Recap of the Previous Episode:

Looking Back

Yesterday, the day before I started writing this diary, I went to the Hong Kong anime convention with two friends. Around this time last year, one of my friends couldn't find his Mainland-Travel Permit for Hong Kong and Macau, so we had to postpone to this year. Last year it was pouring with rain and windy—so much so that while I was still on the subway, my mom sent me a news clip from Phoenix TV Chinese channel about how the typhoon had blown over a bunch of stuff, right near the convention center (if I remember correctly). But actually, we stayed indoors the whole way and didn't get rained on in the morning... I won't rehash last year's story in detail—here's last year's video if you want to check it out. https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1188Bz3E4X

Looking at Today

Finally, today arrived. We'd originally planned to go on the 25th, but then my Xinjiang tour, which I'd booked for the 26th, got moved up to the 25th. So, it had to be the 24th. As usual, I got to Sili Subway Station at 7:30 AM and waited for my friend to come over from farther away. My other friend, who didn't come last year, lives in Huizhou, so he couldn't take the Shenzhen Metro directly. We had to take the subway to Austin Station and pick him up at the arrival hall.

After arriving, I found a very standard meeting point—and there wasn't a single person under the sign. But when I stood there, he didn't see me.

I bought a 150 HKD fast-pass ticket for myself, which came with a custom aluminum ACGHK cup (I actually had extra vouchers, so I grabbed two). They bought tourist tickets, which meant they couldn't get in until after 12:30. We also had side quests: check out the csl store to see if they had a Nothing Phone display unit (last time we hit three locations and found nothing), and get a replacement SIM for my eSIM (when I went home for National Day last year, I lost my Pixel 7 Pro, so I switched to the newly released Xiaomi 17 Pro Max, but the lost eSIM had to be reissued—cost me 40 HKD, and they only took cash, no E-Pay). So our first stop after meeting up was Mong Kok. There's a big csl store there, near Sino Centre, and we could grab food and buy Sing Tao Daily from a newsstand. As soon as we got off the subway, it was unbearably hot. We grabbed a 10 HKD Coke from the newsstand at the entrance, they bought other stuff, and I picked up two newspapers. Actually, I wasn't that interested in Sing Tao this time—I was more curious about the Hong Kong Economic Journal. Today's front page was about KIMI K3 (US criticizes Kimi K3 for improper development; China refutes).

Ha, they're accusing Kimi of distilling Fable. Feels like the paper gave Anthropic a lot of face by not bringing up their so-called future model distillation. Even so, the US accusations against KIMI are just grasping at straws—you can tell they're desperate. But Chinese models still have a long way to go before they can truly compete. I hope that one day, at the same time, China's flagship models can match or even surpass their American counterparts in overall capability. And I'm still waiting for Xiaomi MiMo to release a new model, even though this "old-timer" from over three months ago still makes the charts. Also worth looking forward to is the official release of the DeepSeek V4 series, though word is it's a bit pricey. (For hobbyists like us, we're more excited about budget-friendly models.)

After buying water and two newspapers, we headed to csl.

I'm getting my SIM reissued. 👆

The display units had the latest Sony Xperia and the Galaxy foldable

But no Nothing Phone, which is what I was looking for. In short, we didn't find it anywhere else either, including the csl booth at the convention. A quick stroll through the streets:

A KFCatch disguised as a KFC—it's a claw machine store

We went to Sino Centre, but even though it was 11 AM, many shops weren't open yet, so we came back in the afternoon. Someone had hung a thief outside a shop, and the Asuka figure next to it looked pretty angry: 👇

There was also an Animate that you could see but never find:

Finally, we ate at Ajisen Ramen. To save money and get more variety, I ordered an adorable kids' meal:

After lunch, we headed to ACGHK. This was my first time going on Day 1. They said the lines were insane, but we seemed to hit a less crowded time—it wasn't too bad, and we got in within half an hour.

----- To Be Continued -----

By the time you read this, I've already spent an afternoon in Shihezi, Xinjiang, and I'm catching up on yesterday's diary. I got home at 10:30 PM yesterday, had to catch a 9 AM flight today, so I had to wake up at 5. I quickly packed, and went to bed around midnight. Today was a full day of flying—pretty tiring. In the afternoon, I visited the Changyu Wine Castle, which was grand, and I got to experience the beauty of Xinjiang where the sun doesn't set until nearly 10 PM. Here are some photos. As for the rest of the ACGHK 2026 diary, I plan to finish it tomorrow while on the bus.

Next Episode

Current Status

After breakfast, I'm now on the way to Sayram Lake. The photo above is the Tianshan Mountains—a sacred place I'd only ever seen in textbooks. Seeing it for real outside the window for the first time gives me an indescribable feeling. Let me continue writing about the day before yesterday.

ACGHK · Part 2

This year, ACGHK has one more hall than last year. Originally, there were only Hall 1 and Hall 3, but this year they added Hall 5. I don't know what Hall 5 is for yet, so let's just take it one step at a time.

As soon as we entered Hall 1 and turned right, we saw the csl booth. Of course, we stopped by, but spoiler alert: we didn't see a Nothing Phone. True to its name, every time we look for it, the result is "Nothing." Then, not knowing where to go, we saw a Miku Nendoroid. Since we'd already been to that kind of area last time and didn't buy anything, we skipped it this time. There was also a time issue—our schedule today was packed.

There was also a Nissin booth related to Miku. Last year, I got two packs of stickers there. This year, I only bought a bag for 15 HKD because the line for freebies was way too long. I thought about whether I'd already followed Nissin's official account last year and whether there'd be a conflict, but I didn't go in anyway, haha.

Me and one of my friends (A) walked all the way here, while my other friend from Huizhou (B) went off on his own route first.

A super cool GTR Fatal Fury: Mai Shiranui:

The CosParadise stage—doesn't really appeal to a homebody like me, so no interest.

BanG Dream

Tong Li Publishing was a booth I was looking forward to—I wanted to see what new books they had this year, but there wasn't much.

There were quite a few "Mom would hit me" items, and I still bought some ( )—consistent performance in that category.

Since Day 1 was indeed crowded, moving around was tough. Some booths we'd seen last year and that probably hadn't changed much we skipped.

Like Muse Land. Since my junior year of high school, and even through all of high school, I haven't watched much anime. Time flies—I miss the days in eighth grade when I could finish two or three series in a week. Back then, I had a lot of respect for anime. Unfortunately, after the new administration took office, Sino-Japanese relations went downhill, and over the past two years I've almost lost interest in Japan... After finishing Hall 1, we sat down to rest for a bit, then headed to Hall 3.

Compared to the more official Hall 1, Hall 3 is for individual booths. Anyone can apply to have their own booth there to sell their handcrafted goods. Before coming, I saw on IG that someone was hyping up a "ding nei go fei" (a Cantonese phrase) doll. I won't translate it, haha. Anyway, let's go in order:

We got to that doll's booth, but there were so many people that I couldn't find the end of the line, so I gave up ( ). Instead, I bought this—a glowing Miku standee. It looks great with the lights off, and it cost 150 HKD.

We wandered around for a while longer, but didn't take many photos, and then went to the mysterious Hall 5. And guess what— Hall 5 was practically empty. At first, I thought it was for crowd control or a continuation of Hall 3, but no—it was just a long line leading to an open area in the middle, where cosplayers and social butterflies could mingle and take photos. I'm not a social butterfly, and neither are my friends—we're just introverts. So that hall cost us an extra 35 HKD and was completely useless; we just stood in line. It wasn't that early—around 5 PM—and we still wanted to go back to Sino Centre. Friend B had to catch a 9 PM high-speed rail, so the three of us headed out.

The rest of the timeline was pretty routine—just what we usually do when we go to Hong Kong. Nothing new, so there's not much to write.

If I had to mention something, it'd be this secondhand bookstore. One time I came here—my proudest moment—I spent 500 HKD on a nearly complete set of Chobits, almost all first printings. Even the ones that weren't first prints were second printings. In other words, almost all of them were the first Hong Kong Chinese editions of Chobits, and I actually found them. Since then, nothing has really caught my eye. At Sino Centre, I also bought a spin-off novel of "Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian." (I'd already bought the original the year before.)

Then we got on the subway. After crossing the border and arriving at Shenzhen Children's Palace Station, Friend A and I parted ways with Friend B, who had to catch his high-speed rail. Friend A and I went to KFC there, ordered a little, and left after eating. I should mention the mung bean drink I got at that KFC—there was sediment at the bottom. After drinking all the delicious mung bean soup through the straw, what was left was just undissolved bits. Kind of a dark cuisine.

Finally, the day came to an end. Overall, it was pretty good, but the ACGHK part wasn't as good as last time. The novelty has worn off, there wasn't anything I was particularly excited to see, the stage didn't have a moment like last time when we stumbled upon the "Meeting Angel" performance, and there were more people to navigate around, so we had less freedom than when it was just the two of us. But it felt kind of strange—it wasn't that it wasn't fun, it's that time was too tight, and we didn't do some things that were optional. Experiences that require time and heart are often the ones worth remembering. Like last time, when I sat alone in a café writing, or when we just wandered around together—those were the better moments. Not getting to try the Nothing Phone and not buying that doll are still regrets.

I got home at 10:30 PM, and my mom still complained it was too late. I packed a bit and went to bed around midnight. The next day, I woke up at 5 AM on the dot. My left leg was still as sore as the day before, and I hadn't fully recovered. But there was nothing I could do—I'd just have to rest on the plane in a few hours.

From ACGHK to Xinjiang: Full Story — On July 24 I went to the Hong Kong International Gaming & Anime Festival with friends, and less than 12 hours later I was on a plane to Xinjiang