golf..

Right now I'm sitting in my own hotel room at YinLi Country Club. I left work around noon today and traveled up to the Hong Kong/China border to pass through immigration for Hong Kong and entered China's immigration. Isn't it interesting that Hong Kong is China, but you still need to go through customs/immigration when crossing the border (river). And boy can you feel the difference. The second I crossed the bridge into China, it was a completely different look and feel. COMPLETELY different. Not only do they speak a language I can actually understand, but the place is much dirtier and I got many more looks than I do in HK. I hopped on the subway in Shenzhen and traveled to the GuoMao stop to meet my friend, Mike Hyde (Managing Director of Toy Character, Asia). We went and got some grub, quickly got a little tour of his Shenzhen office and then made our way to Mission Hills Country Club. This place is absolutely amazing! There are three massive club houses on the country club. There are a total of 216 holes of golf. That is 12 courses to play and each is designed by a world famous person, like David Duval, Nick Faldo, Annika Sorenstam, Jack Nicklaus etc. We met Francis at the course. He is a member and was nice enough to pay for all of us ($200US/round). We played the Olazabal course and it felt like I was in heaven. It was also nice to get away from the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong/Shenzhen. We had our own caddie. They do EVERYTHING for you - look for your ball, wash your clubs, fix your divots, mark your ball, line up your putt, tell you exact yards, tell you what club you should hit, and even tell you when to drink water! Francis is a member here and told me he wants me to come up often and play with him.

After golf we showered in the most amazing locker rooms and met Francis and his wife for dinner. We had Peking Duck, a spicy shrimp dish, lettuce wraps, corn soup, a beef and broccoli dish, and fresh fruit. It was AWESOME.

After dinner, Mike and I went to a couple golf stores that have a bunch of fake golf clubs, shoes, belts, shirts. It was heaven. Unfortunately, I didn't get anything. A lot of the sizes don't fit me. Then we drove to his country club called YinLi Foreign Investors Golf CLub. We are staying at the hotel tonight. It, too, is extremely nice. He got me my own room. We tee off at 5:45am, so I better get some sleep. I had my caddie take a lot of pictures, so I will get them up later.