Goodbye China and Asia!

We took off from Xi'an early and landed thirty minutes ahead of schedule. This was great because we had a succession of transport links which would get us to Hong Kong airport, with not much time to spare, although we had allowed a fair amount of leeway at every step. The plan was Lanzhou to Guangzhou by plane; airport shuttle bus from Guangzhou airport to Guangzhou East Train Station; train from Guangzhou to Kowloon in Hong Kong; then the airport express from Kowloon Station. The crucial step was the train journey from Guangzhou to Kowloon and our original schedule had us waiting for quite a while for a train there, which would get us to Hong Kong only just in time to check in, so I wasn't very happy about it at all. I hoped that we would get there early enough to get the previous train, but an alternative and possibly more complicated plan if we didn't get the previous train to Kowloon was to get a train instead to Shenzhen, just inside China then walk over the border to Hong Kong, where we could get on the Hong Kong Metro and take that to the airport.

When it all seemed to be going so smoothly the luggage belt stopped just as we got there. Then when they finally restarted it my bag was one of the last off and we could see all of our advantage evaporating. Waiting for the shuttle bus, I noticed some black stuff over the back of my big rucksack. Could it be that the Chilli Bovril I had been taking round the world since South Africa had smashed in my bag and leaked through? It seemed quite likely. This was the first time I had packed it without the protection of the plastic cups I had been shoving the jar in. I did not relish the thought of trying to clean up the black sticky mess of smashed glass from all over my clothes while rushing to make it in time for the international flight.

The shuttle bus took us across Guangzhou too late for the train I wanted to catch, which meant we would have to wait for one hour forty minutes for the next one, leaving us with no margin at all. I suggested to Joanne that we should consider that Shenzhen train instead but she was not keen on the complication of not knowing what the border crossing entailed or where the metro station in the other side was. So we waited. At least the wait meant I had time to investigate my bag, discovering to my huge relief that the black sticky mess did not originate inside my bag. Some other person on the Guangzhou plane was now dealing with a mess in their bag some of which had leaked onto mine. Unlucky for them!

The train left more-or-less on time, but soon after it left the station it stopped for ten minutes. We were getting quite worried. It never seemed to get up to full speed and it stopped several more times. This was supposed to be an express! Eventually it arrived, forty minutes late, meaning that we would maybe make before the check-in closed but only if we got the airport express immediately. After going through customs at the station we ran up the stairs to find our where the airport express leaves from. It leaves from Kowloon Station we were told. But surely that's where we are: we had bought tickets to Kowloon and arrived at Hung Hom which we had seen online is Kowloon Station. It turned out we must have misread something or seen a mistake on a website: Hung Hom is in Kowloon, but Kowloon Station is actually a different one. We were stuffed! There was nothing to do but run outside and flag down a taxi. The taxi driver was not getting into bartering: it's a good price, he said, because he was going to pick someone up at the airport anyway. Hong Kong is definitely still not China. No bartering and very high prices, but Joanne reminded me how much the airport express would have been and the taxi was actually only slightly more at HK$250, so we agreed and were saved.

The flight was absolutely terrible: because we had arrived so late all of the good seats were gone and we had to take the two seats in the middle, behind the section of the plane where the put all of the children. The row in front was a couple with two young children; one of them screamed for nearly the entire twelve hour journey and the other one bounced up an down on armrests of the chair in front of me while the parents did nothing at all. After all the awful transport we had taken in Asia I remembered that aeroplanes are the most uncomfortable form of transport known to man: the moulded seats are far less comfortable than any wooden bench because they are moulded for short people and the headrest makes you crane your head forward no matter how far you recline your chair. Because of these things I find it very hard to sleep on planes so I hate night flights but, with the children on this flight it was just impossible. I don't know why children are allowed on planes. It's just selfish to take them. Nobody in our row got any sleep at all then when the aeroplane's blinds went up and it was time to wake up, the whole demon family were soundly sleeping in a row. I was tempted to start screaming and kicking the chairs, but I managed to restrain myself.

Wow!

So that was it: China over. I really enjoyed China and I'd quite like to return some time, maybe to learn the language, which fascinates me. We felt quite hesitant about returning to China after having spent time with Tibetans in Nepal and India and the cultural suppression of Tibet is appalling, however if we were to boycott all countries with unethical policies there wouldn't be very many places in the world to go, and I'd certainly not be able to return home to Britain. There is actually another side to the Tibetan issue: educational opportunities and quality of life in Tibet have improved massively, particularly the poor's, since the annexation but the suppression of culture that accompanies this is inexcusable. I would like to see Tibet proper on my return and I'd also like to see some of the more remote areas, and cross over into Mongolia to see what that is like.

Remainders of EXTREME chili Sichuan chicken dish

I was very impressed with how modern Chinese cities are and how widespread environmental measures like electric vehicles and energy-saving bulbs are; you never see an incandescent bulb in China. The low-light must be the food though. Although we had a few excellent meals and the by far the hottest food in Asia, most of the time the meat was just awful. I suppose this was partly due to not knowing what we were doing most of the time we ordered, but I think it would be hard to order nice food all the time.

Precocious Chinese children

The people are generally very nice and friendly, although in big cities this nice temperament is abused by very convincing nice friendly con-artists all over the place. The human rights record in China may not be up to much, but there is no sign of the people being unhappy. Russel, the English teacher we met in Vietnam, had been working in China and raised the human rights issue with some Chinese friends. They insisted that his concern was to completely misunderstand Eastern, particularly Chinese, psychology. They told him that Chinese people do not really have a sense of self like Westerners and to them their awareness begins at a collective level; where a Westerner sees an individual's human rights being abused, they told him, a Chinese person will just see a disruptive element being removed from society. It's hard to believe that an individual's psychology could be so collective as to virtually lose empathy for other individuals in preference for the group, but what do I know – I'm just a individualistic Westerner. Whatever the truth on an individual level, it does seem like this philosophy has been put into practice by the Chinese government: the quality of life in China has improved far faster than any other country in recent times. OK, so some individuals have suffered terribly in the process, but is it worth it if the end result is a massive uplift of society in general? My Western morals reflexively say not, but I don't think it's really as morally a straightforward choice as my gut tells me.

Kyanjin Gompa

As we flew away from China I realised that we were not just leaving China, but leaving Asia after seven months. To some extent it was a relief, because Asia can be really tough at times, but my overwhelming feeling was one of sadness. I really love Asia. There's a lawlessness that I find really exciting, augmented by the fact most of it is so busy. It's just crazy, the madness of Asia climaxing in India which somehow hangs together despite all of the chaos. But despite this lawlessness, it very rarely feels like you are in any danger from people out to do you harm. I think you are farm more likely to be involved in an accident than the West, but I am sure that you are far less likely to be a victim of crime. Of course there are exceptions, where there are high concentrations of tourists, like the Khaosan Road to Thai islands buses, but generally Asia feels extremely safe as far as danger from other people goes, but you are not protected in the same way as we are in the West. Surely this is the right way round: I would rather be responsible for my own wellbeing than having the state prevent me from doing things it considers dangerous or criminals out to damage my wellbeing? And what lovely people for the most part: from the kind and gentle Tibetan Nepalis to the ultra-cute children in Cambodia, there were many things I admired in every culture we encountered. Of course as a Westerner the difference in culture can be very frustrating: having to haggle over everything can be great fun, but it gets annoying at times, particularly in India, where the rules of fairness seem to be more flexible than in the West. Other than that most of the food is great and all of your senses are constantly assailed: apart from the delicious and sometime unusual food, it's noisy and smelly. But I think we Westerners are generally a bit too fussy about things like hygiene. Lastly, the weather is generally hot which I love, and for the most part it's very cheap so you spend a lot of time there without spending much money. So how much of shock was it going to be going in the other direction: we were heading to New Zealand where there was going to be health and safety (not sure about crime), it would be cold, and it would be expensive. Why were we going there again? At least there would be good beer and wine, something very much absent from Asia. And we would be understood wherever we went! No more struggling with tonal languages or difficult scripts. I was viewing New Zealand as a rest. A little stop off before the excitement continues in South America.

Take photo!

written by  The Happy Couple on August 11, 2009 from Hong Kong, Hong Kong
from the travel blog: Michael's Round-the-World honeymoon
Send a Compliment

comment on this...