Day Trip to China

     I got on a tram down the block at 9 this morning to go to the Central subway station, took 3 different trains to travel the 20 miles to the China border, went through Hong Kong immigration, then China immigration, and then had to get on two more trains to get to my destination in Shenzhen.  More than 3 1/2 hours after leaving our Hong Kong apartment, I finally arrived at the apartment complex where we lived last year.  I was meeting a Chinese friend for lunch.  Fortunately she was patient because I was 1/2 hour late and wasn't able to call her because my Hong Kong phone doesn't work in China.  As the minutes were ticking away and I could see that the trip was going to take longer than anticipated, I tried out the rolling-the-palm-around-the-elbow exercise that's supposed to calm you and lower your blood pressure.  I'm not sure about its effectiveness, but it helped to focus on doing something other than thinking about what was bothering me.  I'm used to being able to hop in a car and drive efficiently wherever I want to go, so sometimes it's a challenge for me to be patient with this tram and train riding.  I spent 7 hours traveling about 30 miles to spend a few hours with my friend today.

     I had not seen Yan since I left China last March, so it was good to connect with her again.  We walked about 20 minutes to a place where we'd eaten once before and had big steaming bowls of noodles in a savory broth with bok choy, mushrooms, pickled cabbage, a bit of roast pork and garnishes of very thin squares of cooked egg, a delicious lunch.  Yan told me about her job, new since last fall, working for a Moroccan man who runs an export business here.  She is very typical of so many of the young 20-something Chinese who've come to Shenzhen to work.  Her business degree and English-speaking ability gives her opportunities that many Chinese don't have, but even so, she works long hours for a comparatively low salary.  She's always looking for a better job and will probably leave her current one for something better within a few months.

     As I rode home I thought of the online piece I read this week about a young American anthropologist and poet who's re-located in Shenzhen.  She said that Shenzhen has attracted many migrant workers from around the country who've basically recreated hundreds of small Chinese villages throughout the city.  They're entrepreneurial and hard-working and determined to better their standard of living, but they are still villagers in many respects, very different from the urban Hong Kongers just across the border.  I could see and hear those differences as I watched the subway riders in Shenzhen and then those in Hong Kong.  It will be interesting to see how one affects the other as they collaborate and meld their city systems:  the Chinese plan is to eventually develop one Hong Kong-Shenzhen mega city.

     Here's a link that Terry passed along to me today, an Asia Times article about some Hong Kongers' animosity toward mainland Chinese.  I have to say that the people I've met on the Hong Kong mass transit system and on the street have generally been very reserved and polite, not at all like the outspokenly critical people in this article.  http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/NB03Ad02.html