Golfing in China 10-29-07

I traveled to Hong Kong and mainland China recently on a business related venture and had the pleasure and priviledge of playing golf at Shenzhen CITIC Green Golf Club
(CITIC Botanical Garden Longgang, Shenzhen, China Tel : China: (86 755) 8484 5555 Fax : China: (86 755) 8482 2301). It was a very unique experience for any American. I spent the morning tending to business with the leadership team of the company that I had come to visit in China.

Hong Kong and China: Before I speak about the golf experience - it is worth telling the tale of how I arrived at this location. I flew from Grand Rapids Michigan through Detroit Metro Airport to Tokyo and then on to Hong Kong. This was a very long trip and all-in-all was over 24 hours start to finish. The company I was coming to visit had arranged for transportation - it was a terrific advantage for a first time traveler to Asia. I am sure you are aware of the passport and various checkpoints foreign visitors must submit to. The one flaw in my preparation is not knowing I needed a China Visa in addition to my passport to enter into mainland China. The driver took me to the entry point for entry into China - this was about an hour from the Hong Kong international airport. Unfortunately, I did not have this special Chinese Visa that would allow me to enter mainland China - so I was forced to improvise and stay at a hotel close to the checkpoint - the Panda Hotel - it was very nice and extremely clean. I was also fortunate the driver spoke some English. So here I am - staying in China and not knowing how to say anything more than hello and goodbye. My driver told me he would be back to pick me up in the morning and they would see about getting this Chinese Visa - but he could not promise anything because it would be Saturday (I arrived very late Friday evening - around midnight). I slept like a rock - it had been a very long trip and the extra little mistakes pushed us into the early hours of the morning. I woke up - threw on some cloths and headed for some breakfast (part of the hotel package). It was a fine assortment of cereals, fruit, meat, juice, coffee, and other goodies. There were other business travelers there as well - i could tell from the accents they were mostly from Great Britain. I ventures out of the hotel after breakfast to have a look around - there were no or little English speaking people in the area around the hotel - it was Chinese and that was it. Anyway after killing a little time on the sightseeing - my driver arrived to pick me up. He informed me there would be no Saturday Visa - I would need to wait until Monday - I told him I would rather stay in Hong Kong instead and do some sightseeing since I had nothing else i could do. He agreed and off to downtown Hong Kong we went. I was pretty excited to see what Hong Kong was all about - i have heard so much about it over the years - it was nice to finally have the chance to see it! Kim - my driver - drove me to the Ritz in the financial district - this was a good choice for a foreigner - the plugs had adapters so i could charge my Blackberry - there were English speaking people throughout the hotel - and frankly - I could trust the food. It was a terrific location with a wonderful staff who were very kind and very helpful. Over the next two days I slept erratically and went sightseeing to all the local tourist spots; the market, the escalator through the city, the shopping district, the parks, and my favorite was the view from the top of the tram that takes you to the peak of the mountain overlooking Hong Kong and into China.

On Monday - after the hotel secured my Chinese Visa for me - I was off to mainland China. Hong Kong was new and much like any American city - but cleaner and frankly very friendly. As we made our way back to the security checkpoint I was very watchful of the new construction that was occurring in so many places - including Hong Kong. It was like there were two cultures existing at the same time - the new reform (capitalism) and the older buildings that were dated and tired (communist). We had to switch drivers at the border - there were different licensing requirements for drivers - either Hong Kong or China or sometime some drivers had both. As we traveled into China on our way to Shenzhen - it was apparent this was still a third world country emerging as a powerful engine of growth - but nevertheless - still their was a lot of poverty and the infrastructure was still not completely in place yet. It was also a bit hazy with a pollution-type cloud around the cities we traveled through. I would imagine this will change as the economy grows and their industry becomes more green friendly. After two hours of driving we arrived at the Jun Yi Hotel in the northeastern area of Shenzhen. It was an area with industry and residential the same. The hotel employees spoke little or no English - so it made things a bit more difficult - but overall the staff was nice and the room was clean and spacious. We elected to have dinner at the hotel - a seafood buffet - not so good by my count and certainly expensive for for what you did or did not get. The hotel was $450 RMB per night or the equivalent of $69.00 USD. This included breakfast - which was a bit better than inner - but not by much! After dinner headed up to the "Disco" as they called the bar for a beer before I headed off to bed. The "Disco" was more like a gentleman's club than a bar. I really was not up for this - so I took my beer and headed back to watch TV - yep - you guessed it - all the channels had Chinese speaking programs - so I channel surfed and found anything that I could somewhat understand.

The Club : This brings me back to the driver picking me up for the morning business meetings, then lunch, then golfing with my terrific hosts. After we concluded our four hours discussing business - my hosts asked if I would be interested in playing golf and having dinner after that. I thought it was a great idea and the chance to play golf in China would be a very unique experience not many people have the opportunity to do. They had extra clubs and balls for me - and I had some tennis shoes in my suitcase - so this would work fine. The four of u packed ourselves into this van and off to the course we went. It was a 30-40 minute drive from their offices and once we arrived we had a security guard their to check our credentials. I imagine being a member of a club is only for the affluent. After we cleared the guard stand - we drove down the entrance like any golf course in America - just less spectacular and less perfect. Once we arrived at the clubhouse - James gave me a locker key to change my cloths and then meet them up in the restaurant for lunch. The facilities were quite run down and in need of major improvements - the locker room was the same - like an old high school locker room. I changed my cloths and quickly caught up with my guests to have lunch upstairs overlooking the Citic Golf Course. We were the only people in the dining area and I was somewhat an oddity being from the USA - I stood out like a sore thumb. When it was time to order - I had no idea what to order and couldn't read the menu - so I ordered the same as the other; James, Benny, and Jerry. I had a great time with these guys - they were warm and friendly and we all laughed often. They had all ordered some type of Thai soup? I figured I would go along for the ride - I even used my chopsticks to eat as they did. The soup had wonderful flavor and I am really not sure to this day what was in it - it look like they put a scoop of chili on top ...who knows? I had a Coke to wash it all down - I figured this part I knew - either way Coke would help settle my stomach in the event lunch was not settling.

Caddies: I was not sure what to expect - a run down course or a majestic course hidden by the unpretentious buildings and entry - it was the latter. What a beautiful place - Shenzhen is fairly tropical with palm trees and lush vegetation - the greens and fairways were in awesome shape and their were fantastic and challenging holes. I was particularly taken by the four young female caddies that accompanied us through the entire round of golf - they were kind and fun - they had neat uniforms with protective hats - and they laughed with us often throughout the day - all-the-while remaining courteous and structured about their responsibilities. They would ride on the back of the golf carts as we went hole to hole - cleaning our golf balls and clubs - helping us with shot selection and lost golf balls. They were very cute in their own way - they found the hair on my fore arms unusual - in Asia most men do not have hair on their arms - mine is not overbearing but it was more than they were used to. My hosts tipped out the girls after our round - I think it was roughly $50 RMB/girl or $6-$7 USD.

Golf: Golf was extraordinary - the course was terrific as noted above and my hosts were fun to be around and roughly the same skill set. I play to around 15 handicap - and they did about the same. None of us took ourselves too serious - we just had a nice time hitting the ball and playing golf. The weather was also terrific - in the 90 degree range - typical weather for October in Shenzhen. There were many workers tending to the course - and it was in great shape. I also noticed they were building an additional 18 holes of golf and many new homes and condo being built on the course like you would see in any upscale golf development in the United States. This course reminded me of Pilgrims Run Golf Course just north of Grand Rapids - in Cedar Springs - carved out of a forest by the VanKampen (VanKampen mutual funds) family. It was a very scenic course with great topography and an abundance of natural water hazards. As I played the game it was easy to forget you were in China and not back home playing golf with my pals. My feeling is China is probably where the united States was 100 years ago - during the industrial revolution - but happening much faster and with 15x more people. Cell phones were everywhere and my Blackberry had full signal strength everywhere I went - my email and phone both worked flawlessly. I was amazed that I had a better signal for my cell phone throughout China than I have at my cottage which is only an hour north of Grand Rapids Michigan? Anyway - back to golf - I was playing for fun and for business - I was driving the ball well and overall my play was good. They kept score - but I was disinterested as I was just enjoying the moment. What a thrill it was for me to travel across the world and play golf in a place I never dreamed I would play golf. If you get the chance to travel to Hong Kong and China - I hope you enjoy the experience - it was a real treat!

Best regards - RWAJ