Henry David wrote that we always devolve into systems. That was one of his primary observations after an experiment in anarcho-primativism at Walden Pond over 150 years ago. He left society and all it's nuances and found that he was only creating new systems and recreating old ones - habits, thoughts, patterns - deep in the woods away from civilization.
"Hong Kong, Pt. I"
Half a globe away from home I find myself repeating similar systems I've routinely employed. I find a few restaurants that I visit often. One has to be quirky, another has to be imminently simple and family run, both have to be cheap. I have to visit the simple one before I travel. In Jacksonville that was Flip's, in Tianjin and Shenzhen it's the local Muslim noodle restaurant with the horrific Photoshopped wall-mounted menu [on the right side] of a lake and mountain with the most common dishes and their prices floating in the foreground. An occasional copy + pasted sheep and cow are added to the side of the lake. Every cow and every sheep are the same, with the same pose, no matter where by the lake they stand. I love it and bask in it's ugliness.
And it so it went, systematically, that R. and I downed a plate of noodles before heading to Hong Kong. A week earlier I was angry that I was being made to go to Hong Kong to get my work visa during my break. But as the planned trip to Guilin fizzled for everyone and I read more about Hong Kong I was getting excited.
Shenzhen is to Hong Kong what Tampa is to St. Petersburg - right on top of it. I can see the mountains of the New Territory in Hong Kong coming home from school. Shenzhen was built because of Hong Kong. It was Deng Xiaoping's first bold experiment in making China what it is today when he established a Special Economic Zone where free markets could flourish. A city larger than New York has arisen where a sleepy fishing village stood 25 years earlier. Getting to the border, then, is a 30 minute subway ride from my apartment.
Hong Kong has been a part of China for most of a decade now, but the "one country, two systems" policy extends beyond just politics and currency though. Getting into Hong Kong is in every way like crossing an international border. I get new stamps on my passport, you fill out customs sheets, and not everyone is allowed in - especially poor mainland Chinese.
The line was about fifteen minutes long, much less than the hour that Frommer's predicted. I pushed down my traditional anxiety I always get when confronting authority like this. My mind digs deep wondering if there's anyway someone else's bag of high-grade heroin somehow accidentally found it's way into my satchel, whether my passport was pickpocketed sometime in the last 20 seconds, or any number of ridiculous suppositions.
"Your visa is expired."
"What?," I responded.
"Your visa. Is expired. You overstayed your visa."
I stared back blankly. Rage consumed me. My company needlessly waited till the absolute last second to send me for my work visa and they miscalculated.
"What do I do?" I pulled out 100 RMB expecting a small fine.
"You see," the agent said as he pushed my passport back at me, "you overstayed three days." He started writing down how many days were in each month to prove beyond doubt that I had indeed overstayed my tourist visa by three days.
"Do I pay you or... ?"
"No."
"I was going to Hong Kong to get a new visa."
There was no response as he stared at my visa more.
I was beginning to worry. They weren't taking my money, they weren't letting me through to Hong Kong... what were they going to do?
After a minute or so of waiting a lady came and escorted me to the side. She stayed behind railing and went into a room, leaving me without any directions or expectations. I frantically started calling staff. They were clueless. I tried explaining as unbiased as I could, saving as much "face" for the responsible parties as I could while still clearly letting them know ACES was to blame for waiting so long. It was senseless... I was in Shenzhen for two weeks not working. I asked repeatedly to go to Hong Kong to take care of it. "It would make a lot of sense to do it now," was the best reply I got.
Alas, systems pervade everything. The Chinese business system is not like the American system. Things take time, things take clearance and consensus at all levels. It is not a system that encourages quick movement, prodding, or making someone lose face by telling them they're not doing their job well enough or fast enough. Unfortunately I was at the nexus of a governmental system that demands arbitrary order and a business system that demands slack. I stood on the sidelines and waited for the results.
To be continued...
Tags: Treyopia short stories stories Hong Kong customs passport visa l visa z visa Shenzhen Thoreau Henry David Thoreau anarcho-primativism Frommer's
