Hong Kong (and Macau)

I acquired eight new stamps on my passport in the past few days, passing through passport control in China, Hong Kong, and Macau. Although both HK and Macau are territories of China, they have a special autonomy and for the purposes of travel are considered international. Faizal also discovered that I have a talent for picking good customs lines: every time we chose a line, I got through faster by a significant margin. Possibly this is luck, but I like to think that I am able to weigh a lot of subtle variables, such as the composition of foreigners in a line, the number of children, and proximity to nearby resident-only lines which are often repurposed for visitors if no residents are waiting.

Macau is an interesting place historically, and if I had more time I would have liked to see more of the colonial history. But we only had a few hours to visit, which I spent watching Faizal bungee jump off of the Macau tower (the highest jump in the world) and roaming around the MGM and the Wynn. I wanted to see the Venetian, but I did zero research so I didn’t realize that it is not near the other hotels. Macau is not much like Vegas except for the décor of the hotels. Whereas Vegas has people from all walks of life eating, drinking, partying, and gambling, the big hotels in Macau are patronized by wealthy Asians who want to spend their time and money purely on gambling.

I don’t know whether it was the abundance of well-dressed girls or the fact that on every escalator (and there are innumerable escalators) people would stand to the left and pass to the right, but Hong Kong is a wonderful city. The British influence is apparent everywhere: clean and efficient subways, polite manners, sharp dress, excellent signage, and driving on the wrong side of the road. Also, English is widely understood, which is a nice bonus. All this helped to offset the tininess of our accommodations: a mere 130 sq ft hotel room for both Faizal and I (pictured).

I think my favorite thing about HK was how easy it is to get around the city. The subway (MTR) is amazingly extensive, clean, very fast and operates on a very frequent schedule. We waited in most cases about 30-60 seconds to catch a train. Even more amazing was the fact that there is enough space of the subway that you can actually occasionally find a seat.

It’s hard to explain exactly, but the main thing I learned from visiting Hong Kong is that Beijing is still very rough around the edges. In Hong Kong I got a taste of what Beijing has the potential to become (on a much larger scale), but probably never will. That’s not a bad thing at all; in fact, it makes for good adventure.

Negotiations

Much of daily business is conducted differently in China. Most retail transactions require an order of magnitude more discussion to complete. Ordering food usually involves a discussion with the waiter about the various items on the menu. Purchasing anything of value requires bargaining, which most Americans are not comfortable with. Bargaining (when I do it) goes something like this:

· Retailer points out several items I’m not interested in.
· I see something I like, retailer comments on how nice it is
· If it is an article of clothing, I try it on, and we debate about how well it fits
· If I want to purchase it, I ask how much money it is.
· Retailer pulls out a calculator, shows me an absurd price, clears it, and shows about 60% of that price, implying it is already discounted hugely.
· I quote a number (in Mandarin) less than half of the lower price
· Retailer says this is impossible, comes down slightly
· Repeat x3
· If I’m not at a price I’m comfortable with, I walk away (at which point they may run after me to resume the process)
· Once we arrive at a price, I am complimented on speaking Mandarin (though all I can really do is say the numbers, and “too expensive”), and told to bring my friends back

I’m never quite sure about what price to expect, generally you can get 2/3 or 1/2 of the initial price, depending on the place and product. Others are much better bargaining than me, but fortunately the sums are pretty small anyway.

Another example of complex transactions is our recent purchase of flights to Hong Kong. Anna spent several hours on the phone to arrange the tickets. Because they are international, everything is more complicated. In order to pay, the transaction had to be created and then individual forms sent to me, Anna, and Faizal to fill out credit card information. Then these forms had to be faxed, along with a copy of the passport biopage and both sides of the credit card. Then, a person comes by the office to deliver the ticket confirmation in person, to each of us individually.

It certainly does create jobs …

I actually have to return to the US in a few weeks for the sole purpose of getting a different visa. But it’s not fair for me to complain about the Chinese visa process; from everything I hear from my international colleagues living in the US, the US has the most complicated, lengthy, and frustrating process. So I guess I’m lucky!

Chinese Taxis

There is nothing quite like riding in a taxi in Asia. For me there is no other option. I live in Chaoyang on the eastern third ring road and work in Haidian, in the northwest. Without any traffic this would mean a reasonable 20-minute commute. But this is China, and even though most people cannot afford a car, there are too many for the roads to handle, so the traffic is brutal. I leave for work between 8am and 9am, and a typical ride in to work takes 40 minutes and costs about 40 kuai (kuai is a colloquial term for RMB, the Chinese currency. 7RMB = 1USD). The return trip is about the same, making my normal commute almost an hour and a half. Although subways exist, a line going from my apartment to work is still under construction, to be completed by June 30. This will save me money (the subway costs 2 kuai) but not time. Taking the bus is not an attractive option; it is even slower. So, I commute by taxi.

Fortunately this time is not completely wasted. I am learning Mandarin through the Pimsleur audio program (and now a private tutor as well), a kind of "listen and repeat" thing. The wonderful Seattle Library system has these rather expensive discs available for free, which I ripped and loaded on to my iPod. Each morning while commuting, I do a lesson. This no doubt drives the taxi drivers mad. As soon as I start responding to the voice only I can hear in barely intellibigle Chinese, they usually turn up the radio to drown me out. I also listen to the Economist in audio edition, usually on the way home.

Getting a taxi in Beijing is not a problem in most areas. Probably 20-30% of all vehicles are taxis. Finding a taxi becomes difficult when it rains, and sometimes during peak hours it can take more than 5 minutes to find an empty taxi. The meter drop is 10 kuai, which gets you 1km. Most of the places I want to go from my apartment are a 10-15 kuai ride.

Communicating with taxi drivers can be challenging. They do not speak a word of English (nor do I expect them to), so foreigners have two options: look like an idiot and get around showing business cards with your intended destination, or learn to speak enough to direct them around. My first priority language-wise was to be able to get around without the use of cards.

I learned that taxi drivers do not really understand adresses, nor do they know road names. Navigation is done by landmark; you describe your destination relative to a well-known location. For me that is Zhaolong Fandian, a hotel about a block away from my apartment. My current repetoire of phrases is:

• I want to go to a place near Zhaolong Fandian, to the south
• Not this exit, the next one (they always want to exit at the wrong place)
• Go strait, turn left, turn right
• Here is OK

This is enough to get by, but I've asked my tutor to prepare a lesson on directions so I can learn to tell them distances, etc., and maybe even understand when they ask me questions about the route.

Now, as anyone who has travelled to the less-developed areas of Asia surely knows, riding in a taxi consists of constant lane changes, frequent honking, and reckless disregard for lane markers. There really is no way to describe the experience sufficiently. You just have to experience it, and accept it.

And of course, there are no seat belts.

The bizarre thing is that the seat buckles in the rear seem to have been removed intentionally. The belts are in place, but there is nothing to buckle them in to. I can't fathom why this is, but this is China. The front seats do have seatbelts, but these do not always work (a taxi driver in Xi'An was greatly amused when Eugene tried to use the dusty, unusuable belt and subsequently apologized for the act of trying to buckle himself in, as this implied the taxi driver was not a safe driver, which was of course true). Fortuntely (in a way) most of the time the taxi is not travelling nearly fast enough to be a dangerous. At night time though, things move pretty fast on the ring road, so I always take the front seat so that I get a belt, even if I'm the only one riding.

I look forward to the subway Line 10 becoming operational. Not because it will be much better; it will merely be a different sort of massive inconvenience. But at least it will be an alternative, and leave me with more beer money.