I spent a month and a half in Hong Kong in July and August 1995. Even before the trip, I had planned to go to the Chinese side, at least for one day. Since I needed an entry visa, I contacted the Chinese embassy. I was interrogated by a young clerk. And she asks me where I work. In Cankarjev dom. Oh really? We cooperate very well with Cankarjev dom. And I had my visa cleared without further discussion.
And so on Thursday, August 10, 1995, I stood in front of one hotel in Hong Kong, where a bus picked me up and we went to the Chinese border. There were about ten of us from all over the world. I only remember a young Japanese girl in a gray cardigan. Of course, I was the only one who had a visa in my passport, and the others had a group visa. So I stood in my line, and the others in theirs. The border policewoman quickly stamped my passport and I was already on the other side.
We drove through Shenzhen, which the Central Committee designated as the first SEZ in China. There was a barbed wire fence on the border with the rest of China. A highway unworthy of its name. Mostly old trucks with a large registration number on the back, just like in Soviet Union.
On the way, we stopped in a small town for lunch. An everyday scene outside the centers of power – a policeman in a worn uniform, barefoot…
When we arrived in Guangzhou, of course, they took us to the zoo, where they proudly showed us the panda. Chinese children, unaccustomed to foreigners, smiled at us and asked if they could take pictures with us. Why not.
They gave me a map of the city, but it wasn’t very helpful. Except for the sign at the very top “Welcome to Guangzhou”, everything else was in Chinese.
Guangzhou, traditionally Romanized as Canton, is the capital and most populous city of the province of Guangdong in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about 120 km (75 mi) north-northwest of Hong Kong and 145 km (90 mi) north of Macau, Guangzhou has a history of over 2200 years and was a major terminus of the maritime Silk Road and continues to serves as a major port and transportation hub today.
A friendly local guide, whose name was whatever but prefers to be called Jenny, took us around. Okay, I saw the Sun Yat-sen monument, his Memorial Hall, the market, the side streets where the old men smiled at me and the children ran after me. Learned that there are nine and a half million bicycles in the city, and that they already have one McDonald’s.
In the late afternoon we headed to the train station from where we took the train back to Hong Kong. Since we formally left China in Guangzhou, namely the train did not stop until Hog Kong, so we went through the border formalities at the train station. Five lines and five policemen. When it was my turn, the policeman took my blue passport and started looking at it. Then he leans back and says something to the other officers. They close their windows and gather at “my” policeman. Now all five of them are looking at my passport. People in the other lines eye me suspiciously. I can already see it on their faces – wow, they got him, drugs, money laundering, precious stones, gold, archaeological artifacts, who knows what he’s smuggling…
After thinking about it, the first policeman says, excuse me, this is the first time we see a Slovenian passport. Bon Voyage.
When we finally arrive in Hong Kong, I get another stamp, allowed to stay for a fortnight…
And yes, that young Japanese girl in grey, sat across from me on the train…