Trip 3 - Week One

I returned to China on June 30th.  We spent the first week working in Beijing and had little time for excursions, hence the lack of posting.  The biggest excitement of the week was my losing a dental crown one workday (Blow Pops are not a good idea).  My colleagues left me the following tools to help:

I wanted to avoid having to go to the Chinese dentist so I just crammed it back into my mouth.  I think it's being held in place by Blow Pop matter but so far no problems!

This past Friday, we left Beijing with a few of our Chinese Business Partners to visit the region surrounding Tianjin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tianjin).  We stopped for the night in Jixian, a little village in the northern section of Tianjin Municipality (only about 900,000 people living here).

Some aassociates from the Jixian branch office met us on the outskirts of town and led us to the company apartments behind the office.  I lucked out with what must be the executive suite (faux fireplace and sauna included).  That night we had a tasty banquet followed by karaoke where the Chinese once again proved their superiority, singing-wise.

At dinner -- a local speciality ..... the giant steaming pancake (looked kind of like a catfish):

Saturday morning, we woke early to visit the famous Panshan Mountain (http://www.chinatravelguide.com/ctgwiki/Mount_Panshan).  On the way, we passed a village market in progress ---  fresh meat!

The mountain itself was quite beautiful.  As with most of the natural parks in China, the trail was mostly paved and the mountain itself was incredibly landscaped.  Here is one of the waterfalls (recirculating I think):

I'm always amazed to see some of the outfits on the trail.  We probably climbed 2000 steps, many with pretty rough rocks.  At the midpoint we saw this hiker who wins the award for most optimistic footwear:

For the decent, thankfully, we got the mechanical option:

On the way back to the office, we stopped by a giant reservoir built to supply Tianjin with its drinking water.  The shoreline was a little rough (trashy) and there was no swimming allowed (since it's drinking water after all!).

After another banquet-lunch and a nice rest, we loaded up and headed into Tianjin city.  On the way we passed numerous fish farms and then giant factories as we got closer to the city.  Tianjin is a major economic development zone with about 10 million people.

The city is somewhat unique for China inasmuch as it had several foreign settlement zones in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  Many parts of those neighborhoods still exist today so that sections of the city feel more European.  I guess its best summed up by the Land Rover covered with china plate shards:

We spent the afternoon touring the city.  Then we had another banquet dinner --- this time with a live musical performance and a bun making demonstration.

Finally, it was off to the train station to head 'home'.

There, we boarded one of the newer high speed trains that whisked us back to Beijing in 30 minutes.  The train was wonderful --- very smooth with a top speed of 185 mph.

Sunday was quiet. I visited the Capital Museum in Beijing (highly recommend) and took some time to recover from the multi-banquet day. Thinking back over the weekend, I'm amazed still at how few westerners are here. We saw only one other western face from Friday night to Saturday night (half of a couple on the train). Similarly, I only saw one other Westerner on my day out in Beijing on Sunday. Pretty amazing.

Tomorrow, I'm joined by the "Young 'un". Looking forward to showing him around.

Blue Sky Day

Had a wonderful rain on Tuesday.  This provided us with an unusually clear day on Wednesday...

And a great view this evening....

Looking forward to heading home soon!

Snake and Frog

Wulong Weekend

Our Chinese Business Partners picked us up early on Saturday morning for a 2 hour drive East to the 'village' of Wulong (only about 10 30-story high rises).

Upon arrival, we picked up two branch office associates and headed up the hill to an area of vacation homes. There we boarded another bus to travel to the Three Natural Bridges park: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Natural_Bridges

The scenery here was spectacular and the weather was perfect.

One of the other hikers had his very Chinese dog, running off leash as they all seem to do. The dog was well -trained and immediately fell into pose upon prompting by the owner.



At the bottom of the first bridge, there was a replica of a village put in place for the movie "Curse of the Golden Flower" --- www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWuYAvpifnA

The trail was easy and unusually uncrowded and we enjoyed the outing.

Afterwards, we stopped at a roadside restaurant for a simple, hearty meal (maybe only 12 different dishes). Then it was back on the bus to travel to a nearby cave.

As we approached the cave, the driver informed us that there was 'traffic control' situation ahead. He told us we would have to walk the rest of the way (about 1 mile) up the hill or wait for at least an hour.

We hopped out and started walking. It appears that the road got backed up and people started leaving their cars all over the place.

We had to weave in and out of vehicles and dodge the occasional bus barreling down the hill. It was all very exciting.

The cave itself was kind of a let down. It was massive but seemed somewhat artificial. There was also a huge crowd of people inside and it was quite hot and muggy as a result.

We probably climbed over 1,000 steps and were worn out by the end. However, there was no quick escape as our bus had made its way up but we had to wait for about an hour for a clear path to get back down.

Some lesson's learned: one site per day; turn around at the first sign of a 'traffic control situation' and always take the 'mechanical option' when offerend:

[Tram out of Natural Bridge Park]

[Elevator into Natural Bridge Park]

[Zip line out of Cave Parking lot --- didn't take this one but would have if it offered quicker escape]

The porter powered chairs are an embarrassing option and should be avoided (for old guys and rich chinese housewives):

Despite the challenges, we enjoyed the day but were happy to return to the hotel that night.

Sunday, we left Chongqing and returned to our 'home away from home' in Beijing.

Back to work on Monday!

Yangtze Cruise

Friday night, our Chinese Business Partners hosted us on a Yangtze River Cruise. It was made out to be a Dinner cruise, but they only offered Beer and Watermelon, so we made do with what we had.



The cruise gave us another chance to view the incredible lights of Chongqing. This was some goverment project installed within the last 5 years. It really is amazing.

There were probably 20 ships docked at the loading zone. We traipsed down a pretty steep ramp and a long run of steps on the river bank to the ship below. We then had to wait for about an hour for ship traffic to clear before we set sail.

Up the river about 20 minutes; u-turn then back down the other way another 20 minutes past our departure point then back around. Pretty quick trip but gave you a great view of the city.

Highly recommend the night view of Chongqing.

TGIF

We completed a lot of great work this week and our teammate rallied just in time for another frog meal. On the menu today: frog stew, sauteed beef trachea, spiced octopus and baked chicken necks.

The sun re-appeared and the babies were out in full force.

Tonight we are going on a dinner cruise down the Yangtze. Then tomorrow we are scheduled to do some mountain 'climbing' outside of town (generally involves a paved path with steps the whole way).

Should be some fun.

Chinese Fashion Show

Tied up with a lot of work today, so just sharing some of the sights from our regular commute.

Think the Mao Suit is dead.

We had a team member down today. Her tolerance for reptile and organ meat is not where it needs to be. Poor thing spent some time on the tile floor.

So far the rest of us are fine. We've been here more and probably have a higher amoeba count!