It’s a little complicated and I don’t want to get into all of the details here (at least not yet), but last week my visa situation came to a head. Due to some paperwork delays on my end, some government misinformation and, finally, some bureaucratic delays by my employer, the clock ran out on my tourist visa last week before my work visa could be applied for. As a result, the good people at the Security Bureau informed me on Monday that I had to exit the country and obtain a new tourist visa before I could file for my work visa. (NOTE: Click on any of the pictures below to jump to my complete photo album from this trip on Flickr with lots more details.)

What day did I have to exit? Try Tuesday.

I learned this information at 3:00pm and by 5:30pm I was in my office frantically making last-minute travel arrangements to Shenzhen for the next day (it costs half as much to fly there as it does to fly into Hong Kong directly) and looking for a hotel. You can get a rush visa in 1 business day, but I had to plan for a few days at least in case there were any problems.

So my week was shot: I would have to take time off from work and I would have to spend my emergency travel funds not on an unexpected trip home, but on a forced “vacation.”

Of course, there are worse places to be forced to travel to.

Hong Kong is a beautiful city. I love it. I have visited several times in the past and each time I have marveled at the seamless melding of Eastern and Western culture. It is both a booming center of commerce and a homey collection of intimate enclaves. Most people are multi-lingual and there is a real sense of adventure in the air everywhere that you go. My biggest problem on this trip was that I couldn’t really go out and experience it all.

As wonderful a place as Hong Kong is, I arrived with no plans, no local contacts, weary and in a foul mood. I’ve done most of the touristy stuff before and didn’t feel like repeating myself, so as a result, I ended up spending most of my time either in my hotel room or walking aimlessly around the Peninsula neighborhood in Kowloon.

There were, however, some bright spots.

By sheer luck I ended up booking a decent mid-level hotel that sits directly on top of Tsim Tsau Tsui station, which is the end of the line for the train from Shenzhen. Furthermore, the China Travel Service (CTS) office that books excursions & processes visas is directly across the street, making this about as convenient a spot to stay as I could have found, and I stumbled across it completely by chance. (My now-legendary luck in China had not, it seemed, abandoned me.)

The Peninsula neighborhood in Kowloon, I learned, is filled with great shopping and restaurants and is only 1 train stop away from the Hong Kong Island (where the trendiest clubs and bars are located). Alternately, the ferry is just a couple of blocks away, as is the immense, obnoxiously stylish Harbour City mall. (Boy, do I know some ladies who could do some serious damage in there!) Another interesting tidbit is that it is like a Red Light District for tailors. No shit. As I walked down the main streets, I was accosted every few feet by well-dressed Indian men asking me if I needed a suit made.

I actually started feeling dirty after a while… Though I suppose that it could have been the abundant porn available on every corner.

I made most of these discoveries not because of my own exploration, but because of the invaluable help of Jade, a native CouchSurfer who graciously spent her Wednesday night walking me around her fair city. We had dinner in Lan Kwai Fong and then walked down to the ferry terminal for the short but beautiful trip back over to Kowloon.

Once there, we paused so that I could take a few photos of the gorgeous skyline…

…Before starting our trek through the Peninsula neighborhood. We went through the Harbour City mall and followed a seemingly random path through marketplaces and outdoor plazas…

…Until we finally settled in a small tea shop and chatted until just before midnight. It was truly the highlight of my trip.

The weather in Hong Kong at this time of year is really unbeatable. It is 70-75 degrees and sunny every day with low humidity. Light breezes were refreshing instead of chilling and the scenery is truly stunning.

I would not have any problems living here and I have often told people that one of my goals is to be able to get a place in this city. Of course, after spending a sweltering summer here and living through one of their infamous rainy seasons, I may sing a different tune, but for now this place is like a paradise for a guy like me.

After several days here of not doing much I ended up getting my new visa with no troubles and headed back to Beijing. As I was finally leaving my hotel, I thought to myself, “It’s great to be heading back home.”

That made me stop in my tracks (and brought the whores- um, I mean, tailors scurrying over). I think that I have finally started to think of Beijing as home.

It feels like I’ve taken a huge step and that there is no going back… Unless I get screwed out of my work visa, that is.

Some of my best friends are architects, so I get lots of flack for hating the hell out of Boston’s City Hall building. They like to cling to its significance as a shining example of Brutalist design. I like to point out that whatever design it is, its juts plain ugly… and barely functional. (Why, oh why, are the most popular and important city services located in the bowels of the building and nearly impossible to find for newcomers? Because the acid-trip-in-a-cement-mixer layout of hallways, staircases and overhangs makes going from one point of the building to any other point a task that requires an iPhone with GPS functionality.)

Now the traveling masses have spoken, according to the Boston Globe.

A survey by Virtual Tourist has declared City Hall to be one of the 10 ugliest buildings or monuments on the planet. You can see some discussion on the topic here.

Any time that they want to tear that monstrosity down would be just fine with me.

Those of you who don’t live in my home neighborhood of Dorchester in Boston probably won’t have occasion to see me on the front page of this week’s Dorchester Reporter. Not to worry! Thanks to the magic of the Internet, I can link you straight over there. (Though I would recommend you driving down to Gerard’s in Adam’s Village for some dinner and to pick up a copy in the adjoining convenience store. You know, for posterity.)

To read the piece that I wrote, click here. To see a .PDF file of the paper with my ugly mug on the front page, click here. (Thanks, Mr. Editor, for choosing the picture of me drinking a beer at 9:30am to go there. I’m sure that Nana will love that one!)

Even without me in it, the Reporter is a great newspaper. They’ve been doing a great job covering my home for a long, long time now. You might want to read them from time to time.

There’s no escaping it; crowds are crazy in China. Part of the process of cultural assimilation here is learning how to wind your way through the masses in the subway, on the streets and in lines. It is not as simple as it is in the States. If you queue up and expect a nice, orderly, polite procession where people have consideration for who is next in line, you will be in for a rude awakening and you will not get anywhere.

The worst scrums that I have ever seen in New York don’t even come close to comparing with the stuff that I have seen go down here in China on a regular basis. Little old ladies will just as soon trip you as smile at you if you get in their way while boarding a train. Crossing the street? Get ready to race your fellow pedestrians, the cyclists and the cars, traffic lights be damned. (Growing up in Boston has at least prepared me somewhat for this last, as we, too, do not wait for the lights at crosswalks and will routinely dart out into traffic if it looks like we can make it.)

And once you are actually into a car… Whoa, baby! Lanes dissolve into chaos at intersections. Vehicles weave and bob around each other like a scene from Top Gun. Whenever I get into a cab, I keep expecting the driver to whisper, “Talk to me, Goose. Talk to me…”

Needless to say, I will never drive here in China. Ever. I just don’t think that I could handle the pressure and the sheer chaos. I’ll leave that to the experts.

So there we were, Rachel & I, exiting the Table Tennis event when it struck us: We were not close to a subway station and there was a huge crowd of people filing out onto the street. Furthermore, it was rush hour (@ 5:45pm) and the prospects of getting a cab were not good… And since Rachel had arranged for me to meet her boyfriend and some of her friends, and they were all at a restaurant waiting for us to arrive, it was imperative that we get out of there quickly. Showing up an hour or two late for dinner would not be the best way for me to make friends.

So off we went to find our cab. We walked at a fast pace to try to get ahead of the crowd and headed towards a large intersection that was a block away. We figured that if we could turn down one of the side streets before the mass of people caught up with is we might get lucky… but it was not to be. The side streets were already filled with workers lined up on the sidewalks waiting for cabs and buses.

We continued straight on through the intersection, crossed to the other side of the street and hovered close to a large bus station. There only seemed to be a few people waiting for cabs -including a stunning, leggy should-be-a-model-type woman- so we felt the faint glimmers of hope… but, again, we were thwarted. Some Germans had noticed our breakaway from the crowd (stupid Germans!) and followed us past the large intersection and across the street and deduced that our strategy for getting a cab was spot-on. Then other groups of people noticed them… Within 10 minutes it was getting crowded and we knew that we were doomed.

“Which way is it towards the closest Metro?” I asked, resignation heavy in my voice.

Rachel pointed further down the street that we were on, straight towards the huge crowd waiting for buses and still more crowds coming out of office buildings behind them. There would be no hope of getting a cab in that direction. But as I started to walk that way, Rachel exclaimed, “Hey!”

I turned 90 degrees and saw an alleyway that I had not noticed before. It appeared to lead behind the office building/mall that we were about to walk in front of. And what was darting out of this alleyway towards the main street? An empty taxi!

Rachel nearly jumped in front of the thing to get it to stop and we both slid in. “You’re like a sneaky Taxi Kung-Fu Master!” I said, laughing.

As we pulled out of the alleyway onto the street, we passed right in front of that leggy lady that had caught my eye earlier. She was still waiting for a cab, and when she saw me in the backseat going by, she gave me a glare that sent shivers down my spine.

No matter, though. We had our ride, and it was off to yet another adventure for me.

I’ve decided that going to the Olympics is like hitting a sci-fi convention. There’s just way too much going on and you will never be able to see it all. Its actually really easy to get overwhelmed and before you know it you’re running around in circles trying to track down tickets to this event and another event and you’ve wasted an entire day.

Yesterday was a case in point. I did achieve one of my goals for when I moved to Beijing: I had an amazing dinner of Peking Duck (more on that later). I also finally hooked up with the CouchSurfing crew here in the city at their weekly meet-up. And I met a really cool German dude and scored tickets to tomorrow’s soccer games in Tianjin with him and 5 other people. We will be a virtual United nations: 1 American, 1 German, 1 Frenchman, 1 Singaporean, 1 Italian and 1 Briton. Wow. I don’t even like soccer and I’m wicked psyched for this trip!

Even with all of these accomplishments, there was disappointment. First, the man who was supposed to sell me tickets to Thursday’s baseball match never showed up at the CouchSurfing meet-up. Too bad. And, because I was running around so much, I missed yet another day of boxing here in my neighborhood. Ugh. I am determined that I will get into a session ASAP!

More to come soon!

So here I am in Beijing. It doesn’t feel all that different yet. This is probably because I’m sitting in a Starbucks, sipping a mango-passion fruit smoothie as I type away on my laptop. The crowd is very international (I am only 1 block away from the Worker’s Indoor Gymnasium and 4-5 blocks from Worker’s Stadium) so it might as well be Harvard Square. This is a far cry from yesterday though.

The flight was a dream, but my biggest problem with long-haul trips is that I simply can NOT sleep on planes. Heck, this time I had barely slept during the previous 2 days (only 3 hours/night) as I rushed to finish everything and I still couldn’t do more than catnap for about an hour. This left me absolutely exhausted when I landed.

What happened when I entered the airport was, quite simply, amazing. I have always been impressed with Chinese efficiency. This is especially true at airport security lines and when entering the country. But yesterday… Good Lord!

I was through customs in FIVE (5) minutes! Then, when I went down the single flight of stairs to the baggage area, the luggage was already off of the plane and waiting for us!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: The Chinese are NOT messing around when it comes to the Olympics. I actually landed on the day that they were set to begin, with spectators and foreign dignitaries from across the globe arriving amidst the biggest security zone that the world has ever seen and I got through the airport arrivals process in 10 minutes!

So why do I have to wait in line for 1 hour when I come back to the States? A question for another time, perhaps.

All of this seemed like a surreal whirlwind in my sleep-deprived state. Thank the heavens that my good friend Alex met me at the airport and took me to my new apartment for the lease-signing and settling in. I honestly don’t think that I would have been able to handle everything without him, I was so out if it. Then, after I was all set, he brought me out to get some food and to pick up a few essentials (sheets for the bed, food for a couple of days). What a great guy, eh?!

The worst part of all of this is that I simply could not summon the energy to head out to a sports bar and watch the Opening Ceremonies. Instead, I crashed in my new bed at 7:30pm and did not get up until 8:00am today.

So today, now that I have slept for 12 hours and recovered, I can start to figure out what I want to do now that I am here. I am meeting some local friends today and we’ll see which events look like the most fun to check out. I know that I am really pumped for the USA vs. China basketball game tomorrow.

Stay tuned!

NOTE: The internet connection in my apartment will not be set up for a week, so my postings might be a bit erratic until then, as I have to walk a few blocks from my place to get to this Starbucks. Also, some postings -like this one- may go up without photos, but they will be added later.

Sorry that my blog has been bereft of posts this week. I promise that this will not be a trend. I was merely buried with the task of packing up my entire life into 2 pieces of not-too-oversized luggage and 2 carry-ons. Quite a job, that.

Anyway, its done and I’m on my way! Here at Newark Liberty Airport the anticipation of the crowd is palpable as the plane that will take us all to Beijing just in time for the Opening Ceremonies is… Aw, who am I kidding. This pace is dead, and I’m too exhausted from the past 2 days of frantic last-minute rushing around to be pumped for anything anyway.

NEWS FLASH!: The economy is tanking, folks. Its 9:30am- just past rush hour when most business travelers are already gone and Continental’s main terminal here in Newark is anything but crowded. If you want a clear indication of the state of monetary affairs here in the US, head to your closest airport. I’m in a lounge built to hold several hundred people and there are *3* people in my section. What’s even more disturbing, is that my rush-hour flight from Boston to Newark was over half empty. Yikes.

But I can kiss this tranquility goodbye pretty soon. From all indications, Beijing is set to throw the biggest party in their 5,000-year history. They are NOT messing around. If I can avoid delays at customs and get my apartment logistics settled quickly I will be attending an Opening Ceremonies bash here. You folks in the States will have to wait 12 hours for the re-broadcast but if my internet connection in my apartment is up, I’ll be sure to post updates as soon as I get home.

Until then, farewell, America!

P.S: Bob Ryan wrote a great piece on the Olympics in today’s Boston Globe. Check it out.

It all begins with a first step, just like the saying goes. When you think of it like that, today’s purchase of my plane ticket to Beijing doesn’t really seem that monumental. After all, this is a path that I started walking just over 2 years ago so buying a seat on an airplane is really one of the last steps of my journey. Like Remo Williams, my adventure has only just begun…

I take off at 8:30am from Boston next Thursday, August 7 and I’ll be landing in Beijing right when the shit is hitting the fan: Friday, August 8 is Opening Day for the Olympics. Wow. Frankly, I expect a lot of chaos and a lot of fun!

But before all of that, I’ve still got some things to sort out; like what clothes to pack, how to distribute my few worldly goods (anybody want my homemade Doogie Howser, M.D. DVDs?), and how to part ways with my extensive collection of comics and my beloved personal library.

Oh, and my friends, too.

The good part of having made this decision over 2 years ago is that everybody who means anything to me -except you, “A-Bomb”- has had ample time to get used to the idea that I would be jetting off to the Orient. Like them, there were times when I thought that  I might not go through with it, but there has never been any doubt that this was the right move for me. China is where its at right now and its where the next big things are going to be springing from in the coming years.

So as I take these last few steps past the point of no return, I am surprised to find myself not lamenting or obsessing over the past and connections that will be strained or broken, but excited -and slightly scared- about the new experiences and people that are waiting for me over in the Northern City.

More to come…