In Part 1, Start My Car travels to China, meets interesting suppliers and gets ready for the Automechanika. Part 2, is all about Automechanika and the magnitude of the show.
It’s Sunday and we are off to Hong Kong. Over the weekend I developed what an expat I met referred to as “the Shanghai cough”. I was a bit anxious that they wouldn’t let me in and I’d be quarantined for who knows how long. Thankfully, 2 Panados later, I cruised through the “fever” machine in Hong Kong airport without any issues and the trip continued.
The rich and famous (at least the rich) of the world must congregate in Hong Kong. Every 3rd car was a Tesla and every so often a Rolls Royse or Bentley would cruise past. Every 2nd shop is a Rolex shop or some other over the top watch brand. Coming from SA with our less than favourable exchange rate was challenging to say the least. (A bottle of mineral water in excess of R60).
The purpose of this part of our trip was to focus on a new area of business. We have recently ventured into the specialised world of 4X4 accessories. We are the official distributors of the XTM brand, one of the leading 4X4 brands in Australia, and they are based on the Hong Kong Island.
Early Monday morning we were picked up from our Hotel and driven (under the sea) to the island. The show room was on about the 40th floor. In SA, this would have been a restaurant with a revolving floor, in HK it’s a pretty small building. We spent a considerable amount of time looking at product, putting lists together, discussing the range and consolidating our partnership.
Once we were done, our hosts graciously offered to take us up to the Peak, the highest point on the HK island, the trip was worth it just for this. It was spectacular.
We later, took the tram down, caught the ferry back to the mainland, waved at the Rolls Royce’s, admired the Rolex’s (Couldn’t take a deep breath because of the Honk Kong pollution) and thus concluded a successful trip to the East.