Finally holiday! The last 2 weeks at work have been really busy and been sitting till 7 or 8 at the office. Much different from Finland where you leave the office the clock hit 4 or 5 in the afternoon...
It's Chinas National Day now on October the first and thanks to that people are on a vacation until 7.10 (or at least most people who works in an office). The airport was packed with people because most people go home to their own homes, I don't even want to imagine how the train station looked today! Last time I took a train on a Chinese holiday it was worse than an ant nest!
It bought a ticket to Shenzhen which is just a city next to Hong Kong because the flight was a little cheaper. Shenzhen is the first city in China that opened it's economy to the outer world after Mao had been in power and China had it's "Cultural Revolution" from 1956 - 1966. The economic reform in Shenzhen took place in 1970 and it was just the 30th anniversary for that a few weeks ago.
Taking a buss from Shenzhen to Hong Kong took about 2,5 hours because of the holiday and huge amount of tourists coming from Shenzhen into Hong Kong. There were 2 customs on the way, one where you get "out from China" and one where you go into Hong Kong. For those who don't know: Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan belongs to China. China is often referred to "Mainland" which is everything that does NOT include Hong Kong (Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen etc are all Mainland), Macao and Taiwan.
Hong Kong is like an "own" country since they have own currency (Hong Kong Dollars), own flag, different language (Kantonese), own government and life standards and salaries are much higher.
Some history about Hong Kong: It was occupied by the Brittish and became a colony for England back in 1847 and returned back to "Mainland" in 1997. It's a little like Finland has Åland but Mainland Chinese need a Visa to get in there while we westerns don't. Funny that the people of their own country needs Visa but foreigners don't but then again if it was Visa free a lot of farmers etc would start immigrating there and it would be just another Chinese city.
I'm staying at James place while being here to have an AWESOME holiday! :) I Looooooove Hong Kong!
It's Chinas National Day now on October the first and thanks to that people are on a vacation until 7.10 (or at least most people who works in an office). The airport was packed with people because most people go home to their own homes, I don't even want to imagine how the train station looked today! Last time I took a train on a Chinese holiday it was worse than an ant nest!
It bought a ticket to Shenzhen which is just a city next to Hong Kong because the flight was a little cheaper. Shenzhen is the first city in China that opened it's economy to the outer world after Mao had been in power and China had it's "Cultural Revolution" from 1956 - 1966. The economic reform in Shenzhen took place in 1970 and it was just the 30th anniversary for that a few weeks ago.
Taking a buss from Shenzhen to Hong Kong took about 2,5 hours because of the holiday and huge amount of tourists coming from Shenzhen into Hong Kong. There were 2 customs on the way, one where you get "out from China" and one where you go into Hong Kong. For those who don't know: Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan belongs to China. China is often referred to "Mainland" which is everything that does NOT include Hong Kong (Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen etc are all Mainland), Macao and Taiwan.
Hong Kong is like an "own" country since they have own currency (Hong Kong Dollars), own flag, different language (Kantonese), own government and life standards and salaries are much higher.
Some history about Hong Kong: It was occupied by the Brittish and became a colony for England back in 1847 and returned back to "Mainland" in 1997. It's a little like Finland has Åland but Mainland Chinese need a Visa to get in there while we westerns don't. Funny that the people of their own country needs Visa but foreigners don't but then again if it was Visa free a lot of farmers etc would start immigrating there and it would be just another Chinese city.
I'm staying at James place while being here to have an AWESOME holiday! :) I Looooooove Hong Kong!
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