Beijing closes gap with HK

By Jon Van Housen (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-11-16 11:28

While growing up in her snowbound village outside of Harbin in the extreme weather of northeast China, Yang Wan often dreamed of visiting Hong Kong.

Then later as a five-year resident of the increasingly cosmopolitan Beijing, she continued to view the glittering island city as a window on global fashion, a place that gave rise to famed Chinese movie stars and a consumer wonderland.

And last week, she finally got a chance to go. I only had one question to ask her: was it really all that different from Beijing? "Not really, just a lot warmer and with the ocean," she said. "The famous (international) shops were the same as Beijing."

Yang added that even low-priced street market fashions were no more cutting edge that those on offer in the capital city.

"What they had there I've already seen here in Beijing," she said, but noted brand-name cosmetics seemed more readily available and affordable.

Hong Kong's duty-free import policy no doubt makes Gucci handbags and Piaget watches less expensive and more attractive to the well-heeled mainland shopper, but for a dongbei girl of modest means, even renowned Nathan Street in Kowloon was not the paradise of a shopper's fantasies.

In fact her most precious acquisition was not the latest in youthful couture, but a photo of herself with her palm in the very handprint of Jackie Chan on the Boulevard of the Stars along the harbor - something definitely not now on offer in Beijing.

The trip wasn't a letdown to Yang, but the lack of contrast with what she's already seen in Beijing might be as good an indicator as the latest GDP figures or a subway map to show how much the capital has changed. If consumer goods are the measure, the chasm has closed.

The same cannot be said about service. I too recently went to Hong Kong and relaxed in an outdoor cafe with superb service. The waiter seamlessly took my order, asked a couple of necessary questions, made a couple of suggestions, then seemed to disappear - only reappearing exactly when he was needed. That, they say, is the true measure of good service. You are never aware of it.

I couldn't help but compare that to an evening out in a Beijing pizza joint just before I went to Hong Kong. After struggling to place the order and receive it all, I watched as two waitresses had a festive time playing with a half-eaten pizza left behind by the diners next to us. It's safe to say I was very aware of them.

Of course you pay the price in Hong Kong. Meals cost about twice as much and a 10 percent tip was automatically added on the check. But if that's what it takes to stop food fights by the wait staff, a 10-percent tariff might be worth it. Or barring that, at least let me join the fun.