Day Six - entering China

This was the first day into mainland China. The owner of the factory picked us up from our hotel for the car ride into China. It is interesting to note that you have to pass through two border crossings...one leaving Hong Kong and another to enter China...kind of strange since it's all one country now. We crossed the border at Shenzhen, which is a town of about 10 million people that basically did not exist 20 years ago. When China opened it's borders to foreign investment in factories about then, this became a major economic zone due to it's proximity to Hong Kong. We drove for about an hour through Shenzhen and to our factory and it was high rise after high rise and construction in every direction.

In Hong Kong they drive on the left side of the street similar to the U.K. but as soon as you cross the border it goes back to normal. Another contrast to Hong Kong is that jaywalking is illegal and you can even get arrested for it but in China there are bikes every where and people cross the street wherever and whenever they want. Also, there is basically no regard for driving laws...people routinely cross the double-yellow line and drive on the wrong side of the street, regardless of oncoming traffic.

We ate a two very nice restaurants again today...the only odd thing was a Peking Duck served with head intact! Tim and I have learned not to sit next to one of our hosts because they just keep piling on the food and they don't really take 'no' for an answer. Also, it is a beautiful sight when they bring out a fruit plate because that means the meal is almost over. The food today was actually pretty good but the food just keeps coming for 1-2 hours...usually at least 10 dishes!

We are staying at the Marco Polo hotel in downtown Shenzhen tonight and will see two more factories tomorrow.