I went to Hong Kong last week to change my visa type to a Z visa so that I could re-enter China and get a work permit and then a residence permit which replaces the Z visa. Why one needs to leave the country for this I’ve never fully understood, the principal seems that if you entered the country under a status that did not indicate your intent to work, then you need to get the proper status. It’s not unique to China but still seems pretty inefficient to me. The last time I did this was in 2005 when I also flew to Hong Kong, checked into a hotel, got my visa the next day and returned to Beijing that night. No plan adjustments this time outside of staying at a nicer hotel.

But the plan did change. When I dropped off my visa application in the morning the Chinese consulate attendant told me they no longer do same day visas. I said “really, my wife just got one a few months ago” to which the attendant said “impossible” and handed me the receipt to pick up my passport at 10:00am the following morning (it turns out Yang did not get a same day visa but couldn’t quite remember).

This turn of events is not all that dramatic. Needed to change my flight and extend my hotel stay. Yang checked the flight for me while I asked my hotel front desk for one more night. The hotel said they had no more rooms. Then it hit me. To check into a hotel in Hong Kong you need to present your passport but the Chinese consulate had my passport. If they could not extend me I would have a hassle finding a place to sleep. But the problem was quickly solved since even though the hotel clerk could not extend my room, I could book a room over the internet which I did. Such is life in this age.

I’ve been to Hong Kong four or five times now. When I first went there my impression was this could be what the big cities of China will be like when the grow up. Now, I just find it disorienting. Hong Kong Island where I stayed is really crowded, more so than nearly any place on the mainland, so as you walk you are constantly adjusting your path. There is plenty of traffic and the traffic shows their British heritage which is to say to drive on the wrong side of the street. So you look to your left, step off the curb, and a car wizzes by on your right. One gets aware of this pretty quickly but it means being alert all the time, hence more disorientation. Another weird thing – in my hotel there was some kind of senior center on the 2nd and 3rd floors….I mean the 1st and 2nd floors since following the British system the 1st floor is called the Ground floor. Anyway, seniors came in and out of the hotel all day and from what I could tell from the elevator doors opening, just kind of hung out watching TV and playing games. No, that is not the weird part. The weird part is that when I went for a walk and invariably held open the hotel door for one of the entering seniors they would say “thank you” in perfect english. Not expecting that. The english nor the politeness. Which leads to the last disorienting factor of Hong Kong. Despite its crowds, people are generally polite and things move along in a very orderly manner. Not Tokyo subway orderly, but orderly and nice. It took a concentrated effort not to push my way out of the subway and just expect the people not to block the doors.

On my return flight home, order was restored. I was fortunate enough to get bumped to business class. A middle age Chinese couple had the seats in front of me and found the overhead bins a little full for their likely (there was in fact plenty of space). The woman took the two blankets down and tossed on onto the empty seat next to mine. With the other one, she was about to toss it onto me, though better of if and tossed on top of the other one. She wasn’t be courteous in the sense that she wanted us to have blankets. Quite the opposite. She wanted her space, what was good for her. This is the mainland.