Just before 07:00, my wife and I arrived at Hong Kong West Kowloon railway station by High Speed train.
But this would be an arrival like never before. It would be the first time we would cross borders inside a railway station itself in East Asia. Furthermore, media attention just made it an even bigger event.
I gave what was probably my first meeting interview inside the border crossing itself on the day — media from both mainland China and Hong Kong were very much interested in how this globetrotting Swiss citizen on the rails thought about this very new addition to the network. This being a border crossing area, security staff were pretty much everywhere — so it almost looked like a celebrity appearance!
There was indeed a question I was asked which got the ire of mainland Enforcement – the fact that some in Hong Kong just didn’t like this station, as it had a part of it under mainland Chinese legal jurisdiction. I answered back saying that this being the first day of rail services, it was too quick to jump to conclusions — plus, the notion of crossing borders at the railway station was not alien at all — take, for example, the juxtaposed border checks on Eurostar (or what we used to have at Basel railway station between Switzerland and France).
Hong Kong media even invited me to pen an Opinion piece on my feeling of being on the very first train to enter Hong Kong by High Speed Rail. Being the pro-rail person I was, I tried not to go off the rails with lavish praise — but indeed, I was very happy that I would now be able to visit Hong Kong using only the rail network — no more long delays at Beijing Capital Airport to be expected!
The new station finds itself with connections to three local city lines — the Tung Chung line, the West Rail line, and the Airport Express. Of course, these are all in the “Hong Kong port area”, which you get you after exit the “Mainland port area”, having completed Customs & Immigration. I was delayed for a slight bit at immigration, because my Swiss passport had part of the polycarbonate info page snapping… a serious design fault that seemed difficult to rectify… I was allowed to cross the border after being advised to replace the passport next time I return to Mainland China. Hong Kong officials, on the other hand, had no problems at all with the passport.
The best part about this HSR connection into Hong Kong is that it links directly to the rest of the national High Speed Rail network in mainland China. Thus, by using Train Connections (and getting onward tickets), you can virtually get to any station in mainland China on the high-speed network.
I look forward to visiting Hong Kong again by HSR — meantime, please allow me to cheat my way out, for now, using air miles which are just about to expire…