Hong Kong Part 2/Shenzhen Airport Riot

This past weekend I had to make my second trip in 30 days to Hong Kong to renew my visa. My experience this weekend went from being one of the best experiences of my life to one of the worst within 24 hours. Let's recap.

Because my last trip lasted about 45 minutes I had asked my boss if it was OK that I took a little bit more time to actually visit Hong Kong this time around. She was kind enough to agree so I planned on taking the train down there on Thursday night and arriving around noon on Friday, then flying home on Sunday night in order to be back for school on Monday. My parents' friends in Hong Kong were in Barcelona for the weekend but were kind enough to allow me to stay at their apartment. Also, in the days leading up to my trip I was informed that the Hong Kong Sevens rugby tournament was going to be in town. For those of you who haven't heard of it, the Sevens is an international tournament that has become a mecca for rugby fans across the world. The scene in Hong Kong that weekend would be like if you combined the World Cup with Mardi Gras and condensed it into three days. Needless to say I was pumped. My Dad had gone to this tournament with his friends when we lived in Taiwan and had always talked about how it was one of the funnest experiences of his life, now I would be able to see it for myself.

As I set out for the train station on Thursday night I already felt like a veteran for this trip. I again had the hard sleeper, but I knew the drill this time and managed to get a decent night's sleep. I arrived in Hong Kong around 1 PM on Friday and made my way to the neighborhood of Happy Valley, the location of the apartment. When I arrived at my accommodations I was blown away. I was treated to a plush apartment which overlooked a horse track and had a great view of the Hong Kong skyline, certainly a step up from how I've been living these past few months. Oftentimes, living in Guilin, it has been tough for me to imagine what exactly my endgame is, so being in this apartment was great for me because it gave me a specific lifestyle to aspire to. The apartment was also very close to the stadium where the Sevens was being played so, after I settled in, I set out to try to find tickets. I was told that Friday, because it was the preliminary round, would be the cheapest day to find tickets from scalpers. Realizing that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, I decided that I would do whatever it took to get myself inside the stadium. One of the aspects of this tournament that makes it such a party is the tradition of groups of people attending the matches wearing outlandish costumes. I wasn't exactly sure where the stadium was but I saw a group of about 15 people walking down the street wearing tuxedos and helmets like Daft Punk so I figured that they were most likely heading to where I wanted to go. I followed them and soon began hearing the noise from the stadium. As I got closer I began to see scalpers and I was able to buy a ticket for about 60 US, a pretty good bargain.

Hell yea

When I got inside the stadium I immediately went to the ATM. As I stood in line, I heard some Australian guy dressed as Elvis saying that he had saved up months' worth of paychecks to be here this weekend. I couldn't believe how lucky I was to have stumbled upon a scene that many people have on their bucket lists. After I got my money, I made a pit stop at the concession stand where it soon became abundantly clear to me why Mr. Elvis had saved up so much money to be there. At the very cheapest is was about 12 US for a 12 oz of Carlsburg draught. Food was about the same. Going from a place where I could easily live on 30 U.S. a week to a place where that would maybe buy me one meal was quite a change of scenery. I saw that buying Carlsburg by the liter would only be about 3 US more so I decided that it would be more economical for me to go that direction, a very mature decision on my part (that was sarcasm, in case you didn't pick that up). After the concessions, I made my way to the famed South Stands. This is where I was told the loudest, drunkest, craziest fans would be. I didn't necessarily want to become one of them but I certainly wanted to take in the scene. I had gotten there early so good seats were easy to find, but as the night wore on the stands began getting packed. The costumes were hilarious. I sat down next to a group of people dressed as Spiderman with the Flintstones sitting behind me and the grim reaper sitting next to them. There were guys dressed up as playboy bunnies, mexican banditos, and sumo wrestlers. Let me say that this wasn't the first sporting event I had been to outside of the U.S.. My soccer fanhood has brought me to England and Brazil to see matches; but, While those matches were

exhilarating for me, the mood in the stands wasn't nearly as positive. The fans at those matches were very passionate but there was also a very tangible hatred for fans of the other teams. The Hong Kong Sevens was a much happier, partylike atmosphere. There was good-natured trash talk between people from other countries but everybody just seemed happy to be there. I ended up sitting next to some British guys who were giving me a hard time because I couldn't name a single player on the U.S. squad (calling me a "shit" American) but even they celebrated and gave me high fives when the U.S. scored. The only truly negative reaction I saw was when the Russian squad took the field, a man draped in the Ukrainian flag with about 4 beer treys perched on his head began booing loudly, pretty understandable. Many people throughout the stadium joined him (the U.S. got the second most boos but that's to be expected). While I still think American football players are far superior athletes (There's nobody that can convince me that Patrick Willis wouldn't be the best

Me and the Flintstones

rugby player the world has ever seen) I think rugby wins as a spectator sport. The continuous flow of action keeps you engaged and the tournament set up of seven players aside with two seven minute halves promised end-to-end action. You can also see who the players are since they're not wearing helmets or pads. Another cool wrinkle to the scene was that it was countries squaring off against each other, this was a first for me. You don't have to be a big fan of a particular sport to be a big fan of your country, so I didn't feel like a bandwagoner for being pumped after the U.S. beat Samoa or for being disappointed when they lost to Scotland the next day (I mean come on it's Scotland). Also, any contest where geopolitical events have an affect on which teams you root for and against is pretty awesome to me.

As the night wound down the English people next to me asked if I wanted to join them in going to Lan Kwai Fong (LKF). LKF is a location in downtown Hong Kong where the majority of the fans who were not in the stadium would be. It's three roads shut off to cars and lined with bars on each side in order to create a massive block party. Initially, I wanted to join them but I soon realized that I had drank too many liters and eaten too little food and the version of myself who had entered the stadium was much different than the version that I was at that moment. I decided, since I wouldn't be going to the stadium the next day, I would save LKF for Saturday night. I told my mates (see what I just did there? I used mates in a sentence I'm so cultured) that I would not be able to join them and went home.

I woke up early the next morning and got some breakfast, very glad with my decision to head home early the night before. Even though I did want to partake in the festivities of the weekend, I realized that spending the whole weekend partying would be a huge waste of a great opportunity to

Cool Building

check out one of the most famous cities in the world. I decided that I would spend the day walking around the city gettin' my tourist on. From everybody I've talked to who has spent extended time in Hong Kong I've heard one recurring description of the city: "It's like New York on crack!" I understand how somebody might say that but, having been to New York a few times myself, I don't think it's possible for any place to be like New York on crack. I made it my goal to develop my own description of the place by the end of my stay. I only had about day and a half to develop this description so the opinion I have is hardly one of an expert, but I still took it upon myself to try. One of the first things you notice, having spent the past two months in mainland China, is how capitalism punches you in the face, I was not at all upset about this. You look out in the street and you see Maseratis and Lamborghinis driving by. People wearing expensive suits walking into huge skyscrapers with bank logos on the top, advertisements for various restaurants, tourist destinations, and shows. It was also a breath of fresh air to see restaurants that I actually recognized (I've never been so happy to see a Subway before). Because Hong Kong was owned by England for quite a while there is a heavy British influence as well. Despite it raining for most of the day I came to the realization that I loved this place. It's exotic but westernized enough for people like me to feel comfortable, it's a bustling city but has tremendous scenery, and it's relatively clean but not sterile. At the end of the day the description I came up with was this: It's a blend of New York and London condensed onto a small, tropical Asian island where eastern and western values have been able to find some sort of middle ground.

Ground zero

After spending the day walking around the city I returned back to the apartment and rested for a few hours before heading out for my night at LKF around 9 PM. As I got out of the cab and began following the throngs of people toward ground zero I saw a bar that was playing "Sweet Home Alabama" (I'm not even a big fan of this song I was just surprised to hear it in a place like that) and was showing the kick-off for the Manchester United v. Aston Villa match.  Because I am a big Manchester United fan and live in a place where sports fans go to die, I quickly decided that the party could wait and went inside. It was a fun atmosphere as a lot of people were really into the match. It was a good

Shoddy camerawork

way to ease myself into the scene instead of immediately throwing myself into the gauntlet. After the match I paid my tab and carried on down the road. Eventually I made it. I have never been to Mardi Gras (or the state of Louisiana for that matter) but I imagine the scene was quite similar. I found myself in the middle of a street jam-packed with people all of whom where in varying levels of celebration mode. It was definitely the biggest party scene I've ever been to and something that I won't forget. I made sure to walk around the entire area and check out different places. There's really nothing new to add about actual bars themselves because bars are more the less the same all over
the world. All I can do is throw out generic adjectives like "fun" "crazy" "wild" "epic" or "convivial." It was a great night though.

"The NAKED truth about BARTENDERS is that they only FLIRT WITH YOU for bigger tips"

The next day it was time for me to leave. My plane flight wasn't supposed to leave until 9 PM but I wanted to make sure that I gave myself enough time to make it through 2 long subway rides and a round of customs and not worry about missing my flight. I left Hong Kong around 1 PM and made it to the airport around 5:00 PM. I had hit the jackpot that weekend and was living a charmed life that clearly wasn't sustainable. Sure enough, my luck ran out in the airport in a BIG way...

My first inclination that there would be trouble ahead came on my way to the airport. Storm clouds began to form that were so dark it looked like it was nighttime, even though it was only 3 in the afternoon. It looked as though one hell of a storm was about to hit Shenzhen and I began preparing myself for the possibility that my flight would be delayed. When I got to the airport I saw an unusual amount of people crowded around the departure screen checking what times their flights would be leaving. I had a lot of time before my flight so I decided to sit down and grab a bite to eat. The restaurant was pretty crowded and people were sharing tables. I ended up sharing one with a Chinese person who informed me that the planes currently taking off were planes that had been scheduled to take off around noon, it was about 6:30 PM at the time so I realized that I was going to be sitting in this airport for awhile.  It was also around that time that the skies opened up. It was one of the heaviest storms I had seen outside of a hurricane. Water was falling in buckets and the thunder and lightning was constant. It became apparent to me that there was a big possibility that my flight would be cancelled altogether. I sat at my gate for another 5 hours before I was informed that my flight was indeed cancelled. No big deal, I had prepared myself for this possibility. I would just grab a hotel in Shenzhen and inform my boss that I would be back a day later than I originally thought. I walked back to the ticket desk to try to get on another flight and inquire about nearby hotels. The scene when I got there was chaotic. There were many people who were in the same position as I was who were attempting to do the same thing. I wouldn't call the crowd in front of the ticket desk a line because lines seem to be a foreign thing to China, it was more just a mass of people trying to fight their way to the front. People were trying to box out the people behind them while at the same time trying to push their way ahead of the people in front of them. People were getting separated from their groups and getting pissed off and yelling at each other. I wanted to yell out that life doesn't have to be this difficult. It would have taken just as much time to reach the front desk if we had formed a line and would have been much less stressful. Finally, I made it to the front where I was told that the soonest flight I could get was in two days' time. Not only that, but downtown Shenzhen had experienced flooding which led to a water mane breaking and a large number of the roads were under several feet of water. Traffic was said to be in gridlock and I was advised to avoid going down there at all costs. The only hotel nearby was completely booked solid as well. At that point I wasn't sure what to do, so I called one of my contacts back at CLI and asked him to check and see if there were any trains heading to Guilin. After looking he saw that there was 1 single ticket left for a train that was leaving at 5 PM the next day, but that it was for the most expensive section on the train. I told him I didn't care how much it cost and to buy it for me promising to reimburse him. Looking back, that was the biggest stroke of luck I could've had. Given the desperate nature of the situation, there's no way that ticket would have lasted another 5 minutes unclaimed. I now had my ticket home but I still had to figure out where I would be sleeping. Seeing as how hotels were out of the question at that point and the weather outside was apocalyptic, I realized that my best option would be to stay in the airport that night. It certainly wasn't ideal but the airport had plenty of food and restrooms. I left the increasingly anxious scene in the terminal and found a place on one of the lower floors where I would post up for the night. I wasn't happy about my situation but I realized that sometimes with travelling these types of things happen. It's pretty much impossible to find sleep on a dirty airport floor so I decided that I wouldn't even attempt so that hopefully I could sleep on the entire ride

My accommodations for the evening

home. Things were relaxed until about 2:30 AM...then all hell broke loose...

As I was sitting downstairs more and more people began gathering around the ticket desk and eventually frustrations started boiling over. I soon began to hear tons of shouting and angry voices which soon manifested itself into a full-blown organized protest. I ran upstairs to see what was going on and what I saw shocked me. A huge mob of people had begun shouting organized chants about wanting to go home with one or two ringleaders firing everybody up. People were banging on the walls and the counters and the whole building felt like it was shaking. Instead of "Occupy Wall Street" this was "Occupy the Plane." I felt that this behavior was absolutely moronic, anybody with common sense could look outside and see that these were no conditions to fly in. Airline companies have certainly been a source of aggravation for me in the past but they can't control the weather; furthermore, if they're cancelling a flight because they can't guarantee the safety of their passengers, that should be viewed as a responsible decision. The scene got increasingly out of hand and some people began acting as if they were about to faint. I felt that this was way overdramatic seeing as we were in a terminal with dozens of restaurants and convenience stores. I just wanted to tell everybody to go buy some instant noodles, a pack of cigarettes, and to sit down and shut up. What were they hoping to accomplish? Even if somehow the airlines caved and readied a plane, there is still no way in hell I would have gotten on it. As if southeast Asia hasn't had enough airplane drama recently. All common sense had gone out the window as the mob grew. I went back downstairs and saw that many people who were asleep around me had gotten up and joined in the protest. Eventually the situation reached a point where policemen with riot gear had to come in and stand in front of the ticket desk to make sure that nobody did anything stupid. When I saw how out of hand the situation had gotten, my initial shock and annoyance subsided and I just started laughing. I began thinking to myself how crazy my life has been. In 24 hours I went from sleeping in a plush apartment in one of the nicest neighborhoods in one of the most expensive cities in the world, to sitting on a dirty floor, eating KFC in the middle of the night and watching a group of complete dumbasses attempt to turn the Shenzhen airport terminal into Tahrir Square. I can understand uprisings over a cause (gay marriage, abortions, saving the trees) but these people were essentially protesting the weather. I know I'm belaboring the point but even after I've gotten through the experience, it's still amazing to me. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of what was going on, the reason being is that it's generally frowned upon for foreigners to take pictures or videos of public unrest in other countries. Seeing how tenuous my situation already was, and the fact that there were RIOT POLICE (wtf???!!!) there I didn't want to make myself a target of anybody's frustration. I managed to capture a short audio recording but that was it. I know I'm complaining about it now but, looking back, I think having a scene like that occupying my attention helped speed up the waiting process for me more than if it had just remained quiet. This madness went on until about 6:30 AM. I then figured that the train station would be open and decided to start making my way over there. The trip back to the station took about an hour and involved another long subway ride and a cab driver who extorted me for 200 RMB by locking his doors and refusing to let me get out until I paid him the money. We argued back and forth for a few minutes but at that point I was so exhausted and was in no mood to involve police so I paid him (I'm still mad at myself for doing that). I called the man a couple American expletives then exited the vehicle (There are some really shitty people in the world). I finally arrived at the train station and got my ticket. The good news was that I now had my ticket out of there, the bad news was that I still had about 10 hours before the train left. If I had more energy I would have used that time to go check out the city (the part that wasn't under water) but by that point I was so tired and over my trip I just went to the lounge and sat there until my departure time; I also did not want to risk missing my train in any way.

It really is a shame that I didn't go see more of Shenzhen. It's supposedly a really cool city and located in one of China's Special Economic Zones, where more capitalist policies are allowed. There's supposed to be a lot to do and a lot of job opportunities but, simply from my own experience, I've come to hate that place because (aside from witnessing a riot and getting robbed by a taxi driver) I've always equated it with just being a stop off point between mainland and Hong Kong. As I sat in the lounge, I felt more like a refugee than a train passenger. I was reading a book when I looked up at the TV and saw that the news was covering the story of the chaos in the airport from the previous night. This gave me a pretty good laugh (and to think that at one point I thought that Hong Kong would be the most memorable part of the trip). Eventually, at around 4:30 PM a woman walked into the room with a megaphone and told us that we were free to board. I found the megaphone to be a bit unnecessary since I was in an area the size of a classroom with about 6 other people, but whatever. I boarded the train and 13 hours later (only about 2 of which were spent sleeping) I was finally back in Guilin. By the time I got home, it had been about 2 days since I had actually gotten quality rest and I looked and felt like a zombie. I then realized that I had an hour to get ready for school. I took a shower, shaved, and then set off to go shape the minds of Chinese youth.

This trip was a great stepping stone for me. In one weekend I experienced the very pinnacle and rock bottom of travelling. For someone like me I feel that this was very important. As a tourist it's always great to be able to witness famous attractions and once-in-a-lifetime events but, along with the positive, one must also be aware that things don't always go according to plan and that you must have a high threshold for discomfort and inconvenience. For every instagram picture of a pretty sunset or a beautiful city skyline there is also somebody at that same moment sitting on an airport floor in a foreign country eating KFC wondering what the next move is.

"Going Native" Experience of the Week

I guess watching the Chinese news in the train station...not too much to report on here.

Mandarin Improvement Sign

I didn't realize this until I got back to Guilin, but my trip home was the first time I had gone a full day where I spoke more Chinese than English. It was still very broken on my end and it was often hard for people to understand what I was saying but I made it.


Funny Sign of the Week

Litter, recyclables and WHAT?

Sign above the garbage receptacles in Hong Kong.



Reason Why I Like This Place

Sometimes you don't know what you have until it's gone. After spending my trip bouncing between two bustling cities it was nice to come back to a place where things are a little bit more relaxed.



Random Tangent

Don't get too excited Redskins fans, we should all have learned that lesson by now...


Thanks a lot to everybody who has been reading this blog so far. My last post put me over 1000 total views...I guess I'll press on.