Guangzhou – Hong Kong
Final attempt on the great carpet quest today. Armed with the addresses of two stores we found online, we set off this morning to try and end this once and for all. What we came away with though was more of the same. Jumping out of the cab at the first address, a building of about 5 floors with shops on the bottom, nobody seemed to recognize the name of the store we were looking for (that the concierge had written on a card in Chinese). Slightly frustrated (and $6 poorer after being shaken down by a Buddhist monk who we’re pretty sure wasn’t a Buddhist monk), we chalked it up to maybe the concierge translating it wrong and flagged a cab to the second place on the list.
We were cautiously optimistic pulling up in a neighborhood of higher end stores and figured this one would work out better. Even when the driver couldn’t find the actual building we gave him the address for, we were confident we could just walk the street a little and find it. About thirty minutes later, and after some help from a local (who we of course thought was on the take somehow but was really just being friendly) we found the address led to a really sketchy door in a 6 story apartment block well off the main road and surrounded by stores selling things like chicken feet. It seems that in both cases, what we found online were people that worked out of small offices (or their apartments) taking orders and then, I assume, catching a train up to Beijing every so often to buy some products and send them.
Finally admitting defeat, we headed back to the hotel to check out and on to the train station for the 2 hour ride into Hong Kong. The ride was very uneventful, with the only excitement coming at immigration where I got pulled aside to have a thermometer stuck in both ears. I don’t remember licking any raw chickens, so I don’t think I’m carrying the bird flu, but I suppose I’ll find out in another day or two.
Hong Kong itself is a little surreal to us. It’s kind of like a big city (like Beijing) all compressed down into something a fraction of the size. The buildings are all tall because land is so expensive, and there are hordes of people on the street. Our hotel is on the Kowloon side with a view of the water so we can see all the buildings on Hong Kong Island (it is a very spectacular view). Because we got here close to dinner time, we didn’t very too far from the hotel and plan on taking the ferry across the water tomorrow. At night, they have a light show they put on where a bunch of the buildings on the island light up to music. It was interesting to see and the people here really seem to like their lights (everywhere we have been buildings have had flashing lights up and down the sides).
Life in general here seems quite a bit more expensive than elsewhere in China, which in some ways makes sense, and in others makes me wonder why you would buy something here for 4 times the price when a 2 hour train ride or plane flight can get it for you much, much cheaper. Maybe if you live here its harder to get back and forth across the border than I realize, or maybe people just prefer the atmosphere and comfort of Hong Kong.