Rush hour

For my trip to Cheng Du this coming week, I needed a visa. The Chinese Embassy is located in Wan Chai, on Hong Kong Island, roughly a hour from the University. Since the place is notorious for long queues, bureaucracy, and a frigid air-conditioning, it is best to be there at 9 AM sharp, when the office opens. However, that means dealing with the Hong Kong rush hour twice, as you have to leave your passport for 4 days for processing, after which you can collect it with the visa.

The MTR in Hong Kong is admired for providing access to almost all parts of Hong Kong at very reasonable prices. Naturally that involves changing trains, but it is a 30 meter walk across the platform most places, and the trains leave, literally, every minute. From University station (which is my stop, go figure) to Wan Chai, you change in Kowloon Tong, Mong Kok, and Admirality (the latter is located on Hong Kong Island). Stop and stop stations are encircled:



My friend Martin and I got on the MTR at university station at 8 AM. The trains were already crammed, trafficking people from the New Territories in the North toward the Kowloon peninsular and Hong Kong Island in the South. Once we crossed under the steep hills and entered Kowloon, we changed to head west for 3 stops towards Mong Kok. Mong Kok is the Nørreport of Hong Kong. It is the heart of the MTR, gathering the flow of people from the North, West and East, and reshuffling them onto the Tsuen Wan line which runs under Victoria Harbour and onto Hong Kong Island toward Central. 

Even though trains leave every minute, the immense flow of people means that there is a hustle and bustle to catch each train. Nice old ladies suddenly become ruthless as they try to weasel their way past other passengers and onto the train. Since I am 6' 3", I wasn't expecting to have to put my weight into holding my ground. Hong Kong does normally have a polite queuing-culture, but on the MTR it is every man for himself.

 

We got to the embassy just past nine, walked in past security, up to the 7th floor, and into a 7 person queue to collect our passports. For the price of 300 HKD I got a 6 month, double-entry visa, while Martin, being French, was only allowed a single-entry (the Chinese don't like the French, so they annoy them which stuff like this). We were out of the building and back on the MTR before 9:30.

Heading home is way more pleasant - the trains are literally completely empty, so I found a seat and read the Daily Standard. We were back at University at 10:30. The other Danes went and got their visas Monday at noon. It took them over 6 hours, trip NOT included, so rush hour was totally worth it. By the way, I paid a total of 14 HKD for the MTR tickets! I love my Octopus card!