Hong Kong handover ceremony

It was an internationally televised event with the ceremony commencing on the night of 30 June 1997 and finishing on the morning of 1 July 1997.

Both podia were located at stage centre in front of the chairs of the main representatives (5 for each country) and beside the flagpoles (2 for each country, taller ones for the sovereign state and the shorter ones for the territorial flag of Hong Kong, correspond to the sovereign state it is under at the time during the ceremony).

In 2005, the British Mail on Sunday revealed Prince Charles's memorandum, of which "Clarence House said only 11 copies were made, circulated to close friends",[10] where he referred to the transfer as the "Great Chinese Takeaway" and the Chinese officials as "appalling old waxworks".

In another reported extract, Prince Charles described the ceremony as an "awful Soviet-style" performance and dismissed the speech by Chinese leader Jiang Zemin as "propaganda", complete with loud cheering "by the bussed-in party faithful at the suitable moment in the text."

He also ridiculed the People's Liberation Army's goose-steps in the ceremony and claimed his trip on HMY Britannia out of Hong Kong was closely watched by Chinese warships.