Real city not on itinerary
Mainland tourists are not content with package-tour arrangements under which they are compelled to shop without getting a feel for the essence of this consumer paradise.
Wang Chaoying, a Tianjin woman on the tour with her 20-year-old daughter, said she had a lot of things on her shopping list - clothes, shoes, cosmetics and jewellery - but she did not buy anything in the shops she was taken to by the guide, except for a HK$310 Hello Kitty watch for her daughter.
'There were no local customers in the shops. It was so unpleasant to think I was the target of the shopping scams that I had heard about from my friends and the mainland media,' Ms Wang said.
She said her daughter also had dreams of tasting a variety of foods: morning snacks in teahouses, desserts and beverages in Hui Lao Shan and milk tea in restaurants hidden behind skyscrapers in residential communities.
'But the schedule does not allow us to try these because we will go to Disneyland in the free time. The hotel we are staying in is in Tsing Yi. From the window I can see a container terminal. I can see it's really far from the downtown area,' Ms Wang said.
Nan Yang and her husband also complained about the tour. The couple, in their 20s, did not contribute a penny to the guide's commission because they too were concerned about shopping scams.
'The itinerary did not specify the shops' locations so I thought we would shop in department stores in Causeway Bay or Central. But to my disappointment, we didn't shop in any of these places,' Ms Nan said.
'When we passed Causeway Bay on the bus, the guide said it was messy, some stores had closed down and few locals went shopping there. I think she was lying.'
Yang Ou , who took the trip with his parents, who aere in their 70s, complained about the food.
'The food was so terrible. Some food had already gone bad and the rest just tasted bad. It was like leftovers. I can't believe this was Hong Kong. And the customers in the restaurants were all mainland tourists.
'I wanted my elderly parents to enjoy their first overseas trip. But it turned out to be a painful journey.'
No one thought the arrangements were fair, even though their four-day package from Beijing cost just 2,350 yuan, a sum that would not usually cover flights.
But the experience did not dampen their enthusiasm to visit Hong Kong again.
