As Visitor Arrivals Plummet in Hong Kong, You Can Fly Hong Kong to Buenos Aires, Argentina for Less Than US$1500
I was in the Hong Kong International Airport in August when protesters took over the entire complex and shut it down to protest what was then a considerably tone-deaf bit of legislation that would have made it easier for the China government and Hong Kong authorities to send anyone over the border into Chinese detention.
Nowadays the airport is back up and running, and the prices for flights out of Hong Kong are dropping, and the number of travelers inbound is down by more than half, losing almost 1 million travelers to Asia's world city, the biggest drop in a decade. Visitors to Hong Kong were already down by 40% earlier in September.
That night, however, I can only describe the experience as apocalyptic and surreal. It wasn't at all like a movie. But it did remind me of film clips I had seen about revolutions. When major infrastructure is taken over and produces a minor but ongoing inconvenience, then you know that the people are serious. [I will publish some of my own photos of this demonstration evening at the airport, which are on another drive, in a day or two, so come back]
On that evening, we had arrived at the airport at about 10pm, for a flight that was supposed to take us to Manchester and a week-long trip through the United Kingdom. The entire arrivals lobby, a cavernous well-lit space normally, was crowded with young protesters wearing all black and wearing gas masks and face coverings. Every single check-in aisle -- I think there are ten of them -- was on both sides covered in graffiti. The graffiti claimed that "black cops" and "gangster cops" were hunting children and also attaching peaceful protesters. Lists of "war crimes" were written on the windows facing the western runway. Black spray paint, red spray paint, Western language and Chinese calligraphy covered nearly every monitor and all the flights listed on the boards said "cancelled."
We stuck around for about an hour. We were supposed to leave at 1am. The news reporting had said that all flights were canceled for that day. Our logic was that perhaps the next group of flights on the next day -- ours among them -- would continue on, as planned.
But it soon became clear nothing was going to happen. In fact, after spending almost an hour in the airport, it became obvious that there were no staff around at all. I think I counted three staff, but they were not security and they weren't members of any airline. They hustled about with walkie talkies turned up high and then soon disappeared as a group of protesters chased a man they accused of being pro-China from one of the ticketing kiosks. There was a bit of yelling and then things died down as he left the airport.
I told my wife that if we were going to stay then we should leave Terminal 1, which seemed to be turning into something a free for all or a party. We walked under the Airport Express platform and into Terminal 2.
While there, we sat on a group of seats and were ensconced in our sedan chairs when two protesters, faces completely covered, approached us and kindly offered us apple juice and snack cakes they had bought somewhere and brought into the airport. I should note, we saw nothing like looting. I don't think any shop was damaged. They were there to prove a point -- that they could control the city -- so they didn't want to earn a reputation for being destructive.
We accepted the small gifts, but then decided it was time to leave. We packed up, and made our way home, a journey that took nearly three hours, since the trains had stopped running, and cabs were not picking up anyone at the airport. There were no airport busses at all.
This is just to say that if you want to travel through Asia, Europe and also Africa, then right now is the perfect time to start booking seats. We are seeing really good prices for trips to these destinations.
Here's a sampling from my Google Flights tracker. My favorite is a flight to Buenos Aires, for less than $1400 USD, RT for Two people, and a flight to Nairobi for just over US$1200 for two people.
 |
| A Cathay Pacific 747 flies into HKIA, Photo by Andrew Leung, Pixabay |
Nowadays the airport is back up and running, and the prices for flights out of Hong Kong are dropping, and the number of travelers inbound is down by more than half, losing almost 1 million travelers to Asia's world city, the biggest drop in a decade. Visitors to Hong Kong were already down by 40% earlier in September.
That night, however, I can only describe the experience as apocalyptic and surreal. It wasn't at all like a movie. But it did remind me of film clips I had seen about revolutions. When major infrastructure is taken over and produces a minor but ongoing inconvenience, then you know that the people are serious. [I will publish some of my own photos of this demonstration evening at the airport, which are on another drive, in a day or two, so come back]
On that evening, we had arrived at the airport at about 10pm, for a flight that was supposed to take us to Manchester and a week-long trip through the United Kingdom. The entire arrivals lobby, a cavernous well-lit space normally, was crowded with young protesters wearing all black and wearing gas masks and face coverings. Every single check-in aisle -- I think there are ten of them -- was on both sides covered in graffiti. The graffiti claimed that "black cops" and "gangster cops" were hunting children and also attaching peaceful protesters. Lists of "war crimes" were written on the windows facing the western runway. Black spray paint, red spray paint, Western language and Chinese calligraphy covered nearly every monitor and all the flights listed on the boards said "cancelled."
We stuck around for about an hour. We were supposed to leave at 1am. The news reporting had said that all flights were canceled for that day. Our logic was that perhaps the next group of flights on the next day -- ours among them -- would continue on, as planned.
But it soon became clear nothing was going to happen. In fact, after spending almost an hour in the airport, it became obvious that there were no staff around at all. I think I counted three staff, but they were not security and they weren't members of any airline. They hustled about with walkie talkies turned up high and then soon disappeared as a group of protesters chased a man they accused of being pro-China from one of the ticketing kiosks. There was a bit of yelling and then things died down as he left the airport.
I told my wife that if we were going to stay then we should leave Terminal 1, which seemed to be turning into something a free for all or a party. We walked under the Airport Express platform and into Terminal 2.
While there, we sat on a group of seats and were ensconced in our sedan chairs when two protesters, faces completely covered, approached us and kindly offered us apple juice and snack cakes they had bought somewhere and brought into the airport. I should note, we saw nothing like looting. I don't think any shop was damaged. They were there to prove a point -- that they could control the city -- so they didn't want to earn a reputation for being destructive.
We accepted the small gifts, but then decided it was time to leave. We packed up, and made our way home, a journey that took nearly three hours, since the trains had stopped running, and cabs were not picking up anyone at the airport. There were no airport busses at all.
This is just to say that if you want to travel through Asia, Europe and also Africa, then right now is the perfect time to start booking seats. We are seeing really good prices for trips to these destinations.
 |
| Photo of HKIA by Bao Menglong on Unsplash |
Here's a sampling from my Google Flights tracker. My favorite is a flight to Buenos Aires, for less than $1400 USD, RT for Two people, and a flight to Nairobi for just over US$1200 for two people.
Comments
Post a Comment