Entries from October 2007 ↓

Hong Kong is the gateway to China and understandably there are many flights each day from Hong Kong to major China cities. But flying is not cheap. A sure way to save money is go to Hong Kong ’s neighboring city Shenzhen and fly from there. As it now becomes the domestic flight, the flight ticket will cost a lot less.

The good news is, you can now check-in in Hong Kong for flights from Shenzhen Airport. The Shenzhen Airport authority has set up a flight waiting room in the shopping mall right above the Kowloon Station of Hong Kong Airport Express. After check-in, you can just take the direct bus to Shenzhen Airport from Kowloon Station via the newly opened Hong Kong-Shenzhen Wesetern Corridor port of entry (this entry is convenient as the passport control of Hong Kong and China sides is carried out under one roof - in the same building. See picture below of the facade of the building).

The aforementioned through-bus is a new service, the first of its kind, launched at the same time as the Kowloon Station check-in service. Buses depart almost every half an hour, running from 7:30am to 5pm at Hong Kong side, and from 10am to 9pm at Shenzhen side. The whole journey costs HK$90 and takes about 75 minutes.

China president Hu Jintao mentioned the phrase “democracy” at least 60 times in his keynote speech in the just concluded Communist Party’s National Congress. This is peculiar, for the fact remains that there is no democracy in China and the Party will only prevent this from happening so that it can stay in power forever. The China leadership has very “special” interpretation of democracy, I must say.

In fact, they have “special” interpretations of everything. At the close of the Congress, the new line-up of leadership showed up for a press conference where not even a single question was taken from the press. A press conference without the press asking one question. What a way to define a press conference.

And, there is the catchphrase “Socialism with Chinese Characteristics” used by China leadership to describe the country’s outright capitalism. Black is white; white is black. Just like the Bush government, which reported progress in Iraq when the country has descended into total chaos and anarchy, and its people live in fear and darkness every minute of their waking hours.

I was shocked to hear from the news that the Hong Kong Canto pop song “At the foothill of the Lion Mountain” (獅子山下) was named the most well known “national affair song”(國情歌) in a survey among secondary students. How was it possible that the song is about national affair when the song, as every Hong Kong adult knows, is the theme song of a very popular TV series in the 70s about the lives of Hong Kong people? It is a song about Hong Kong, a city, not China, the whole country.
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I am not blaming the secondary students for the survey result, but I do blame the organization which conducted the survey, the Boys and Girls’ Club of Hong Kong. This was a glaring distortion of historical facts. How can the NGO did such a thing to the yet-to-mature minds of secondary students? It is obvious that history is easy to distort, not to mention a survey.

The reason to distort history in this case is understandable. The buzz word in the town nowadays is patriotism and nationalism. So even if something has nothing to do with nationalism/national affair, some people will make it possible that “this something” finds its way to relate to it.

Hong Kong, sadly, is losing its diversity and identity day by day.

News about Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang’s stupid comment which compares China’s Cultural Revolution to etreme democracy was banned in China.

In Shenzhen, Hong Kong’s neighbouring city, residents are able to view Hong Kong TV programmes and news. Last Saturday when the Hong Kong evening TV news broke that Tsang made the stupid comment, the Shengzhen residents saw only advertisements, instead of the actual broadcast of the news, a result of the censorship by the local and central government.

The Chinese government is adept at censorship, as always. But this time it was unusual that the person to be censored is a high-ranking government-appointed official, Hong Kong’s Chief Executive. Tsang has made the history.   

I know Donald Tsang, Hong Kong’s Chief Executive, is not a politician, but only a civil servant, as he has always been; I know he is not a leader, but only an administrator.

But I never expected that he can be so bad. He can be so ignorant of history that in a radio program, he cited China’s Cultural Revolution as an extreme case of democracy, while Cultural Revolution is in fact a good example of how dictatorship can destroy a whole country.

Further, Tsang thinks if people have all the power, there can’t be good governance. In other words, democracy, people’s power, is at odds with social development and good governance.

It cannot be clearer that why Tsang was picked by Beijing to be the Chief Executive of Hong Kong. His idea about people’s power/democracy, something Chinese government is very fearful about, is just so similar to that of his boss.

View here for the text of Tsang’s interview on the radio program.

I recommended a youth hotel in Shanghai in my last post. The group (Utels) which runs the hotel is actually big. It runs 91 youth hotels with most in China, and a few in Japan, Nepal and Phillipines. Apparently the group is very successful. It aims at a niche market in China: hotel service that combines the characteristics of a youth hotel and a low budget hotel.

The group operates hotels in most of the provinces and major cities in China. It has the strongest presence in Beijing, which sees 31 of its hotels.

You can make booking directly through its website.

If you look for a decent place to stay in Shanghai, I can recommend you a youth hotel. It is in a nice old neighbourhood of Shanghai called ¨Wuning¨, in a calm area. But at the same time, the hotel is centrally located, with convenient transport at hand and proximity to metro station.

Quite a few foreign young backpackers stay here. The price is reasonable, with RMB188 for a double room, with internet connection. The hotel started operation in 2005, so the rooms are pretty new, and clean. My friend is staying there, and he has high praise for the hotel.

Well, though it is called ¨youth hotel¨, it is not like the youth hostel you will encounter in the West where you may find some fun. But it has several computers in the lobby for the use of hotel guests and offers ticket and travel service. It also has a restaurant/cafeteria where there are a few sofas for travellers to rest , use wifi, and have drinks/food. Don´t expect that you can sit here and use your laptops without ordering any food. The restaurant staff will come direct to you and ask if you want food and drink once you enter the restaurant/cafeteria.

The hotel is called Vtels-shanghai Wuning. In Chinese, it is literally called ¨ten thousdand mile road international youth hotel¨(wanli lu guoji qingnian jiudian). You can book it directly through the Chinese page of Elong, but not through the English page.

Click here for the English page, and here for the Chinese page.