May 2012 - Day 6 - Larry tries to feed me bugs

You really have to watch Larry.  At lunch today in a seafood restaurant in Shanghai, we were walking past the "live menu", the tanks filled with fish, prawns, eels, etc, plus plates of other food on display, picking what we wanted to eat.  Larry pointed to one plate and asked "Do you like to try this?  Do you want to try?"   The plate he pointed to was covered with what looked like striped brown gnocci.  Smelling a rat, I asked what it was.  Larry thought for a moment, tugged at the fabric of his shirt and struggled to find the word.  "Silk", he said.  I gave him a sideways look and asked "Silkworms?"  "Yes", he said.  To be precise, they were silkworm pupae.  I have hapily managed to avoid eating bugs this far in my life, although after rolling a fish eye around in my mouth, nothing is really off limits I suppose.  "Do you like these?", I asked.  "Oh no, I never try these", he replied. 

I'm glad I asked. The rat was trying to set me up!  Perhaps he is pissed I ditched him for dinner the other night.  Oh well.

May 2012 - Day 4-5 - A bar girl whips my a$$ in pool

Larry, my Chinese counterpart scares me sometimes.  Not only is he a marginal driver at best, it turns out he is, how shall we say, directionally and chronologically challenged. 

Wednesday he drove us from Shenzhen to see a new customer opportunity near Guangzhou.  We had a 10:30 appointment and he assured me the trip would take two hours.  Had he either A: consulted a map ahead of time, or B: known how to listen to the GPS ap on his phone, this two hour estimate would undoubtedly  have been true.  As it turns out, he did neither.  Ninety minutes into the trip, his GPS told him to get off the highway, and as he tells it, told him to get back on the highway.  At the next exit the same thing happened.  Larry concluded the GPS was defective and continued heading north.  An hour later we passed to the north of Guangzhou and hit a major traffic jam, moving only one mile in an hours time.  Around this time I took out my phone, found the customers address on the web, punched it into Google Maps and found we had driven more than 90 miles past where we should have turned off this highway.  I am quite sure when his GPS told him to get off the highway and get back on, it meant to go in the opposite direction because he missed his exit.  Larry blamed the GPS

In backtracking, we hit another traffic backup which it turns out was caused by a dump truck sized load of dirt in the middle of the freeway.  Not sure how that got there.  We finally arrived 3 hours late.  On the way back to Shenzhen, he got lost again.  What should have been a 7 or 8 hour trip had become 12.  I was visibly angry.  I hate being late.



Shenzhen neighborhood near the Nan Hai


I ditched Larry and had dinner alone.  Afterwards I went to a favorite bar where I know the owners (they invited me to their son's birthday party last trip).  I taught the girl behind the bar how to make caipirinhas and had a nice evening playing pool against one of the bar girls.  I beat her the first few games.  She asked me to buy her a drink, to which I told her she had to beat me at pool first.  She kicked my a$$!  I guess I got hustled.





The "Minnesota Fats" of Shenzhen

 
The next day we had a 10:30 flight to catch and Larry assured me we should leave for the airport at 9:00.  I suggested 8:30 and I thought he understood and agreed.  Wrong!  We arrived at the airport 30 minuted before the flight was to depart, 10 minutes after they closed check in.  We were able to get on the next plane to Shanghai, but again I was pissed and gave Larry a stern lecture about punctuality and planning ahead.  Larry blamed traffic.

I dont want to seem too negative about Larry - he is outstanding at his job - he just drives me insane at times.

May 2012 - Day 3 - The world's most powerful toilet!

The Starbucks ap works in Hong Kong!  At least the store locator button works.  This makes me happy.  I shouldn't be this excited I suppose, but a big ass cup of coffee in the morning puts me right.  The registers dont have optical scanners to read the 2D barcode display to charge my account, but cash works just fine.  Finding one is the hardest part anyhow.  It turns out there are three within two blocks of my hotel. 



View from the Novotel Century in Wanchai

The Novotel Century is my new favorite hotel in Hong Kong. The rooms are small, like all reasonably priced rooms in this city (if you consider $300 USD a night reasonable) but the location and the staff are terrific. Its 2 blocks to the MTR (subway) and my favorite pubs, and 3 blocks from the waterfront.

I caught the 1:00 PM ferry to Shekou after locating and purchasing a case of baby formula for Larry.  Larry has a new baby and does not trust the products he can buy in China, and after all of the news stories about poisoinous toothpaste and milk in recent years, who can blame him. 

I am staying at the Nan Hai Hotel in Shekou again, manily because there arent yet any good alternatives.  The Nan Hai was listed as a five-star hotel when it was opened back in the 80's, but it needs a serious modernization, especially the bathrooms.  My first room would not cool down after a full day, despite the thermostat being set to the lowest point, a big problem in southern China where it is very humid and hot this time of year.  I had the staff check into this while I was working one day.  When I returned, I was politely told there is nothing wrong with the AC, but they would be happy to move me to a room where it worked better.  I didn't bother to point out the lapse in logic here.  I just changed rooms and the AC did work better.  A new Hilton is going up next door and should be open within a year.  I cant wait!


You gotta love the blue bath tub

 On the other hand, the toilets (also blue) are so powerful they shake the floor.  It sounds like the space shuttle blasting off.  I swear you could flush a cat down this thing.

Larry arrived from Shanghai around 6:00 PM.  We had dinner at an American restaurant in Sea World which served really good burgers and proper Caipirinhas!  Beef, cane rum, hot humid - I could close my eyes and be in Brazil.  A nice meal.  I do like Shenzhen for this reason - if you get tired of Chinese food and atmosphere, you have options.

May 2012 - Day 1-2 - A free day in Hong Kong

Its easy to hate airlines for doing some of the things they do, but I personally love it when they overbook a flight - that is the only way I get upgraded on international trips, as I did this time on the Minneapolis to Tokyo leg.  I fly a lot, about 80,000 miles last year, and Delta upgrades me often on flights within the US.  But on long international flights - no way - even if there are empty seats in front - they will usually stay empty.  Delta does this for one simple reason - a business class seat is worth something.   If I thought I was likely to get upgraded from coach to business on a trip to Tokyo, I would never buy a business class seat.  Delta knows this.  But when they oversell a flight - they will move me upfront to get one more paying customer in a coach seat.  Sadly, they dont overbook these flights often enough...

I had a free day in Hong Kong before crossing to Shenzhen.  This city has many things to see, but two of the more famous sights, namely the view from Victoria Peak and the house boats in Aberdeen had eluded me thus far.  Fortunately, and in spite of the forecast to the contrary, it was a beautiful day Saturday and I decided to hit both.


Hong Kong from Victoria Peak

There are two ways to get to the top of Victoria Peak, by tram and by taxi.  I highly recommend the later which costs about $5 US, that is unless you would rather wait in line for an hour to take the tram and pay around the same price.  Anyway, the view was amazing.  Looking north you can see the city and Victoria Harbor, looking south is Aberdeen and the South China Sea



Aberdeen from Victoria Peak


There is an observation center at the top of the peak which charges no admission so this is a pretty cheap trip. 

From the peak, I took another taxi to Aberdeen on the south side of Hong Kong Island.  Aberdeen is famous for its floating restaurants and house boats.  The house boats formed what has been called a "Floating Villiage" of people who live their lives in small boats lashed together in the harbor.  Something unique in the world I believe

The Jumbo Floating Restaurant in Aberdeen



I took a sampan ride around the harbor for about $8 and took lots of pictures.



The Floating Village





Aberdeen Fishing boats

I am staying in the Wan Chai neighborhood on Hong Kong Island again.  Wan Chai has many bars and restaurants, many expat pubs, and has a subway station so its easy to get to and from.  On Saturday night I walked to the Queen Victoria Pub - a cool spot with good beer selection, and it's open to the sidewalk - a great place for people watching.  The place is always crowded and lively. 

There are no pool tables or dart boards, but like all bars in Wanchai, there is other entertainment available if you are so inclined... (I am not!)



Yes, that is a pole on the right side of the photo where the girls practice their gymnastic skills - fully clothed.  Hong Kong is an interesting place as I have said many times.  

Tomorrow I travel to Shenzhen.



December 2011 - Buenos Aires - Avoid the park...

Day 3

They do food very well in Buenos Aires.  Not surprising considering the mix of European and native cultures.  Apart from doing beef true justice, the empanadas, tapas, and even pizza are all worth the trip by themselves.  I can't really say enough about empanadas.  With beef, peppers, onions and spices stuffed in pastry dough and baked or fried, how can you do wrong.  I also had some of the best sushi I have had anywhere in a restaurant run by a chef from Peru who mixes Peruvian spices and native things like sweet potatoes with traditional sushi ingredients.  Combine that with some warm sake and I am one happy guy.

In the evening Alberto drove me around the city to see some of the sights.  Buenos Aires has probably more statues and public art than any place I have been.  Broad boulevards named after famous people or dates in Argentine history are everywhere, punctuated by statues and monuments in every block. 

It was dark after some touring, and Alberto took me to see the Rosedal, a rose garden in a park by the river he claimed was "very beautiful".  This seemed odd as it was far too dark to see the flowers.  As we drove on through the park, we encountered what seemed like a traffic jam.  This further seemed odd, considering it was around 11:00 on a winding road through a city park.  As we drove slowly in a line of cars, I saw ahead on the right a woman leaning against a post.  Her manner of dress and posture clearly advertised her intent.  I asked Alberto, "hooker?, to which he replied "Yes, but wait." We drove on.  It was dark and hard to see, but as we moved along more and more women appeared standing by the side of the road with cars filing slowly past, some stopping by one or another girls.   Now this is where it gets kind of weird.  Coming around a bend in the road, there were two girls on the shoulder standing completely naked, waving at the cars driving even more slowly past.  Farther along others were topless, bottomless, and what I guess were the shy ones dressed, well, like hookers.  This went on for probably half a mile, hooker after hooker, car after car.   Now, this is where it gets even weirder.  As we are nearing the end, Alberto turns to me and says "By the way, most of those were guys!"  Wow, didn't see that coming!   OK, I know it was dark out but I think I am pretty knowledgeable about human anatomy and gender differences.  Those could not have been guys, could they?   Well, a web search after returning to the hotel proved Alberto was speaking the truth.  Damn...  Anyway, be warned.  If you are in Argentina and looking for a hooker...its definitely a buyer beware market!

After the park, we went to a coffee shop as Alberto wanted to introduce me to alfajores, hit favorite Argentinian treat.  An alfajore is similar to a moon pie, but unlike a moon pie, it tastes good.   Really good.  Actually, really, really good.  So good I am bringing a large quantity home. 

Alfajores.

As we were sitting outdoors having coffee and alfajores, across the street a short, chubby man got out of a taxi with two tall, scantily dressed women and entered a restaurant.  Alberto commented how that seemed odd.  I suggested "Maybe he just came from the park".  Alberto shrugged and said "Yeah, probably so."

Day 4 preview.  First impressions of Brazil

Buenos Aires - Day 2 - Beef, beef and more beef...

Day 2

I did not have to be anywhere in the morning, and I took full advantage.  I left the hotel on foot around 9:00 looking for a Starbucks I had seen the night before on the way back to the hotel.  I did not find it.  I have, I think a better than average sense of direction and between dead reckoning and memorizing landmarks I can pretty much always tell where north is and using that, I always know how to get back to where I started.  I knew from the taxi ride in from the airport yesterday that the hotel was on a one way street which runs east.  I knew I wanted to go west in search of coffee so I took a left out of the hotel and started walking the winding streets of Recoleta.  Quickly though, something was nagging at me.  Something was not right.  I had not gone far but it seemed like I was no longer headed west.  What was going on?  The address numbers were getting higher, that was right.  I checked the shadows - there it is, the sun is to my right - I must be heading east, but I know I left going the proper direction.  Then it hit me - southern hemisphere, well south I'd the equator, the sun arcs across the northern sky, not the southern sky.  Oops.  I must be getting old.  Should have caught that one sooner.

Street in Recoleta



Graffiti is everywhere



Alberto picked me up at the hotel around 11:30 and we headed downtown near all of the government buildings to, what else, a steak place for lunch.  Actually, for me it was going to be breakfast.  It was a beautiful spot, an old converted warehouse along the river with old sailing vessels docked just outside and a beautiful blue sky overhead.  It is spring here,  so we ate outdoors.  Now I am a firm believer that beef brisket is by far the must flavorful, but also the most difficult to properly cook cut from the cow.  I also think I have gotten pretty good at cooking brisket myself.  I now know I have much room to improve.  I ordered brisket and what came out was, to use an overused word, amazing.  Perfectly tender but still able to cut it with a knife without the muscle fibers shredding, moist, a hint of charcoal smoke, and enough fat left on top to give an extra boost of favor. I need to go back to the drawing board I think.

Following customer meetings in the afternoon, Alberto dropped me off at the hotel with a plan to pick me up at 8: 30 for dinner.  Dinner, steak of course, was also great, in an open air restaurant in the Palermo neighborhood.  Argentina was settled by primarily Italian and Spanish immigrants and the neighborhoods and the people bear these trademarks.  Following dinner Alberto took me to one of his favorite spots, a tree lined square bordered on all sides by bars and dance clubs where we drank beer until around 2:00 am.  Our waitress, an absolutely beautiful Columbian girl was great fun to chat with.  Alberto got her phone number.  Oh to be 26 and single....and thinner....and better looking... I guess I had best forget about that...

Day three preview - possibly the most bizarre thing I have ever seen!

December 2011 - Buenos Aires

Day 1

My first impression of Buenos Aires was really rather bad.  The airport seemed old and shabby, the immigration line disorganized and the area around the airport run down.  The city itself also put me off at first.  Most of the buildings are old and look Iike they have seen better days.  In the neighborhood where I stayed, Recoleta one of the nicer parts of town I am told, graffiti is everywhere.  I wandered about a bit the afternoon I arrived but I was rather tired from the 13 hours of flying and only 1 or 2 hours of sleep.

I received a phone call at 7:00 pm from Alberto, a company employee and my escort for the next few days. Alberto wanted to meet for dinner along with a few others at 9:00 (they eat pretty late here it turns out).  Alberto picked me up right on time, accompanied by another Alberto and Jorge, more company people.  They took me to the oldest part of the city (and I thought Recoleta looked shabby, Detroit could take some lessons from this place) to a Parilla restaurant, basically an Argentinian steak house.  I was really looking forward to this.  I like beef and of course Argentina is famous for this.

 Alberto is 26, from Mexico, and his been in Buenos Aires for about a year.  The other Alberto and Jorge are natives.  All spoke passable English, better that my Spanish by a long shot anyways.  I put myself at their mercy regarding what to order, a bold move I suppose, but once you have eaten fish eyes and sea food that is still breathing, I guessing nothing scares you anymore.  Anyhow, they eat some pretty weird s#!% in Argentina too it turns out.  It may be stretching the definition, but the fried kidney, sweetbreads and, I am not kidding, goat intestine were presented as "appetizers".  And why in god’s name did they find it necessary to braid the intestines!  I guess presentation is important.  To be honest, it all tasted really good, especially the kidney.  Who knew?  The main dish they recommended, Ojo de Bife was one of the best steaks I have had anywhere.  Basically it is a small ribeye roast, cooked very slowly and amazingly tender.

The conversation was good.  As is often the case, i was impressed by the depth of their knowledge regarding American politics.  I managed to score a few points of my own by knowing more than they expected of Argentina ( I cheated I must confess.  Thanks Wikipedia!).  A couple of bottles of Malbec and some gelato and coffee later, they took me back to the hotel full and tired, but happy around midnight.

Day 2 preview.  Beef! It's what's for dinner...and breakfast...and lunch...

November 2011 - Day 9 - See food?

Day 9

Anyone who has been reading these emails from China will recall that I have been fed some pretty strange things.  The Chinese truly waste nothing, and in fact they prize parts of the animal we throw away.  Feet from chickens, ducks and geese are considered superior to the legs.  Truthfully, they do have more flavor; you just need to get past the difficulty of extracting what little meat there is, and at least I need to not think about what these feet have been standing in!  I have eaten things that were not quite dead yet (recall the live lobster), most every major organ apart from brain, and plenty of things I cannot identify and probably wouldn’t want to know anyhow.  After 6 years of this, I feel I have been more or less desensitized to the unusual features of true Chinese cuisine – or so I thought…

Today I was met at the hotel by Matthew and his wife.  Matthew is a customer but I have known him for many years now and we are on very friendly terms.  I have met his wife before, and though she does not speak English, we seem to get along well too.  They took me for lunch to a Hunan-style restaurant not far from the hotel. They try hard to be good hosts, a real Chinese virtue, and as such I was presented with the prize parts from each dish.  Most of these were pretty tame albeit spicy: some slices of green vegetable that looked like celery but tasted more like asparagus but with a great smoky flavor, some really good tofu, and a really, really big fish head!  I am not sure where the rest of the fish went, but the head was all we got.  The head had been steamed and then cooked in a very spicy clear broth with green onion and garlic.  I have been served the head of smaller fish in the past so this did not strike me as unusual

Warning!! Those with weak stomachs should probably just skip the next bit…

So what do you do when the smiling wife of your host with obvious pride presents you with the marble-sided eyeball from the fish.  I concealed the panic which immediately ensued.  The possible options flashed quickly through my brain: 

Could I politely decline it?  Say I am allergic? Present a note from my Doctor? Crap, I have no such note – should have planned ahead!  No, this would seem very ungrateful.  I can’t decline it.

Accept it with a smile and let it sit uneaten?  Maybe I can hide it under the growing pile of fish bones and skull parts already on my plate.  Maybe no one will notice.  Remembering I often tried this with my peas as a child with no success (Mom always knew what I was up to), and realizing Matthew’s wife is also a mom, I knew she too probably possessed that maternal “third eye” (ironic choice of words, don't you think).  No dice.

Option three.  Eat it.  I had to accept my fate…  Time to “man up” and take one for the team!

I am proud to say I ate it without gagging, making faces, or doing as they say in Japan “the Bush thing”, which is to throw-up in the lap of your host  as Bush 1 did to the Japanese Prime Minister.  I ate it, I chewed it, I followed instructions and spit-out the hard part (we will call that the lens, I did not want to look too closely at what was probably staring back at me), I swallowed what remained, and I prayed silently but really hard that they would not offer me the other eye, which they thankfully did not.  Someday I should really look into getting my own reality show…

By the way, it tasted like fish.

November 2011 - Day 4-8 - An epiphany on Chinese drivers

Day 4-8

This trip has been an exceptionally busy one but nonetheless I apologize for not getting more emails out.  Following the weekend I spent 5 days running around between Shanghai and Wuxi visiting customers and our own manufacturing facility. In 5 days I delivered 6 training seminars to 5 separate customers, most of which lasted 2-3 hours each.  I don’t think I ever got back to the hotel before 9:00 PM.  Each day also included a minimum of 5 hours driving about in Larry’s Toyota through Shanghai traffic which can accurately be described as awful. 

I know I have written about the drivers in Shanghai in the past, but to recap, they scare the crap out of me.  On city streets, stop lights are regularly ignored by cars, trucks and even busses.  When traffic is heavy, lane markers on the highways become meaningless; it’s like watching a slow-motion stampede.  Cars turning right at busy intersections rarely stop to yield, and cyclists, who are still many in Shanghai take what seem like life and death chances amid all of this.  Oddly though, despite being cut-off and nearly rammed multiple times during each journey, no one seems to get angry.  No yelling or waving of whatever appendage the Chinese use to express their feelings about their fellow drivers.  I was at a loss to understand why the Shanghaiese drive the way they do.   Over lunch one day in Wuxi, I asked Stewart, a native German who has lived in China for many years his opinion on this.  Stewart smiled in recognition of my puzzlement, and in one sentence explained everything.  Stewart said simply “All you need to know is in China, it is always your job to avoid hitting the car in front of you, no matter what he does”.  This simple rule is apparently how liability is determined if an accident occurs.  Never mind that you had the right of way by going straight through an intersection with a green light in front of you, the mere fact that the car who turned right on a red immediately in front of you had his front bumper a foot in front of yours when your cars collided means you were at fault.  Now I understand, and riding around for the next three days confirmed what Stewart said was absolutely correct.  This explains it completely!  Wow!  I had no idea the answer could be so simple.  To be honest, I feel kind of stupid now.

Shanghai is big and very busy. The streets and sidewalks are crowded late into the evening.  Thursday night I got back to the hotel late and was hungry so I took off walking to find some food.  I passed a place near the hotel called “Super Chicken”, a very small place with no seating just a counter  behind which your food is cooked while you watch – mostly chicken as you might guess.  I am a firm believer that a fancy restaurant with a line is not worth the wait, but a dive place with a line will never disappoint you so I decided this was the place!  There was a line to order, and after figuring out I was waiting at the wrong end of the line (duh!) I finally got my chance to order after 10 minutes or so.  Not speaking enough Chinese to do something even as simple as ordering did not turn out to be a handicap as most young Chinese speak a little English, and pointing and grunting works well too.  I got my order, some chicken chunks cooked in a light batter with a lot of seasoning and a beverage of unknown content – some kind of fruit juice I suppose.  It was worth the wait, really, really good chicken!  Street food is always the best.

Friday afternoon I flew to Shenzhen where I am spending the weekend.  Shenzhen is on the southern coast of China and is very nice this time of year with highs in the 70’s most days. I am meeting up with Matthew, a customer, and his wife for lunch Saturday. 

Day 9 preview.  I give Andrew Zimmern a run for his money…

November 2011 - Day 3 - The Telephone Game

Day 3

Some things in China seem very familiar, some do not.  Shanghai, where I am this week is a very large city, larger than New York, and it feels like most big cities anywhere; tall buildings, traffic, many people – all seemingly in a hurry, many interesting sights and smells.  But in many ways, it is also different.  The people, unlike those in New York or Chicago, rarely display emotion.  Traffic situations which would anger any good American to the point of violence seem to be accepted in stride.  Children are almost always well behaved.  One of the strangest things is the way they dress toddlers.  Once children are beyond infancy, they no longer wear diapers – even when they are not old enough to use a toilet.  Instead, they wear pants that are slit in the front and back and when they need to go, they just go!  Usually mom or dad will find a nearby bush, sometimes a street corner will suffice, and “junior” will take care of business. 

Today was a working day starting in our Shanghai office in the morning, meeting with a Japanese customer in the afternoon, and dinner with the same customer in the evening.  We spent a lot of time in Larry’s car moving through very slow and seemingly chaotic traffic.  Shanghai highways, which are all elevated 3 floors above ground, could all stand to be widened.  Chinese drivers could stand to learn the purpose of lane markers.  At one point, Karen who was riding in back and flinching in anticipation of a pending collision every few moments or so (clearly her first trip to China) pointed out that there were only three lanes of traffic on this particular stretch of road but there were 5 cars side by side – most of which were trying to move into an adjacent, dare I call it a “lane”?  Once again, I am not sure why they bother to paint those lines on the pavement at all.

Larry decided to treat us to pizza for lunch.  As you might imagine, the pizza delivered from the nearby Pizza Hut (yes, the same one) while clearly a pizza in form tasted shall we say unusual.  Shrimp, pineapple and some weird green stuff on one, some kind of meat, and god know what on the other.  It did not taste bad, but I hesitate to call it pizza.  We thanked Larry politely, what else can you do?

The meeting with the Japanese customer was interesting in that the leader on the customer’s side, Namura-san, spoke very little Chinese or English.  He had an interpreter with him, who was never introduced so I don’t know his name, who spoke Japanese and Chinese only.  Namura-san would speak to “the interpreter who shall remain nameless”.  The interpreter would speak in Chinese to Larry, and Larry would translate for me into English.  Everything I said Larry translated to Chinese for the interpreter, the interpreter would translate this into Japanese for Namura-san, and all through the meeting I was thinking back to the grade school exercise where all the kids sit in a circle and one kid whispers a phrase to the one next to him, who in turn passes the message to the next kid, and by the time the message reaches the end it bears little resemblance to the original meaning – and they were all speaking the same language!.  I have no idea what was truly accomplished, but no one got offended or fell on their swords so I guess it wasn’t too bad. 

We had dinner with the same group, typical Chinese style dinner in a private room with a round table.  I think the fact that Karen was along and the senior person in my company’s  party kept everyone on their best behavior.  No Chinese liquor, endless “one by one” toasting, or anything.  I fear Karen is missing out on the full experience.  We got back to the hotel around 10:00 PM, tired from a long day.



Tonight's restaurant.  You have to love the name



Tomorrow we drive to Wuxi.

November 2011 - Day 1-2 - Eating building material

Day 1-2

The flight over was pretty uneventful.  Minneapolis to Tokyo was on a 777, not on a 747 like all of the previous trips.  A nice interior; still had that new plane smell.  Thought of Grandpa…  From the time I left home to reaching my hotel in Shanghai at 10:00 PM local time took 22 hours.  A pretty long day.  I didn’t sleep at all on the plane but I was wide awake once we arrived, we being my boss Karen and I.  This is Karen’s first trip to China and it is always fun to see how different people react to some of the odder things here.  I will be nice this time though…  Being as I was wide awake, after checking in I went for a walk around the neighborhood, had a drink at the hotel bar, took a shower, unpacked my suitcase, and finally felt tired enough to sleep around 1:00 AM.  I was wide awake at 5:00.

After breakfast in the hotel, and a coffee from Starbucks around the corner, Karen and I headed to a local shopping area as I had to find a few things.  The primary mission was to find iPad covers.  I needed two and Karen decided on the spot she was getting her husband an iPad for Christmas so a third was required.  These covers are much cheaper in China if you know how to haggle, and of course I have my boss with me so I guess I needed to prove I could negotiate effectively – kind of like interviewing for the job you already have.  No pressure!  No Pressure at all!!

The shopping mall we went to is one I have visited many times in the past; seven floors  each containing dozens of small shops and booths and each staffed by 3-4 youths selling pretty much anything available for communicating, computing, watching or listening.  Some of it is legit, much is pirated.   There were no less than 40 places selling iPad covers on the only three floors we visited.  All of the shops appeared to be selling the same 8-10 different styles which makes it easy to move on if you find one you like but the seller won’t bend enough.  The haggling at the first one went something like this:

                Me: “How much for the black one?” (he doesn’t speak much English but I point to the one I want)

                Him: grabs a calculator, keys in some numbers and shows me.  ¥280, around $45

                Me:  Smile; wave my hand like I am fanning something.  “Too much!” I say while turning to walk on.

                Him: “I give discount.”  He punches more keys on the calculator.  ¥180.

                Me: “No, still too much”  I say while turning to walk again.

                Him: “How much you pay?”

                Me: I pick up the cover, examine it, stroke my beard and look thoughtful.  “¥90

                Him: “No, too little”

               

We walked on, looked at some others, decided the first one was the best looking and returned to the same shop.  The same guy recognized us and pulled out the cover we liked. 

                Him:  “You buy?”

                Me:  “How much discount if I buy 2”

                Him:  Smiling, “¥150 if buy 2”

                Me:  “Still too much.  ¥120.”

                Him: After conferring with his fellow employees who are all gathered around now “OK”

                Me: “What if I buy three?  ¥100?”

               

We went a few more rounds and finally settled on ¥112, around $17.50.  A third of what we would pay at home.  My job is secure for a little while longer…  You can negotiate for nearly anything in China

On the way back to the hotel we passed an old Catholic church which turns out to be the headquarters for the Shanghai Archdioceses.  A beautiful old building.  It seems strange that this building would have survived the worst of the communist era, but it has.  There was a wedding preparing to start, a young Chinese couple,  so we could not look around too much and pictures were forbidden on the inside but here is a shot of the exterior

Larry and his wife and daughter met us at the hotel later and took us to a Hot Pot restaurant for lunch which was excellent, very spicy, and as always Larry ordered far too much food.  If you are not familiar with Hot Pot dining, it is traditional in northern China and much like fondue but you dip things into a seasoned broth instead of oil so it is much lighter.  We had deli-thin slices of pork belly, beef,  and lamb along with crabs, shrimp, clams, fish filets, straw mushrooms and spinach.  Fish balls and some kind of meat balls came too.  I didn’t feel stuffed after an hour and a half of this but I was also not hungry for dinner even after walking around the Bund for three hours later.  Larry’s daughter is 9, is learning English and speaks with very little accent, and took it upon herself to teach me Chinese as we walked around.  It was fun but I think she was getting frustrated with my lack of progress. 

Later on Larry took us to a sweet shop and despite the fact that I told him not to, bought me far too much Chinese sweets – he likes to be a good host I guess.  Anyway, we tried a few.  Chinese sweets look and taste very different than what we are used to.  No chocolates, hard candy, Snickers bars – nothing like that at all.  Some look like bags of building material, one looked like chunks of green Playdough twisted into ropes.  One looked and tasted like strips of wallpaper – I don’t really get that one.  Another looked suspiciously like a small black asphalt shingles.  This one does not, as you might guess look very appetizing but it tastes like peanut brittle, only with sesame seeds in place of the nuts.  It was really good.  I am bringing some home.

Tomorrow work begins…

May 2011 - A few observations about Chinese people

Chinese People – just a few random observations

Chinese men will make eye contact with you for an uncomfortably long time.  Chinese women will not make eye contact at all except in the context of business or conversation – pass one on the street and she will not look you in the eye. 

The Chinese can come off as cold – they rarely smile or nod at you if you are a stranger, but if you are in need of help, they are quick to do so.  As an example, Stan and I came back from an evening out late one night in Shanghai and stopped by a place near the hotel for some street food (the best kind – but be careful).  We stopped at a place we had scoped out days earlier – “Super Chicken”, it always had a line day or night.  We stood in line for a bit, but when it came our turn we realized the menu was all in Chinese and none of the people working there spoke enough English to help us.  We were all laughing about this – Stan and I resorting almost to pantomime without success, when a young woman passing by saw what was going on and went out of her was to translate for us.  Soon enough we had our late night cure for the munchies.  The chicken was “super”, as the name and the perpetual line implied.

May 2011 - A classic Hong Kong moment

Stan and I spent one weekend in Hong Kong mid-trip.   I planned this into the trip carefully because I truly love this place.  Always so much going on 24 hours a day.  Anyhow, Saturday evening we were in the Wan Chai district, hanging out at an expat bar called the Queen Victoria Pub.  Like most bars in HK, the wall which separates the bar from the sidewalk opens up when the weather is suitable, as it was this particular evening, so the crowd had spilled out onto the sidewalk.  Here, I ran into someone I know, Owen – the New Yorker I met on my last trip who lives in HK, has a factory on Guangdong which makes picture frames for Wal-Mart, and is always entertaining – loud, cocky, funny – typical New Yorker! 

Stan and I were out on the sidewalk having some beer and pitching HK$5 coins against the wall with Owen and a few others (Stan was a natural and won some money, I was not so good) and the conversation turned to what a cool place Hong Kong is – and how you find people from everywhere living here and food from everywhere to boot.  At one point, Stan told Owen that since leaving Minneapolis, he had been craving Bratwurst and asked if he knew if you could get a proper one here.  Owen thought a moment and said “Hold on a minute, let me go find you a German” – Owen disappeared into the bar and came back 5-minutes later.  “I found one!  He’ll be right out.  You’ll live this guy – a real Nazi”  Owen is a funny guy. 



Sure enough soon out came Paul; about 55, tall, bearing a strong resemblance to Fred Gwynn and speaking with a heavy German accent.  “So I hear you are looking for zee best Bratvurst in zees place. Vell, zee Sviss Chalet eez verrry good, but zee abzolute best eez at zee King Ludvig…”  and he went on to tell us all about the restaurant, King Ludwig himself, and on, and on, and on.  We stood on the sidewalk with Paul for nearly half an hour in between coin tosses. 



Pitching coins in Wan Chai



Besides Paul, we also met an older Irishman, Paddy Finn, who kept going on about how he doesn’t worry about the Chinese “They want the same fookin’ tings we want”, he kept saying over and over between pints.  He was doing the Irish proud!  I also chatted with a South African and an Aussie, and a few others, but this is typical of Hong Kong.  It may be the most international city there is, more so than New York I think.  I was in an Irish pub another day chatting with a woman from Hunan, drinking an English cider served by a woman from Nepal and nothing about this was unusual, it was just Hong Kong.  I think if you took a census you would find the whole of the UN represented here. 

...and if you ever need a German, someone will go find you one!

May 2011 - Day 6 - How to survive "One by One"

May 2011 – Day 6

I feel like I have a price on my head

I have written a lot about Larry over the years.  We have been working together for more than 6 years now and I think I know him fairly well – well enough at least to know that he wants to get me killed!  I have noticed a pattern every time we have one of the group dinners so common here following important meetings.  During the meeting, Larry will extend an invitation for dinner to the Chinese customers and coworkers – he does this in Mandarin, I guess so I won’t understand, and at some point, the listeners always laugh and look in my direction.  Fortunately I have picked up enough of the language to understand what is happening – Larry is asking everyone to toast me with Baiju “one-by-one”.  He also tells them that I once toasted 30 people in this manner, which for the record is not true but in Larry’s mind it is.  At any rate we had two such dinners this trip, both times I was set up, and both times I got roped into “one-by-one” with at least one table of 12 or so people.  I have learned to do this with at least one table, after eating a sufficient amount of whatever is served, rice works best, and then I stay involved in conversations with whoever is available until the rest of the people are too drunk to remember I didn’t toast them yet.  This has worked every time so far, and so long as no one catches on, I think and can keep on living.  At least I can walk away without assistance.  As with all things, it is good to have a plan.  At the second of our customer dinners, Larry ordered 10 bottles of Moutai – the top brand of Baiju.  Apparently he has a larger marketing budget than I have –

May 2011 - Day 5 - Swim trunks and antibiotocs are all you need to swim in Suzhou

May 2011 – Day 5

A few interesting bits from the past couple of days in Suzhou and Shanghai:

I sponsored a dinner Tuesday night for my customer’s Suzhou leadership as well as their Asian distributor personnel; around 30 people total.  As we were all gathering for dinner, the President of my customer's Asia division pulled me aside, thanked me for extending the invitation, and then insisted on paying for dinner.   This is where developing some understanding of Asian business culture comes in handy.   I could have insisted that I pay, but that would have shown disrespect to someone of higher stature.  I could have agreed immediately, but that would have made me seem insincere.  The correct approach was to refuse his offer a time or two, and then insist  that I can pay at the next dinner which will occur on Monday in Shenzhen.  I fully expect to go through the same argument at that time.  We will see.  I did, however, buy 2 bottles of top grade Baiju for his table which I think he appreciated.

Dinner that night was quite good; held in a nice restaurant on the lakeshore in Suzhou.  It was an unusually clear day.    The lake is beautiful but I am told you don’t want to swim in it, not without a healthy dose of antibiotics anyway.

Most of the food was not too unusual (by Chinese standards anyway.   I had some really good eel – no that is not an oxymoron; pork belly, prawns, and something I thought was rings of squid, that is until I saw a picture of the same dish in a menu 2 days later in Shanghai and found out it was really pig intestine.  It tasted pretty much like squid. 

Wednesday in Shanghai, Stan and I were in a Starbucks having some coffee when someone yelling caught our attention.  Looking around we saw the source of the commotion; a Chinese man dressed in a sequined cowboy hat, cowboy boots, ridiculously large sunglasses, holding the largest cell phone I have seen since about 1990 – either that or he was screaming into the menu – I couldn’t really tell.  He kept going on and on like “I demand apporogy!  You know what I talkeen about?  You must apporogize”.  After a few minutes of this he got up and left.  You do meet some odd characters over here.

Thursday night in Shanghai, Stan and I went to a bar district, had some dinner and wandered about a bit.  Some interesting bar names; Blue Sky Bar (optimistic considering the air quality I think); Big Bamboo, Yes Bar (and all this time I have been going to “No Bar”), and my favorite – Club Lady Gaga! 

Friday we head to Hong Kong.  More later

May 2011 - Day 4 - Never flip a fish

May 2011 – Day 4

The jet lag pattern from previous trips is repeating itself nicely.   I was in bed by 10:00 last night and at 3:30 AM I was wide awake, unable to get back to sleep.   I spend a couple of hours catching up on work and flipping through the 40 or so TV channels – not much to watch.  They have HBO which was playing “Chuckie’s Revenge” – not sure how anyone could sit through that.  Today we drive to Suzhou about 90 minutes by car inland.

A couple of new things I learned today:

1.       NEVER flip over a fish!  I had dinner with Stan, Larry and Stewart, another coworker – a German who lives in China, speaks decent English and Mandarin, has a wife who is native Chinese and has a good grasp on Chinese culture.  Among other things we were served a whole steamed fish; a medium sized one, some sort of snapper I think, laying on its side on a platter in the center of the table.  We all used our chop sticks to remove pieces of the flesh which included an annoying amount of very small, very sharp needle-like bones.  As you might imagine, after a while the top-side of the fish is pretty well cleaned off and the meat on the underside is inaccessible with the skeleton in the way.  So what does one do?  Naturally, I try to flip the fish over to expose the other side.  “No” shouted Stewart and Larry in unison!  I gave them a sideways glance and asked what was wrong.  Stewart explained that Chinese fishermen have a strong superstition about flipping over a fish – something to the effect of if you flip over a fish, your boat will flip over.  This superstition has made its way into the rest of the culture.  Rather than turn the fish over, you are supposed to remove the skeleton to expose the rest of the meat, which the waiter soon did with admirable precision leaving only the complete head, the meat, and the remainder of the gum-piercing, intestine-perforating smaller bones.  Anyone for a case of peritonitis?

2.       When passing in a car, don’t wait until you have fully passed before moving to the other lane.  In drivers ed, we were taught to advance at least 2 car lengths when passing before moving back over to the other lane.  A pretty common sense approach I always thought.  In China, nearly everyone starts to move back over before the pass is even completed, even when there is plenty of open road ahead, at times coming dangerously close, and the strange thing is no one seems to get upset over this.  I find it hard to believe that everyone would not do this consistently without some reason behind it, but if there is a higher purpose to this maneuver, it escapes me.

Suzhou has a massive Ferris wheel at an amusement park on the lake shore, close to my hotel.  It displays a light show on it's sides at night – pretty cool. 



Suzhou near the hotel



Day 5 preview – Larry tries to get me killed.