WHEN the British were giving Hong Kong back to China, it has been said, they did not want the colony's treasury to go along. So they embarked on a large, speculative project -- the world's greatest (or nearly so) airport.

A year after the handover of Hong Kong to China, the airport has opened with hardly a hitch. In one day, everything moved from Kai Tak Airport, where planes had to elude the skyscrapers, to the $20 billion Chek Lap Kok Airport.

They filled in the sea. They built a bridge, highway, railroad and one of the world's biggest roofed spaces -- a 6-million-square-foot terminal. Never was there such faith in Beijing's pledge to maintain Hong Kong as a capitalist center.

The catch: It opened in the midst of the Asian economic meltdown and a reduction in Asian tourism.

Pub Date: 7/11/98