JISHOU, HUNAN, Sept. 2 — You would think getting to mainland China from Hong Kong would be a piece of cake. Well, it is, up to a point.
The problem is that Hong Kong is not completely part of the rest of China. Yet. When the British lease to Hong Kong ran out in 1999, the Chinese government vowed to keep Hong Kong’s freewheeling capitalist economy and society intact, after reunification. “One country, two systems,” was the slogan.
So, what does that mean, practically speaking? The vigorous mercantile and commercial economy of Hong Kong remains in place. (In fact, the mainland economy is doing a good job of imitating it.) The local government still holds elections as before — I saw campaign signs up everywhere, ads on the TV, and supporters in the street handing out flyers. As near as I could tell, Hong Kong is operating just as it had before the handover, without any sign of the Union Jack or Her Majesty the Queen anywhere, of course.
Hong Kong still has its own currency, so the Queen’s likeness still gets carried around in one’s pockets, but Hong Kong dollars cannot be spent officially in the rest of China. Likewise, Chinese yuan have to be exchanged for Hong Kong dollars if you expect to pay for anything. They are close to equal in value against the US dollar, but not exactly. One HK dollar does not equal one yuan.
Back in the day, I suppose, proposing to cross the border in either direction would have been a fool’s game. Now it is easier. In fact, there are so many ways to get from Hong Kong to the rest of China that the choices are pretty overwhelming. And not all that clear.
Here’s what I mean.
By air:
(1) From Hong Kong International Airport, you can book flights to the major cities in China. But these are considered international flights, so they are pretty expensive. And, as I have said here before, you can’t get into China without a visa, so you have to plan ahead.
(2) A better choice is to fly out of Shenzhen International Airport, in Guangdong Province just across the border. From HKIA, you can take a shuttle flight, a ferry, or a bus to Shenzhen Airport, and save quite a bit of cash. Domestic flights from Shenzhen are dirt cheap in comparison to identical HK-originating flights. And there are more choices of destinations.
By sea:
I toyed with this route, but different sources gave conflicting information about cost, dock locations, and departure times. Since I was operating under a bit of a deadline, I scotched the ferries, but it would have been cool. These are hydrofoil boats, so they are quick. From Hong Kong to Shenzhen, the ferry takes about 90 minutes to 2 hours. (If you are an avid Jackie Chan film buff, you may have seen these hydrofoils in some of his Hong Kong based movies. I saw no hovercraft, however.)
By rail:
(1) From Hong Kong, take a high-speed express to Beijing, Shanghai or Guangzhou. I saw on the Internet that the Beijing train stopped in Changsha, in Hunan, so I wanted to buy this ticket. Ticket agents in Hong Kong told me the train was a non-stop. They were wrong, as it turns out.
(2) There are also direct, but slower trains to Shenzhen and Guangzhou.
(3) Or, you can take the MTR metro to the east line’s terminus in Lo Wu, walk across the border (fulfilling all necessary formalities, of course), and board another train in Shenzhen. The two rail stations sit on either side of the border. This, I suspect, is the cheapest way to cross. A MTR fare, even to the end of the line, is less than US$1.
As you can see, the possibilities are myriad. My original plan, of course, was to take the trains. Spending an extra day in Hong Kong, though, suggested I should cut down my travel time and take a plane instead. Classes started Monday, and I was leaving on Saturday. Any train ride would be an overnight trip. (China is kinda big, you know.)
Since I actually entered Hong Kong, any version of my leaving it would require passing through immigration on the Hong Kong side then doing the same on the China side. This little detail somehow eluded my careful research. Had I been aware of the extra formalities involved, I might have chosen to land in a different city. The border formalities were the least of my worries, though.
NEXT: How I actually got here
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