Loose End Thursday

We kicked off Thursday in meetings, wrapping up this phase of the project. At lunch we broke for our final banquet. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera and was unable to photograph the weird radish puffs.

After work we headed out for more shopping, passing by the Chairman en route:



This time it was the Silk Market...

The Pearl Market ladies were tame in comparison (lots of grabbing here)!

After shopping, we went in search of a restaurant and came across the CCTV headquarters (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CCTV_Headquarters):

On the way back it was the Forbidden City / Tiananmen Square with a Chinese Top 40 soundtrack:

Home tomorrow!

Pearl Market Frenzy

Wednesday after work, we headed over to Beijing's famous Pearl Market - 5 stories, stuffed full of things you never knew you needed.




Our project manager's advice was simple - show no fear and avoid all eye contact.

Things went pretty well at first...


Then we rounded the corner into the leather goods section and something changed. They were on to me, pawing and pushing product in my face.

Which would you like the Guc/ci or the Ferra/gamo?

Oh yeah they got pearls too --- lots of those!

Back to Beijing

Tuesday afternoon we loaded up and flew back to Beijing after a final lunch banquet in Xian.

The weather in Beijing was beautiful (clear, 50's); the traffic - not so beautiful:

While sitting in traffic I watched the different cars go by. Most are brands we've seen (somteimes re-labled) but there was a new one for me:

Put your order in for a new JunJie by ZhongHua / Brilliance! This is the company that is partnering with BMW to build 3 and 5 series BMW's here. Looks like they put something together on their own that is kind of interesting. All the Chinese guys in our group like it.

Back at the hotel, we had a bit of an American revolt:

There was an article on CNN.com yesterday talking about how all of the old Beijing is disappearing. The contrast to the other cities is noticeable:

Getting ready for more meetings today. Did I mention that they like to prune things???

Dust Storm Monday

Within the last 20 years Northern China has started to experience more Dust Storms as the adjacent Desert region has expanded. We started to see the dust on Sunday and it was in full force by Monday morning.

We spent all day in the office working on our project and then headed out to dinner in Xian's Muslim district.

They sell all sorts of food on the street here and we sampled some persimmon patties before dinner (very good).



Dinner itself was at a Muslim restaurant with some really good lamb, chicken and beef dishes. We also had a tower of soup dumplings that you have to bite into and slurp out the soup before eating. Since it was a Muslim restaurant, there was no toasting.

After dinner we toured another street market and walked back to the hotel (maybe a couple of miles or two dumplings worth of calories).

Sunday in Xian

Sunday morning was chilly and wet. We were scheduled to tour the ancient city wall and it cleared up enough for us to forge ahead those plans.

The wall which dates back to the 1.600's, is approximately 13 KM around. We were going to ride bikes but with the ongoing threat of rain we opted for the electric carts instead.

They had all sorts of weapons on display...




... and, also, leftover decorations from the recent Lantern Festival...



After lunch at the hotel, we headed out to do some shopping in the market area. Our Chinese interpreter had heard of a street where they had good deals on clothes, so we went with her there to help her find things for her husband.

That place was busy!




Sunday night, Mr L (host from Tang Paradise) invited us to a famous dumpling restaurant. They have 281 different kinds, but fortunately, he only ordered up 14 different rounds (plus some other dishes...

Included in the extras, was Ox Lung (rear plate). I thought it was sour kraut but suspected something was up when I noticed weird, jagged edges on the strands...

After dinner, we hit the nighttime market and headed home.

Touring around Xian

Saturday offered up a reprieve from both work and and VLL.

We boarded the bus around 8:45 for an hour long drive to an area surrounding Lishan Mountain.

The first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, was buried here with his Terra Cotta army which he commissioned to protect him in the afterlife. They were discovered in 1974 by some farmers digging a water well. They estimate now that there are as many as 8,000 in the vicinity, many of which are still buried.

The figures were painted in bright colors which fade quickly after being unearthed. They are hoping that some technology will be developed to preserve the colors before they excavate all.

I guess it's still pretty rare to see non Chinese people in China. I have noticed on several occasions, Chinese children pointing at us and we have been asked more than once to have our picture taken with people on the street.

The facility built for the Terra Cotta army is a huge tourist destination and we saw the most non-Chinese people we have seen during the whole trip, but the Chinese still made up probably 80-90% of the crowd.

After the Terra Cotta warriors we went to lunch at a nearby restaurant. They we just wrapping up a wedding which was quite the party. At lunch we dodged the VLL, but they brought some beer out and I quickly found out that preferred method of consumption for ANY alcohol is the toast. This was relatively tame however, so we were not too tired for the afternoon event.

Following lunch we visited the Huaqing Pool complex which was a favorite relaxation spot for many Chinese Emperors. One in particular, Emperor Xuanzong, spent so much time here with his concubine Lady Yang that the whole Tang Dynasty started to go down the tubes.

On the return to the city, we talked with our Chinese business partners and suggested we cancel the organized dinner. As a result I ended up just going out with the American co workers in the evening and we toured the market as it was closing up.

We then went into the central Bell tower that was built around 1400 AD and had dinner at a Japanese restaurant. Our project manager was looking forward to going to bed for once without the room spinning.

Friday at the Wall

Note: The time is finally fixed.

We spent the day Friday at the main Xian branch office, working on our project. It was a productive day with the usual meeting accessories: fruit platter (always the cherry tomato's and bananas), green tea and of course an ash tray (because they still smoke freely everywhere).

Friday night we were invited to a banquet with the "Premier" (the guy with the horseshoe conference room). However, he had to cancel at the last minute due to another pressing matter.

We were all excited to be banquet free but one of the branch managers ended up inviting us to dinner and it developed into what was essentially another banquet --- huge array of dishes, toasts etc. One of the Xian employees was there and was not participating in the toasts since he was driving. Our project manager, who does not like toasting, said he was going to see if he could rent a car at the next destination.

On the way back from dinner, our interpreter suggested we get off the bus and walk the rest of the way along the ancient inner city wall. There is a green belt along the wall and it is a popular spot in the evenings. You see impromptu quartets, people letting their dogs run loose, tai chi type get togethers and all sorts of other activities. One of our associates joined in the fun (only posting because his identify is hidden):

We're staying the weekend in Xian and planning to visit the Terra Cotta Warriors: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terracotta_Army. Should be interesting.

Comments

I changed one of the settings on the blog to hopefully make it easier to comment. Betsy and Davis figured it out yesterday and added some comments. Betsy provided the following tips: select the "Name/URL" option and put the name you want to comment under and then your email address as the URL.

Tang Paradise

Thursday morning we set off for Xian. Its always disconcerting when the airlines you are flying has a cartoon character as it's logo, but I read in my China Megatrends that China airlines have had the best safety record in the world since the early 90's.

For some reason, I was expecting Xian to be a smaller historic city -- you know only 3MM or so. In fact it's population has not been that low since it was the capitol of Tang Dynasty in 600 AD. Now, its over 8MM and the view from city center is this, 360 degrees around:

This appears to be a much more affluent city than Huffei with lots of upscale hotels and shops. The streets are wider and all landscaped to an inch of their life (watered by trucks - no sprinkler systems) and they have one of the best preserved ancient city walls (will have to get a shot of that this weekend).

There appears to be a major effort to get everyone in a new apartment. The edges of the city have massive construction efforts underway everywhere you look.

We did the branch office tour. Mr L was the host and we had Mr C from the head office also visiting. Mr L gave a intersting overview of the history of the region and the Tang Dynasty. Later we went upstairs and met the Regional Exec in one of those horseshoe shaped reception rooms in which you would likely encounter the Premier.

After the formal meetings we headed on to an outer section of the city to visit the Tang Paradise theme park (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tang_Paradise). This wasn't a theme park in the US sense. Rather it was more of a park/muesum highlighting various aspects of the Tang Dynasty. It was all built in 2004 and is very beautifuful even if not authentic.

The banquet was in the park restaurant with was much more modern than anything in Huffei --- no artificial flowers or soundtracks. Lots of glass and views of the lake. Mr L brougt a wooden box with slats printed with Chinese poems and a toast challenge (if you've ever had a beard you have to drink, etc). He noted that there is no talk (at least beyond small talk) in a Chinese banquet until after the third toast.

After dinner, we walked around the lake which was beautifully illuminated. The weather was outstanding, clear in the upper 60's and everyone had a nice time.

Time Note

My date and time stamps are still behind (15 hrs). Maybe next time I sign on it will synch up. UPDATE - I finally fixed this.

Tuesday Fanfare

The Chinese really know how to bring on the fanfare. Perhaps it's because they have so many people and they have to keep them all busy. Nevertheless it certainly adds to the day, and Tuesday was a new high.

We started with a formal checkpoint meeting for our project. It's acutally a protocol that we follow in the US, but the Chinese added there own flourishes. They had the usual fresh flowers, green tea and fruit platters (killer lychees!) but also added a lead-in soundtrackc and a formal round of voting.

After lunch at the hotel, we boarded the mini bus again for a drive to the another Hefei branch office. On the way we got a more scenic glimpse of the International Peace Hotel.

Upon arrival we met the branch office head, Mr. J, and his leadership team. They provided an overview of the branch and its recent growth. We then toured some of the branch operations and talked to some of the employees.

At 5 we boarded the bus again and drove over to what I think was a hotel. Mr J was host and had clearly ratcheted up the fanfare quotient.

The room itself was over the top with the biggest banquet table yet and self propelled central turntable. There was an ice sculpture and a huge spray of fake flowers in the middle and a Lawrence Welk-like soundtrack playing in the background. Granny and Papa would have loved this place!

The food array was huge and I was encouraged to sample the sliced pigs ear and turtle stew. The pigs ear was tasty -- a bit chewy but kind of like bacon. The mushrooms from the turtle stew were also very good but I had problms with the turtle chunk itself. The saggy trutle skin was still hanging on in places and I couldn't really tell the meat from the turtle bones (or cartilage?). This was definitely a pass item.

Mr J. had ordered up a lot of VLL and he quickly ditched the tiny toasting glasses, challenging us each instead with the larger staging pitchers. Our project manager was going to try and replace his with bottled water but was fearful of being caught by the watchful Ms Phan.

As is customary, once the dumplings and fruit were consumed we were out the door to our bonus destination for the day, the foot massage palace:

They divided us into groups of 5 and sent us into individual rooms with large TV's. The foot massage ladies then came in with tubs of scalding soapy water to soak your feet in. Then they worked them over for about 15 minutes each and finished the process off with a back massage and searing bags of hot matter. Despite the periodic pain, it was a nice way to end the day.

Another Banquet

Monday night we boarded our mini bus again and headed over to the cafeteria of our Chinese Business partner. This company has a cafeteria in a neighborhood of mid-rise buildings that house a lot of their employees.

It was a similar setup to Sunday night with the private dining rooms, lazy susans and lots of VLL. Mr G was the host again and the toasting got ratcheted up a notch, perhaps because we had karaoke on the schedule for later in the evening.

The meal was very good --- maybe 20 different dishes in all. There was a weird meatball that was a meatball, within a meatball with a hot soup inner core. It was very hard to eat with chopsticks and dangerous with the hot center. "Dessert" around here usually involves a dumpling course. I always think of Kung Fu Panda when they bring those things out!

After dinner, we were back on the mini bus to the karaoke palace. This was a first for me and quite the experience. It reminded me of Vegas --- very glitzy with lots of attendants.

They led us down this long marble hallway to a basement room with a large video screen. Our Chinese host programmed a bunch of songs in and they brought out bottles of Budweiser (thankfully no VLL). The Chinese love their karaoke and are VERY good singers. They seem to favor the ballads with male /female duets. Mr G was particularly good. It may be a requirement for advancement and his #2 could really belt it out too.

Lots of fun till we finally left at around 11:30.

Monday Afternoon

At lunch time we headed back over to the Int'l Peace Hotel.

I'm not sure if they brought out the new stuff or my stomach had just settled since breakfast but the offerings were very tasty. The had some guys waking around carving meats like a Brazilian steakhouse. The also had two women making wonton and noodle soup to order which was very good. I also tried a chunk of the whole fish and some conglomeration on a clamshell that was all very good.

We spent the rest of the afternoon in meetings, talking about our agenda for the rest of the trip and working on some of our project deliverables.

First Work Day (Monday)

Breakfast at the Int'l Peace Hotel was rough for me. It was a buffet with a lot of what seemed like Dinner food to me. I kept having visions of the floating web foot from the night before and wasn't feeling very hungry. Coffee is not their thing either so I did not stay long in the dining room.

Around 8:30 we gathered in the lobby and walked over to the main office in Hefei to begin our business meeting. Our Chinese business partners had laid out quite the spread and even had an electronic sign in the lobby with a welcome meesage.

We met Mr G's boss (the branch head) and then Mr G spent a couple of hours giving an overview of the branch operations. They had attendants to constantly supply you with green tea which is big here. The also had fruit platters with one fruit I had never seen before --- something that they say is related to the lychee fruit. One of my American coworkers said you can develop some sort of lychee fever if you eat too many. Your insides burn and your nose will bleed. I sampled one anyway and found it to be like a cross between a grape and a plum with a hard pit inside the eyeball-like middle layer:

Turning In

After our banquet dinner, we moved on to our hotel in Hefei, the International Peace Hotel. This is what I gather to be a more traditional Chinese business hotel which oddly enough seems to have some affiliation with Howard Johnsons.

They do not speak much English here and I had a hard time figuring out the lights. You have to insert your room key in a slot by the door to get the lights to work. This way, when you leave and remove the card, the lights all shut off automaticlaly (one of their Green initiatives that I would love to have at our house!).

The hotel is above a very busy street and disco. I am on a pretty high floor and you could hear a lot of honking and bass but after all the VLL it did not prove to be a problem.

Welcome to Hefei

We landed in Hefei around 7 PM on Sunday and boarded our mini bus to the city. Some guide book talked about how you can travel around China and come across some city of 5MM people that you've never heard of --- that would be like Hefei.

We drove directly to an elaborate Chinese restaurant with a big fountain and large dining hall and met our host "Mr G", one of the branch executives. They had arranged for private dining room with two of the traidional banquet style tables. These are the large round tables that seat maybe 12 people each with a large lazy susan in the middle.

Mr G had ordered up bottles of the local liquor which I have taken to calling the "Vodka-like Liquid" or VLL. They often call it their Chinese white wine.

With this we commenced with the toasing which I have come to find out is a big part of the banquet experience. You get a large glass or small pitcher of the VLL and then a smaller (shot style) glass that you keep refilling from the larger supply.

Mr G first made a group toast, then the participants started the one-on-one toasting, moving all around the table. When it was all said and done I think we had each consumed a large tumbler of the VLL so things were pretty fun.

The food was really good at this restaurant. I was worried after the first dish arrived --- some sort of duck stew with lots of duck parts floating around. My bowl had what clearly was a web foot but I ate around that.

There was also a dish with a lot of bony parts that they could only describe as "wild bird". It may have been pigeons for all I new but it was actually pretty good. A lot of the dishes had some kick to them and I particularly liked the vegetables.

Moving on to Hefei

On Sunday afternoon I headed back to the Beijing airport to meet up with three of my American co-workers and some of our Chinese business partners. We are visiting a branch office of the company we are working with in the city of Hefei: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hefei .

The airport was much busier this time but I had another "handler" to lead me through the process. It isn't really necessary at the Beijing airport as there are a lot of English speaking employees and signs, but it was nice to have him take me through the process.

One plus - no shoe removal required in security.

The flight from Beijing to Hefei was completely packed. On of my co-workers said he has seen them make additional room on an Air China flight by placing a folding lawn chari in the aisle. Fortunately, I did not have to take that route.

The flight service and airplane itself were all top notch. There were maybe 6 flight attendents covering the coach section and they served a complete hot meal (chicken or beef) like the old days in the US, despite it being only a 1.5 hr flight. The weirdest meal insert had to be the PawPaws. They had the consistency of a Twizzler and picture of a mint leaf on the oustide, but they weren't particularly minty nor sweet nor sour for that matter (I did not finish the bag).