HONG KONG

Wednesday, 26 April. After breakfast at 8:00, we finished our packing. Then we decided to go for a walk in Kowloon Park, a beautiful large park right across the street from our hotel, and surrounded by skyscrapers. The day was very warm and muggy with intermittent light rain. There was a large pond with many types of water fowl, most interestingly a number of black-necked swans. Two attendants were chasing the swans with nets. They caught two of them and put them both in the same plastic garbage can. We couldn't believe they would both fit in there. Apparently they were going to be taken to a different pond.

There was also an aviary in the park, as well as a lagoon with dozens of flamingos. Another big attraction was the big swimming pool, really three separate pools built into the hillside at different levels. Water from the top pool flowed over a waterfall into the middle pool, then from the middle pool into the lower one.

Jane in Kowloon Park

Flamingos in the park

Three-level pool

From the park we walked down Nathan Street and visited a few stores. Jane found some clothes she liked, but even the large sizes were too small. Most Chinese women are very petite. (There are a few heavier ones, though. Wonder where they shop?) At 12:30 we went back to the sandwich shop for lunch, then back to our room to get ready for our 3:00 p.m. bus ride to the airport.

GETTING HOME

Unfortunately, there was a message telling us that our flight would be delayed three hours. (It turned out to be four.) Since we had to vacate our rooms at 2:00 p.m., a dozen of us wound up sitting in Li's room for nearly four hours. The bus finally left for the airport at 6:15. One of our group cajoled the airline into giving us meal vouchers, and we ate in an airport restaurant. The Canadian Air flight finally pulled away from the gate at 10:20 p.m. (Instead of 6:00 as originally scheduled). It was a nice flight, and we even got a little sleep.

We landed in Vancouver at 6:20 p.m. (PDT), technically four hours before we left Hong Kong. (We had crossed the International Date Line.) We got to our motel at 7:30 and called my cousin Margaret. She and her husband Jim came to the motel about 8:30, and we talked for a couple of hours. At Jane's request (still craving Western food), they then took us to a McDonalds for a milk shake. They dropped us at our motel at 11:30, and we finally went to bed an hour later.

Thursday, 27 April. We had to get up at 5:15 to catch the 6:00 a.m. shuttle to the airport. We had a snack at the airport before our 7:50 flight. The flight was even a few minutes early, getting us to Chicago at 1:50 p.m. We had lunch (?) in the airport. Our flight to Washington, D.C., left at 4:20 and we got to D.C. at 7:15. Joseph was waiting for us. He drove us to Culpeper where, after a brief visit, we picked up our car and headed home. It was 11:00 p.m. when we got to Massanutten. But our bodies were still pretty much on China time where it was 11:00 a.m. We were so mixed up on the time that it didn't mean anything to us.

Our general impression of Chinese society was quite favorable. As far as we could tell, the ordinary people feel that they have more freedom and more opportunities than they've ever had before. They did not seem to fear the government. Yet, the government is pervasive in many ways, not the least of which is economically. Various government agencies own all of some businesses (banks) and most of the rest. People who work for different corporations are really all working for the government. But those corporations have widely differing wages, benefits, and policies, much like U.S. corporations.

Another restriction foreign to us was that Chinese people are not free to move from one place to another (farm to city; one city to another) without rarely given government permission. And of course, there is the draconian birth control policy limiting each married couple to one child. Imagine! In another couple of generations almost everyone in the entire population will be an only child.

After each trip we take, we feel it's great to be home. It was even more so after this one. Although China was very interesting and we enjoyed the trip, we couldn't wait for it to be over. That's a feeling we've never gotten on any of our numerous trips to Europe.