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Chinese Tour Psychology Hong Kong So, it was late June of 1983 when I flew into Hong Kong from Bangkok and Theresa arrived from San Francisco Those were pre-email times, so our few recent contacts had been limited to inconvenient phone calls. We had scheduled an anticipated romantic rendevous at the Hong Kong Hotel where we had reservations. I checked in to discover one phone message. It was from Theresa on board her Pan Am 747 flight from San Franciso reassuring me that she would arrive later than expected in the afternoon and that she was perfectly capable of making her way from the airport to the hotel, so I should not worry. Knowing Theresa, I didn’t.
As I emerged from a long cool shower and wrapped myself in the largest bath towel I had the pleasure of knowing, I took my first long view of the Hong Kong Harbor and Kowloon skyline from our twentieth floor room. In spite of nasty weather and heavy clouds, it was very dramatic and I admitted to myself looked just like the post card photos. The skyscrapers looked especially tall with the heavy sky almost enveloping their uppermost floors and the harbor sea dotted with all sizes and many kinds of water craft from destroyers to junks. The weather was predictive of the next five days. I phoned Pan Am and got the estimated arrival time of Theresa’s flight and estimated that she would probably be in the lobby in a couple of hours, if my own arrival experience was any indication. Seemed like a good time to visit the lobby, pick up a few travel brochures and schedules and relax in one of the hotel lounges with a vodka and ice.
Theresa arrived on schedule and we settled into our Hong Kong Hotel digs. The HH is both very western and cosmopolitan so there were no immediate surprises. If you can make it in San Francisco’s China town, you would not have difficulty navigating the Hotel or the business district of Honk Kong, or Kowloon across the bay which is a short ferry ride from the dock near the hotel. We spent the first day exploring shops and streets near the hotel and wondering at the masses of people and amazed by the underlying order of things. On the second day, we decided to brave a subway ride away from the hotel and dock area, descended to the nearest station where we studied the route map, locating a specific location as a destination point. No problem so far, and it was apparent that it was easy to locate English speakers if one became confused. Many signs were in Chinese and English. So with a sense of confidence and brief directions for an ticket counter attendant, we boarded a train and anxiously waited for the destination stop to appear.
It did, as planned, and as we departed from our carriage car we entered a swirling sea of Chinese. An escalator moved us up to the street level which was even more crowded than the underground. Before exploring further we were careful to identify a couple landmarks for use on our return to the station. There was a certain sense of sensory deprivation about the experience. This was not Berlin, Paris or Madrid. “Lost in a Huge Chinese Cookie Factory” might express the feeling we experienced. There must have been other westerners in the crowd, but they were not apparent to the naked eye, nor was the naked ear any more useful. Couldn’t understand a soul. After taking a couple deep breaths and checking to see that we both had hotel identification in our pockets, we decided to explore the main street we were on (well, it seemed main to us) and not wander off to the left or right. After moving ahead a couple blocks one way, returning to our starting place, then walking a short way in the opposite direction, we agreed that we had sufficient massive cultural shock for one day and made our way to the underground station and located a train bound for the HK station. We had no idea how far from “home” we were but within about 10 minutes the HK hotel station appeared and we exited, and seeing familiar markers felt an immediate sense of confidence. Seasoned Hong Kong travelers, we were.
Actually, as we soon observed, this little adventure did raise our confidence level. The following day we took a famous Star Ferry to Kowloon and spent the better part of the day exploring the business and residential areas up and down the steep hills, on foot actually. The following day we arranged a tour to the Chinese mainland. There were several from which to choose, and we booked a five day tour which would take us to Canton, Guilin, and bus trips there in and then back to Hong Kong. The red tape was minimal. That evening we had dinner with the brother of a Chinese woman with whom we worked and became friends at the University of Oregon. Warren, the brother, was catering manger for the Hilton. It was a extraordinarily meal with his extended family in a private restaurant in Kowloon where the food was wonderful, the service superb, the family most gracious and the room lit brighter than any dining room we had experienced anywhere! We were reminded once again, how nice it is to have contacts when traveling.
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