Free Markets and Aching Feet - Zigzagging in the Middle Kingdom (Excerpt 1)

Once again, I found myself alone, since the woman I had placed my hope on, made love to and fought for in over two years had broken off the relationship and moved in with a man who had a job, a house and two cats.

I had given up on my research career, but China still tempted me and by the end of August 1986, I set out on a three-month-long journey through the Middle Kingdom.

I had gathered lots of reportage ideas and written letters to many companies and institutions, but not received one single answer. I had also visited the Chinese Embassy in Stockholm to obtain a journalist visa, but it turned out to be both complicated and expensive since they demanded that I pay for an interpreter who would follow me during the trip. I consulted an experienced China correspondent, and he told me that the easiest way was to fly to Hong Kong and buy a tourist visa there.  

*  

Hong Kong. August 26, Tuesday

My feet are aching from running around like crazy. I must have visited a hundred camera and electronics stores in Kowloon and on the Hong Kong Island.

I had hoped to find a room at the YMCA hotel, but it was full, so I had to stay at Hotel Bangkok Royal, which at 140 HK$ per night is considered inexpensive. At lunch time, I had a breakfast consisting of an apple, a cookie and a quart of yogurt. At dinner time, I had lunch at Burger King somewhere on the Hong Kong Island, and by ten in the evening, I had dinner at The Great Shanghai Restaurant where I had ended up for the simple reason that I was too tired and hungry to keep searching.

I landed about two pm local time after a nineteen-hour flight on a Boeing 747. The SAS flight from Stockholm had been delayed and there was a strike in Amsterdam, so I almost missed the KLM flight to Hong Kong. There was nobody at the gate and the cabin door was closed, but the plane was still there. It looked bad, but I managed to convince an airport employee to call the cockpit. At first the captain didn’t want to admit more passengers, but eventually he caved. However, there was no way to get my luggage onto the plane.

The food and the in-flight service was very good. The flight attendants asked over and over if I wanted something to eat, and I kept saying yes, please! Same thing with drinks, wine, and cognac with the coffee, which certainly helped make the long flight more comfortable. Only later did I understand that the reason they asked multiple times was that they had picked up new passengers in Abu Dhabi and Bangkok. 

* 

I still have not received my suitcase. However, they promised that I’ll get it this evening. I went to the KLM travel agency on the seventh floor where I talked to a nice representative who after our conversation saw to that I left with 250 HK$ in my hand.

I bought a pair of new shoes at the Wing On department store. Most shoe stores here don’t carry sizes larger than 8 1/2 — and I need size 13. After two salespersons had searched for a long time, they managed to find a nice pair of Italian shoes that cost 295 HK$. I will have American Express pay for them. It was equally difficult to buy pants and a shirt. The pretty salesgirls only giggled when I tried on a pair of pants, which were the largest they had. I am allowed to buy necessities for up to 600 HK$ since I booked the trip with my American Express card. Besides, my Vegete travel insurance will pay 200 SEK per day. 

* 

Today I visited the Ocean Terminal, one of Hong Kong’s many gigantic shopping malls. It’s an incredibly large place with thousands of shops spread out over several levels. On both sides of the Terminal, gigantic cruise ships can dock. I can’t see how this is profitable, especially since Hong Kong is not as inexpensive as it used to be. The modern stores sell clothes and shoes that cost about the same as in Sweden, maybe 20 percent cheaper. 

23.20

I had a beer at The Pub on Moody Road which is supposed to be a place popular among westerners. There was a group of young people playing dart. A wall TV showed a video with David Niven and Roger Moore. It was cold because of the air conditioning. The walls behind the bar were full of posters with Playboy-girls. 

My heart is hard

I’m mute and cold    

On Sunday morning I am taking a boat to Canton. 

August 27

The time change and my cold made me sleep late. I got up around two pm and went to the Tsim Sha Tsui district  to check camera prices. Six hours later I returned to my hotel completely exhausted. It’s impossible to get an overview here in Hong Kong and it’s frustrating when you are used to comparing prices by checking Broddmans, Expert and Oja’s Photo on Vasagatan. The cutthroat competition keeps the prices down, but it’s impossible to know if you have found the best price or not. You can run around as much as you want, but eventually you have to accept the fact that you will never be able to know for sure. 

* 

It’s late and I lie in my bed dreaming while unable to cross into the kingdom of sleep. Maybe it’s the humming of the air conditioner, the indoor chill, or the hard mattress. My inner tension also plays a role. There’s so much at stage, maybe a bit too much. 

August 28

I found my cameras, a Minolta 7000, and a Minolta 9000. I also bought a 70-210 zoom lens and a Sony Walkman tape recorder. It too the entire morning and I almost got into a fight in a photo shop where they tried to trick me by giving me a different and cheaper lens than the lens I had paid for. I protested loudly and threatened to go to the police. Eventually the guy caved and took back the lens and ripped up the American Express slips. On the way out of the store two young kids followed me and started to do karate kicks in the air, but I ignored them as I walked away.

Half an hour later I found myself in a small book cafe/tea house close to the Sheung Wan station in Hong Kong Island. I scanned the section with English books about China and spotted two black and old-looking volumes called The Chinese Empire. I had never heard of the book or the author, Evariste Régis Huc. I ordered tea, a sandwich, and sat down at one of the cafe tables to take a closer look at the book. When the bookseller brought my tea, he asked if I knew of Abbe Huc.

“Abbe what?” I said and shook my head.

“It’s the author of the book in front of you,” he said and told me that Huc had been a French missionary who after having studied Chinese in Macao entered China dressed as a Chinese and traveled incognito to an area north of Beijing and the Great Wall where many Chinese Christians had taken refuge after the emperor Daoguang had begun to persecute the Christian missionaries. There he met the missionary Joseph Gabet who had worked in the area for several years and even managed to convert a Buddhist lama to the Catholic faith.

After having spent a couple of years in the north where they also learned the Mongolian language, they set out in 1844 on what would become a two-year journey west through Manchuria and Mongolia all the way to Tibet. They dressed as nomads and traveled in a small caravan with camels, horses, and a donkey. When they finally reached Lhasa, they had hoped to spread the word of God to the heathens, only to be expelled by the Chinese governor. 

“But if they traveled north of China to Tibet, why is the book called The Chinese Empire?” I asked.

“Oh, just a moment,” he said, disappearing among the bookshelves and soon returning with a book called Travels in Tartary, Thibet and China.

“This is the story of Huc’s and Gabet’s journey to Lhasa. The book you found is about the return trip to Macao that went via Chengdu, Chongqing and Wuhan.”

He returned to the check-out counter where a customer was waiting. I checked when the books had been published and saw that they had first been published in France in 1850 and 1855 and then translated to English. When he came back, I asked if the book were not a bit too old for a modern reader. Now, it was he who shook his head.

“It’s true that they are old but seen in a Chinese perspective they are fairly recent. These copies are rather well worn, so I can give you a good price, 150 HK$,” he said.

I’m not sure what made me do it, but I took the bait and now I have four thick volumes totaling 1,500 pages in my Samsonite! I should have shipped them home, but never found time to go to the Post Office.

In the evening I met Göran Claesson and Robert Skillingaryd at the Foreign Correspondents Club which is on Lower Albert Road. We talked about work and China. They were very generous and shared of their experiences of China and Hong Kong, but they were pessimistic about the reforms, especially Göran, who seemed to find corruption and human weakness most everywhere in China.

Zigzagging in the Middle Kingdom is the fourth part of  novel with the working title Shifting Passions.