Originally Posted by Happy

If it is easier for us to get the Chinese Visa, we sure would take advantage of those cheapo land tours. The afore-mentioned tours are offered twice a week it seems. If not because one of our primary goals for this trip to HKG is to get back our HKID cards, we might take a side trip into China with the "express" Visa service at HKG (about over twice as much as the regular way I believe, like $300 USD in total versus $130 for US citizens - Canadians got it 50% less than Americans).

Taiwan government often offers some sort of incentive tours during October. We visited Taiwan in 2009 on a big Circle Pacific 45 days long trip and quite liked how it has improved from our long time ago visit. We would like to work it into our next year trip(s) to Asia if possible.

Was it the Cultural Revolution or the earlier years when people were starved to death due to combination of extreme policies by Mao and natural disasters? Those were some sad eras in Modern China's history.

You can be an Expat for a few years. Escape the high taxation in Canada for a few years then return to enjoy the fruits earned by the hardship brought by living in PRC/HK/SE Asia... Actually being Expat in HK/SE Asia aint too bad. I would imagine it is far better than in PRC.