A few days ago I made a 24 hour trip to Hong Kong for visa purposes. Since I am on a tourist visa I have to leave every 90 days. The 90th day was not until July 24, but I was going to be cutting it close since I am hoping to fly to the States on July 25, and I did not want to not make it out and pay the hefty fines, so I went early. This time around it was cheaper for me to fly to Shenzhen (still mainland China) and to take a bus across the border into Hong Kong. The journey went well, but definitely had some interesting moments too. When I arrived in Shenzhen I bought my bus ticket to my stop in Hong Kong, and the ticketing agent then placed a sticker on me and told me to not take it off until my final destination. I felt like an unaccompanied minor flying on a plane (though I did laugh about this), since I was then walked to my bus as well. The 1st bus took about 20 minutes to go to the China customs stop, where the bus drops you off and you take all of your luggage with you into the building (the bus drivers have to go through customs too and may not be the ones to pick you up once you clear customs). China customs took me about 10 minutes to clear, and as I was walking out to where you catch the bus on the other side, a man saw my sticker and grabbed my hand and led me directly to my next bus (again I laughed). The 2nd bus took 5 minutes to go to the Hong Kong customs stop, which involved the same process. This stop lasted an hour though due to so many people wanting to cross the border, and involved witnessing an altercation. Two Chinese ladies, who initially had been in front of me in line, decided that they didn't want to wait and jumped into the Hong Kong resident line. The customs security guard sent them back to the end of my line, where they worked their way back up to in front of me again (not uncommon for people to "butt in line" here), and when the customs security guard caught them again they preceded to argue profusely with the guard. After a few minutes of arguing one of the Chinese ladies swung at the security guard and would have hit her had her friend not grabbed her wrist at the last moment. The lady who swung was taken into the back and was let go and sent through customs after 10 minutes. Only in China! I then left Hong Kong customs and was at my destination 25 minutes later. This time I stayed at my Company's place in Hong Kong, and got to spend a few hours hanging out with my friend Natasha who is back doing another school there. My trip back to Shenzhen involved the same process with the buses and customs, but this time did not include any interesting moments.
So, a quick run down of my July plans. I finish classes this week on July 5th and then I will be a coach again this summer for the Sunshine International camp from July 13-23. This is a leadership camp for both Chinese and American high school and college students that takes place in a different city in China every year, and this year it happens to be taking place in Xi'an! The day after camp ends I will be flying to Beijing to spend the night, as I am hoping to catch the 1st flight of the day early on July 25th to the States (I am flying on a buddy pass from some great friends). My plans from there are to be in Georgia for a week, then Florida for 2 weeks, and then 2 weeks vacation with mom and dad. Looking forward to seeing many of you this summer.
