I came to Shenzhen via Hong Kong. There were lots of cars running so naturally it took a long time to enter Mainland China via Hong Kong. New buildings and roads were being built in a great speed.
One of the purposes of my visit this time was to play golf at the ‘Mission Hills’. It is a huge piece of development with twelve 18-hole courses. I understand that the Mission Hills is the largest golf resort in the world. You may have seen this place on TV since the World Cup was opened in 1995 as the official introduction of this facility to the world. It was in 1997 when Hong Kong was returned to China from the Great Britain. I played at the World Cup Course. It was quite a fascinating course. Please enjoy the place at their web site.
Surrounding the golf course stood many classy huge housings (I was told that a single house was at least 600 square meters large…I wondered what sort of people were going to live in such places), and I saw signs calling for new members. Memberships and houses must cost a fortune, but I presume that most of them are for investments ? I could see only a handful of people in these many houses. …. The view reminded me of Japan 20 years ago but apparently the scale is of no comparison. I had an impression that the interiors of hotels (built more than 10 years ago) somewhat lacked closer attention in details compared to Japanese hotels, but it doesn’t matter because what matters is energy. They don’t worry about small details. It’s meaningless to point out trivial flaws here and there.
The players from China were four from Beijing, one of them is an executive of a company that purchases mineral resources in Africa, and he just returned from Congo. Another person was in a ship cargo business – all of them were in their late 40’s and full of energy.
I was invited to a restaurant in downtown Shenzhen but was overwhelmed by the speed in which the facilities and roads were being built. What was this place like 10 or 20 years ago, I wonder? And how would it be 10, 20 years from now?
Upon my return to Tokyo, I stayed overnight at the Shangri-La Hotel in Hong Kong. It is one of my favorite hotels. Gazing the raining Hong Kong Island lying across the sea, I relaxed for a half day.
Although the weather was a mere rainfall in Hong Kong, I understand that the southern China had a very heavy rain. I do hope that the rain did not cause much damage.