Entries from September 2007 ↓

If you travel to China, and if you depart from Hong Kong or Macau, it is likely that you will use the train station in Guangzhou, or Dongguan in southern China. Note that, these two cities have two train stations, both with the newer one at the eastern part of the city, called Guangzhou East Station and Dongguan East Station respectively. 

The original and old stations in the cities are simply called Guangzhou Station and Dongguan Station. As mentioned in my previous post, do pay attention to which station you will land at or get to. Otherwise, you will have big troubles, especially when you are catching a train.  

The two train stations in Dongguan are near, with 10 minute taxi ride between each other. But in Guangzhou, the two train stations are rather apart. Fortunately, at both stations, there are metro stops. You can easily go from one to the other.  

As China’s economy is expanding, so is its transport system. One only needs to look at China’ train stations. In major cities, there are at least two train stations. For the first time traveler to China, this sometimes can cause confusion.

Take Shenzhen, the neighboring city of Hong Kong. It has Shenzhen Station, which is the biggest and busiest station in Lowu. If you go to Hong Kong from China, you would want to arrive at the Lowu train station, as the border crossing at Lowu is easier - both Hong Kong and China’s passport control points are located in the same building. After the Hong Kong control point, you reach Hong Kong railway system (KCRC) right away, which, with transition to the city’s underground system (MTR), can take you to almost any corner in the city.

Shenzhen has Shenzhen East Station, which is newer, smaller, and is about one hour taxi to Lowu (about RMB70-90) and the city centre. The location is a bit remote. From here it is shorter distance to reach Huanggang border crossing to Hong Kong. Bus connection is available at the Hong Kong side.

So beware which station in the city you are headed to. On the train ticket, if it is written “to Shenzhen”, then it is to the Shenzhen Station in Lowu. If it is to the Shenzhen East Station, the ticket will show the word “East”. When you check out train transport information, do look out for which station of the city the train goes to. Most of the time, the train table you can find may not show the information.

The film “The Postmodern Life of My Aunt” (see the trailer below) by Ann Hui, a prominent Hong Kong film director, is a poignant film about values and life in the modern China. I can hardly recall another film that portrays modern China with as much poignancy and emotional undercurrents. No wonder the film is critically acclaimed, reaffirming Ann Hui’s directing talent.

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However, the film does not reveal these undercurrents until toward the middle of the film. So be patient to sit through the first part of the film.

The film features how a 60-year-old woman, who divorced her ordinary husband in the poor northern China during her younger days to pursue her dream in Shanghai, has come to the decision of going back to where her ex-husband is.

She is retired, can speak elegant English, loves painting, books and Peking opera, and still harbors hopes for romance despite her age.

Nevertheless, the reality of modern Shanghai/China has forced her to abandon her city life, or the cultivated and independent life she has been pursuing. She is disillusioned with a woman she knows on the street and who she helps; she is deceived by her niece who thinks up a kidnapping trick just to get her money. The last straw is the cheating of her lover, the new love she thinks she has just found who swindles her of all her savings by getting her to invest in a cemetery plot.

From an older era where honesty is a respected virtue and people trust each other, the woman finds herself in a world that she is no longer capable to deal with. She trusts the people she meets and the one she falls in love with, and yet, one by one, they betray her.

She is back to where her ordinary ex-husband is, in an industrial town with gloomy and dirty streets, and makes a living by sells shoes in an open market, alongside her ex-husband, in freezing cold. Her life is back to where she started. A life of vain inspirations.

The film resonates in those who know China. And the film is great not only because it reflects the modern China (such as the craze of buying cementary lots to make money), but also because it explores into the undercurrents of people’s emotions and aspirations living in today’s China.

My salute to Ann Hui, my favorite Hong Kong film director.