Shenzhen

Hello Everyone!
So, yesterday I finally crossed the border into Mainland China! For those who are confused as to what that means, a quick explanation: Hong Kong and Macau are both considered Special Administrative Regions of China, and each has a high degree of independence, including their own constitutions and immigration systems. Mainland China refers to the part of China that isn't Hong Kong or Macau. Visiting Mainland China requires a visa, but for the city just across from Hong Kong-Shenzhen-you can get a special "Shenzhen visa" to visit for up to five days, only Shenzhen. So, I decided yesterday to make the trip to Shenzhen along with my friends Alicia and Rosalind.

After crossing the border, China is very different. Traffic drives on the right, written Chinese uses the simplified characters (these are only used in the Mainland, all other places, including HK, use traditional characters), most of the Chinese spoken was Mandarin (as opposed to the Mandarin Spoken in HK and Macau), and Chinese money is used. Because Shenzhen is directly on the border, there are malls everywhere, and many things are much cheaper. After a lunch of dumplings in a mall, we took the metro to a park in the suburbs, where we explored lots of different displays. Yesterday was quite cold in the region (only 5 degrees!), and so after some time outside we headed back on the metro to another mall, where we dined at a great Chinese restaurant that Alicia knew. The style of dining was like western Chinese-order a few dishes and share-but the dishes weren't. We started with fennel beans and bamboo shoots, and traditional Chinese wine, and followed that with beancurd (Tofu) skin rolls (which are much much more delicious than they sound) and a corn pancake. After stopping at a snack shop and a trinket shop, we headed to the mall on the border to do some shopping. The mall was filled with people selling all kinds of goods; luckily, we went towards the end of the day, so it was nowhere near as chaotic as it likely usually is.


After finishing shopping we headed straight back to HK. Shenzhen is both interesting and strange-its amazing how much different it is just across the river. It's also amazing just how much shopping there is, with the stores literally continuing right up until outbound customs (In Asia, and in fact much of the world, you have to clear the customs for the country you are leaving and the one you are entering, so in this case we had to clear Hong Kong and China customs in both directions).

This will probably be my last post from HK this semester. My first exam is tomorrow, followed by another exam Tuesday, with a few dinners in between, and then leaving for Canada. Hopefully I'll be uploading some more photos to facebook over the holidays so everyone can see what I haven't written about yet. Until next time, happy holidays everyone!