Futian Again

And I found myself in Futian again, to be precise, at Futian Port, not exactly knowing why I was there, except that I had to be there because Su asked me or wanted me to be there.

Su was having some technical problem with either her phone or her bank account in China, arising from what she thought had originated from her change or renewal of her Home Return Permit. She had tried to work on her phone to update something, but apparently was unsuccessful and had become rather upset, so much so she almost had asked me to accompany her to Futian Port yesterday, but then decided to do it this morning.

We left Mei Foo well before 9 am this morning, taking the Tuen Ma Line to Yuen Long, from where we got on a KMB B1 service to Futian Port direct for HK$2. It was smooth passage all the way, and to cut the long story short, we were at Futian well before 10 am. On the bus, I received a call from a brother updating me on some logistics I needed to be aware of over the weekend. The last time we went to Futian Port, we took a taxi from Yuen Long, which Su considered as value-for-money and which appeared so, but this time, it didn’t take much longer, but we saved a lot of money, for it cost us only HK$2 each to make the trip which cost more than HK$100 last time.

Su’s primary purpose to be at Futian Port or in Shenzhen was to find out why she couldn’t use her BoC account in Shenzhen. We went to an agent at the border and she was told there was no problem with her account and that what she needed was to go a BoC branch to activate or update her mini bank account, whatever it meant. In the meantime, I found that my phone was not quite working, so I went to my friend at China Mobile next door, and rather fortuitously, discovered that my phone bill was overdue for 2 RMB. My friend, Mr Chung, helped me to resolve the matter, and we made our way to a BoC branch about 450 m away. We found the bank and Su managed to resolve the teething problem, which was too technical for me to describe here.

It was 10:45 am and we hadn’t had breakfast yet, so we walked towards a familiar direction and found the restaurant we had used about a year ago and indeed where we had met our good friend the last time before he was called to the Grand Lodge Above last December. It was just one stop on Line 4 from Futian Port. Suddenly, I felt so safe and comfortable.

We walked in, feeling good and were well received. Su ordered lavishly in terms of quantities. She ordered three items, and we could finish only one of them. The food was delicious. We packed what we couldn’t finish and left the restaurant around mid-day, after paying the equivalent of HK$220. Su re-engineered a meal from half of what we had packed in the evening and we both felt good and satisfied, albeit with the aid of a bottle of bubbly.

After lunch, we took a ride on Line 4, free of charge, one stop, and made our trip back to Hong Kong, catching the B1 KMB service to Yung Long, followed by the Tuen Ma Line back to Mei Foo. We were back home by 13:40 pm, having spent about 5 hours since we left home in the morning.

The moral of the story is this. We used public transport all the way. The cost saved more than covered the meal and the left over which covered the evening meal.

Meanwhile, Su and I were exploring a very popular App for ordering merchandise from China or Shenzhen which offered very attractive discounts. Su ordered some bedsheets for her parents, while I ordered some underpants, socks and protective sleeves for the arms. It was a crash learning course, but it worked. For the items I ordered, I was charged less than the equivalent of HK$20, including delivery charges. We collected our items at a shop-site in Mei foo, hassle free, all in excellent conditions.

The economics involved in the stories I described were simply mind-boggling. There is no way that Hong Kong can compete in such circumstances, and I wonder whether Hong Kong people are alive to what is happening and what they can or are going to do in the light of what is happening. We have lost out to our brethren in Shenzhen, absolutely and completely, in terms of merchandising and servicing. More significantly and importantly, our young people in Hong Kong lack the service mindset that our friends in Shenzhen have and are so ever ready and willing to embrace.

I have been trying to keep an open mind on the whole thing. I suggest that maybe not everyone has the time to make those journeys to spend across the border and that those perks can only be picked up by the elderly community. But we are definitely losing out, whichever way we are looking at the stories. Hong Kong needs to look into itself deeply to find out where it is.