The Dragon Head of Hong Kong Read Online Free PDF Page B

five-minute walk from the hotel. The morning rush hour was over, and she was able to buy her ticket and work her way onto the platform without getting pushed and jostled. She had experienced rush hour once, with her mother and Marian. It was something she never wanted to go through again. Getting to the train had been hard enough, but then they had to fight to get on it, her mother holding onto their hands for dear life, and survive being so tightly squeezed together that Ava couldn’t move her arms.
    The train to Shenzhen arrived half-empty and Ava was able to find a seat. At the first stop, Kowloon Tong, the train filled, but there was enough room for people to stand, so she could follow the train’s progress through the New Territories and towns such as Tai Wai, Sha Tin, Tai Wo, and Fanling.
    When Lo Wu was the next scheduled stop — by her watch, about five minutes away — she saw the other passengers begin to stand and move towards the exit doors. She had no doubt that when the train stopped, they would be making a mad dash towards the Chinese immigration booths. Part of her was tempted to join them, but then the thought of how unpleasant it would be to get caught up in the melee prevailed. She was one of the last people off the train.
    It took twenty minutes to get to an immigration officer. He looked quickly at her passport and then directed her to a door with the words VISA APPLICATIONS above it. Thirty minutes and twenty dollars later she emerged with a five-day visa stapled into her passport.
    There were two things she noticed immediately when she walked out of the station and into the city: everyone was speaking Mandarin, and Shenzhen seemed to be one gigantic construction site. She had been prepared for the Mandarin but not for the extent of the city’s development. Stunned, she stood on the sidewalk and counted the cranes that were in plain view. When she got to forty, she stopped.
    She walked to the taxi stand and got into a long, snaking line that was orderly and moved quickly. When she climbed into her cab, she was barely seated before it was moving. “The Good Luck Hotel,” she said.
    The driver’s face fell. “So near,” he said.
    Ava pulled a Hong Kong $100 bill from her purse. “Here, will this make up for it?” she said.
    “No renminbi?”
    “Just Hong Kong.”
    He sighed and took the money from her.
    The cab left the station, drove past two stoplights, made a right turn, and pulled up in front of the Good Luck Hotel. “If I’d known it was so close, I would have walked,” Ava said.
    The driver grunted.
    She slid out from the back seat and stood in front of a large grey box dotted with small windows. If it weren’t for the name on the sign, the hotel could have been mistaken for an office tower, or even a factory. She glanced both ways down the street. The aesthetic appeal wasn’t any better. She had read that Shenzhen was a city that had been thrown together in a hurry rather than planned. It was all about function and purpose. The quality of city living was an issue for another day.
    She walked through the revolving doors into the hotel lobby. It was as plain as the exterior, with a bare brown tile floor, a Styrofoam-panelled ceiling, and walls that lacked any decoration. It did look expansive, but that was mainly because it was sparsely furnished. There were only four sofas, ten chairs, and six coffee tables in an area that was about fifty metres long and thirty metres wide.
    It was just past eleven thirty and the lobby was crowded. Three lines of people were checking out and two lines of people stood in front of empty desks that said CHECK IN . Ava didn’t like their chances of seeing their rooms anytime soon.
    Her plan had been to show her photos of Kung to hotel staff to see if anyone recognized him. There was no doorman and the front desk staff were busy, but there was a young man leaning on the baggage counter. Ava walked over to him. He stood erect as she drew near. He was no