Christmas Vacation (Part Two)

Hello and welcome to our Christmas Vacation Part Two! Since one can only get a five day visitor’s visa to Shenzhen because it is a special economic zone, we ‘loaded up the truck’ or in this case the van, and we drove to Hong Kong. When I say we drove, I do not mean we personally drove. It is not recommended that we drive in China and it is easy to see why. There is a lot of traffic, a lot of aggressive driving and if you do not know where you are going the road signs are of no help to you as they are all in Chinese. So you hire yourself a vehicle from an app called DiDi and you leave the driving to them.

Getting across the border is relatively easy but you do have to follow certain steps. On the way to the border crossing, you fill out your exit card for China Immigration and an entrance card for Hong Kong Immigration. At the border, you get out of the vehicle, go into the building, hand over your exit card and passport to the person behind the counter and they process you. In the meantime, the driver drives around the building and meets you on the other side. You get back in the vehicle and you drive a short distance to the Hong Kong Immigration booth. You stop at the booth and open both the side and back doors, they check you with an infrared temperature scanner and look at your luggage. Again you hand over your passport, this time with your entrance card and they process you. You are then on your way across the big, beautiful bridge that connects Shenzhen and Hong Kong.

We checked into our hotel and managed to have a video chat with my sister, Darlene and her crew at the farm. Technology is great!

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Later that night we took in the Symphony of Lights on a harbour cruise around Victoria Harbour. Now if that name sounds strange to you, here is your history lesson for the day…Hong Kong became a Crown Colony under the British Empire in 1842 when China lost the First Opium War. It was originally called Hong Kong Harbour but after China was forced to cede Hong Kong to the British it was renamed after Queen Victoria. As an aside, it was interesting to me that when we were driving through Hong Kong, the streets had British influenced names and they were written in English/Chinese. It was a welcome sight after having only seen signs written in Chinese. Also you drive on the left side of the road in Hong Kong and you make that change while you are driving across the bridge from Shenzhen. Something I had never thought about before.

The Symphony of Lights is the world’s largest permanent light and sound show according to Guinness World Records and it did not disappoint. Plus everything is more fun when you are on a boat.

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Hong Kong Disney was next on our list, just for fun. The kids have been to all the Disney Parks except the new one in Shanghai and since we are in the neighbourhood, some day we will make the pilgrimage to that one too.

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The following day we just ate and because we were on vacation we felt it was justified. First we had Dim Sum with a couple of my new friends from Shenzhen.

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Then as part of my Christmas present, Holly made a reservation at the Langham Hotel for us for afternoon tea.

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The Langham Hotel in London dates back to 1865 where it opened as the then largest building in London and Europe’s first ‘Grand Hotel’. It had 15,000 yards of Persian tapestry, hot and cold running water in every room and the world’s first hydraulic lifts known as ‘rising rooms’. We had our afternoon tea in The Palm Court, just off the lobby where you could sit and watch the world go by.

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We had only dabbled in what Hong Kong has to offer and I know that Dave and I will go back again while we are living in China. Our children, however, were on a schedule so we took our leave of Hong Kong and boarded the ferry across to Macau. Please note that…”It’s pronounced Macow, not Macaw. It is not a bird, Mother.”

Step aside Las Vegas, Macau is now the gambling capital of the world. Chinese people love to gamble and since gambling is illegal is mainland China, they go to Macau. This gambling haven looks likes Las Vegas since they have replicated some of the theme hotels but it does not have the grittiness of the Vegas strip. Nor does it have the many, many shows that you can see in Vegas, there are only a few. What it does have is lots of shopping and lots of casinos. The favourite game here seems to be baccarat and the buy in is high, much too rich for our blood, so we made our donations to the slot machines. I was missing my gambling partner, my sister Darlene, as we go to the casino once a year whether we need to or not and she always wins.

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Macau was formerly a colony of the Portuguese Empire. Portugal was given perpetual occupation rights in 1887 where it remained under Portuguese control until 1999 when it was returned to China. Macau is now a special administrative region and maintains a separate political and economic system apart from mainland China. It even has its own currency. Because of this, parts of Macau still retain their Portuguese style architecture.

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By far the most noticeable building in Macau is the Grand Lisboa.

The building is meant to resemble a blooming lotus with the base nestled in a Fabrege egg. We wandered through the lobby and marveled at the many fabulous sculptures of gold, jade, ivory and precious stones. They are all part of Dr. Stanley Ho’s, the king of gambling in Macau, private collection.

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Our adventure ended all too soon and our children started to make their way back to their respective homes. Travelling is great but it is always good to get back home and home for now is Shenzhen. When we got off the ferry in Shenzhen things actually looked familiar. We knew enough now not to talk to the men that pester you about giving you a ride. We knew enough now to pick the right down escalator to go to the front of the taxi line. We knew enough now to keep going straight and turn left at the crazy corner. And we knew enough now that we needed to be dropped off at the side entrance of our apartment hotel. I consider that progress.