These were taken about six months after I was in in Hong Kong on my own. This time, I was seeing someone and we had gone to Hong Kong for a few days and made a day trip to Guangzhou by train as he was meeting some suppliers for spectacle frames.
I had never been to China – Hong Kong doesn’t count in my mind as it’s so different from the mainland – and it was surreal to zip in and out, passing just a few brief hours in the city during which for the most part I was in a taxi or in a generic building where every other shop was dealing in spectacle frames and the guy I was with was offered cheap awful Chinese cigarettes by every single vendor. Smoke, he did, even though they were nasty as he would tell me later, as that was just part and parcel of doing business in China. This much I know has not changed in the last 10 years…
By the way, the gentleman in the photo was a fellow passenger who sat across us. We talked a bit and he was travelling in China for business too. What for, I don’t remember.
Angelina Hue 
Interesting series. Really enjoyed the portrait of the gent across from you. Great sense of speed and motion through the window which – as is obvious – he is experiencing, as well.
Thanks Denis! When you mentioned the speed, I was just thinking that the trains that run between GZ and HK (or Shenzhen) are now even faster than before… in any case, love travelling by train!