Perhaps more than any other place in Asia, Hong Kong's energy comes from a powerful relationship with the present. The past is always being obliterated and the future is something you worry about when you get there. After several years living in the city, it can be difficult to remember how certain neighbourhoods first appeared; buildings are torn down and new ones go up in the space of months.?

This disorientation becomes a way of life. If you find a good shop or restaurant, it's important to ask for a business card - finding it again by memory, amid the camouflage of neon lights, can prove almost impossible. You learn to feed your spending impulses immediately: chances are that a store will have closed down or changed hands by the time you make it back.?

But if you really want a study in "the power of now", ride the lifts at Chungking Mansions.?