2011 - Day 11 - Quzhou

Day 11
Sent 1/22/11

Larry picked me up early this morning for the four hour drive to Quzhou

(pronounced like chee-joe) a city of a million of so people 250 miles

southwest of Shanghai.  I barely had time to grab a Starbucks - a

necessity!  Larry is a good friend and coworker, but he is a truly

lousy driver, even by Chinese standards.  The roads here in general

are scary, but not because the infrastructure is lacking.  The

highways at least in this part of China are modern and well

maintained. It's the drivers themselves that scare me. They do things

that would cause havoc on an American road.  But because they are all

playing by same set of rules, it all seems to work out.  To be honest,

i think if you put me at the wheel here, the whole thing would come

undone.  But Larry is another story.  He is constantly taking wrong

turns, missing exits, and nearly rear-ending countless vehicles.

Today, on the equivalent of an American interstate, he was confused on

whether or not to take an exit, but rather than pull over to think

this through, he just came to a stop - IN THE LANE.  I said "Larry, do

you think it might be safer to pull over to the shoulder"?  He replied

"Don't worry".  Just like when the Chinese say "No problem" it really

means "big problem", when Larry says "don't worry", I worry - a lot!

Soon after we left Shanghai it began to snow lightly.  As we got

further down the road, we entered a mountain range and the snow

intensified.  Larry is not very experienced at driving in these

conditions, but he did slow down and mostly did OK.  The snow was not

sticking to the road much.  I was only seriously worried a few times.

Quzhou is quite unlike the other Chinese cities I have been to.  Road

signs are largely in mandarin only.  There are no KFC's, McDonalds,

Starbucks and the like.  Little western influence of any kind to be

found.  I am quite glad Larry is with me.  I tried checking into the

hotel while Larry was parking the car.  No one at the reception desk

spoke English.  They had to send for someone.  I am definately off the

tourist map here.  The hotel is quite nice; large room, clean, and a

nice soft bed - strange for China.  And in typical Chinese style, no

alarm clock and 2, count 'em, two boxes on condoms along with the soap

and shampoo in the bathroom. 



View from the hotel in Quzhou



After checking in, we had a quick lunchand headed to see our customer's plant where they build mining machines, construction equipment

and compressors.  A complex covering millions of square feet across several buildings including foundries,

metal fabrication, and machine assembly.  Everything is black with

grime, poorly lit, freezing cold, and looks like an OSHA nightmare.

Communism was supposed to create a "worker's paradise".  Like many

other promises of Marxism, improving the lives of workers went

unfulfilled.  Now that China's market is becoming more open, it will

be interesting to see if places like this begin to improve.

Day 12 preview - take the worst driver in China, add a mountain road,

add ice and shake well...