If you were in Hong Kong's world-famous shopping district Causeway Bay on May 1, which is Labor Day Holiday, you must have been surprised to see the crowds of people busy shopping there, despite the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).

The Labor day also marks the first day of the "We Love Hong Kong" campaign, launched by Hong Kong's business circles to encourage people to spend money by providing lots of shopping and service coupons.

The consumers' warm response will surely help get the city's life back to normal and also boost the economy, after SARS dealt a severe blow to tourism, entertainment and retailing, among other sectors.

Jessica Lam, a 26-year-old office lady, said that upon hearing the news on the campaign, she sent it immediately via email to many of her friends and asked them to support the effort.

"It is a good idea which will benefit not only ourselves, but also the businesses and the whole economy," she said. "In a difficult time such as this, we really need to do something that could help ourselves and others."

Jessica had spent the whole day shopping and dinning with friends in Causeway Bay. She said there were so many "sale" posts with different kinds of discounts in big shopping malls like the Time Square and SOGO and in small shops along the street as well.

"This reminds me of the New Year shopping spree," she said. "I also enjoy the environment cleaner now as people keep doing cleaning everywhere to defend against the virus. I love it!" she said.

Cheung Kong, a giant company controlled by business tycoon Li Kai-shing, launched a similar large-scale campaign last Tuesday for reactivating the business of its over 600 retail stores and restaurants adversely affected by SARS.

The group claimed it would take out 3 million HK dollars (384,600 US dollars) to award its customers in form of coupons.

Customers of Cheung Kong retail stores and restaurants can try their luck by picking a draw for the 10 100,000-HK-dollar (12,820 US dollars) coupons each month between May and July.

Hong Kong citizens' newly-aroused passion of spending was also encouraged by some good news about SARS.

Government statistics showed that for five consecutive days, there were less than 20 new SARS cases, with the last 24 hours seeing only 11 such cases, while scores of patients have been discharged from hospitals.

Yuen Kwok-hung, a microbiologist at the University of Hong Kong, said on a local radio program Thursday that SARS could be put under control this month as the virus may not be active during the summer time.

(Xinhua News Agency, May 2, 2003)