Quick trip to China

[elusivek]

It's Saturday, my friend wanted to take me out to China to a mall that she had newly discovered, so off we went today. It was a bit tough for me because there was a huge queue for the "Foreigners" line in immigration going into China. I queued for almost an hour. My poor friend had to wait for me for that long.

I was pretty gutsy to agree to go to someplace in China far away enough to merit taking the bus. It was an almost 1-hour ride away!

Anyway, with all that queueing at immigration and that bus ride, it was lunch already when we arrived the mall. So we walked briefly through the mall and headed up to a restaurant first.

Again, we had to wait for a bit for a table, but it was overall not bad at all.

After we ordered, we noticed we ordered mostly vegetarian... veggies... a braised beancurd thing, cooked beancurd sheets, and a sweet beancurd. We decided to throw in a grilled squid in the end so that we're not just having beancurd...

So that mall had a Fashion Week event going on, and they had everything set up really nicely. Princess pink, a temporary gazebo of sorts, flowers, and all just very pink! To have a part of their entertainment program a chef showing you how to gut a fish. I did not stay to watch, hahaha!

We hung around for a bit but eventually found out there wasn't really much to do and see in this mall. I still prefer the other mall that's nearer to the border.

So we made that almost 1-hour bus ride back to the border, I managed to buy a pair of really cheap sneakers for dog walking. I also decided to get a cheese cake from a bakery, and got some yoghurt drink thingies to take away. But before we crossed the border, we went to get Chinese sweet soup (pictured above is sesame and walnut sweet soup) as our final dessert and made our way back to Macau. By the time I reached home, it was 6pm already, well, time to walk the dogs, and I can make use of my new cheap sneakers!

Comments

[imogen-blue.livejournal.com]

Why do you have to go through immigration? Isn't Macau like Hong Kong and a part of China again?

[notte0.livejournal.com]

Haha, that’s actually a very good question. Although Hong Kong and Macau are “considered” China, but they are not really China. Both are Special Administrative Regions (thus, Hong Kong SAR and Macau SAR or RAEM in Portuguese “Região Administrativa Especial de Macau”), with totally different government, legal, and whatever systems there may be. You could think like in a corporate environment when you have a “dotted line” reporting line. You are not really under that department head but he has some sort of say in what you do.

Most nationalities coming into Hong Kong and Macau get an automatic 30-day landing visa but you will need a visa going into China. (Although I heard some passports, I think the Japanese passport) can get a visa going into Hong Kong/Macau and China.

People born in Macau or Hong Kong do not automatically get the Chinese nationality either. They get residency rights in Macau (not sure if this policy has changed or not), in Hong Kong it’s more complicated, but as for nationality, you’ll need to rely on your parents. I was born in Macau but I do not have Chinese nationality. I have residency rights in Macau but I am not allowed to get a Macau Passport because I cannot prove I have Chinese ancestors. I rely on my Mom’s Portuguese nationality to have a Portuguese passport (and Austrian passport from my dad).

I know there are a lot of noises in Hong Kong for many Hong Kong born “foreigners” but not allowed to get a Hong Kong passport.

What I’ve written here may be over simplified but I never really studied the intricate information on the matter.

[imogen-blue.livejournal.com]

That must make things very difficult for you. Could you ever be left stranded without a country to get a passport from?

[notte0.livejournal.com]

Well, it remains a fact that Macau (and Hong Kong) isn’t a country per se, so you don’t get any “nationality” even if you are from here. You get a residency permit and you can stay. Back then, before “being returned to China”, anyone born in Macau could get a Portuguese passport, so there are many Macau-Chinese people that had a Portuguese passport. I know a lot of people here that don’t have a passport (born in China and came to Macau) and now they have a Macau SAR passport.

Actually I was wrong up there. I could get a Macau passport if I want to, but because I am so obviously “foreigner”, so “without a doubt I have a foreign nationality”, and so if I want to get a Macau SAR passport I’d have to renounce my other nationality (in essence, I have to declare I am Chinese). I have some Chinese friends who are Macau born and look Chinese, so they can “claim” they don’t have a Portuguese passport, and so they now have 2 passports. But i have a friend who’s Chinese, but in her papers her Grandfather is listed to have a Portuguese surname (also pretty common back then), so they “know” she has a Portuguese passport, and she can’t get a Macau SAR passport unless she renounce her Portuguese nationality. It’s weird.

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

Wow, that food looks fabulous! or maybe I'm just really ready for breakfast. I'm glad you had a good day

[nf793.livejournal.com]

I love the picture of the tree! It sounds like you had a great trip. I have never heard of soup as a type of dessert before. Is it like a watery broth soup?

[notte0.livejournal.com]

Oh, we have many kinds of sweet "soup" for dessert. This particular one pictured is the thick variety. It's ground black sesame and walnut, ground to a paste and then cooked in water (or sometimes milk), so it's very thick.
The more watery variety are sweet dumplings - you cook some sweet dumplings in water with ginger and rock sugar.
Talking about all that is making me hungry!