Between Hong Kong and Shenzhen lies a border that is like national borders everywhere. Access to Hong Kong or access to "the mainland" from Hong Kong is managed efficiently this way. Hong Kong can remain the international city it has always been, and China can maintain control over who gets to enter or leave its own space. It appears to be mutually advantageous. Fears in the west about what would happen to Hong Kong once the British turned over management to China a little more than a decade ago largely failed to play out.
With visas in hand, we left Hong Kong with Edward in a van driven by a family friend as dusk settled into darkness. We saw very little except for lights. The highway we traveled had all the charm of an American interstate. Nevertheless, once we had passed beyond the border station where our newly issued visas were examined, we felt suddenly overwhelmed. It was a true can-you-believe-it experience. We are actually in China! Imagine that!!!
I had had a similar feeling in 2004 when a group of us, middle-aged men and our teen-aged basketball-playing sons, had traveled to Russia to help the Wesleyan Church in Vladimir. The teenagers were suitably impressed, I suppose, but for those of us who grew up during the black and white days of the Cold War, being in Russia was almost too much to take in.
China was even more unimaginable -- if that is possible.
Yet there we were. China!
We were met in Shenzhen by Edward's parents, who put us up in the Elite Hotel, near their apartment building. We ate the first of a series of grand meals, with real Chinese food -- not the fake Chinese food we Americans are so fond of.
Apart from eating, our first morning in Shenzhen was spent visiting the cultural center near the city hall. Shenzhen is a new city, a modern city. Since it has been built from the ground up in the last three decades, all the buildings are recent and spectacular.
The Shenzhen City Hall is built with a flowing roof to suggest an eagle in flight. Across this wet plaza a young couple posed for photographers, in a scene that could have come from any city in America.
The cultural center itself houses many attractions, from stores to a library to performance halls. A bronze statue of Pavarotti welcomes visitors to the complex.
We stopped in the midst of the plaza to have our picture taken with Edward's mother and father.
Edward's mother made sure we were well taken care of. She led Donna by the hand everywhere we went. It was, I think, good insurance for my wife, a woman who tends to be navigationally at risk.
We visited a very large bookstore with scores of people sitting on the floor reading. Nearby was a library with a huge map of the city in the foyer.
Edward agreed to explain its geography. Well, he explained the geography without prompting; but what he actually agreed to do for me was to pose for a picture.
In a passage between buildings we found a street musician playing haunting traditional melodies on an electrified erhu. Like the little girl, I am drawn to performances of this kind, but I am not bold enough to stand as close as she was.
In the performance center itself I found many things to catch my attention, including a fascinating ceiling made of hundreds of glass panes and dozens of angles.
Apparently, I was unaware that my photography interests were pushing us off schedule. When I finally did catch on, we zipped back to the hotel where we were surprised to find a number of former Houghton Academy students waiting to greet us.
Seeing Yujia, Simba, Yi, and Syan coming toward us on the sidewalk made us feel just like old times in Houghton. If it had not been for the tropical air, we might have thought we were home.
We were not going to see the Great Wall or the ancient cities, but we were able to see what we had come for -- our kids!
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