Previous Episode Recap:

Looking Back

Yesterday, when I started writing this diary, I went to the Hong Kong Comic Convention with two friends. Around this time last year, one of my friends couldn't find his travel permit for Hong Kong and Macau, so it got postponed to this year. Last year there was a huge storm—my mom even sent me a news clip from Phoenix TV Chinese Channel while I was on the subway, saying the typhoon had blown over a lot of stuff near the convention center (if I remember correctly). But actually, we stayed indoors the whole time and didn't get rained on in the morning... I won't rehash last year's details; here's a video from last year for you to check out. https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1188Bz3E4X

Fast Forward to Today

Finally, today arrived. We originally planned to go on the 25th, but my tour to Xinjiang, which was scheduled for the 26th, got moved up to the 25th. So, it had to be the 24th.

Same as usual, I arrived at Siliu Metro Station at 7:30 AM to wait for my friend coming 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 meet him at the arrival hall.

After arriving, I found a very standard meeting point, and no one was standing under the sign. But when I stood there, he didn't see me.

I bought a 150 HKD fast pass for myself, which came with a custom ACGHK aluminum cup (I had extra vouchers, so I grabbed two). They bought tourist tickets and couldn't enter until after 12:30 PM. We also had side quests: checking out a csl store to see if they had a Nothing Phone display model (we'd been to three places last time and found nothing), and getting a replacement for my eSIM (I lost my Pixel 7 Pro during National Day holiday last year and immediately switched to the newly released Xiaomi 17 Pro Max, but the lost eSIM had to be reissued, costing me 40 HKD, and it had to be paid in cash, not E-Pay).

So our first stop after meeting was Mong Kok. There's a big csl store there, near Sino Centre, where 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 bought a 10 HKD Coke at the newsstand by 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. The front page was about KIMI K3 (US criticizes KIMI K3 for unauthorized development, China refutes).

Funny—accusing KIMI of distilling Fable. I feel like this newspaper was already being generous to Anthropic by not bringing up their so-called future model distillation. Still, the US accusations against KIMI are just grasping at straws. You can tell they're really nervous. But Chinese models still have a long way to go to reach the top. I hope one day, China's flagship models can match or even surpass their US counterparts from the same period. And I'm still waiting for Xiaomi MiMo to release a new model, even though this "old relic" from over three months ago is still on the leaderboard. Also, the official version of the Deepseek v4 series is worth looking forward to, but I've heard it's still a bit pricey. (For hobbyists like us in third- or fourth-tier cities, we're more excited about cost-effective models.)

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

I was getting my card replaced. 👆

The display models included the latest Sony Xperia and the Galaxy foldable

The only thing missing was the Nothing I was looking for. In short, we didn't find it anywhere else either, including at the csl booth at the convention.

A quick look around the streets:

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

We went to Sino Centre. Even though it was 11 AM, many shops weren't open yet, so we changed plans to go in the afternoon. Someone had hung a thief outside a shop, and the Asuka next to it looked angry too: 👇

There was also an Animate that we could see but couldn't find:

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

After lunch, we headed straight to ACGHK. This was my first time entering on Day 1. They said the lines were massive, but we seemed to hit a less crowded time—it only took half an hour to get in.

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

By the time you read this, I've already spent an afternoon playing in Shihezi, Xinjiang, and I'm catching up on yesterday's diary. I got home at 10:30 PM last night and had to catch a 9 AM flight today, so I had to wake up at 5 AM. I quickly packed, went to bed around midnight, and slept. Today, I spent the whole day on planes—very tiring. In the afternoon, I visited the Zhangyu Winery, which was magnificent, and experienced the beautiful Xinjiang sunset at nearly 10 PM. Here are some pictures. 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 on the way to Sayram Lake. The picture above is the Tianshan Mountains—a sacred place I only ever saw in textbooks. Seeing it appear for real outside the window for the first time is an indescribable feeling. Now, let me continue writing about the day before yesterday.

ACGHK · Part 2

This year, ACGHK added one more hall compared to last year. Originally, there were only Hall 1 and Hall 3, but this year there's a Hall 5. I don't know what Hall 5 is for yet, so I'll just take it step by step.

As soon as we entered Hall 1 and turned right, we saw the csl booth. We walked around it, but as a preview: we still didn't see Nothing. True to its name, every time we look for it, the result is "Nothing." Then, not sure where to go, we saw a Miku Nendoroid. Since we'd already been through a similar area last time and didn't buy anything, we skipped it this time. Also, time was tight—today's schedule was packed.

There was also the 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 was too long to get free stuff. I thought maybe I'd followed Nissin's official account last year, and I wasn't sure if there'd be a conflict. If anyone knows, feel free to chime in—I didn't go in anyway, haha.

My friend (A) and I walked all the way here, while the other friend from Huizhou (B) went off on his own route.

A very cool GTR with Mai Shiranui from Fatal Fury:

The CosParadise stage didn't seem to have anything for a homebody like me, so I wasn't interested.

BanG Dream

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

There were plenty of "mom-would-be-mad" items, and I bought some ()—classic mom-would-be-mad performance.

Since it was Day 1, there were a lot of people, making it hard to move around. Some booths we'd seen last year and hadn't updated much we skipped.

Like Muse. I haven't watched much anime since my junior year of high school, let alone through all of high school. Time flies—I miss those 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. Too bad that after the new administration took over, Sino-Japanese relations went downhill, and I've almost lost interest in Japan over the past two years... After finishing Hall 1, we sat down to rest for a bit before heading to Hall 3.

Compared to the more official Hall 1, Hall 3 was for individual booths. Anyone could apply to have their own booth there to sell their carefully crafted items. Before I came, I saw someone on IG promoting a "ding nei go fai" (a Cantonese phrase) plushie—I won't translate it, haha. Let's go in order:

We got to the booth with that plushie, but there were so many people 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.

Finally, we wandered around for a while, but I didn't take many photos. We went to the mysterious Hall 5. And guess what— Hall 5 was empty. At first, I thought it was for crowd control or an extension of Hall 3, but it turned out to be just a long queue leading to an open area for cosplayers and social butterflies to take photos and chat. I'm not a social butterfly, and neither are my friends—we're just otaku. So, this hall cost us an extra 35 HKD and was completely useless—we just stood in line. It wasn't that early—5 PM—and we still wanted to go back to Sino Centre. Friend B had to catch a 9 PM high-speed train, so the three of us set off again.

The rest of the timeline was pretty routine—this is what I usually do in Hong Kong, so there's not much novelty to write about.

If I had to mention something, it'd be this secondhand bookstore. One time, I was really proud of myself—I spent 500 HKD on a complete set of Chobits (Hong Kong Chinese version), almost all first prints or second editions. I actually found it! But since then, nothing has caught my eye. At Sino Centre, I also bought a spin-off novel of "Stepsister Life" (I already bought the original last year).

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 train. Friend A and I went to KFC, ordered a little, ate, and left. I should also mention the green bean drink I chose at KFC. The bottom was full of sediment—after drinking the sweet bean soup through the straw, all that was left was undissolved gunk. Kind of a culinary disaster.

Finally, the day ended. Overall, it was pretty good, but the ACGHK part wasn't as fun as last time. The novelty wore off, and there wasn't much I was looking forward to seeing. The stage didn't have a chance encounter like last time with the "Meeting Angel" song, and with more people, I had to be more considerate of others, so it wasn't as free as when it was just the two of us. But it felt strange—it wasn't that it wasn't fun, it's that time was too tight, and I didn't do some things that could have been experienced but weren't necessary. And experiencing things that require time and attention is often what's more memorable. Like last time, when I sat alone in a café writing notes, or when we just wandered around together—those were the better experiences. Not getting to touch a real Nothing phone or buy that plushie is still a regret.

When I got home at 10:30 PM, my mom still complained it was too late. I packed a bit, went to bed around midnight, and slept. The next day, I woke up at 5 AM sharp. My left leg was still sore from the day before, and I hadn't rested enough. But there was no choice—I'd have to rest on the plane in a few hours.

[ACGHK to Xinjiang Full Series] 7.24 Went to Hong Kong Gaming Convention with Friends, Less Than 12 Hours Later I Was on a Plane to Xinjiang