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China 1999

Forbidden City, Beijing, November, 1999

We stayed in Beijing for September-November, 1999 and made two trips to the forbidden city.

We're back in China. To be precise, Shenzhen (Guangdong Province) which is just across the border from Hong Kong. That might not surprise you as you most likely didn't know that we went to Vietnam for three weeks in February. We're here to do some consulting for the ZTE Corporation .

While in China a Chinese-American friend suggested to his Chinese contact that Gerry might be available to do some consulting. While in Hong Kong we came over to Shenzhen twice and finalized the deal. One by-product of the consulting is that we both now have multiple-entry visas for China. We have gone from having trouble getting our first visa to being able to go in and out on a daily basis. And sometimes that is what it seems we do. To go from Shenzhen to Hong Kong for the day takes just 1.5 hours, half for immigration controls and half for train travel (each way!). This is only a little longer and costs a little more (about US$8 each way) than our old Middletown - Manhattan route. The Shenzhen (Lowu) border crossing is pretty famiilar to us now.