Return to Hong Kong

The rains returned to Hong Kong. Thunder, lightning, and torrential rain- all of which are normal for this time of year. However, this year there has been an exceptionally dry July and first part of August. With the return of the rain has come the orchestration of frogs, bullfrogs, insects and the increased hum of hungry mosquitoes. The temperature is low 80's and the humidity in the 70-90% range. The evenings are quite pleasant.

The last you heard from me I was in Chengdu and dealing with upper respiratory stuff and needing to find a place to rest, rather than a hotel room. I've returned to my friends place on Lamma Island- 30 minutes from the hub-bub of shopping rich downtown Hong Kong. It felt much better leaving behind the polluted air of Chengdu to come here. Plus, traveling alone it felt really good coming to a friends home to stay. I shall stay here a bit and rest... trying to get rid of this cough. One thing that a person deals with while traveling is the different diet, language, culture, and the different viruses/bacteria that we aren't used to. We tend to think, we have a cold or infection. But there are different strands, just like there are different cultures that we aren't used to. It is time to heal and travel less intensely. Comfort is nice for these tired bones.

One of the great things about being here is having conversations with people who have years of experience in and around China. They have a more in-depth view of China as compared to my surface view. Since I've had a number of conversations with people about current affairs in China, I'd like to offer some of what I've heard.

Many of us continue to carry residual images of things like the Cultural Revolution, the diaspora in Tibet, or Tiananmen Square and that affects how we see the current China. The strong centralized government that existed in Mao's day or following him and into the Cultural Revolution doesn't exist anymore. Regional and local power brokers have much of the control. Cities like Shanghai, Guangzho, and Shenzhen operate quite independently since they have been so successful with the market economy. It seems that money and power does the talking now.

Within the federal government there is splintering. Here is one example: The Ministry of Health will send out workers to do HIV education to prostitutes. It is illegal in China to assist prostitutes in the plying of their trade. The Department of Public Security will arrest the health workers.

HIV and AIDS is becoming a major issue for China, especially in the rural areas. Prostitution is on the rise because rural-based migrant workers go to the city. In order to get legal jobs, they need papers to work in the urban environment. Since they can't obtain those papers, they must work under the table. (Undocumented workers must deal with the same issues here as in the States. The difference is that these are citizens of the country, they just don't have official permission to be working in a different locale.) One of the jobs they find themselves in is prostitution. Another major cause for the spread of HIV are truck drivers. Prostitution is on the rise and with it are STDs (sexually transmitted diseases)- something that the tightly controlled social scenes of Mao's days didn't have to deal with.

Bottomline: Money talks in the China of today. There is an increasing middle and upper class. An increasing discrepancy between those who have and those who don't. State-run enterprises are falling behind the entrepreneurial system.

Tiananmen Square: I've read in the past and it was reconfirmed, that this incident wasn't about students versus the government. It was about factions within the government battling for dominance and that the students were the pawns. The troops that showed up were not troops from Beijing, but from a rural area. The battalions in Beijing refused orders to go against the students. The rural troops had no riot control training and just went in and handled it very roughly.

Sertar: In an earlier posting I mentioned being denied entry to a monastic community in Eastern Tibet and I said it was a Tibetan. I questioned the rationale behind Tibetans denying entry to Westerners. Well, come to find out that this is a Chinese government initiated action and they are using Tibetans to enforce the "policy". Sometimes the guard is in civilian clothes (like when I was there) and sometimes there is a uniformed guard.

Local control: In the U.S. we have a slogan around living locally. Well, local control is the big thing in China. A lot of the oppressive things that have happened in Tibet are said to have been initiated by local authorities trying to impress Beijing. Is it a federal policy to close borders, make it more difficult for individual travelers to travel, and lock down monastic communities? Is it a local/regional choice by hard-liner bureaucrats? To really know, one needs to follow the trends or be an insider... which I am neither. One view that I have changed since traveling here and talking with people is that there is a lot more local control and less federal control.

One Chinese statement is that the reason for making it more difficult for individual travelers in Tibet is that there isn't much money in it for the government. Individual travelers tend to spend less money than people on tours. That is a very rational perspective. Other's have said that it is because that it is easier to control what tour groups hear and see. I tend to think that it is a mixture of both of those perspectives. People who have followed the decades of struggle of the Tibetan people, culture, and religious community will see demons around every action of the government. People who believe that Tibet was a medieval country lost in the haze of superstition and that treated its people poorly will not see the harm in governmental actions.

Travel from Chengdu to Hong Kong: Airline fares are slightly different in China. I left the hostel without a ticket and went to the airport. The closer to departure, the more airlines will discount their empty seats. I got 10% off my ticket on the day of departure after going to different airlines to compare their prices. Sometimes it can be as much as 20-30%. Costs of domestic flights are cheaper than the U.S. My ticket cost me around 1700Y- which at current exchange (7.5 Y to the dollar) is a little over $200. This flight is a little over 2 hours long, they serve a meal (not a real tasty meal, but it is more than a bag of peanuts), plus beverages. They don't serve coffee.

Another interesting design part to airports: the arrival and departures are on different levels. Even the tunnel one walks in to get onto or off the plane is split. Departures and arrivals do not mix in the terminal.

After I landed in Shenzhen I walked the terminal to the ground transportation site to arrange the hydro-ferry to Hong Kong and then from Kowloon the Star Ferry across to harbor and then to Lamma Island. It was clean and easy. In China the customs was really easy and there were plenty of signs in English to help me on my way.

Finding ones way: As I stood amidst the cacophany of Hong Kong sights and sounds I spotted a sign for the HK MTR (Mass Transit Railway (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MTR)). It is an incredibly efficient system. I have an Octopus card that allows me to travel on ferries, trains, buses, subway, and even buy something at 7-11. It is a smart card. The whole system is extremely convenient.

Anyway, as I was soaking in all the sights and sounds I saw the symbol for the MTR. It is a sign that is seen often in the city and it leads one to the nearest station. When I first got to the City I didn't know what it meant, but it was always available for me to see. At first I was so overwhelmed by the sounds, congestion, smells, and newness of it all that I couldn't see the sign. It took some education and experience for me to be comfortable in finding the signs. It dawned on me that this is a little bit like life... there are many signs along the way, we just need to find out what we are looking for and to follow them. Sometimes it takes time getting adjusted to ones surroundings, sometimes it takes a friend stepping in and pointing out the obvious, and often it takes education and experience.

I am at a signpost for my journey right now: back in HK long before my return ticket (I didn't plan on getting sick)... what to do? What are the signs for me? I think they are there I just need some time to reorient myself and see them. What about for you?

Catch you on the next episode, as this world continues to turn in it's amazingly rich way.