First Hong Kong Adventure

Spring 1987
     When I went to work for Parker Electronics, the main focus was developing an electronic device that would protect an induction motor from low voltage, high voltage and fluctuations in the incoming power. This was not a problem in developed countries with dependable sources of electricity, but in third world countries, power problems were of major concern. It could destroy a refrigerator, shut down an assembly line, or fry a $10,000 motor. The people at Parker Electronics had been in touch with representatives of companies in Hong Kong and in Mainland China about developing and manufacturing motor control systems to deal with these problems. Over the course of several years Parker had come up with some proto-types ready to be tested in the field.

     I was hired for the Parker Electronics job by Lowell C Hahn. I first met Lowell in 1965. After I was discharged from the US Navy, I took a job in Newport News Va, involving work on Polaris-type Nuclear Submarines. I was sent to Anaheim, Ca for 6 weeks of training. After the training, I was sent back to Virginia to begin work with Interstate Electronics at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company. Our job was to set up a test system and interface with all of the other vendors involved with installing the Fire Control Systems on new construction submarines. We had a large system of our own set up in the middle level missle deck, where we technicians could monitor and record all of the various functions involved in launching a Polaris missle from underwater. As I sat at the control console one night, we worked 3 shifts, a guy introduced himself as Lowell Hahn. As we conversed, the question of where the only population of wild camels was located came up. As we both knew the answer was Australia, a long friendship was born. Thus the job at Parker.




    After several months of intensive work aat Parker, the Chinese have asked us to come to Hong Kong and demonstrate several types of units that we have built.So, at 6 AM on the 29th of March, Lowell and I boarded a United flight from Miami to San Francisco and then on to Hong Kong. Total travel time,26 hours.We will arrive in Hong Kong atl 8 PM Monday night due to the International Date Line.

We arrive on schedule and are met at the air port by several Chinese gentlemen from Longreen Intenational, the company we will be dealing with.The plan for the evening is that we will check in at the Hyatt Regency on Nathan Street in the heart of Kowloon, then drive north to the New Territories to set up the equipment we have brought. Due to the insane traffic in Hong Kong, it is a 45 minute drive from the Hyatt, that will take us only 20 minutes when we discover the subway.We are driven back to the Hyatt around 11:30, where we check out the lounge. It is a very nice place with a Chinese guy playing keyboards and electronic drums, and a young Chinese girl singing all of the local hits of Willie Nelson and Kenny Rodgers.
   We have two main Chinese contacts with Longgreen: Tobias Chang, and Celius Lam. We are to meet Tobias in the lobby this morning. We are told he will find us, which is good, since we have never met him. He located the 2 tall Americans with ease.We have breakfast at the Hyatt, then Tobias say's he will show us how to deal with the Hong Kong subway system and get to Longreen via the 'tube'.The subway system in Hong Kong consists of two lines- one north and south, from Hong Kong Island across the bay up to the New Territories, and an East-West line that runs on Hong Kong Island. It carries about 2 million folks a day, and most of them are on it at any given time, I think. It only costs .50 cents to go anywhere and is a lot faster cheaper, and safer that taxies. I find subways to be the most efficient way to travel in any town I've ever been in. The basics are all the same no matter where you are, the only difference is the language that they say 'mind the gap' in.I became an expert on getting any where in Hong Kong, Lowell a little less so. We arrive at Longreen 20 minutes after departing the Hyatt area, and spent all day and some of the night for the next 2 days adapting our 75 HP Controlles to the variations of Hong Kong power.
     In the New Territories, which aren't much newer that the rest of Hong Kong, and just a name for an area of Greater Hong Kong, about 50% of the shops and restaurants are located one level above the street, due to the volume of traffic created by the bicycles, autos, buses, trains, taxi's and pedestrians. You can walk for what seems to be miles without ever going down to the street level. The only other place I've seen like this was Winnipeg, Canada, where all of the stores down town are connected by enclosed walkways, but this is due to the winter weather.
     Tobias took us to a Chinese restaurant that first night at Longreens. It was above ground of course, and packed with hundreds of Chinese diners, and 2 Americans. Tobias ordered for the table, and for the next hour we ate- some things we recognized, and others we didn't, but we tried everything, at least once. We had Shark Fin soup for the first time of several differnt dinners we were taken to. It was bland, like a watered down noodle soup, except the noodles were cartilage from the fin. Lowell adapted to the chopsticks quickly, and I was  behind on that art for a while. But we didn't starve.
     Working for Tobias were two technicians, Mr. Tin and Mr. Leung. Mr. Tin was a hardliner from the mainland that had no use for us or our products at the beginning. Mr. Lueng was the younger of the two, and even managed a smile every now and then. The plan for the next two days, was that Tobias and his crew, Lowell and myself, would visit different factories and hook our controllers up to various types of heavy machine to see how the equipment performed. Tobias would be documenting everything, Lowell would be doing the hookups with the help of the 2 Chinese gents, and I be in my usual role as 'Igor', go-fer as needed. We visited a paper mill, a recycling plant, and a toy factory. The toy factory occupied an entire city block and was 6 floors high, making toys 24 hours a day for the rest of the world. We made 2 trips to the Hong Kong Oxygen plant in Junk Bay, where we met Mr. Derek Mo. We had a lunch in Junk Bay that was as Chinese as you could get. They rolled a small aquarium up to your table so you could pick the exact fish you wanted for lunch. I had major chopstick problems that day, so they took pity on me and brought me a spoon. After that I always carried some plastic utensils on me.
     On our final day of testing, we sucessfully installed one of our Controllers on a 90 HP motor at the Oxygen plant. This seemed to impress everyone, even Mr Tin. Little did we know at the time, but that test had bought us a second trip back to Hong Kong. That evening, Mr. Celius Lam, the local manager of Longreen, was going to take Lowell and I to a fancy restaurant for dinner. It was a revolving place high above the city on Hong Kong Island. As the restaurant slowly revolved, you saw the entire area in all of it's neon glory. Along with Celius was a gentleman named Mike. This was about the time that the Mink Teddybear craze was beginning in the States. It seemed that Mike had all of the rights for all of the Mink Bears coming from China to the US. One had to assume he was going to make a lot of money soon.
     After dinner, Celius dropped us back at the Hyatt. Since it was still eary, and Lowell and I had been so busy working that we had not had time to do much shopping or sightseeing, we explored the area around the hotel. We found enough shops that we could get our quota of tourist crap, plus some really good bargins, like pearls, and opals, hand paintings, silk garments, and beautiful little cork carvings.
     Our flight needed us to be at the airport at 11 AM, so we got up early and  went exploring again. The 7-11 around the corner provided coffee and muffins. Ther was a mist in the air and a fog on the bay. The little old ladies were sweeping the streets clean, as they did every morning. We found ourselves at the Star Ferry Pier. It crosses the bay every 10 minutes and cost a dime for first class. We hopped aboard and departed for the 15 minutes ride to Hong Kong Island. Since it was so early, none of the shops were open, so we just walked around taking in the world of early morning life in Hong Kong. At one point, we found ourselves on a pier jutting out into the bay, occupied by about 25 old Chinese gentlemen doing Tai Chi as the sun rose above the waters in the East. On this note, we went back to the ferry, and crossed the bay, with the early morning traffic of junks, barges, water taxis, and freighters, begining to come to life.
     The flight home was uneventful, just long.We had accomplished our goal of getting the Chinese more interested in our products. In fact, there was a big Pan-Asian Industrial show in Hong Kong in June, and we had been invited to display our products at the Longreen booth. Next trip, I would try to have more free time to explore.