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Posted in China | By tim |
An early start sees us conveyed to the airport at 7.30am after another Western breakfast Eastern style. And despite initial jokes about the reputation of Chinese airlines – holding the worlds worst safety record – we are surprised by the manner we are dealt with, which is efficient if a little surly. We seem to be sharing the plane with a host of middle-aged to elderly Hong Kongers. The food is reasonable and Chinese. I am given a final shocking insight into the Chinese mentality when an old lady sat near me spits her bones out onto the carpeted floor. It is a sad fact that despite their civilised facade, the Chinese are total animals. They really are.
We drop, literally, into Hong Kong around 12.30 with the worst landing I have ever experienced. Perhaps the horror stories about CAAC do have a grain of truth after all. Hong Kong is bright, clear, unbelievably hot and somehow looks much more inviting in the sun. Of course that could just be relative to where you’ve come from. Coming from China, Hong Kong seems like one big country-club for fun-loving ex-pats, an oasis of organisation on the edge of chaos. To live here you need only tolerance for the mismatch of lives and interests thriving here. Suddenly, I admire Hong Kong for what it has done with the Chinese population, apart, that is, from taming it. It has focussed their natural affinity for hard work and somehow aligned all their efforts so they pull together. Elsewhere in China everyone seems to be tugging in different directions, disharmoniously.
I like Hong Kong. It seems alive, fun and full of energy. It’s like London’s Square Mile but more intense and more stylish. And, that’s it, it’s organised and predictable. I notice, people-watching from the bus, the increased proportion of Western faces, though small, is significant. Seeing Western faces frequently in the crowds reminds me of home. Back at the flat we have a small problem getting in but it is quickly resolved and we plunge into delicious air conditioned surroundings and relax. We have just over 24 hours left to enjoy. Dinner is home-cooked fry-up, eaten while watching the sun set over the bay. Then we spend a wierd evening watching Some Mothers Do ‘ave Em on TV. Llew plays endless games of minesweeper and I play the piano for hours.
Wednesday 30th and Thursday 31st July
Rise to tidying up and repacking for the very last time. We head into town for a final taste of Dim Sum. The weather is incredibly hot and sunny again. We spend the afternoon in HMV and some bookshops purchasing cheap CD’s and stuff for the journey. It still hasn’t sunk in that we are leaving – even on the bus to the airport. The evening sun plays on the smooth reflecting windows of the victorious skyscrapers, each a perfect, precise architectural monument to a city which can only grow upwards. I have grown fond of Hong Kong, like they said I would and it feels sad that I must now leave it, and China, behind. After all, remembering the good times, the motherland has been good to us too and the experience we have had will never be forgotten.
Now all there is to do is climb onboard a plane bound for Bangkok. Hong Kong looks like a fairy tale world of twinkling coloured lights as we reach into the clear night sky. Bangkok comes fast and we wait there for a couple of hours watching hoards of German tourists going home from Thailand. Then we are off on TG 910 bound for London and home. I sit next to a girl, Jo, who comes from Ripley and has been teaching in Hong Kong for the last year. We have an interesting time explaining what China was like – she, like many ex-pats, has only ever been to Canton which may as well be Hong Kong for all the real ‘China’ it displays. Jo is getting married in exactly a year (31st July 1998) at Ripley Castle. I’m invited to the wedding.
The flight passes quickly, although I get only four hours sleep. Llew sleeps like a log for six. And then, all too soon it seems, we are dropping over the Thames and home is here. It is raining and cold but still somehow the ordered calm and civilised world of London is attractive. Heathrow is no different to any other major airport in the world and yet here we feel reassured and strangely powerful. Things are possible here and not obstructed by foreign rules or regulations. The thing which strikes me most about being back in England is that people are so very polite. It is the other end of the spectrum from China’s animal behaviour. People go around saying ‘Sorry,’ when other people bump into them. They say ‘It doesn’t matter, I’ll wait,’ and ‘Mustn’t grumble,’ when they are clearly inconvenienced. I even find myself saying these things.
In China when the buffet trolley is wheeled along a crowded carriage, people who want to get by first spit on the floor and then clamber over seats and other passengers in an attempt to keep moving. In England, people find a spare seat and sit meekly while others apologise for being shortchanged and then continue their journey to use the sanitised toilet and the quilted toilet tissue. Which approach is better and which takes the stronger mind? My concept of politeness has been radically altered by watching the Chinese get what they want. Now I think a compromise would suit me best.
And so that’s it. Back to England’s green and pleasant land. To stability and a world which stays still. China is not such a bad place after all, if you can forgive it’s minor frustrations. It is a world which is changing fast and may yet change the world with it. How can we ignore 1.2 billion people united in voice? Thankfully, for the moment, they are all shouting different things. Their day will come.
Home is exactly as I remembered it. Once again my world is now a smaller place, another country ticked off a long list. But I come away a slightly different person, my perspectives changed and my experiences enriched. I won’t be home long. Somewhere, at the back of my mind, is the seed of a plan to, one day next year, set these travelling feet loose again.
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