Sent: Sunday, December 13, 2009 6:22 AM
Subject: Day 7 - Friday
We had to get up early to make an appointment in Suzhou, about 90 minutes from Wuxi. The air quality has not improved and you cannot see the ground from the hotel room on the 49th floor – likely clouds but in this place, who knows. By the way my feet still feel pretty good – only one bruise I have found thus far…
The drive to Suzhou was uneventful. I took a picture from the car to show the air quality. Larry asked why I was taking a picture of the road and I explained that people back home may not believe me when I describe how bad the air quality is here. Larry replied that “This is not pollution, this is fog”. I thought about that for a moment, looked around, smelled the air, looked at Kevin, and we both agreed that this was definitely smog.
We visited three customers throughout the day, all US companies who have set up operations in China to be more price competitive in the local market. It was a long day… Larry took us to a fine American establishment for lunch, Pizza Hit. Apparently, Pizza Hut is considered an upper middle class restaurant in China although the food is just as lousy as it is at home, plus the choices of toppings are rather strange. Sausage and mushrooms, yes!. Octopus and corn, not so much!
A strange note, nearly all of the Chinese manufacturing plants I have been in today had a bright green floor with yellow lines marking lanes. Not sure why.
After meetings were completed, we returned the Ramada Gateway Shanghai where we had stayed Wednesday night. We were both too tired to venture far for dinner so we ate at the Japanese place across the street, Ichibanya. Still good, although the language lesson from two days ago apparently did not stick on the hostess – she offered us “shoop” again. I felt restless after dinner so I took a long walk through the neighborhood surrounding the hotel. Narrow streets, shops and restaurants on the first floor, apartments above, people everywhere – a sea of black hair bobbing all around. I was the only western person I saw during an hour of walking.
Tomorrow is Saturday but we have work planned. Preview – a new menu item – deep fried fish lips – I am not making that up.
No comments:
Post a Comment