THE ROYAL coat of arms on the red post box outside the legislative council building in Hong Kong is engraved in iron. "It will probably survive," said Mr Nigel Shipman, director of government supplies.
"There are still some pillar boxes on the Peak (Hong Kong's fashionable hill top) with Queen Victoria's insignia. But new post boxes, he pointed out, now have detachable metal plates, so the symbol of colonial power can be more easily removed when Hong Kong is transferred to Chinese authority on June 30th next year.
Preparations for the handover are now gathering pace, and by the time it happens, there will be little evidence left that the territory was ruled for 156 years by the British monarchy.
Mr Shipman is presently engaged in overseeing the replacement of badges and insignia bearing the British crown or other colonial designs which decorate the uniforms of 46,000 police and civil defence officials, 24,000 civilian staff and 19,000 auxiliary officers who serve Hong Kong's six million population.
The operation is costing 14 million Hong Kong dollars (£1.1 million). Government departments have submitted new designs to replace the royal coat of arms which features the British lion and the Chinese dragon, and most have suggested the bauhinia, the flower which will become the emblem of Hong Kong after it becomes a Special Administrative Region of the Peoples' Republic of China, providing the Chinese agree.
The lotus like bauhinia has already replaced the profile of Queen Elizabeth II on coins minted since 1994.
The social map of Hong Kong is changing too in anticipation of the end of empire. The word "royal" was dropped from the Jockey Club in July. The Save the Children Fund has replaced the queen as its patron in favour of Mr Tung Chee-hwa, a favourite to take over as Hong Kong's chief executive after Governor Chris Patten departs.
A total of 161 non profit making bodies which have the governor or Mrs Lavender Pat ten on their letter heads are busy adopting new patrons. But while the new insignia awaits China's approval, the London and Beijing governments have finally agreed on the shape of the all night party to commemorate the hand over of Hong Kong to China at midnight on June 30th next year.
It will be a "dignified ceremony", held in the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, according to a minute signed on Friday by Mr Zhao Jihua and Mr Hugh Davies, Chinese and British representatives on the Joint Liaison Group. The exchange of flags before up to 4,000 guests will take place in a futuristic "soaring gull" extension, which is still under construction.
The ceremony will be beamed onto giant TV screens at Happy Valley Racecourse where tens of thousands of people will attend a pop concert. There will also be a sunset ceremony on the evening of June 30th at the old British Naval Base at East Tamar under the control of the commander of British forces, Maj Gen Bryan Dutton.
There will, however, be no separate event where the British garrison hands over to the People's Liberation Army.
The end of months of squabbling over what will be a momentous world occasion has been welcomed in Hong Kong as a sign of a new spirit of accord between London and Beijing. The major political controversies of last year have been diminished by a period of conciliatory gestures by Beijing, including a declared willingness to engage the Democratic Party, and Hong Kong prodemocracy legislators no longer talk of chaining themselves to the Legislative Council building at midnight on June 30th as they did some months ago.
It is in Beijing's interests that the hand over should go as smoothly as possible, even though major political problems have yet to be resolved, such as the fate of Chinese dissidents who have sought refuge in Hong Kong. China wants to maintain investor confidence in the world's eighth largest trading economy which is currently its biggest foreign investor.
South China Morning Post reported that the Chinese President, Mr Jiang Zemin, privately told top aides last week that "a successful transition is of vital importance to the entire country" and "every policy must serve the goal of promoting Hong Kong's stability and well being". Prince Charles will lead the British side at the handover, according to the Hong Kong press, though Buckingham Palace has yet to confirm his attendance.
The guests will likely include Lady Thatcher and former foreign secretaries, including Lord Howe and Mr Douglas Hurd, plus the trade ministers of all the Asia Pacific countries. The British national anthem will be played as the Union Jack and Hong Kong flags are lowered for the last time, and after 12 a.m. the flags of China and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region will be raised to the Chinese national anthem.
Governor Patten and the British contingent will then, it is believed, sail away from the water's edge convention centre on the royal yacht, Britannia. As the last British monarch's representative departs, the new insignia of a Chinese administered region will be attached to nearly 90,000 uniforms.
Beijing is already making elaborate arrangements for President Jiang Zemin to arrive on the morning of July 1st, east in the role of world statesman and liberator of a piece of Chinese territory from which virtually all symbolic traces of a century and a half of British rule have been stripped away.