Wandering: Qin Fengling, Cattle Depot Artists Village, China Visa Advice

May 22: I am returning to the U.S. on September 2, when I arrive in San Francisco. At the moment, I’m not sure how I’ll get to Omaha – whatever is cheapest I guess. I bought a ticket from Beijing to Shenzhen, will take the ferry into Hong Kong and leave from there (this saves roughly $2,000HK. Hopefully, I don’t spend that much on one-way transport home). On Sept. 3, I will begin work on the O. O. McIntyre Postgraduate Writing Fellowship.




Today, an exhibition of Qin Fengling draws us into the Opera Gallery (Hong Kong). The gallery boasts an impressive unrelated collection in a carpeted room adjoining the main gallery - contains a Warhol, Klee and Lichtenstein among a few other works I didn’t recognize.

The Fengling exhibition of painting and sculpture is amazing. Peculiar acrylic canvases built-up with thousands of little people dominate her body of work (I ask the price for “Abundance” and “Pile-up.” In a French accent, a gallery employee says, “$480,000HK, but even if you had the money, I can’t sell, They’re sold.”

“Plastic Bags” had caught my eye (thanks to the recommendation of a graphic designer working in the area) while passing the glass storefront in Central. We’re not alone. More passersby continue to stop on the street to look.




Joyce and I visit the Cattle Depot Artists Village, an art commune converted from an old cattle pen and slaughterhouse in Kowloon City. Two exhibits are open – some mediocre multimedia exploration of ink titled “Movement,” and an interesting video installation titled “Mobility-Chinese is a Plus.” The video installation included two full wall video projections on opposite ends of the room. On one end, video of ethnic Chinese students born and raised in Germany talk about why they want to stay and work in Germany, where their language skills will give them an edge in the 21st century. They speak perfect Mandarin (according to Joyce) from alanguage school in Germany, and the English subtitles translate a picture of China as foreign and intimidating, where rude people supposedly work/study endlessly. In contrast, the other video screen shows adult Germans speaking Mandarin very poorly, and the subtitles express a very romanticized and simplistic view of China where the Germans dream of working, and where eveything is promising.

We wander massive computer markets southwest of Shek Kip Mei, buy inexpensive 8 gigabyte SD cards. Go to Hostelling International office near the Shek Kip Mei metro stop, order a city guide for Beijing at a 20% discount (I had already bought a year’s membership).

Booking hostels here can save money off online booking fees with a flat 10% upfront cost, in contrast to an online 5% + $2-3US service fee. Since any traveler to China must have booked each night and a planned itinerary to attain a visa, booking here at 10% can save a lot of money on a month’s travel (compared to the online option) when each night costs less than $6US. This was my method for providing documentation for my visa application – with copies of my purchase receipts. The same strategy could be applied to any international HI office.

I attribute my visa application’s success to thorough documentation. I had every day itemized with sightseeing plans and everything (although I know these plans will change). The guidebooks say this itinerary is nonbinding.

On the metro to Causeway Bay to do shopping, Joyce poses for photos before we head home.

Beer Ranking: Tsingtao

May 21: Tsingtao is China's oldest and most popular beer. I like it too, especially the price in Hong Kong

Draft Beer Tsingtao – smooth, but very watered down. Better than domestic light beers in the states. I like the taste of regular Tsingtao much better.

Tsingtao Premium - a similar evaluation goes to this “premium” beer. It even tastes like it might have been brewed rather than mixed up with chemicals. Still the flavor seems a bit watered down compared to what I expected from the “premium.” Tastes like a mild corona. I miss the little bite from Tsingtao. Tsingtao premium is good. I can imagine buying a six-pack of the beer in the states if the price were comparable, but considering price alternatives, I won’t buy it again.

Tsingtao Dark - quite a step away from the breed of beers generally easy to find in Hong Kong. It’s a dark ale. Tastes solid, and sweet aftertaste. This beer is quite different than anything else Tsingtao is selling. I’m not a huge fan of dark ales, but it tastes good, although not as good as American microbrews.

Tsingtao (regular) – some might prefer the “premium,” but this is my favorite all around Tsingtao beer, only partially paying attention to cost. When cost becomes more important, HuiQuan sounds even tastier.

HuiQuan – Drinking HuiQuan immediately after Tsingtao regular, I am disappointed by what had become my new favorite beer. It’s not as crisp as Tsingtao regular and doesn’t taste as fresh. Regardless, for the price, it’s still my favorite. Superior, I think, to the Pearl River budget options.

GA YAU, YUM BEH JAU!

加 油 飲 啤 酒!

Visa Approved!! Happy Birthday Alex!!

May 20: Good News! My visa to China was approved, AND, it was approved for two entries between today and August 15. This means, I can enter on June 1 for the 30-day trip from Xi'an to Guangzhou. I have to leave the country, which I am doing by traveling to Thailand, and I can return to China for 30 days in August. I have to buy my ticket from Bangkok to Beijing.

Yesterday was Joyce's second brother's birthday. Tonight, we eat hot pot to celebrate. Lots of good food, meats and vegetables. Two of Joyce's cousins join the dinner party.

Fancy Fruit Stall

May 19: Joyce’s aunt (Daisy) runs a high quality fruit shop in Kowloon City.

The store, Yuen Hing Fruit Shop, is located across from the municipal market, at G/F, 110B Nga Tsin Wai Road, Kowloon City.

Aunt Dasiy gives us each a cup of fresh-squeezed orange juice, then she offers a tray of yellow pitaya ("selenicereus megalanthus"), a Colombian fruit, which is very similar to dragon fruit (or red pitaya, "hylocereus undatus") - before arriving in Hong Kong, I’d never seen or tasted either pitaya.

The yellow pitaya’s are significantly more expensive than any of the red dragon fruit available across Hong Kong. The Colombian fruits sell for $78HK, which is about $10US - the most expensive single piece of fruit I have ever eaten.

Aunt Daisy also shares some of the ice cream from the freezer, and she gives me a vacuum-sealed, ready-to-eat ear of corn from Japan.

She sells everything here, and all imported from the premier producers. Apples covered with designs/characters made from shadows (they look carved), extra-stinky durians, peeled palmellos, jackfruit and all sorts of fruits to which I don’t know the names, even pumpkins and pineapples from China that were shipped to Japan, emptied and filled with ice cream before they’re shipped back.

Beer Ranking: Pearl River Delta

May 18: From the Park 'N Shop Supercenter at Marina Square South Horizons, the Pearl River brand is available in three options (from left to right, cheapest to most expensive): 1. Pearl River Lager Beer (635 ml, green label, $5.90HK). 2. Pearl River Lager Beer (635 ml, gold label, $6.90HK). 3. Pearl River Draft Beer (600 ml, also lager, $7.50HK).

Here’s a little history of the beer, courtesy of Guangzhou Zhuiang Brewery Group. The company “was established in 1985 and is a large state-owned enterprise which is deals mainly in beer and its relative products such as label, carton, crate, etc. The group is national civilization enterprise and friendly environment enterprise. Now, with the capacity of 15 million heliolater, the group is the biggest wine making center in the whole world. Zhujiang beer is one of three national beer brands and in the second places of the national brands sale, and underling its national leadership status in brewers as ‘Zhujiang Brewery at South’.”

Some of those sentences don’t make sense. “National civilization enterprise”? What? Whoever is writing their copy (or translating the text) has been spending WAY TOO much time with the brewmeister. And I have doubts about the “biggest wine making center in the whole world” claim. However, I’ll put faith in the company’s claim to be #2 of three national beer brands. Pearl River beer is, after all, dirt cheap (although not the cheapest).

I’m no beer expert, and my ranking is far from scientific. I decide to start with the middle-priced beer (#2) and then go to the most expensive (#3) before finishing with the cheapest (#1).

Pearl River Lager Beer (635 ml, gold label, $6.90HK): I like it. Very okay. But something is uneven about it.

Pearl River Draft Beer (600 ml, also lager, $7.50HK). I like it better. More smooth. Puts Budweiser’s Natural Light and Milwaukee’s Best to shame. Maybe comparable to Rolling Rock, the cheap pilsner equivalent in the States, but this is a much better bargain.

Pearl River Lager Beer (635 ml, green label, $5.90HK). No 3. It’s less expensive than the $7.50HK draft beer, but it tastes the same. And my desensitized taste buds don’t taste any of the funny flavor from the gold label (Here’s where my science is falling apart. I should have opened all three beers simultaneously to compare flavor, but I didn’t want them to get warm while I drank).

The verdict. Buy Pearl River Draft Beer (600 ml, also lager, $7.50HK) if you are most concerned with taste and your only option is the economical Pearl River brand. HOWEVER, if you want to drink more than one beer, you might as well buy the green-labeled Pearl River Lager Beer. It’s bigger, and if you buy three, it’s the same price as buying two of the more expensive draft beer (Still, for good cheap beer, I prefer the cheaper versions of Tsingtao).

GA YAU, YUM BEH JAU!

加 油 飲 啤 酒!

Changed My Mind About Hong Kong Beer

May 17: I didn’t have a great impression of southern Chinese beer when I first arrived in Hong Kong. Everything tasted like a watered-down or bittered-up Heineken.

Cheap pilsners and lagers with nearly identical tastes fill the beer aisles of Wellcome, Park 'N Shop and 7-11.

Tonight, a cheap, tasty version of Tsingtao and a bag full of wasabi-roasted green beans change my mind.

The Cantonese phrase for encouraging hard work echoes in my head, “Add oil, Add oil, Add oil.” With each handful of crunchy wasabi beans, the echo bounces back, “Drink beer! Drink beer! Drink beer!”

The five words rhyme in Cantonese, “GA YAU, YUM BEH JAU! GA YAU, YUM BEH JAU! GA YAU, YUM BEH JAU!” (加 油 飲 啤 酒)

...Ho mei-ah



I love wasabi-roasted green beans.

Visa Application to China

May 13-16: A massive earthquake rocks western and central China. When I wake on Tuesday, I respond to e-mails from family and friends. Hong Kong was not physically affected. The local news streams continuous footage of the devastation. The city's thoughts and prayers focus on the disaster survivors.

The hassle of preparing my visa application to the Mainland absorbs the week. By Thursday, I'm ready to submit.

All the guidebooks say, Hong Kong is the easiest/best place to obtain a tourist visa to China. In the past, this may have been true, but leading up to the Olympics, I’m not sure.

Earlier, when Joyce tried calling the Chinese consular office in Hong Kong, she explained that her American friend was seeking a passport into China. They told her, in Cantonese, “Go back to America and get his visa there,” and hung up the phone.

The “L” visa, which usually costs around $25-30US in Hong Kong, now costs $150US. It used to be available from all the travel agencies around the city (local or international), but it’s now only available to foreigners in Hong Kong through China Travel Service (H.K.) Limited.

I tried calling one branch, and they hung up the phone. After this attempt Joyce has been helping me contact the agency regarding my visa questions. Even she has trouble at times, though.

When we got past the ever-busy dial tone, different employees of China Travel Service offered different visa requirements over the phone. After multiple phone calls, we learn that multiple entry permits are no longer available (in theory, maybe). So, I only have 30 days to see as much of China as possible, then I must leave the country.

China in 30 days, only 30 days, having already visited Hong Kong and Macau, with plans to visit Beijing in August, here is my itinerary for June:

Enter Shenzen by train, fly to Xi’an, fly to Chongqing, boat to Yichang, bus to Wuhan, fly to Nanjing, train to Suzhou, bus to Tongli, bus to Shanghai, train to Hangzhou, bus to Huangshan area, train to Shantou, bus to Guangzhou, train back to Hong Kong.

In order to obtain my visa, I first need to secure purchase or reservation receipts for the following:

RECENT PHOTOGRAPH: Easy. I took it at the photo studio in the shopping mall next to Joyce’s home.

LODGING DOCUMENTS: I have hostel/hotel rooms booked all along the way, for each night in China. Private residences are not eligible, according to those travel agents we spoke with, as they don’t offer any proof of lodging. My Fodor’s guide to Hong Kong mentioned this, and said that the bookings are not binding for your itinerary.

ENTRY TO CHINA DOCUMENT: I don’t need a ticket into the country to show the travel agency, because I’m already in Hong Kong, and I can use the ferry or the KCR to enter Shenzen inexpensively.

DEPARTURE FROM CHINA DOCUMENT: I’ll buy a ticket from Guangzhou back into Hong Kong when I go to the travel agency (but that’s not enough). Also, I need an air ticket out of China’s Special Administrative Regions (ex: Hong Kong – which, evidently, no longer counts as leaving the country for visa purposes). So, I bought a cheap ticket from the Web site “airasia.com,” which operates cheap flights from Macau to Bangkok, and I bought a Turbojet ticket from Hong Kong to Macau.

...So, I guess I’ll be in Thailand for July. Sounds Good. I have family living in a beach town outside Bangkok, and a friend from the University of Missouri lives in the city. Hopefully, everything will work out, and I’ll then be able to spend August in Beijing.

After assembling my documents, I take a bus to northern Hong Kong Island, and I catch the Star Ferry to Tsim Sha Tsui.

The offices of China Travel Service (H.K.) Limited in TST and in Mong Kok are supposedly the fastest to return visa applications (Joyce learned this from one of her numerous calls to the travel agency).

I have everything ready, so the process is fast. I’ll find out the application results on Tuesday.

The woman helping me submits my application for a multiple entry valid for three months (because it’s the same price as the single entry, she says). However, on the phone, we had learned that only 30 day visas were now available. I leave the office hopeful, but a bit confused.

...Crossing my fingers for Tuesday.