Your Majesty, Your Royal Highness, Lieutenant-General, Ladies and Gentlemen:
It is the first time in the history of Hong Kong that the sovereign has come here. We, the people of Hong Kong, are proud and encouraged that Your Majesty should be paying us this visit now. It is a moment of real historical significance.
The predominant emotion at this moment is a fervent wish that Your Majesty and Your Royal Highness will enjoy your short stay amongst us, that you will be able to see the way we live, and also some of the ways we enjoy ourselves, and above all the sort of people we are, and the sort of community we are. We dare to hope that having seen a little of this, you'll like it.
To supplement what can be seen in such a short time, we have prepared an exhibition. We hope this will also be of interest to a very wide public. For the visit of Your Majesty and Your Royal Highness, it's a good time to remove misconceptions and to remind ourselves and others what Hong Kong has done, what it now is, and what it could be.
Your Majesty, Your Royal Highness, on behalf of Hong Kong, I extend you a very sincere and very loyal welcome.
Prince Philip and I thank you for your welcome. He has visited Hong Kong before as have other members of my family, and I have heard much about it from them. I also keep in touch with your affairs through State Papers. So although this may be my first visit, I do not feel a stranger. But "seeing is believing", and I am delighted with what I have seen and look forward very much to the next three days. I am particularly glad of this initial moment of ceremony, because it gives me an opportunity to greet you all, the people of Hong Kong.
The circumstances that have produced modern Hong Kong are unique, and there cannot be any other community quite like it. Your reputation stands high in the world. Few other communities have had greater problems to deal with, or have confronted them with greater vigour, or have survived and improved the life of their members against greater odds. Hong Kong is famous for this, as it is for the vivid colour and movement of its densely packed life and for the beauty of its scenery.
I can assure you that it is a real pleasure and an excitement for Prince Philip and me to be here.
10月22日,女皇在政務司廖本懷的陪同下視察沙田新市鎮,在沙田大圍隆亨邨探訪其中一個家庭[22],了解香港普羅大眾的生活,女皇讚揚香港市民合力建造了一個獨特的城市及社會[23]。女皇又到訪新城市廣場出席歡迎活動[24][21]
,並且在沙田馬場觀賞賽馬,當日行程結束時,女皇向廖本懷說:「I like what I saw」,表達喜歡訪港的所見所聞[25]。