It all happened so fast, both our trip to China and our twenty-two hours in Hong Kong, that it remains just a tad blurry in my mind.
Edward, whose name (when he is not posing as an American) is Zhang Zhijie, guided us through the necessary steps for an expedited visa, shepherded us to the hotel, and got up early the next morning to show us some sights in Hong Kong before the visas were ready and we would leave for Shenzhen.
Hong Kong is well-known for its hi-rise buildings. We were expecting a few looks from way up. Still, the view from our hotel room was somewhere between overwhelming and dizzying.
Street level was no less awe-inspiring for country folks like us, even after four months in London and four more in Busan, a city of 3.7 million.
We were more than a bit surprised by the laundry hanging out above the streets. What happens if you fumble Dad's favorite shirt or fail to pin Mom's floral unmentionables as you try to attach them to the line? What is the word for the sudden fear that rises into your throat as the lost garment flutters into traffic below?
Mist and rain made it difficult to get better pictures of this laundry phenomenon.
The British influence from its 99 year "lease" of Hong Kong were visible in many things, from the English place names on signs to the double decker buses and the Victoria Park, a huge tropical garden that we wandered through after the early deluge forced us to delay our visit to the Walk of Stars.
On a future visit to Hong Kong, preferably in a cooler, drier season, I would like to tour the gardens again to look more closely at the gigantic trees and bushes and flowers that do not grow in our more temperate climate.
Eventually the showers ended for the day and Edward took us from the Victoria Park to Hong Kong's famous Avenue of Stars, where we found someone willing to take a picture of the three of us.
Further down the Avenue of Stars we came across both a coffee shop, which are common in Korea but hard to find in China, and the Hong Kong Dragon Boat races.
The dragon boats resemble sculls, although they are paddled like canoes. A drummer in the bow sets the pace for the crew. Sad to say, as the humidity was exceptionally high from the morning downpours and as we have an exceptional intolerance of humidity, we opted for a half hour in the air conditioned coffee shop rather than a seat on the bleachers to watch the races.
We did spend a few minutes watching another race, a single boat we found at a small pond in Victoria Park being operated by remote control. The man with the boat simply flung it into the water and raced it back and forth from one stone edge to the other. The boat flew along the water so fast and the man with the controls waited so long to turn the boat, I kept expecting it to crash before it turned.
I don't know whether the boys sitting on the wall behind him were his sons, but I found myself watching them as they watched the boat flash back and forth with its dramatic rooster tail.
Mid-afternoon we took a taxi to another part of the city, where the travel agency promised to return our visas and passports. They were not ready yet. They were on the way. It would be an hour. Or two. A little bit longer.
But it was OK -- Edward did not seem concerned. We just needed an air-conditioned place to pass the time.
Eventually, we just got into the van that Edward's father had sent to take us to Shenzhen since it was waiting and the airconditioner was running. Then with passports and visas in hand, Edward popped out of the crowd on the sidewalk, climbed into the van, and we took off, winding our way out of Hong Kong in the fading afternoon toward Shenzhen and the real China.
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