Hong Kong Visa Trip

For those who know about my recent trip to HongKong and are interested in further details; for those who showed concern over my absence; and for those just wanting to send hate mail, i thought it would be best to inform you of the recent happenings over previous weeks, as concer has been raised to my current whereabouts.

Last Friday i returned to Chongqing from HongKong, a business trip of sorts, to renew my China Visa. Taking a soft sleeper from Chongqing train station - a two night one day trip to Guangzhou through Chongqing, Guizhou, Guangxi and Guandong provinces - saw me flu ridden and asleep in my private room for most of the journey - only catching glimpses of rural China and its people for a short time during the day. My kindly car attendant waking me up in the early hours giving me the boot at Guangzhou. Dased, confused and total unexpected due to me sleeping most of the journey and cutting a 30 hour epic into something that seemed as short as 5 hours - out i stumbled onto the platform.

Guangzhou train station although big, was relatively easy to navigate and in no less than one hour after my arrival i was on a train to Shenzhen. A quick journey of around an hour saw me in Shenzhen and customs bound for the short transit to Kowloon. Customs were a little scary, due to the bird flu hysteria - otherwise totally unknown of in China. After being sterilised put through heat sensors and bombarded with signs warning at the first sign of a flu one should quarantine ones self and call in the medics. Hysteria aside, i managed good time to be in Kowloon in just over one hour.

Kowloon is a bit of a nightmare, short of cash and in the market for budget accommodation i headed for Chungking Mansion and found accommodation HK100 a night for an 8x5 cell - budget digs along side Indians, Africans, Arabs and other ethnic minorities who's countries GDPs annually gross that of a room at the Holiday Inn.

Visa issues postponed my return to China and my idea of a hit and run return to the safety of the PRC was canned after doing the maths. I resided myself to sticking it out until i was able to pick up my one year F business visa - the best option. During these five days I made tracks for HK island and hit the night markets. Headed out into the suburbs to visit the computer market and hunted around for cheap food and places to waist time. Staking-things-out and working my mandarin lead me to some good deals. A taste of genuine multiculturalism hit home when i managed to pick up a bargain lap-top Dell latitude 1.2MHz 512ram wifi for just over AU$300. Check this, The sales assistant only spoke Cantonese and Mandarin, I'm a British Australian only speaking English and Mandarin, so our common ground was mandarin. The PC was made in china, a Japanese import to HK with riben keyboard and Chinese OS instaled. We reinstalled English XP OS and Ive brought it back to be used in China - having to use a chinese adapter which is the same as the Australian plugs taking into account the HK plugs are based on the British pattern .

On the road again, new visa in hand i took to the trains reversing my trip with an overnight stay in Guangzhou, and leaving for CQ on a 10am train. This time our travel time was spent over two days and one night a trip i can only describe as an eye opener for me, allowing me the privilege to see sights from the most pitiful China has to offer in one breath the most or-inspiring in the next.

Hope this keeps caring minds at rest and gets the spam mail filter working over-time.

All the best form home in CQ.

Ben