New Year's in China!

A little over a week ago I obtained my Chinese visa in preparation for a trip to Shenzhen. On New Year's Day, we took that trip!

We started by riding the KCR from Hung Hom to the HK-China border at Lo Wu. After clearing Hong Kong Immigration, we walked across a short bridge (spanning a small river) into Shenzhen and its own immigration and customs checkpoint. I flashed my visa (Karl) and strolled right through. Once on the other side, we took a picture to commemorate the moment...

(looking back toward Shenzhen's immigration and customs checkpoint)

We then hopped on a bus and joined a number of other family members (from Katherine's mother's side) for a wonderful reunion...

During the lunch that followed, I tried an interesting Indonesian drink: corn juice...

A thick (slightly thinner than egg nog) liquid that was positively bursting with corn flavor! ;> I'm not the biggest fan of corn (I know some of you reading this aren't either) and I can't say pouring it down my throat improved my opinion, but I'm glad I tried it.

Afterwards we strolled around one small section of the city (which is enormous - twice the land area of Hong Kong with a few million more people)...

...on our way to do some furniture shopping (not for ourselves, but for Katherine's parents)...


...in a building that was jam-packed with furniture stores of all shapes and sizes...


Once we were done there, it was time to head home. We took a taxi back to the border, crossed the China and Hong Kong checkpoints easily, and hopped back on the southbound KCR...

It was a really fun day and a great first trip into mainland China. I look forward to going back.

Though I only spent a few hours there, and only saw a very limited portion of the city, I do have a few comparative observations to share...

• Language: The dominant language was unquestionably Mandarin. Many people seemed to be able to speak and understand Cantonese, but it was not the language of first contact (as it is in Hong Kong). There was also much less written and spoken English.
• Demographics: Noticeably fewer non-Chinese. I think I might have seen only one or two people, other than me, who looked like they weren't ethnically Chinese. As such, I did notice people curiously looking at me more so than in Hong Kong.
  
• Architecture: Generally speaking, the buildings seemed quite similar in construction style to Hong Kong. (Each apartment unit, for example, had externally-mounted air conditioners, just like in Hong Kong)
  
• Layout: It felt wider and shorter, if that makes any sense. ;> Buildings had more space between them, so it was more spread out, and while there were highrises, there seemed to be a lot fewer than in Hong Kong.
  
• Transportation: Cars appeared to be the primary method of transport, not public transit, though it did look like they were rapidly expanding their subway system. Bicycles were also extremely popular, even on roads in major city areas (and highways!) - Hong Kong has very few bike riders by comparison. Taxis also seemed to be able to stop anywhere - including highways - to load and unload people (whereas, in Hong Kong, there are strict regulations governing that).
  
• Advertising: I didn't see any TV advertising, but the signs and printed ads around the city definitely seemed to have an emphasis on the use of women to attract business (much like in Hong Kong). I think this is perhaps more widespread in Hong Kong, but we did see something that we've never seen in Hong Kong before: ads for hospitals which used pretty nurses (as opposted to, say, good healthcare ;>) for bait.
• Smoking: There was quite a lot of it, and there seem to be no laws against it in public places, nor did there seem to be segregation of it (i.e. no separate smoking sections in restaurants).
  
• General feeling: In some ways more chaotic than Hong Kong and definitely more Chinese-nationalistic than Hong Kong. We saw plenty of bilboards and banners delivering Chinese government propaganda messages, something you definitely don't see in Hong Kong. It was also common for people to walk in the middle of streets and highways with little regard to traffic (and cross streets without heeding the crosswalk lights).
  

I think that just about covers it. I'll leave you with a sign, seen in a Shenzhen park, that I found particularly funny...

(If you do approach, the sisal hemp will attack you with the one end-all-be-all thorn that it has!)

Happy New Year, everyone! And congratulations to the Virginia Tech Hokies on a most excellent Orange Bowl victory!