We were planning to move to Zhongshan towards the end of January, but after we dropped Mom and Dad off on Jan. 19, there seemed to be very little point to stay much longer, other than packing up our stuff since we had sold our car to some friends and the paperwork was being taken care of, and we had gotten our visas for China as well. So our plan changed yet again and we took the flights yesterday!
Packing & Shipping
Packing was painful as ever. We (mostly me) started packing on Sunday after Mom and Dad left, and it continued all the way till Tuesday night, the night before our flights.
Mom and Dad already took some shoes with them for us when they left, but we did not want them to carry too many suitcases so we did not give them much. I looked into shipping some items to China. From what I could find online, it seemed that the Thailand Post was pretty good, reasonable price and reliable. I also looked into clearing the Customs in China given my painful and expensive experience with Thailand.
China seems to have a similar Customs/duty/VAT scheme as Thailand. It was difficult to tell whether I could get any items exempt. However, Hong Kong has absolutely no import duty whatsoever. Since we are very close to Hong Kong, I asked one of my cousins whether I could ship the items to her and we could take them over later. She very graciously agreed.
We went to the local post office and ended up purchasing two boxes. For Hong Kong, the maximum size is 20kg per box. We filled the two boxes with all my books, a little bit of toys and stuffed animals and shipped them via EMS (air) service to Hong Kong on Monday Jan 20. They were supposed to arrive within 7 days. Each shipment costed about $100 USD. If we shipped via SAL (sea & air), it would be cheaper (~$65), but it would take a month to get there!
I checked the tracking numbers today. The first box (shipped in the morning) already arrived Hong Kong today and a delivery had been attempted. The second box was shipped in the afternoon, and it seemed to be on the same container as the first one and went out the same day. Yet, the latest status stops on Tuesday (Jan 21). I hope that it is not lost.
Flights & Ferry
We flew to Hong Kong from Chiang Mai via Bangkok. Just like our move from the U.S. to Chiang Mai, there were minor dramas.
Given all the demonstrations going on in Bangkok over the last couple months, we were a bit worried that the airport would be affected. Furthermore, the Thai government just declared a state of emergency on Jan. 21, the day before our flights! I searched for any news regarding the BKK airport but nothing special came up. I checked the flight status and everything seemed to be operating normally. Fingers crossed!
The flight to Bangkok was leaving at 7am, so we booked a taxi for 5am to take us to the airport (about 20 minutes away). When I tried to book the taxi with the lady who drove me before, she said it was too early and wanted to think about it. She eventually agreed, thanks to our friend Mr. Li pulling some strings. We were worried that the taxi wouldn’t come on time, but the lady called me on Tuesday after to confirm the picked, and a big van showed up on time in front of our house.
Gary worried that we wouldn’t have enough time to check in since we wouldn’t get to the airport until around 5:30am and the flight was at 7am. However, once we got to the airport at around 5:20, no one from Thai Air was actually there to do any check-ins. We were told that the counters would be open at 5:30am, and eventually the people started rolling in slowly, past 5:30am.
I packed all 3 suitcases to the fullest, as well as a small suitcase, and were prepared to pay any excess baggage fee, which was only about 10฿ per kg, not bad. However, the two biggest cases weighed about 36-37kg and the man working at the counter told us that he couldn’t take these two as-is due to the Thai labor law. No single bag should weigh more than 32kg. We were told to take some things out, which was impossible for us! At the end, there was a luggage packing place in the airport. We bought a box to take out some extra items from these two suitcases. We managed to take out enough to lower the weights to the acceptable range. However, the box we bought was too big for what we put in there. Gary tried to exchange for a smaller box but the guy said no. Instead, he cut the bigger box down to fit the contents. It was a weird thing to do in our eyes, but whatever…
The flight arrived Hong Kong about 30 minutes early, which gave us enough time to purchase tickets for the ferry and gave them all the luggage tags to transfer the suitcases over. The prices for the ferry to Zhongshan seemed to have gone up quite a bit. For the VIP tickets, they costed about $60 each!
When we got into the VIP room on the ferry, we were surprised to find that the old leather benches were gone. Replacing them were individual massage chairs! We couldn’t turn them on ourselves, but a service lady helped us. Samantha got a giggle massaging. The bathrooms were much cleaner too. I used to avoid going to the bathroom on the ferry, but this time, while it was not great, it was clean enough, so quite an improvement!
We arrived at the Zhongshan Port about 1 1/2 hours later. We were amazed to find all of our luggage got transferred and they were all there. The line for Immigration Control was not very long so we just zipped through. However, we were picked by Customs to run all of our bags through the scanner, so Gary got quite a workout.
Once we came out from the Port arrival area, my parents and some relatives were there to pick us up. With two small cars, it looked like we may need to call a taxi in order to fit everything. However, the Chinese ingenuity took over and got all the cases and the people packed into the two cars.
First Impressions of Zhongshan
Upon arrival last night, we were all pretty tired. Since it is close to the Chinese New Year, there are all kinds lantern hung on the trees, very pretty!
Shortly after dinner, we all went to bed (including me, which was unusual). The rooms were pretty cold and none of the heaters seem to be working!
Today, we finally had some time to take a look.
Driver License
We tried to get a driver license for China so that we could buy a car. There seems to be an awful a lot of confusion of what needed to be done. Eventually, we ended up going to the Zhongshan Certification organization to get our translated US passports and Calif. driver license to area to look at.
Jam Cafe
After a morning well spent visiting Chinese agencies, we took it easy a bit. Samantha was with my parents, so Gary and I went out to look for food. We went into this little cafe by the corner close to us. There were quite a few foreigners there, and the owner(s) seem to be very friendly as well. We were told that there are actually quite a few foreigners there and they all go to breakfast at the cafe during the weekends so we plan to do the same. Since we enjoyed the food (limited menu but good) and the people (the owners are two Russian sisters) so much, we went back to dinner there with Samantha.
My mom called the Service department for the ACs/heaters and they came in the afternoon to work on the heaters. They fixed all but the heater in the living room, which needed a new board so the man would come back tomorrow. We are just relieved that we now have heat! Maybe that was Gary’s birthday gift.
After dinner, we went for a walk around the neighborhood. To our pleasant surprise, there are many more shops opened, and quite a few restaurants (for me and Sammy). Tomorrow, we will go walk some more and see what other stores are there.
After all these years living abroad, it feels a bit weird to be back in Zhongshan with the intention to stay here for quite a while. I hope that this is the right move for us.
A Journey of Many Thousand Miles 