Eric's Beijing Diary

This morning I packed my bags and prepared to leave the youth hostel. As we were checking out and getting ready to board the shuttle for the trip into Sheung Wan, a Russian guy showed up. He had been out all night drinking with his buddy, and had taken a taxi or something to get back to the hostel (because no shuttles run at night). Problem was, he had misplaced his friend. I told him that his friend could probably find his way back, but he told me that his friend did not speak any English, and that he had left all his identification at the youth hostel. Definitely not smart. In Beijing, I usually leave my passport locked in my desk, because I don't want to lose it. Since I live here, if the cops ask to see it (which has never happened to me, but has happened to Michael the Mountain Man, probably because he was sleeping on the ground by the side of the road during the Olympics), I can invite them to follow me home and look at my passport. But when I am travelling, I always carry it with me. I have a special passport pocket in my pants, so it won't get lost. In Hong Kong, I might get by with leaving it at the hostel, because the last time I renewed my passport, I also took the trouble to get a passport card, which does serve as identification. But this guy was telling me that his buddy could not speak English, and had no identification on him. I told him that anytime you are staying at a youth hostel or something, you should at least carry a business card from the hostel with you. If he had that, he could show it to any taxi driver, and get back to where he needed to be. Kids. They just don't think, you know. I probably never will find out how that story turned out.

I got off the subway at Central, because I wanted to go to the Companies Registry and get some information about setting up a nonprofit organization. For some time, I have wondered if there could be some way that Chinese young people could be mobilized to get involved in reaching out to people in other parts of the world that do not have the advantages they have had. I guess this idea really began to take root during my visit to Kashgar in the summer of 2005. It's still just an idea, but I am interested in at least checking it out.

So, another trip to Hong Kong has come to a close. I spent a little more money this time, because the youth hostel is a little more expensive than the YWAM base where I stayed last time. And I ended up eating out a little more than I did last time, because last time I usually ate the morning and evening meal at the base for a nominal cost. That having been said, Hong Kong's prices are really not that bad. More expensive than Beijing, but much less costly than Tokyo. And many things actually compare favorably to Beijing. I found a little cafe near the Shun Tak center that has really good barbecue pork omelets for 25 Hong Kong Dollars. It's a good thing I don't live in that neighborhood, because I would be eating way too many of those. They really are pretty good. Another interesting tidbit: The standard coffee creamer in Hong Kong is condensed milk, so a regular cup of coffee at a Hong Kong cafe is better (in my opinion) than a latte at Starbucks that would cost two or three times more. That won't be of much interest to you if you're not a coffee drinker, I suppose, but it does mean that for someone like me who isn't into the Starbucks atmosphere that much, and is just interested in reading the South China Morning Post and having some breakfast, Hong Kong is not a bad place to be.