Hong Kong (not) Phooey?

As a young kid I always thought the Phooey part of 'Hong Kong Phooey' was a naughty word along the lines of a 'number two'. (I think in hindsight it was related to our hero's Kung Fu skills, but you never know...).

As an adult, or at least as a 27 year old FX trader (which some would say is more along the lines of a 15 year old pre pubescent boy...) I visited HK for the first time and began to wonder if Phooey really related to the stinkyness and unpleasant fug that lingered perpetually in the air there (unless it was raining like the world was going to end...).

So it was something of a surprise to visit HK this last week and find a lot less smog than London has and clear blue sunny skies on several days. It seems that the closures of so many mainland factories in neighbouring provinces, along with some half-serious attempts to cut down on industrial air pollution, have completely changed the mucky face of HK and allowed the sun to shine on this amazing city once again. I also couldn't help noticing that the streets were much cleaner than I'd remebered from the previous trip - perhaps the Chinese regime is harder on litter louts than the Brits were (handover was just a year before my last visit)?
I was astounded that HK Park has a crystal clear lake, devoid of even a scrap of litter and the massive Koi carp mooching about in the sun didn't appear to be under threat of being fishnapped into a dustbin and turning up on eBay.(Its happened in Hampstead!)
Meanwhile the expat community is declining as the banking world capitulates and the uber-rich elite local Chinese landlords nervously eye rental rates that used to reach eye-watering levels ratchet lower and bigger percentages of their portfolios sit empty than ever before.
HK is bizarrely on the way up and down at the same time, but for the short term visitor appears to be a much nicer place to be than it was 10 years hence.