Into The Dragon's Den

February 17, 2024

It is the year of the Dragon after all, and with no small amount of trepidation I set forth out of Hong Kong and back into the den.

Before that, the bank business had been an absolute rocking success. It turns out there is a branch right inside the airport terminal, and so after my little "busines class" flight on Air Asia we didn't waste any time and got right to it.

The guy helping manage my accounts and investments was extremely smart and savvy. We were probably there for at least three hours, making it almost tied with the hospital in Bangkok. There was just a ton of stuff that needed to be done in both cases.

It didn't take long before we started talking about politics and he had quite a few, shall we say, interesting things to say. You would not believe how many people want their money out of China and the volume of business that is involved. This guy was front and center to all the action. If you want to open an account in Hong Kong, as they all do, you need to book ahead months in advance. He was very impressed that I not only had an account already opened, but an investment account too. That saved him a lot of time. Still, I have no doubt he delayed the process on purpose. The big bosses were visiting the branch for a Chinese New Year wingding and this was his excuse to get out of it. Indeed we could hear the celebrations in the lobby.

What I got from this conversation is that the business community in Hong Kong despises the Chinese government yet benefits from them at the same time. The big banks are a perfect example: they are making an absolute killing off the capital outflow. Hong Kong is the hub from where it all goes out to the world. It's no secret what the locals do anyway, they carry large volumes of cash on their person and cross the land border from Shenzhen.

The bank contact made sure to tell me, "Don't invest anything in China, you should focus on the US market." I was already doing that and thanked him for the confirmation. We then talked about interest rates and it became clear that Hong Kong has quite the interest in what the US is doing in this regard.

After all this I was exhausted. The success for this entire trip was very real yet it took a toll on my brain and body. All I really wanted to do was sleep and decompress. My wife and I then took a bus to a hotel somewhere in the outskirts of the city and explored the area enjoying some delicious Cantonese food. It then became apparent that it was hard to judge which food was the best: Thai or Cantonese. They were both absolutely world class.

So we did a little shopping then hit the buses to Shenzhen Bay checkpoint. It was total deja vu from the last time I did this exactly a month ago, but it was 10 times easier without lugging around the bike. Just two small pannier bags and a backpack this time.

Once across the checkpoint, it still didn't feel like China. This is because it is Shenzhen, the demonstration city and the one place that feels different. Shenzhen represents the positive direction that China began opening up to the outside world in the 1990s. This was of course before Xi reversed the process, but the city still retains the vibe of openness. The city is also where I spent the majority of my holidays during covid because it was the only place worthwhile. We even managed to check out a fitness class and the coaches all recognized us from the previous trips.

Unfortunately the good times would end sooner than we thought and reality would bite hard. A message came in saying we actually have to work on Sunday and I was totally unprepared for this. Sunday makeup days are very common in China for public holidays but we usually avoid the one for Chinese New Year. Even so, after 20+ years of this bullshit I finally had enough. I sent a message saying I wasn't coming in because they didn't give us enough advance notice of this makeup day.

This trip has been too successful to worry about stuff like this. I took a few deep breaths, practiced all I could from my Thai meditation techniques, and let the whole thing go.

As of now it feels like the last four weeks didn't even happen. But we know they did, and this journal is a record of that.

Until next trip.

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