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.

September 2nd, 2008 | Tags: China, hong kong, travel | Category: China | Leave a comment

HONG KONG, August 29 — OK, I’m a city boy, having grown up near New York City, so big cities don’t freak me out. In fact, Hong Kong has some advantages over New York; it’s generally cleaner, the metros are faster and quieter, and the streets are safer to walk on. On first impression, then, Hong Kong gets my thumbs up.

Awaking at (for me) the uncharacteristically early hour of 5:30 am, I had plenty of time to clean up and organize my day before taking a Western style breakfast (HK$118 or about US$15) in one of the hotel’s restaurants. I had several matters to take care of.

1. Get a new battery or charger for my digital camera, which arrived dead as a doornail.

2. Turn my traveler’s checks into local currency.

3. Figure out how to get out of Hong Kong and into mainland China. It’s not as straightforward as one might think.

4. Do touristy things: take the Star Ferry across Victoria Bay and take the Peak Tram up to the top of Victoria Peak.

5. Scope out the neighborhood.

After breakfast, I set out into the unknown. The CityView in the Yau Ma Tei neighborhood of Kowloon. (If you click on that link, and zoom in on the map, the hotel is marked with the number 7.) Hong Kong, like New York City, comprises a handful of sections, like boroughs. Kowloon is on a peninsula attached to the mainland, across the bay from Hong Kong Island, sort of like the Bronx is north of Manhattan Island. According to the guidebooks, Yau Ma Tei is not a tourist enclave; they typically stay further south near the bay, so walking the streets gave me a sense of everyday local life.

September 1st, 2008 | Tags: hang seng, hong kong, peak tram, star ferry | Category: China | Leave a comment

HONG KONG, August 28 — My flight from the USA to here was a tedious 15-hour affair. Those of you who fly coach know what I mean: hard seats, minimal legroom, insufficient recline angle. To make it worse, while I arrived in Chicago well ahead of schedule, the plane to Hong Kong sat at the gate for an hour while the maintenance crew fixed some undefined mechanical problem and topped off the tanks. Now, I agree it’s important to make sure your 747 works right while cruising 11 km (35,000 ft) up in the air and has enough fuel to arrive at its destination, but it seems these standard fix-its could have been done either quicker or before boarding the passengers. Poo on you, United.

I did travel further north than I have before, since we went over the top of the world. Whether I should count that as a personal travel milestone depends on whether I bend my own rules. Marking the farthest points north, east, west or south I’ve traveled on a map has meant I have actually touched land, not flown over it or wandered around an airport. The farthest north I’ve been has been Reykjavik, Iceland, just a notch below the Arctic Circle. Our route to Hong Kong crossed the circle twice, north of Canada’s northern territories and north of Siberia.

September 1st, 2008 | Tags: China, hong kong, united airlines | Category: China | Leave a comment