All Over the Place: Shenzhen & Subway
Issue 29: Mainland China and HK's Mass Transit Railway
My look back at my time in Hong Kong continues, along with updated commentary from native Hong Konger Alex and myself.
Visiting China for the First (Sort of) Time (originally published March 14, 2019)
While I have been in Hong Kong for some time now, I have not actually been to the Chinese Mainland (excluding Shanghaiʼs airport) – until now. On the downside, Americans are not included in the special entry programs in large cities and cannot enter China without a visa. On the upside, Americans are eligible for a 10 year multiple entry tourist visa, which I recently got. Due to a somewhat unusual visa application process, I decided to try using the high-speed rail to reach Shenzhen, a huge city bordering Hong Kong.
But isnʼt Hong Kong part of China? Well, yes. But itʼs a bit different than the rest of China. Itʼs all to do with history; in a previous post I talked about how the British gained Hong Kong, and now Iʼll talk about how China got it back.
While Britain gained full ownership of Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon peninsula, the New Territories were gained on a 99 year lease, set to expire in 1997, long after the deaths of the signatories. Hong Kong stayed fairly sleepy until after World War II, when it became one of the fast growing “Asian Tiger” economies, and its growth led to increased integration between the New Territories and the rest of Hong Kong. Splitting Hong Kong in half would be very disruptive, which provided some impetus for the handover, but perhaps even more important than that was drinking water.
Hong Kong, despite its best efforts, is not water sufficient, and the colony adopted agreements with the mainland after a punishing drought in the 1960s. This gave the Peopleʼs Republic of China a lot of leverage when it came to Hong Kong, and played a huge role in Britainʼs decision to give Hong Kong to the PRC. The British had some say in what would happen to the colony, however, and this led to the often touted “one country, two systems” principle.
In essence, Hong Kong is part of the Peopleʼs Republic of China, but is allowed to have a system of government separate from the mainland in all affairs except for national defense and foreign relations. How well this works in practice is definitely up for debate, but it means that Hong Kong still has a lot of differences from mainland China (like being ranked the worldʼs freest economy).
And thatʼs why going from Hong Kong to mainland China is treated as an international border crossing.
The high speed rail connects Hong Kongʼs West Kowloon Station with mainland Chinaʼs enormous high-speed rail network, and can travel to Futian Station in Shenzhen in a little under 15 minutes. My train managed to hit 194km/h (120mph) in the trip.
I didnʼt have much of an itinerary, apart from attempting (and failing) to find Shenzhen Museum and seeing what I stumble across. On my first impressions, Shenzhen is a little bit cheaper than Hong Kong and a lot less crowded. It also has less English in general, and what it has is a bit less refined than the (fairly good) English present throughout Hong Kong, drifting into what some refer to as “Engrish” or “Chinglish” at times. On the plus side, I know where to find a gaming keyboard that will “Make your numeric data quickly.”
The main attractions that I did end up seeing were Lizhi Park and SEG Plaza, both on Shennan Road.
Lizhi Park was an attractive park, with flowerbeds and a calm lake with pagodas, and SEG Plaza was an enormous ten story complex with hundreds of stalls selling almost any kind of electronic you would want. I picked up a wireless mouse for ¥10 (US$1.50) and, of course, lots of pictures.
Adam: Since I wrote this five years ago, there are fewer differences between mainland China and Hong Kong largely because of legislative changes in Hong Kong, forced upon it by the mainland Chinese government. In Hong Kong, opposition leaders and lawmakers have either resigned, fled into exile, or been arrested, leaving only pro-Beijing loyalists. Independent media outlets have been closed and their owners imprisoned. And saying “liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times” is now an arrestable offence (“incitement to secession”). And yet, Hong Kong is still vastly freer than mainland China. Freedom House ranks Hong Kong’s freedom status as “partly free,” with a quantitative rating of 41/100. Mainland China, however, is rated “not free,” with a rating of 9/100.
Alex: Hong Kong used to have one of the biggest desalination plants in the world in the 1970s, but today it is closed. Besides the cost, the plant was closed to show a good gesture to the Chinese government. Fast forward to 2023, and the new desalination plant in Tseung Kwan O was built, now contributing 5% of all water consumption in HK. Without political concerns this time, Hong Kong is once again back on the route of desalinating sea water. The cost is still comparatively very high (about 40 times higher than buying water from Dongjiang) but it’s a way to prepare for climate change. Sometimes, it’s mind boggling how politics can alter what’s the best for the general public.
Everyone on the Subway has an Octopus Card (originally published April 3, 2019)
Iʼd like to be/on the subway/with a full Octopus card/and some space.
The vast majority of Hong Kongers have an Octopus in their back pockets, and I donʼt mean the kind that you eat. (That would be on a stick in their hands or in a tank waiting to be picked by a hungry restaurant-goer). Hong Kongʼs Octopus card is an easy answer to long lines at ticket vending machines and, to an extent, debit cards.
The Octopus card is a reloadable contactless card that can be used to pay the fare on all public transportation in Hong Kong, as well as at several restaurants, convenience stores, and grocery stores. Money can easily be added to the card at convenience stores or at MTR stations, and personalized versions for concessionary tickets (like students and seniors) are available along with the standard that anyone can have. They can be purchased for HK$150, with HK$50 being a (mostly) refundable deposit and the rest going directly on the card as value.
The main use of Octopus cards is the MTR, or Mass Transit Railway, Hong Kongʼs subway. Most of the trains (as well as the stations) are very modern and clean (like the West Rail line I most frequently ride on), with easy to read bilingual electronic signs, although a few lines (like the East Rail line) could fit into Chicagoʼs public transit network. All in all, however, the MTR is a highly efficient and clean method of transportation, and definitely the one I use the most. To top it all off, it has the highest farebox recovery ratio of any subway system in the world.
But how does it manage to provide good service without costing an arm and a leg? The answer: itʼs subsidized, but not how you might think.
The MTR Corporation is a publicly held corporation on Hong Kongʼs Hang Seng Index, with a special relationship with its majority shareholder, the government of the HKSAR. The MTR is given land for free, which it uses not only to build stations on but to also construct giant shiny malls above the stations. Rent from these malls then goes to subsidize the subway, which has led some to argue that the MTR is at its core is a real estate company that operates a subway on the side.
Service starts early in the morning, and depending on the station runs until between midnight and 1:00 AM. Out past the end of service? You could either stay out until it resumes service early in the morning, take a taxi, or take one of the many night buses that run in the wee hours of the morning. And if you choose to stay out, you can use your Octopus card to pay at 7-Eleven, Circle K, McDonaldʼs, Fairwood, and a variety of other places.
If you ever visit Hong Kong, be sure to pick one up. Youʼll save money and time. Itʼll probably be your favorite card named after a mollusk.
Adam: The versatility of an Octopus card makes it by far the most useful public transit card I have used anywhere in the world. An Octopus card is almost more of a debit card than a public transit card, and it remains the standard to which I compare the transit cards of cities around the world. It’s confusing how many cities have user unfriendly ticket systems given that a user friendly system makes operating costs cheaper and makes the transit system itself more efficient. In the past five years I have travelled on a lot of public transit systems, and the MTR remains the best subway system I have ever travelled on.
Alex: The Octopus Card is definitely a gem of Hong Kong, one of the earliest forms of contactless payment around the world, covering everything from transportation to fast food restaurants to convenience stores. The Octopus Card also helped shape a quite unique paying habit. Most countries have been transitioning to an environment where contactless payments dominate. However, the Octopus Card actually delayed the widespread use of debit cards in day to day small transactions in Hong Kong, unlike other countries. At the same time, cash is also still commonly used in places without any contactless payments like small local stalls.
Or actually there is more to it. Octopus Card Limited is owned by a few major transportation companies like the MTR and KMB (the largest bus company in Hong Kong). And Hong Kong’s government also owns 75% of the MTR. It’s actually quite the government’s call whether to implement contactless payment for the MTR, which would be a direct competition against its Octopus Card. Of course, contactless payment is a big trend around the world and it definitely helps short staying tourists if it’s implemented in most of the transportation. And the MTR has backed down in recent years and now it’s accepting more contactless payment methods like Visa and Mastercard at some of the ticket gates. Time will tell what the future of the Octopus Card will be.