tim's experiment

After a tiring day Mrs Hamlett and I got on the train in Hung Hom and settled down in the First Class section, which at that stage was empty. If you get on in Hung Hom you can get a seat in cattle class so most people don’t bother with First, though it only costs a couple of bucks. As there was plenty of room we sat opposite each other, with the bags between our feet.

I don’t usually do this, because it means there is an empty seat next to me, and a surprising number of passengers are a bit nervous about sitting next to a foreigner. But we had the place to ourselves until Kowloon Tong, where the train fills up with border-bound mainlanders. At this point a lady sat down opposite me in the seat next to my wife. She urged her companion, who was still making for a seat elsewhere, to sit next to me. They made an interesting pair. As so often when two ladies go out together one (the lady opposite) was making a fashion statement: plucked, permed, powdered and wearing a micro-dress which in my youth would have been regarded as a daring swimsuit. Her friend was also pretty, but not working at it: sneakers, jeans, glasses… There was a wheeled suitcase.

After a few moments the lady with the legs leaned forward and explained that her friend wished to be photographed with me. Would this be all right? No problem – we leaned towards each other and cellphones were plied. Then it turned out that Legs also wished to be pictured with me so they swapped seats and there was further photography. After this we talked. Legs spoke heavily accented but pretty good English. They had of course been shopping and lived in Shenzhen. It was nice shopping in Hong Kong, she said, because people were so polite and welcoming. If you left a shop without buying anything they would politely say “goodbye and hope to see you again”. Apparently in Shenzhen if you leave without buying anything they get angry. It is surprising, but nice, to find that Hong Kong is regarded as a paragon of hospitality and politeness, even if the standards being applied are not perhaps very high.

Then the conversation turned to me and went along the usual lines: “You live in Hong Kong!” “Wah, so long!” “Do you speak Cantonese?” “Do you speak Chinese?” “Is your wife Chinese?” So I introduced my wife and we all agreed that she does look Chinese. At this point the train was just leaving Tai Wai and we were interrupted by the arrival of a KCR lady with the little gadget which tells them whether you have paid the First Class extra or not. And I regret to say that, as it turned out, our two friends had not. So we all got off in Shatin, us to go home and the two ladies to be taken off to the nearest dungeon for whatever mediaeval ordeal the KCR inflicts on people who travel without a First Class ticket. I have seen this happen to mainland visitors before.

I infer two things from this. One is that despite the horror stories about the deterrent effects of people camping in the streets or campaigning against parallel traders, serious shoppers are not in the least discouraged. Public abuse of shoppers in Hong Kong will have to get a good deal worse to compare with the sort of dressing down you can get in Shenzhen just for looking at something without buying it.

The other is that misunderstandings about the First Class carriage are a problem. I know the KCR puts up lots of notices on the matter but there still seems to be some confusion. Perhaps on big shopping days they could do announcements, or have a guard on the train door?