Southern China, Macau, then HK

Kunming

We spent three nights in Kunming, our last stop in Yunnan Province, and found it an altogether pleasant city. Nothing striking about it, just nice. Refreshing spring weather, hip university district, nice parks, clean and modern streets, people strolling along all through the evenings. Even the train station was amazingly orderly, a sharp contrast to the other stations we'd seen, which have been seething masses of humanity. If anything, maybe the city was TOO orderly and sterile - not so engaging. I did like the hipsters around the university campus, with their black clothes and pierced lips. The first edgy youths we'd encountered.

Nanning and the Beach

Nanning, further south in Guanxi Province, was decidedly more tropical. We stepped off the train into a steam bath. Very sweaty, reminded me of Manila.

On Saturday, our one day there, we had brunch at an "English corner," hoping to meet some locals. Most big cities in China have informal spots - English corners - where locals meet up to practice their English skills. In Nanning, an entrepreneurial restaurant owner has built his business around it: http://tinyurl.com/gtsol

Westerners get a discount, encouraging them to come by, sort of like Ladies' Night. Unfortunately, Nanning's English Corner is dominated by slightly skeezy older white men, some of whom seem just a little too fond of hanging out with perky Chinese girls. See here: http://tinyurl.com/rnrw9

Here's Kiki, one of the more friendly locals: http://tinyurl.com/lc498 She changed her English name from "ChiChi" when someone told her that breasts are sometimes called "chichis." You can't make this stuff up.

Spurning our free coupon for Sunday night's English Corner, we abandoned Nanning for Silver Beach in Behai, a small town of 550,000 people on the Gulf of Tonkin. (In China, 550,000 residents makes for a small town.)

The beach, while not spectacular, was a great break from the usual routine. We splurged on a $18/night beachside hotel room and spent most of the day playing cards under an umbrella. I also managed to pull my groin just tossing a frisbee with Jen, further evidence that I am offically old.

Culture $hock

We left Behai on a nine hour bus ride to Guangzhou, but only spent one night there before hopping another bus for Macau. While the China guidebook includes sections on Macau and HK, it's clear upon entry that these places are economically, socially, culturally, and politically a different animal from the mainland.

Both Macau and HK have a truly international feel that the mainland lacks. For example, all the signs in Macau are in Portugese and Chinese, and occasionally in English as well. I had been functionally illiterate for two months in China, and the Portugese - depressingly alien to me in Brazil - now seemed like an old friend. I marvelled at the ability to look at a store sign and recognize that the business sold auto parts.

As further evidence of their special status, counter-revolutionary propaganda runs rampant in Macau and HK. They both exist outside the Great Firewall, and for the first time in two months we could actually read our own blog and your comments. I was also surprised to hear a TV news piece about how HK reporters have difficulty working on mainland stories without freedom of the press in China.

Speaking of different economies, we suffered serious sticker shock upon arrival. Although the pataca and HK$ are roughly equivalent in value to the RMB, it's best, and probably more fair, to compare prices here to Western countries, rather than the mainland.

For example, we played at an ultimate tournament yesterday (more on that later), and the pre-tourney party had a HK$200 entrance fee. Sure it's an open bar and buffet, but for the equivalent in RMB, I could afford a day's worth of food and lodging. On the other hand, $25 is not too outrageous at home (Though I suspect many ultimate players would balk even at this price - ultimate players are cheap bastards after all). We also struggled to find food for less than HK$35-40 an entree. This amount of money would easily buy us three dishes and rice on the mainland. Anyway, we decided to stop bitching about prices and just enjoy ourselves for the few days we were in town.

In this spirit, in Macau, we splurged on a Portugese meal of lamb stew, salad, and bacalau casserole (cod fish). This in a tiny restaurant transplanted from Lisbon, with FC Benfica scarves adorning the wall and the salty owner hunched over a plate of stew, glass of red wine, and hunk of bread. The only clues to the restaurant's actual location were Chow Yun Fat's photo in the window, the old Portugese-speaking Chinese customer, and the all-Filipina wait staff.

As another attempt to blow (or, more optimistically, earn) cash, we walked into The Sands looking for a Hold 'Em game. We were simultaneously disappointed and relieved to only find Carribbean Stud.

Incidentally, although a huge portion of Macau and Hong Kong's service sector is imported from the Philippines, in the Sands Casino, not a pinoy in sight. Surprising, considering how many Filipino dealers work in Vegas. Sadly, I suspect blackjack dealer is too desirable a job for the Filipino immigrants to score. They're all domestics, security guards, laborers, and waitstaff.

Chunking Mansions

My Favorite Accommodation in China Thus Far Award goes to Chungking Mansions, Hong Kong. The scene is straight out of Blade Runner. This enormous building, with 15 floors and hundreds of tiny rooms, is carved up into dozens of guesthouses serving thousands of Western backpackers, African businessmen, South Asian immigrants, and Chinese families. It's the most diverse place I've ever seen. (The owner of the Internet cafe we frequented was a Filipina married to a punk Aussie.) More than just a backpacker stopover, it serves as long-term way station for immigrants. People live there for months in rooms the size of a modest American bathroom. I would not want to get caught in a Chungking Mansions fire. It's a disaster waiting to happen, really.

The first three floors are packed with laundromats, clothing shops, phone card salesmen, convenience stores, money exchangers, Western Union, and fast food stalls serving greasy international cuisine. (HK residents know Chungking Mansions as the dodgy place to get cheap Indian food.)

I particularly liked waiting in line for the incredibly slow elevator. You'd see Nigerians speaking Cantonese, Chinese moms scolding their children, and Pakistanis wheeling in a cart full of toilets. While you wait, you can observe the close circuit monitors above the elevators showing all the action within. This is presumably to keep people from being jacked.

Talk about density. Check out the view from our window. Despite these tight quarters, I got the feeling that people behaved themselves. Like they all agreed, "We're in this together and it doesn't do anyone any good to get into a drunken brawl in the stairwell." While waiting for the elevator, I watched a tense moment between a Pakistani and a Ghanian (with a Chinese security guard trying to mediate) end with a manly hug.

Red Wins!

In addition to getting our Chinese visas renewed, we stopped in HK to play at an ultimate frisbee hat tournament.* It's called a "hat tournament" because everyone's names are essentially pulled out of a hat to form various teams. So everybody plays with new people.

I won't mince words. In HK, Jen and I are Ultimate Gods. In my first three points in our first game, I scored three times. Jen is apparently one of the few women in HK with a consistent forehand and backhand. We wowed them. I know now why Eric Leven loves playing in New Zealand.

It's important to understand that back home, in the Bay Area, we are at best mediocre players that might get on a third tier co-ed team. Furthermore, we had come off 6 months of travelling with zero high-intensity exercise. Except for a couple of good ex-pats, there just aren't enough experienced players in the HK ultimate scene to make it very competitive. There are a few naturals (like the guy on my team who started playing ultimate with his church group), but they just haven't been playing long enough yet.

To illustrate, I had been playing for twice as long as all the women on my team combined (Jen was on another team). Admittedly, this may be more a function of my age. I think the oldest woman was 25.

Another example: On the entry form, where you rank yourself from 1-4 on various skills, #1 in the Disc Skills Category was "Never Played Before", #2 was "I Can Throw a Backhand, Sort Of", #3 was "I Can Throw a Backhand and Forehand Consistently", #4 was "I am an Ultimate God, and Can Throw Both Backhand and Forehand and All Kinds of Crazy Throws Like Hammers." The average crummy pick-up ultimate player in the Bay Area would rank a 3.5 on this scale.

Anyway, we managed to sandbag our personal rankings enough to stack our teams. Mine, the Red Team, won the tourney, my second tournament win ever. We now have great t-shirts that say Hong Kong Ultimate Players Assoclation (sic).

So the HK players want us to play with them in the Shanghai tourney on June 10-11. Honestly, though, they really just want Jen. Although I'm right up there skill-wise on their team, they already have 13 or 14 guys going. My addition would just make playing time more scarce for the real HK players.

Our Mental Health

I can't lie, we were down for a while, especially Jen. After a couple of months in China, all the big cities were beginning to look the same. The food ceased to be exciting. Traveling was routine, not engaging or even challenging anymore. We weren't homesick, really. Just burnt out of the same old same old. This sounds ridiculous, but there it is. We began to cook up schemes like "Stay in HK for a Month to Brush Up on My Cantonese" or "Teach English in Yangshuo." Anything to get out of the rut.

Fortunately, Macau and HK did a lot to change our outlook. Instantly, the international energy, entertainment options, the ability to speak the language (Jen's Toisanese, similar to Cantonese, finally became useful), the new food, the exercise and new friends at the tourney - all this revived us.

And now, with just over a month left, we have a lot to look forward to. Beijing (we arrived yesterday) has tons to do, as does Shanghai. We're psyched for more ultimate, hanging with friends in Shanghai, and seeing Yangshuo in Guanxi province, which is supposed to be gorgeous. There's also last minute shopping in HK. Gucci handbag, anyone?

* I just have to make a side comment that ultimate is amazing. We look up a tourney online, go to a strange city, and within 24 hours we're having drinks with a dozen new friends. It's incredible. Forget this Spirit of the Game crap. The drawing card should be "Ultimate: The World's Greatest Social Crutch."