Hello from Vone in China!
Warning – long post. You might not be able to read in one sitting. And I’ll add more pictures when I get the chance (having some trouble getting them off my camera) so for know you’ll just have to read.
So a lot has happened in the past month and a half in our family. We bought a house, sold ours, Lilo and I went on holidays to Florida, a few conferences for Rob and a trip back to Florida for me, for work. Rob and I haven’t spent an entire week together since April.
So I will add pictures later of the above events, but since right now I’m in China for 2 weeks, that’s what I’ll update you on:
It’s great to see this part of the world and great to meet the people I work with over here, but its hard being away for so long. Especially since Lilo was sick when I left. From Rob’s last update, it sound like she’s feeling better now – thank goodness.
My flight for Beijing left Toronto the afternoon of Friday, June 8th. I got to the airport 3-hours prior to my departure, as they advise international travelers to do - but of course it only took me about 15mins to check in and go through security. Luckily my company flies me business class for overseas trips, so at least I got to spend the time in the first-class lounge: checking emails, grabbing a snack and a few free magazines for my flight.
The 16-hour flight was a little bumpy, but again flying business class is nice. We didn’t have as much leg room and the chairs didn’t recline as much as the last time (3 years ago) when I flew overseas –but hey I can’t complain at least I wasn’t in coach.
We arrived in Beijing around 3:30pm local time on Saturday. Beijing is beautiful; there are flowers and manicured trees everywhere. The streets are very clean. It’s a shame that the pollution is so bad that the sky is grey. After checking into the hotel, we decided to explore a bit and grab a bite to eat. We quickly discovered that Tiananmen Square was only a 5 min walk away, so we headed that way for our first dose of tourist activity.. It was neat to check it out. We notice a large crowd of people gathered around a rather large flag pole, so we went over to check it out. Turns out everyone was waiting for the flag lowering ceremony, which some one explained would happen at sunset – since that seemed about 1 hour away, we walked on.
Shortly after, we were stopped by a group of local guys who asked to take our picture. We thought it was weird, but said ok. Then one guy came between us and put his arms around our shoulders and his friend took a picture, then switched with another guy and then another. I guess they don’t see blonds often. Just wait – I’m sure we’ll end up as their Facebook profile pictures.
Since Sunday was a free day that we planned to use exploring Beijing, we decided to turn in early for the night. After a good nights sleep we got picked up at 9am, met up with 3 of our colleagues from our overseas office, and a lady from one of our vendors who planned our day outing. First we headed to the Great Wall of China. What a beautiful place! The mountains around it are gorgeous and green and the wall is just amazing. It winds around and up and down the mountains – a great workout. I’m surprised my legs aren’t killing me from walking across the Great Wall. The stairs are crazy with many stones missing or so steep that you have to hold on to the wall so you don’t fall.
We took the cable car up the hill – you could walk up but that takes 2 hours and we weren’t wearing appropriate footwear. Once up on the wall we walked about 2-3 hours across to a place where we could slide down. Yes, a slide. It was so much fun – you sat on this board on wheels, with a brake stick in the middle, and zoomed down the winding, steep slope down – kind of like a concrete bobsled run.
We grabbed lunch at this restaurant near the wall – it looked like a greenhouse as it was all made of glass and the food was great – and then returned to Beijing.
We then got dropped off at the Forbidden City, which is also amazing. The old buildings are where the Emperors lived during the Ming and other dynasties (I have to check my handout again –I don’t remember my history). We had a great tour guide that explained everything – she was very cute asking us questions “Do you know how many rooms are in the main building?” – Duh, no, that’s why you’re here. She also told us that the Forbidden City was built in that location, because it’s between a mountain and 2 rivers – the inner river, which is inside the compound and the outer river, which is like a moat outside the compound.
Of yeah, I forgot to tell you that for the Great Wall walk and the Forbidden City tour the temperature is about 35 plus degree – talk about sweaty.
So we headed back to our hotel for a shower and change and met up for dinner again with everyone. We went to dinner in this neat waterfront area. There is a bunch of restaurants with patios and shops surrounding this river. It seems like a hip area where young people hang out. There was a square in front where people – young and old – were in groups playing a kind of hacky-sack - but the object they were kicking around had feathers on it.
After dinner we took a rickshaw ride through the sides streets. It was so neat to see where people lived. The streets are very narrow; it was tight to get through by the cars and people. According to the Chinese speaking people in our group, the drivers had strong accents so even they were having a hard time understanding! But I did get that little signs posted beside a number of the doors indicated the rank of the soldier who lived inside. There were also small blocks with characters on them above the doors, which apparently indicate the ‘social status’ of the family - the number of blocks you had, the better off your family was – and apparently it is only legal to marry people that are of the same social status.
I’m so glad we got a full day to explore Beijing - last time I came, we were so busy that we did very little sightseeing.
Monday we started work. We visited one vendor, did a tour of the factory, some Fall 07 approvals and Spring 08 cost negotiations. They then took us out for dinner at this famous restaurant, known for Beijing Duck (formerly known as Peking Duck). Again the food was amazing. They love you to try their food – I have become known as the woman who will try anything! Well, most things - I wasn’t interested in trying fish eyes or duck liver, but I did try duck heart and of course Beijing Duck! There are 3 ways of eating it Beijing Duck. 1. Dip the crispy skin in sugar. Sounds weird but it’s actually very tasty. 2. in a tortilla type pancake thing with plum sauce and cucumber matchsticks. 3. in the same pancake thing with puree garlic, plum sauce and some other veggies. Very yummy!
Tuesday – another factory tour, we caught a flight to Shanghai. The flight was delayed and we didn’t end up getting to our hotel until 11pm. I’m staying at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Shanghai, on the 80th floor. All I could see out my window for the first 24 hours were clouds! I hope the weather clears up so I can get a better view – it’s been raining since we arrived in Shanghai.
Wednesday we had an early start – picked up at the hotel at 7:30am, and didn’t return until 11:00pm. The factory we visited was 3-hours away , so it made for a long drive and a long day. To add to my exhaustion, we had barely any food that day - I was too tried to wait for room service for dinner, so I just went to bed.
Today again we were out of the hotel at 7:30am. The vendor we are seeing was again a 3 hour drive away plus a 20 min ferry ride. We had a great lunch with them and now it’s the afternoon (the middle of the night for you in Canada) and my colleague is doing her negotiations. I don’t work with this vendor – too expensive. So instead I’m writing this summary of my trip. I can’t get on the internet for emails so I might as well do something!
Tomorrow we’re going to our agent’s office; I’m meeting my vendor from Beijing as we didn’t finish off everything on Monday. My colleague has some additional vendors here, and I’ll probably even end up dealing with some stuff outside my area – we tend to do a little bit of everything on these trips! It should be a shorter day than today (seeing as it’s currently close to 5:30pm, and we’re not even done here yet, and we still have a 3 hour drive and 20 min ferry ride still to get back to our hotel!!
Saturday evening, we leave Shanghai for Hong Kong, and will have another free day on Sunday. I’m not sure what we have planed for the day off - it will depend on the weather I suppose. Then three more days of meetings and factory tours, and finally we head home on Thursday. It’s nice that coming home, we don’t lose another day like we did on the way here (left Friday, got here Saturday). Hopefully I don’t get jet lag, as so far I’ve been fine. But I’ve heard it’s harder the other way – I wasn’t so bad last time but I didn’t have a kid then…
Ok, so now I have some random thoughts of my observations of China so far in no particular order:
Most of the kids I’ve seen don’t wear diapers. They have pants with no crotch seam – they just squat and go when they need to right in the middle of the street! I guess they would be toilet trained early. It seems very odd - I saw a little boy squat right in the middle of Tiananmen Square and pee! While driving, I saw a man holding a baby, and he just held her out, and she peed right there! I think it would be chilly – getting a breeze up your pants!
Driving is crazy here. The drivers literally have one hand at the 5 o’clock position, and the other hand on the horn. Lane markings are merely a suggestion - you can pass anywhere and everywhere: the shoulder, across a double lane highway. The only rule seems to be: don’t get hit. We were turning left at one point, and there were 3 trucks coming towards us, and another car came screaming up and passed us on the right, and then swerved and passed the trucks on the left shoulder. Pretty crazy – I’m just glad I’m alive to talk about it!
And traffic circles – they are everywhere!
The Great Wall would have been more beautiful if it was clear but the fog/smog was pretty bad.
The Olympics in that heat and smog is going to kill our athletes.
They love me here since I will eat anything. And they are impressed that I’ve tried chicken feet (I didn’t like them, but I tried them!) If you are ever in China, tell people you’ve tried chicken’s feet even if you haven’t – they’ll be impressed and won’t ask you to try them again!
We’ve been in factories in the middle of nowhere but still, had KFC and Pizza Hut for lunch. Over here, they sell fish sandwiches at KFC and the pizza had some mystery meat on it. But it’s still nice that they bring in American food for us. I love Chinese food, but it’s a little different here, and my bowels can’t handle it for every meal!
Squatting – you see people just randomly swatting. They sit on their heels, at the side of the road, in the middle of Tiananmen Square. What’s up with that!
Peeing in a hole – last time I was here, I managed to avoid it (though I’m not sure how!). This time – no such luck. My post-pregnancy bladder won’t allow me to hold it in - plus we’ve been away from the hotel for 12-hours at a time, so you’d need Rob’s bladder of steel to not have to pee all day long. But thanks Lauren who gave me some advice on peeing in a hole – squat on your heels and it’s not too bad. The only thing you have to worry about is the splash-back on your pants. It’s easier with lighter weight pants/capris that you can bunch at your knees or a skirt. Oh, and bring your own tissue.
We are traveling with great people. Alan and Simmone are awesome – young, fun people who are very helpful. We’ve been calling Alan “Dad” as he is always looking out for us, and since Simmone fills our plates with food, we started calling her “Mom.”
Chinese writing – ok so I’ve been so intrigued with the Chinese written language. I’ve been looking at the road signs and trying to figure some things out. I understand that Beijing is 2 characters – one for Bei and the other for Jing. So the same symbol for Jing would be used for Jingshu. I’ve also figured out Exit and Entrance. I asked if there is an alphabet – I was told that there are 3000 basic symbols. So I then decided that I should maybe try speaking and understanding first…
To Chinese people, white people all look like celebrities. Especially the blond ones. My college supposedly looks like the girl from “Legally blond” (Reese Whitherspoon) and I apparently look like Meg Ryan. Well alright!
