Trip to China
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Thursday-Friday, August 7-8, 2008 Departure day! We have finally left Guangzhou. It feels like we’ve been here for a year with everything we’ve managed to pack in. What I thought was going to be a relaxing, somewhat boring sabbatical to Guangzhou turned into a pretty frenetic, jam-packed visit. So much for packing cards and books and stuff, there was no time to do any of that and by nightfall we were pretty beat. We spent last evening getting most everything packed. This morning we weighed it all to make sure we were still tracking under 50 lbs for our bags. BTW for those of you that have to fly to another province within China, the weight limit is 20kg (44lbs). We were going by train to Hong Kong but there’s still a weight limit of 20kg per adult passenger. Since we’d paid to have a bellman bring the bags up (RMB80 per bag, about $11 US), we didn’t have to pay any additional fees. The train station is the Guangzhou East Station and since it’s right next to the US Consulate, it’s about a ½ hour ride. The whole process of departing the hotel and getting seated on the train was quite stressful, but Shelly helped us stay sane. We would have been pretty lost without her. Going from Guangdong province to Hong Kong is considered international travel, so we had exit cards and arrival cards to fill out. We also had to pass through customs on the Guangdong side and the Hong Kong side. Although customs in Guangzhou really was a breeze, I did have a minor heart attack when I checked our tickets and only found 5. I was thinking YaYa needed one and thought we were short one. That was at the customs counter. Pretty soon I realized my error and stopped freaking out, but not before pouring a little sweat. We had just enough time to sit for about 5 minutes and then it was time to board the train. In Guangzhou you enter the waiting lobby after customs and the trains are located downstairs on the platform after a lengthy escalator ride. It turns out our car was the first one next to the escalator and we found our seats easily. We had first class tickets which only cost us about $60 US. There were lots of chattering Chinese on the car with us and there was room to spread out comfortably. YaYa was in the Ergo and behaving for the moment. She had gotten some kind of eye infection though and we were getting pretty concerned. The train pulled away and was remarkably smooth. We don’t have a decent long-haul rail system in the US other than the Amtrak Starlighter on the West Coast, and I’ve never ridden it. This was a high-speed train but not a bullet train. I think it probably topped out around 150mph. Whatever the speed was it was enough to scare the livin’ bejeebers out of my dad every time an adjacent train would pass by at the same speed. The wind created by the train would push his window in and make a booming sound. The other train was maybe four feet away at the most. It caught him by surprise every time and we cracked up. The first stop was Dongwan and we just stayed aboard. We picked up a few more passengers. The attendants offered drinks and some meal choices. They walked around with a bucket of roast duck and would hand you some of it in plastic for a few Yuan. They were also selling commemorative Olympic stamp sets for a couple thousand Yuan. It was tempting to get those actually but we passed. Soon we entered Shenzhen. Shenzhen has a population of about 9 million people and is one of the most prolific manufacturing cities in the world. The buildings we could see were all very modern and stylish. That of course was contrasted with the more poverty stricken areas that were prevalent on the outskirts of any of these cities. Real estate inside the cities is getting very expensive now. A moderate price for an apartment in Guangzhou for example, is about RMB4000 per square meter, about $588 US. That’s quite a lot. Anyway, I’ve read some books about the Chinese economy and it was fascinating for me to actually be in Guangzhou and now Shenzhen. It took no time at all for us to hit the outskirts of Hong Kong. Upon arriving you notice the distinctly tropical look of the area, with Hawaiian like mountains, the vegetation, and of course the sea. About 2-3 minutes before the train stopped, all the passengers jumped out of their seats and piled up at the doors. We’re thinking “where’s the fire?!?” and just chocked it up to the usual custom of pushing to get first. Well, we soon learned that the line for customs is lengthy and moves slow, so our tardiness in exiting the train resulted in being last in line for customs. We were in no rush except that I’d had lots of water, some coffee, and a coke and began doing a little cross-legged dance while in line. Not only had we forgotten to fill out a departure card for YaYa in Guangzhou, we also couldn’t quite figure out how to fill out her arrival card in Hong Kong so those things caused a little stress. The customs officers in both places were great though and just stamped her on through. Pays to be cute I guess, which might explain why I never have that kid of luck! Frankly, the customs officers were more cordial and personable than I’ve ever seen of any US Customs officer. Those guys are all business. Just ask my Indian friend that went through customs in Vancouver one time after having had a cardio stress test the day prior. When you do one of those they put radioactive isotopes in your bloodstream to monitor the circulation. Turns out they also set off alarms when you get within 3 feet a US Customs officer. The combination of that and looking like he was mid-Eastern ensured that he was to have a really bad day. I guess they have good reason to be so serious. Walking out we found a place to exchange our Chinese cash-ola. Great news! HK dollars are exchanged at a rate even better than Yuan. The difference is about a percentage point, but for every $100 HK, it’s only about $13.50 US. Our plan was to meet up with Emily and her mom out at Hong Kong Disneyland. Emily was our Taiwanese exchange student for all of last year. When she found out our firm plans for China, she and her mom planned a trip to Hong Kong to meet us. Being grateful to us for hosting her daughter, Emily’s mom paid for our lodging at Disney’s Hollywood Hotel. Disney is nothing short of first rate when you stay at their resort hotels so we were very much looking forward to it. Getting there was another story. We had forgotten to arrange transportation for this leg of the trip from the Kowloon train station to Lantau Island where Disney is located. One shuttle operator told us it would be HK$600, but we found another guy that would transport us for HK$400. We got our bags together and followed the guy. He led us across a busy street and although he was a very tiny guy of about 5’ 3” or so, I couldn’t keep up at a full walking stride. He got us to the other side of the street successfully with our myriads of bags. Then he disappeared back to the former side and began talking to another guy. Sooner or later the other guy showed up with a van. Immediately we told them that the van was too small for our party. To that they just simply began loading our bags. We argued that we’d never fit all the luggage and all the people on the van. It was to the point where my dad and I finally just started grabbing the bags and pulling them off the truck. The two guys then conceded and said they would use two vehicles. We insisted on the $400 and got what we wanted. After the ride started we looked for a meter and a driver’s license. Well, these guys were a fly-by-night operation that doesn’t use meters and they don’t appear to be licensed cab drivers. When I realized that I went into hyper-observation mode making sure we were heading where we were expecting to go. Seeing the signs for Lantau Island, the airport, and finally the Mickey heads, I knew we were headed the right direction. Still though, I was ready to sock the guy and take the wheel at any sign of foul play - at least that's how my imagination played it out.

We arrived without incident though and unloaded. Emily and her mom were waiting at the curb. After Dad's car showed up (a vintage Mercedes limo) the bellmen took everything up to the rooms and we went to check them out. Disney resort rooms are generally not spacious but they are very clean and have some nice amenities. Usually they have pretty decent views too and ours overlooked the gardens and the bay. We toyed with the idea of visiting the Po Lin Monastery, also on Lantau Island. It sports another buddha that's 34 meters tall. We'd seen plenty of buddhist idols by now though and not being buddhist ourselves, we didn't try all that hard to make it. It's just interesting to see what human craftsmanship can accomplish. Emily's mom was like a doting mother, making coffee and snacks for everyone. With the exception of "hello" and "thank you" she doesn't speak any English so it was fun and interesting to try to communicate. She just kept feeding us and feeding us all kinds of snacks that she'd brought from Taiwan. I don't even know what they were but she's vegetarian so they were all some sort of veggie thing and all good. Since park tickets are the same price for a 2-day pass, we elected to check out Disney a little earlier and grabbed a bus to head on over (about a 5 minute ride). My Dad and Lori had purchased shirts in Guangzhou that said "Ye Ye" and "Nai Nai" on them in Chinese, which means Grandpa and Grandma, respectively. This apparently provides plenty of comic relief for the Chinese because about 20 different people came up to them in the park at different times saying "Ye Ye, Nai Nai" while pointing and laughing their heads off. We figured it was some Chinese joke that we just didn't get and it provided great entertainment. Maybe it was the fact that the shirts were bright blue and red and Dad and Lori, in addition to being Caucasian, towered over everybody by a good foot. One of life's mysteries but it was hysterical. YaYa LOVED the teacups! My sons take great joy in trying to spin them as quickly as possible to try and make the grown-ups barf. Also, remember how bad the jokes are from the Jungle Cruise skipper in English? Try hearing them in broken English. That at least makes them funny because the timing of the delivery is totally lost on someone whose primary language is Mandarin. We were howling. Hong Kong Disneyland is pretty basic. It's essentially Magic Kingdom but is missing quite a few attractions, notably Pirates of the Caribbean, Indiana Jones, Haunted Mansion, Splash Mountain, and Thunder Mountain Railroad. It's only a couple years old and still under construction but there is lots of room to grow. Other than that, it's like most other Disneylands with the exception of a really tiny castle. We made a special effort to get my Dad on the It's a Small World ride, just so he'd have the song stuck in his head for like a week. We accomplished our mission. After that we were beat and hit the rack. The second day we went back to the park and pretty much got it all done. YaYa's eye was getting better. April, the group's roving pharmacist, had brought some Neomycin along. We'd been putting a few drops in YaYa's eyes and that seemed to do the trick. I take back all the things I said to her about bringing too much junk on the trip because we ended up needing or loaning quite a few things, including something called "Herb-Lax". Apparently a few of the kids came with a condition known in maternal circles as "all stopped up". We hunter-gatherer fathers have no idea about this condition and just generally wonder why the kid won't stop crying. The Herb-Lax was instrumental in producing good poopie and April was heralded as a hero among the moms. I now know way too much about the medicinal qualities of Herb-Lax. Sorry about that short journey to gross-out again. Back at Disney we got a couple souvenirs for the boys at home and headed back to the hotel in time to watch the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics. How cool is that? To be in Hong Kong watching the ceremonies progressing live was pretty neat. Stupidly, we stayed up until after midnight to watch the lighting of the torch. I swear that dude caught fire! Unfortunately, the next day we had to get up at 5:30 to transfer our gear to a Renaissance at Kowloon. Ugh.

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