With a great deal of work and patience from the staff at BSD Academy (who also showed great creativity in digital production of documents) and their connections with the folks in the embassy we would not have been able to get the permission to travel to Shenzhen today. AND, none of their work would have been of value without the quick thinking and timely responses to a flurry of emails to our travelers' parents at the beginning of this week who needed to produce copies of documents in a very short turnaround time that we didn't even know were needed. These parents asked no questions but just sent off the documents we needed to meet what seemed like an ever growing list of requirements from the custom officials if we were ever going to be given permission to take minors across the border into China. There were even several of us who needed to rush around and get new photos taken for the visa applications because of things like glasses causing difficulties or ears not showing clearly enough. All of this extra work for what would be a day trip just 90 minutes north of Hong Kong. But due to the hard work and patience of our colleagues at BSD we all have our passports with the coveted visa pasted into each one.
We had our breakfast and headed out to the coach that drove us into this unique part of mainland China.
I just didn't know how unique this part of China it truly would be.
To provide some background that will help to set the stage:
*We explained that even though Hong Kong is part of China and has been since the transfer of sovereignty from Great Britain to China on July 1, 1997 they are very different from each other. Locally, this day is referred to as the "Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Establishment Day" which took place following the conclusion of British colonial rule for over a century. Hong Kong became a British colony in the middle 1800's as a part of a settlement agreement with the Chinese emperor at the end of both the first and second Opium Wars. Having been an international port of trade, business, and tourism for over a century, Hong Kong was very different than any other part of China when it came back under Chinese rule....and this has continued to be true ever since. So, while all under same rule now, it is still very different from the mother country.
* A completely different monetary system means different money. So that means instead of the Hong Kong dollar being used since we arrived a few days ago we needed Chinese yuan (or RMB) to spend. BSD arranged for all of this. Allowing for Hong Kong to have its own currency and its own central bank system was part of the arrangements in the 1997 transfer of power from GRB to China.
* Locally, Hong Kong provides its own governmental systems and even has a fairly democratic process of electing its local officials. There are higher level individuals who are sent to Beijing to represent Hong Kong's interest in larger decisions country wide. This means that while Hong Kong is quite similar to western systems of justice, China is still very careful about things with regards to security. Hong Kong has a very low crime rate and people feel very safe. In China there are uniformed police everywhere blowing whistles at you when you are riding your bike in a plaza or on a sidewalk. (in fact, one of our travelers tried to take some pictures of fruit displays while in a Trader Joe's-like grocery store in Shenzhen and security came over and told him to put his camera away.)
* In Hong Kong, technology provides many open opportunities for business, culture, communication, and entertainment. However, we learned that in Shenzhen (90 minutes away) there is a country-wide firewall that prevents access to things like Facebook and Google. The hot spots we were given by the hotel for our phones, literally stop working once we crossed the border.
Entering into China - a three step process
So, armed with some of this background while heading north to China, we eventually reached the border.
1. We pull into a parking lot which looks much like a service center or rest stop. With passport in hand, we enter into the customs center, enter a line and get processed through the departure out of Hong Kong. This required each of us filling out a two part form to be presented with our passport. While we are being processed, our coach drives around to meet us at the other end of the building.
Once through this process we return to the coach and travel a bit further ahead.
2. Our next destination is the customs line for entering into China. (The kids referred to this area between the two borders as "no man's land".) This processing area was considerably more intimidating than the first one. We successfully got through with a new stamp on our passport.
3. Then we went through security system and out of the end of the building to meet our coach once again.
We are all now in the coach and heading to Shenzhen as freshly anointed official visitors to China. In fact, we learned that our visa is good for the next 10 years!!!
Our Initial View of This New World
As we drove up the main highway in all of the other traffic heading into the city we were struck by the modern architecture of these significantly huge apartment structures. They look new and modern. But on closer inspection we find that the first sunshine in several days has encouraged residents to catch up on laundry. It is all hanging out on the little patios for each apartment. Floors and floors of socks, underwear, shirts and pants hanging in every window. (a severe contrast of the modern architecture and old ways of life). We also learned that many of the hundreds of apartments off in the distance were built but never occupied so that they are merely external shells, like a movie set for the appearance of a thriving city.
Shenzhen was one of the first cities in China that was set aside as a place where the government could experiment with new ideas for competitive business ventures, new architecture designs, city planning concepts, and new efficient systems for public transportation. So it looks much more modern than much of the whole of southern China. Things in this city are changing every six to twelve months and regular visitors are often surprised to find new things being added since their last visit. One person we visited with indicated that construction for any structure could go up at a rate of one floor per day! This rate of progress also has attracted a great deal of outside business from other countries because Shenzhen has been deemed as a "Free Trade Zone for China". This makes it considerably attractive for businesses to expand into China or for start up companies who are looking for new venture capital that they can't obtain in their home country.
Our first stop after arriving in the city of Shenzhen was to "Simply Work". Started in only 2015 this co-working space now has 8 facilities with 30,000 square meters available to start up business people.
A "member" of Simply Work pays one fee monthly. This allows them to have a workplace that includes office furniture, private offices, conference rooms, social spaces, reception, secretarial support, a employee lounge and an activity center with a gym, shower room, meditation room and cafeteria. In addition, members can participate in 3 to 5 entrepreneurial activities per week for sharing and networking with each other. They also have access to legal consulting, financing sources and media exposure. One of the major takeaways for those of us at Hill Top from this visit is that they help the members celebrate not only their successes but their failures with regularly scheduled failure parties.
They feel that it is these celebrations that give all members permission to keep striving for that success.
After our goodbyes and expressions of appreciation for sharing their work with us, we loaded back into the coach to CoCo Park which is a shopping mall for lunch and some exploring. Surprising is that instead of typical mall food, we went to a German restaurant and enjoyed everything from steamed fish to bratwurst and ribs or hamburgers.
This was all followed by the obligatory hour of exploration shopping around the mall.
A return to the coach and off to the next stop of the day is Hax. This is a company that was founded five years ago. It's main purpose is to serve as a grass-roots venture capital firm for start up companies who may be only at the concept phase. To enter this firm, a fingerprint recognition scanner is used by each ambassador showing a team of visitors around the company. Hax has the funds available to make grants of up to 100,000. USD per proposal for approved concepts.
In addition, they provide legal advice, media support, advertising, work space, secretarial support, etc. Their funding interests are almost entirely into technology. We saw examples of new, souped up 3-D printers being built and then packaged. We also saw many robotic designs of all kinds for residential and work environments. In the 5 years since start-up they have funded approximately 30 - 40 start-ups per year for a total of over 500 companies receiving grants to get their concepts through to a start up. An interesting fact is that over 80% of those companies funded by Hax are from non-Asian countries.
The last and long awaited aspect of the day was shopping in the tech mall which are multi-storied buildings covering several city blocks. Any electronic part or product needed is available to any individual who is looking. Even for those who were not planning on buying found the whole experience of these stores truly overwhelming but very exciting.
We also stepped into a tent of virtual reality experiences. The students thought it would be great fun to hook Mr. Needham up to one of these life threatening...or life shortening experiences and watch him squirm while he was placed in a parachute, was pushed from a cliff and had to fight off and destroy prehistoric pterodactyls that are trying to eat me.
The ride back to Hong Kong provided no time for a nap. The van was abuzz with passionate conversation about specific computers, exceptional or challenging gaming design, and favored electronic parts.
Our return to the hotel provided an hour of rest and then we headed out to dinner which was to be a wonderful old-school Chinese restaurant.
We took a tram to the restaurant and as we walked in we found a space that was filled to the ceiling with warm and wonderful smells of spices, seafood, breads and cooked vegetables. There was a display at the front door of a myriad of strange looking fish and fowl in various forms of dried, marinated, smoked, cooked and fried. We were told this kind of restaurant which filled the city only 10 years ago is slowly declining to the point where there are only 3 or 4 of these types of restaurants left. This type of restaurant typically caters to a family and older clientele and a bit too utilitarian for the younger crowds looking for something more hip or specialized. Large round tables topped with large glass lazy susans fill each of the large brightly colored and decorated rooms with a noisy sea of humanity.
We dined on a buffet that just kept coming for almost an hour that included baby bok choy, prawns with vegetables, egg drop soup with corn and fish, 2 different kinds of chicken, a whole steamed fish, Peking duck with tofu, fried taro sticks rolled in sugar, fried rice and fresh oyster/egg pancakes. Again, a testament to our young travels is that they were willing to try them all and found many of the more unusual something that was really interesting to them.
Given the day and all that we did, you won't be surprised to learn that it was a quiet trip back to the hotel. A reminder to offer words of appreciation to our hosts and then quietly we dragged ourselves to the elevators to our rooms.
Thank you again to BSD folks for another amazing day of experiences we could never have imagined.
We had our breakfast and headed out to the coach that drove us into this unique part of mainland China.
I just didn't know how unique this part of China it truly would be.
To provide some background that will help to set the stage:
*We explained that even though Hong Kong is part of China and has been since the transfer of sovereignty from Great Britain to China on July 1, 1997 they are very different from each other. Locally, this day is referred to as the "Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Establishment Day" which took place following the conclusion of British colonial rule for over a century. Hong Kong became a British colony in the middle 1800's as a part of a settlement agreement with the Chinese emperor at the end of both the first and second Opium Wars. Having been an international port of trade, business, and tourism for over a century, Hong Kong was very different than any other part of China when it came back under Chinese rule....and this has continued to be true ever since. So, while all under same rule now, it is still very different from the mother country.
* A completely different monetary system means different money. So that means instead of the Hong Kong dollar being used since we arrived a few days ago we needed Chinese yuan (or RMB) to spend. BSD arranged for all of this. Allowing for Hong Kong to have its own currency and its own central bank system was part of the arrangements in the 1997 transfer of power from GRB to China.
* Locally, Hong Kong provides its own governmental systems and even has a fairly democratic process of electing its local officials. There are higher level individuals who are sent to Beijing to represent Hong Kong's interest in larger decisions country wide. This means that while Hong Kong is quite similar to western systems of justice, China is still very careful about things with regards to security. Hong Kong has a very low crime rate and people feel very safe. In China there are uniformed police everywhere blowing whistles at you when you are riding your bike in a plaza or on a sidewalk. (in fact, one of our travelers tried to take some pictures of fruit displays while in a Trader Joe's-like grocery store in Shenzhen and security came over and told him to put his camera away.)
* In Hong Kong, technology provides many open opportunities for business, culture, communication, and entertainment. However, we learned that in Shenzhen (90 minutes away) there is a country-wide firewall that prevents access to things like Facebook and Google. The hot spots we were given by the hotel for our phones, literally stop working once we crossed the border.
Entering into China - a three step process
So, armed with some of this background while heading north to China, we eventually reached the border.
1. We pull into a parking lot which looks much like a service center or rest stop. With passport in hand, we enter into the customs center, enter a line and get processed through the departure out of Hong Kong. This required each of us filling out a two part form to be presented with our passport. While we are being processed, our coach drives around to meet us at the other end of the building.
Once through this process we return to the coach and travel a bit further ahead.
2. Our next destination is the customs line for entering into China. (The kids referred to this area between the two borders as "no man's land".) This processing area was considerably more intimidating than the first one. We successfully got through with a new stamp on our passport.
3. Then we went through security system and out of the end of the building to meet our coach once again.
We are all now in the coach and heading to Shenzhen as freshly anointed official visitors to China. In fact, we learned that our visa is good for the next 10 years!!!
Our Initial View of This New World
As we drove up the main highway in all of the other traffic heading into the city we were struck by the modern architecture of these significantly huge apartment structures. They look new and modern. But on closer inspection we find that the first sunshine in several days has encouraged residents to catch up on laundry. It is all hanging out on the little patios for each apartment. Floors and floors of socks, underwear, shirts and pants hanging in every window. (a severe contrast of the modern architecture and old ways of life). We also learned that many of the hundreds of apartments off in the distance were built but never occupied so that they are merely external shells, like a movie set for the appearance of a thriving city.
Shenzhen was one of the first cities in China that was set aside as a place where the government could experiment with new ideas for competitive business ventures, new architecture designs, city planning concepts, and new efficient systems for public transportation. So it looks much more modern than much of the whole of southern China. Things in this city are changing every six to twelve months and regular visitors are often surprised to find new things being added since their last visit. One person we visited with indicated that construction for any structure could go up at a rate of one floor per day! This rate of progress also has attracted a great deal of outside business from other countries because Shenzhen has been deemed as a "Free Trade Zone for China". This makes it considerably attractive for businesses to expand into China or for start up companies who are looking for new venture capital that they can't obtain in their home country.
Our first stop after arriving in the city of Shenzhen was to "Simply Work". Started in only 2015 this co-working space now has 8 facilities with 30,000 square meters available to start up business people.
After our goodbyes and expressions of appreciation for sharing their work with us, we loaded back into the coach to CoCo Park which is a shopping mall for lunch and some exploring. Surprising is that instead of typical mall food, we went to a German restaurant and enjoyed everything from steamed fish to bratwurst and ribs or hamburgers.
A return to the coach and off to the next stop of the day is Hax. This is a company that was founded five years ago. It's main purpose is to serve as a grass-roots venture capital firm for start up companies who may be only at the concept phase. To enter this firm, a fingerprint recognition scanner is used by each ambassador showing a team of visitors around the company. Hax has the funds available to make grants of up to 100,000. USD per proposal for approved concepts.
The ride back to Hong Kong provided no time for a nap. The van was abuzz with passionate conversation about specific computers, exceptional or challenging gaming design, and favored electronic parts.
We took a tram to the restaurant and as we walked in we found a space that was filled to the ceiling with warm and wonderful smells of spices, seafood, breads and cooked vegetables. There was a display at the front door of a myriad of strange looking fish and fowl in various forms of dried, marinated, smoked, cooked and fried. We were told this kind of restaurant which filled the city only 10 years ago is slowly declining to the point where there are only 3 or 4 of these types of restaurants left. This type of restaurant typically caters to a family and older clientele and a bit too utilitarian for the younger crowds looking for something more hip or specialized. Large round tables topped with large glass lazy susans fill each of the large brightly colored and decorated rooms with a noisy sea of humanity.
Given the day and all that we did, you won't be surprised to learn that it was a quiet trip back to the hotel. A reminder to offer words of appreciation to our hosts and then quietly we dragged ourselves to the elevators to our rooms.
Thank you again to BSD folks for another amazing day of experiences we could never have imagined.
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