- Title: HONGKONG: FORTUNE-TELLERS SPECULATE ON NIXON VISIT TO CHINA
- Date: 25th February 1972
- Summary: People - many of them wives of businessmen - crowding a temple, people shaking containers which gives a clue to their fortunes, and people consulting fortune-tellers. Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 11th March 1972 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: HONGKONG
- City:
- Country: Hong Kong
- Topics:
- Reuters ID: LVA3BSSBRROHI2YP7RPO4LV5M951
- Aspect Ratio:
- Story Text: President Nixon's trip to China is having an impact on the Chinese fortune-tellers in Hongkong.
What, the customers are asking, does it mean for them? The star-gazers are not too sure, but early predictions are that the portents are not favourable.
It is a busy time for the fortune-tellers. The lunar Year of the Rat has just begun and, by tradition, thousands of Chinese flock to the fortune-tellers to find out what is in store for them.
Particularly concerned are Hongkong's businessmen who see the outcome of President Nixon's visit to China as a barometer to their financial future.
The colony relies mostly on trade for its prosperity - much of it between China and the West, for which the Hongkong businessmen act as middlemen.
Many fear that the more direct links between its giant neighbour and the outside world, the more Hongkong will be by-passed in trading terms.
The Year of the Rat is generally regarded as not an auspicious period and the apparent success so far of President Nixon's voyage to Peking has confirmed some of the worst fears of superstitious businessmen in Hongkong who thrive on an isolated China.
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