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Q: HK has more Chinese culture than the Mainland?
I am in HK for a few days to get a new Z-visa, not the first time I come but this morning I have been to the Wan Chai Chinese Temple at 10:30 to see the morning pray.
I have seen many urban youth with designer/fashion clothes and expensive purses and bags coming to pray with enthusiasm, I talked with a girl named Lily after her pray, she must be in her mid 20s, dressed with a very sexy jean shorts and lose white top, high heels and has perfectly manicured nails, she is working for HSBC as an investment consultant, when I asked a few questions about the place I felt fervor and strong belief in her voice when answering, but nothing hostile, she was happy to see that I was interested by more than taking photos.
The atmosphere in the temple was what you would expect when going in such kind of places, during the pray it was intense, hot and there was so much passion from the believers and the monks.
So how come that in Mainland China people don't go to temple or when they go it's not as intense as in HK, I have seen so many Mainland youth laughing at their own traditions and religions, it's beautiful to see young people believing in something else than money, and one doesn't prevent the other.
But..... 
people said you cant get Z visa from HK
Eorthisio:
Of course you can, I applied yesterday, they took my application, means it's accepted. Many people are scared because the website of the visa office mention the "HK residence permit" thing, it's the slip that they give you when you enter the territory, they don't stamp the passport anymore, you need to keep this paper and give it when you apply for a visa in HK.
Your welcome.
hunny797:
Oh really??
it means I dont have to go to my home country now?
That's some really good news for me....
And can you tell me the time it takes?
Eorthisio:
Takes 4 working days, you can also apply for express 1 working day, no more same day pick up. You need the business licence of your employer, the invitation letter, 2 ID photos, your passport and the entry slip (make copies of all of this), and of course the visa application form.
The visa office is located in Wan Chai in the China Resources building, take the exit A2 at Wan Chai subway station.
No idea who told you that you can't apply in HK but that's bs, you can also apply in Macau, probably less people and thus less waiting.
Hotwater:
But if you are already working in China with a work permit/residence visa why would you need to go to HK to get another Z visa? That's only needed the 1st time you come to legally work here....after that it is either direct renewals in current job or paperwork inside China to ttransfer your work permit to another employer.
Unless you weren't working here legally originally.... 
Eorthisio:
@Hotwater: No it's just that my current employer is a noob and messed up with the transfer thing. You know Mainlanders, I explained to the HR guy how to transfer as I already did it before, but probably to save face he said "oh no that is not possible to transfer (note that I have all the documents needed), we need to start from the beginning", I then said "no problem, but the company has to cover all my expenses while in HK", they said ok, and here I am spending their money in this great city.
Well, in Mainland, they hit the "reset" button back in the 60's/70's with the Cultural Revolution. The cultivated people who didn't fled (since at least 1910, educated people fled, 1949 did not help) were punished for being cultivated, pretty much. People got positions because they were fierce Red Guards, not because they were competent, and kept their positions. People with zero credentials for teaching, for being doctors, etc. taught to a lot of young people. Repeat and rinse for several decades, in a culture where questioning things is not strong. A lot have been lost. Since then, the attitude toward this loss is a lot of silence and face-keeping.
HK didn't go through this, like other old oversea Chinese communities. Those communities seems much more aware of Chinese culture pre-1949, and kept much more things. I've made the same observation as you with the Chinese community in Vietnam and in Malaysia.
Eorthisio:
That's what I was thinking, Taiwan also must have much more Chinese culture, I have never been there but I would like to.
Scandinavian:
Spot on, Taiwan is often called "China Lite" but in fact the PRC is the Light version of China. Taiwain is awesome.
This is why i really like Hong Kong, and I like Macau for just the same reasons. People there have identity, not just their default national identity but a personal one. At the same time, many Hong Kongers also have a strong "national identity" as Hong Kongers.
Your temple experience, well. I am sure you can find people doing the same in the PRC. The temples I've been to though, all seem devoid of spirituality. People there go to do a couple of basic things, like touch a statue for good luck, and burn a stick of incense. (not that different from many Catholics when they light a candle as a forced action) I certainly see it more as a face purchase than anything with spirituality.
I guess you got a crush on that girl 
She is probably not better looking than what you can find on the mainland, but she has an enlightened personality, and if there is anything in this world that is sexy, it's girls with brains and a free mind.
Eorthisio:
Hey at least girls in HK have shapes, in the Mainland they are all into that skinny craze.
But yep, after a year talking mostly to Mainland women, who all have the same idea about everything, who all like and dislike the same things, whose topics are limited to shopping, food and getting married, it's refreshing to talk with Hong-Kong ladies.
I have been to temples in Mainland China, I share your feeling about it, people go there to do basic stuffs in order to gain face, they want to look good "hey look at me, I am going at the temple" but have no idea about the spiritual meaning of the place. Anyway every temples, churches, mosques or synagogues are under the control of the CCP in Mainland China, and it will probably be the same in HK and Macau very soon, sadly.
Scandinavian:
Whenever I've visited a mosque or church anywhere in the world, as a tourist and nonbeliever I would care about the architecture, but the atmosphere, even in tourist traps like Sagrada Familia in Barcelona or the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, still instill respect, you act courteous to those who are there doing something meaningful to them. I don't get that at all in the mainland temples I've been to. We have one here in town, it's big, it's by a mountain, it has monks in orange, how can that not be a spiritual place. For starters, it's actually a block on concrete with some ornaments glued to it, newly built, no history, not that that is required. Secondly, you have screaming kids, grown ups throwing garbage on the ground and a guy standing and preventing people from taking pictures of a certain area, who sees the other way for 10RMB.....
A goddamn armchair would have more culture than Mainland... Mainland is a generic country crowded with your average post-modern consuming unit that has a freedom of choosing product A over product B, and gets stuck into an infinite loop of educational limitations when trying to think further. A place that was born yesterday, built upon a system, standards, protocols it didn't invent, and doesn't even fully understand.
You can see some Chinese identity, filtering through this wasteland, because there used to be a nation by the name of China, rich of an abundant past and culture that couldn't be completely erased despite the efforts put to it. It has since be discovered that what couldn't be destroyed could be turned into contribution machines for monetary or nationalist profit, empty shells that can at least feed the system a bit further.
They are VERY superstitious in HK. Thats' why. Even the building for the Bank of China there was designed based on feng shui. That's why even the younger people go to pray. Because they are religious/superstitious.
Eorthisio:
What's wrong with being religious or superstitious? I prefer to see superstitious Buddhist trying to make a bee go away without hurting it because it could be the reincarnation of their ancestor than Mainlanders playing the "Alpha Males" but running away like pussies when they see a bee or a spider.
xunliang:
I didn't say there was anything wrong with being religious or superstitious.
Scandinavian:
Maybe read the thread about Doing the tenth month and then say again there is nothing wrong with superstition !
Not to start a longer discussion, but there is everything wrong with non-scientific beliefs.
HK and Taiwan have spirit and soul, something that the PTB tried to destroy in the mainland. I think there is still spirit and soul here but it definitely took major slashing.
Yeah Hong kong is awesome. Definitely has a little more of an interesting culture to it...remember they got to miss the truly desperate times of the PRC, the times that probably quite literally starved any culture out of this place.
Theres just not all the retards there either...you know? It's probably MORE crowded but they're SO much less uncouth about it so it's much more tolerable day-to-day. If I stay in APAC I really want to move there.
I'm not crazy about asian women in general, but in Hong kong they don't tend have this certain quality I can't describe well that nearly all mainland women have that I find just totally unsexy and abrasive. They also dress better and know how to wear makeup properly.
Eorthisio:
Yeah I know what you mean about the Mainland women's behavior, the older women over there behave in a manly way probably inherited from the communist era with all the "female comrade" thingy, as for the younger they act like little princesses "I am the center of the world, fuck everyone else". Anyway I have never met any sophisticated woman in China.
I didn't realize last time I came as I didn't spend enough time in China but Mainlanders really stand out in HK, when you lived among them for long enough you can tell whether or not someone is a Mainlander simply by observing their behavior, no need for them to spit or defecate on the street, their posture, the way they look at things or are oblivious of their surroundings, the way they invade others' privacy with no shame, etc... tell you who they are.
expatlife26:
I guess part of it is that I don't have the asian fetish at all, but i mean there were definitely some asian girls back home that I thought were hot...but no, never here.
I just don't think they carry themselves with any kind of sophistication nor do they have the sexuality to compensate.
I guess my #1 complaint about China in general is that even pretty smart/with it people here aren't really much fun.
Doesn't matter though there's plenty of gorgeous european/american (north and south) women here.
You're absolutely right about the body language i've noticed that as well.
'So how come that in Mainland China people don't go to temple'
maybe they caught on that worshipping the 'Big, Giant, Omnipotent White Man who Lives in the Clouds' is kinda tarded-re.
good news is a lot of 'em are even getting past worshipping uncle. surely, but slowly.
~ flame away
ok.. who wants a chinese joke and a 'kid-u-not' occurence related?
Scandinavian:
Religion is on the rise in China ! Spirituality stays low.
diverdude1:
I think I met him once on ngong ping. he gave me the bird when no one else was looking! 
