engineering, one of the subcontractors working on the bridge.
Cleveland already employs some former Gurkha labour through Mr Hardy's firm, Jardine Securicor Gurkha Services.
''The Gurkhas have proved themselves to be good workers,'' Mr Hardy said.