by George L. Huckaby, Jr.

To put this article in perspective, the author had never left the North American continent until this trip. He also had worked on the 747 fuselage program at Northrop Commercial Aircraft Division, Northrop Grumman Commercial Aircraft Division and Vought Aircraft Industries from 1992 to 2004 and had also never flown in one until this China visit.

Lee K. English, Matthew Herman and myself left Los Angeles (LAX) at 12:45 PM Friday, April 4th and arrived at the Hong Hong Airport late Saturday evening at 10:00 PM. Three hours later we arrived at our first hotel, the Island Pacific Hotel, where we stayed two nights. So to have this experience, 18 hours of air travel, including a two-hour layover in Tokyo were required.

The best way to describe Hong Kong is to say that if New York City is the "...city that never sleeps..", Hong Kong is the city that never stops. Traffic in the city was unbelievable, even when compared to Los Angeles, late Saturday night when we arrived. When we looked out of our window in the 18th floor the next morning, we saw many very tall but very thin buildings crammed next to each other, resembling the creatures from a grade B movie made some time ago entitled, "Monolith Monsters". At night, the city looked like a backdrop from a "Batman" movie or the movie "Brazil". Every square foot of land is either built upon, a city park or a soccer field. We saw only one small empty lot in the entire time we were riding the trams. The British heritage can be seen throughout Hong Kong. Cars drive on the left side of the road. The word "Tires" is spelled "Tyres" and elevators are called "Lifts". On the other hand, the hotel elevators were the quietest that we have ever encountered. Our hotel was located right on the main route of the trams, which seem to never stop running. The trams were the first big surprise. There are many of them and all are four-wheel, double-decked cars run by a single operator who controls both the front and rear doors. Some of them look like they ride on a Brill 21E truck or a reasonable facsimile of it. The car is a Pay-As-You-Leave arrangement and regular fares are two Hong Kong Dollars while Senior citizens ride for $1.00. One US Dollar was worth seven HK Dollars at the time of this trip so each ride costs the unbelievable sum of 29 cents.

When you enter the rear doors, there are two turnstiles to pass through similar to some Philadelphia Rapid Transit cars many years ago. One spiral staircase at the rear takes you to the second floor while another one at the front allows to to come back down. The fare box is located next to the operator at the front door and as you leave, you pay. There are four fabulous seats in the front of the upper deck, from which a great view of the city can be obtained. The cars, originally double ended, have all been single-ended with passenger access doors only on the left side. The two cars shown in the next photo at Kennedy Town are showing the opposite sides.

The cars have a single insulated trackless trolley bus type trolley pole mounted at the very center of the car with a swivel trolley shoe contactor for the overhead wire. All overhead frogs are the trackless trolley type with moveable points. Overhead wire is often nowhere near the center of the two rails, making good use of the swivel shoe. Many overhead wire spans are simply attached to the buildings. All overhead fittings use curve yoke type hangers with the "cap & cones" type hanger used in North America virtually non-existent. Every tram is fitted with modern resilient wheels, which drastically reduce the noise on curves. There is no squealing as you would expect from cars of this vintage. they sound more like PCC or LRV vehicles.

Most of the trams are "wrapped", that is they are covered completely with advertising for a specific store or product. the entire car is wrapped in this printed plastic, except for windows, as is the case in some places in the US. When HongKong Tramways was founded, the 26 tramcars of the first fleet were all single-deck. After almost 100 years, HongKong Tramways now owns and operate a fleet of 163 tramcars which includes 2 antique tramcars. It is the world's largest fleet of double-deck tramcars still in operation, carrying an average of 240,000 passengers every day.

They have a workforce of around 700 to operate the trams with two major tram depots, the Whitty Street Depot and Sai Wan Ho Depot. There are six tram routes (total track mileage 30km) which provide service between Shau Kei Wan, Happy Valley and Kennedy Town and they carry 240,000 passengers daily! There are 123 tram stops from Shau Kei Wan to Kennedy Town with an average interval of 250 meters.

In 2000, HongKong Tramways introduced brand new metal body trams which were designed and manufactured by their own internal engineering team. Apart from the completely new look and compartment, the new trams provide passengers with a more comfortable traveling experience. Different facilities and equipment were installed to upgrade these tramcars. The metal body trams marked an important milestone in the history of Hongkong Tramways and, unlike tram operators in the "City of Brotherly Love", HongKong Tramways realizes the importance of the historical importance and tourist affinity toward the trams and remain firmly committed to make continuous efforts to improve tram facilities and service standards.

We observed three of the newer trams, 168, 169 and 170, and these are the only trams that are not "wrapped". Note the photo below right of tram 170.

The HongKong Tramways system was built starting in May 1903. After equipment testing, the firsr electric tram began operating on July 30, 1904. At that time the main route went along the northern waterfront of HongKong Island from Arsenal Street in Wan Chai to Shau Kei Wan, with a branch serving Happy Valley. Shortly after, the line was extended westwards to Kennedy Town. The length of the route was 15 km (9.3 miles), the same as today, except for track relocations and the extension to Happy Valley in 1914. Originally constructed with both single and double-track sections, the last single-track section was eliminated in August 1949. Reserved track along Queensway (then part of Queen's Road East) was introduced in 1955.

The next day, we were taken to Sanda Kan (actually pronounced "...san-ta-gun...") in ShenZhen in Song Gang Province. To get there, we rode in a taxi (Toyota Crown Comfort) from the Paradise Island hotel in HongKong to Kowloon. We boarded an electric commuter train to the border of mainland China where we were met by a company car and were taken to the Sanda Kan ShenZhen plant. The entire trip took about 2 1/2 hours. This is where the our trip began to get very interesting. We can't even try to describe the many different types of motor and pedaled vehicles that we encountered except to say that each one of them is unique and they are operated anywhere, any place and in any direction including coming directly towards you. There seem to be no rules in this area and no traffic cops to sort things out. There is no "right-side-of-the-road". The rule seems to be, if there is a space on the road, put a vehicle in it, wherever that space is. As you drive through the very small portions of China that we experienced we were struck with contrasts continuously. A beautiful world class hotel will be standing right next to a plot of land that looks like the city dump. Laundry seems to be hanging everywhere. The streets are mostly aged concrete and they are full of potholes, cracks and just plain missing sections but the median strips and traffic circles are perfectly maintained with freshly trimmed hedges and beautiful flowers.

People walk down the middle of the streets even if there are wide spacious sidewalks almost ignoring the cars which are continually sounding their horns to try and get around the people. Pedestrians definitely feel that they not only have the right-of-way but they own the streets. Why more people are not killed in traffic mishaps is amazing to me. We heard many sounds that sounded like accidents while maneuvering through one specific intersection. This intersection, which resembles a group of freeway off ramps with the freeway crossing overhead, was adjacent to the restaurant at which we had dinner in ShenZhen on Monday and Tuesday evenings. Imagine such an intersection without traffic lights, stop lights or traffic control officers. If you image a free-for-all, you are coming close. We stayed both nights in the Baolilai Hotel which was a very nice hotel, with all the help, counter service, bell hops and concierge that you could ever want.

Traffic was a little more civilized in the ShiLong area . We spent only one night, Wednesday night in the Gladden Hotel and it was the grandest of the four that we experienced. The area around it looked like a typical American City except the lack of any signs in English.

One thing is common to the hotels that we experienced in Hong Kong, ShenZhen and Shilong. There is no shortage of well-dressed, well groomed uniformed bodies to assist you. At the doors, there are usually two or three baggage handlers, one or two greeters and persons that we could not figure out what they did but they were attentive to you when you pass through their area of responsibility. There are very distinctive almost military looking bell hop uniforms, red and black in one case, almost pure white in another. The major problem is that except for "Hello", "GoodBye" and "Can I help you?" that are said to you almost like some talking parrot, most of the help seems to have little or no command of English. And the farther north we went into mainland China, the problem got worse! Needing anything out of the ordinary could be very frustrating! All of the hotels were very conscious of energy consumption. In all four hotels in Hong Kong and mainland China, the card that serves as the key to your room must be placed in a slot on the wall next to the main light switch while the room is occupied to keep the lights on. Ten seconds after that card is removed, all the lights inside the room go out. So you can not leave the lights in a hotel room on all day while you are out.

There are differences. The Pacific Island Room 1016 in Hong Kong, below left, was very small, almost cramped with two twin-size beds and soft mattresses, while room 805 in the BaoLilai in ShenZhen, below right, was spacious with full sized beds with mattresses that felt like a 4' by 8' sheet of 1/2" plywood. Sleeping on these turned out to be a virtual impossibility.

Room 1010 in the Gladden improved on everything, including "just right" beds. The bathroom had both a separate tub and shower on opposite sides of the room. The bathroom alone was almost the size of the total Hong Kong room.

Note that the bedding, except for the size of the beds, was strikingly similar in all three hotels.

Then there was food, food and more food! Most of us are familiar with Chinese food. While some of the dishes available are the same or similar to those to which we are accustomed, all of us decided to try delicacies that we normally would not consider. George Huckaby is shown below maneuvering a chicken foot with his chopsticks. Trained in the use of chopsticks over twenty years ago, George had more luck than most. Our choices for food ranged from McDonald's on Sunday morning in Hong Kong, to a local multi-ethnic restaurant in ShenZhen just after arriving at the Sanda Kan plant in Monday, to a very posh Chinese restaurant for dinner in ShenZhen on Monday & Tuesday, then American selections for lunch just after arriving at AFFA Technologies on Wednesday and Japanese cuisine on Wednesday evening in ShiLong

One frustrating thing for us was the availability of the internet. Sometimes it is running well and sometimes it is not. Like the power shortages, you pays your money and takes your chances. There was a wireless connection available at the Pacific Island Hotel in Hong Kong. There were ethernet connections at the Baolilai (ShenZhen) and the Gladden (ShiLong). The connection at the Baolilai varied dramatically over a day in its performance. The connection at the Gladden seemed to work better. Our best connections were made at Sanda Kan using their wireless network but even that was very slow compared to what we are used to in the United States. Of the three of us, only my cell phone worked. For some reason, I was not able to place calls in mainland China, but with the operators only talking in Chinese, I was not able to correct that problem. Several of our customers called us to place orders or just to ask questions. Unfortunately, due to the different time zones, the calls came in at 1:00 AM.

By now, almost everyone is aware that while the United States electrical power centers around 120 volts alternating current (VAC), the rest of the world not only uses 220 volts but there are different configurations of plugs in various parts of the world. In preparing for this trip, we found out that most computers manufactured recently use power supplies that will work equally well on either 120 VAC and 220 VAC. Many other items such as cell phone chargers, televisions and other electronic devices will handle both voltages, if you have a plug adapter. Mainland Chinese electrical wall plugs, and extension cords accommodate all the different plugs so adapters were not needed. We even saw United States type electric plugs in the Tokyo (Narita) airport.

Not being able to speak or read Chinese is a real problem in the portion of the Chinese mainland that we visited since the local residents know nothing about speaking or writing English. You just can't go anywhere or do anything without a local guide and you have to find someone that knows more than a few words in English. Imagine, you can not figure out what is inside of a store or what they are selling. Even our major contact at Sanda Kan could not understand something that I was trying to tell him. In this area of the world, there is little interest in and knowledge of the English language. The only place that you might find someone that might be able to understand you are the hotel employees. One of them just might know some English. But don't push it. As soon as you get comfortable, their knowledge runs out. This will change someday but for now doing business in China might be a lot easier if I learn a little Mandarin Chinese. Forget television as a source of entertainment, except for the BBC. Even CNN is in Chinese. HBO does transmit movies in English but it tends to play the same ones and the bad or uninteresting ones. If I see Jennifer Garner in Catch & Release one more time, I'll scream.

One more important fact: Driving a car is a profession in the areas of China that we visited. It is NOT for the unskilled, weak minded or slow reflexed persons. Both companies hire 'drivers' to take visitors around. Once you leave the major highways, it is a free for all. The two items most used are the gas pedal and the horn. I would never try it at all. There are cars, large trucks, buses, bicycles, mopeds, motorcycles and all kinds of motorized and unmotorized carts fighting for space in the roads and none of them thinks that they have to yield to anyone. Scenes like below were commonplace:

The above scene was NOT recorded in a parking lot. Every vehicle in the photo was in motion at the time. Things that are commonplace in China would not only cause road rage in Los Angeles but probable major shootouts if the drivers were carrying weapons at the time.

Of course, we arrived with some concepts of Chinese workers, working conditions and how they are treated based mostly on items in the press. From what we saw, the factory workers are respected and treated well. There is no idle "chat-chat" between workers. They totally concentrate on what they are doing. Both companies provide dormitories (small cubicle type rooms) for their workers that are located within walking distance from the job locations and these facilities are all inside the security perimeter of the factory. Most of the workers have homes very far away and this becomes a treasured benefit. One factory even provides free lunch and dinner for the employees and it looked good enough that I would not have objected to eating there also. A two-hour combination lunch/nap period seems to be also standard. The workers in both plants appeared to be very content, happy with their jobs and very professional about their skills. About the only thing that I wished is that a spoke a little Mandarin Chinese so that I did not feel so isolated. By the time I return to China, you can bet that will have to change!

Then there was the drive through customs experience returning to Hong Kong. Just outside the city of Hong Kong you approach a wall of thirty or so turnpike toll booths (Mainland China Exit Customs). You are to have previously filled out your mainland China departure slip and your Hong Kong combination entry/departure slip with your name, address, passport number and residence in that country along with your train/plane information. This is inserted in your passport and handed to the driver. When you reach the booth, the doors of the car are opened so that there is a visual identification of each person in the vehicle and the face of each person is related to the passport. Then one at a time, the passports are processed and handed back to the driver. Then, after a small 40 yard drive, you approach the second row of turnpike toll booths (Hong Kong Entry Customs). The passports are handed to the attendant again and the same process is repeated all over again. Then the car is moved up a few yards and one door is opened and an attendant aims an infrared gun at each forehead in the car to take your temperature. We are told that this has something to do with checking for SARS, the disease that terrorized Toronto a few years back. When this was concluded, we were allowed to pass, the entire process took about one-half hour. You now get your stamped passport back with only the Hong Kong departure slip within it. We then checked into the Novotel Century in the Airport area for our last night in Asia. There is a large mall adjacent to the hotel and we walked through it prior to retiring for the night.

On Friday morning, April 11th with our business concluded, all three of us boarded Northwest Flight #2 at the Hong Kong Airport which departed at 8:35AM and landed at Tokyo (Narita) at 1:30 P.M. Here we had to change planes and were subject to another passport check, screening and the X-ray machines. Here as before, this was handled professionally as there are always enough professional attendants to speed the activity. Finally, after almost nine hours in the sky, the Boeing 747 touched down at Los Angeles Airport at 9:30 A.M. and we were back in the United States.

When we were planning this trip to China, we talked to many people, some of which had been to China or other countries. They gave us a lot of information, some of it good but most of it almost totally irrelevant. One thing we were told about is how horrible U.S. Customs would be. They would "interrogate" you about all facets on your trip. We went through both Hong Kong and mainland China exit and entry customs and not once was there any conversation between any of us and one of them. No questions were either asked or answered. They looked at the passports and paperwork, stamped them after some very close looks to ensure we were the person on the passport and waived us on. Entry back into the U.S. started with two separate encounters. The first before you pick up your luggage and the second after your have claimed your bags. We were asked whether our trip had been business or pleasure. When we answered business, we were asked with who and for what. They was it and we moved on. The female agent that we encountered was very pleasant.

Traveling to other countries gave us a new perspective on the world. Travelers know it and non-travelers do not! Comparing check in at Hong Kong with that done at LAX one week earlier gives you a great perspective. Even with the customs requirement added in, the experience with luggage and airport screening is organized and efficient. There is plenty assistance available to you and before you know it, the whole mess is over. There was even free Wi-Fi at the Hong Kong Airport which I am using to write this portion of the story. One of my close associates who travels extensively keeps telling me that "Europe is yesterday, the U.S. is today and Asia is tomorrow". I see where he gets that. The potential for growth is definitely here.