RANDY'S FIRST WEEK
The following is written by Randy:
Today is Tuesday, November 14th, I arrived in Shanghai a week ago about 10 pm and then took a 2 hour car ride to Suzhou where I stayed the first night. The plan was for me to meet a co-worker from our UK company (staying at the same hotel) at 8 am and then we would be picked up by our Chinese counterpart for a 3 hour car ride to Ningbo.
The best way to describe being on the highway system in China is to compare it to the video game MarioKart. All lanes and shoulders are fair game, double yellow lines are only there to add color and traffic lights are a suggestion. Few people drive a uniform speed (maybe truckers), the rest jack rabbit start, drive as fast as possible only to stomp on the breaks. Then repeat for the entire duration of the trip.
Lights and horns are also used to communicate lane changes instead of using the blinkers.
After arriving in Ningbo we toured a Tooling Company and then went to our hotel. We were picked up by the company we had toured and taken to a nice restaurant for a sit down meal around the lazy susan. One person ordered for all of us and we were treated to beef, chicken, pork, lamb, several types of vegetables, fish and a special treat containing some jellyfish. It had a nice crunch to it actually.
The next day found us driving back to Shanghai in the morning in time to visit some more toolmakers in the area. Upon arriving in Shanghai we had time to grab a quick bite around the lazy-susan. We ate some more Pork, beef, fish, etc...treat of the day was some sort of dried fish that had been prepared with a crunchy batter. Best way to enjoy these was to eat the fins, heads and tails altogether.
After touring the toolmakers we had to catch a flight to Southern China just outside of Hong Kong...Shenzhen. We arrived to the hotel here around midnight and it was 77 degrees. Woke up early in the morning to get a quick start to visit 2 different companies that day. The first company sent a car to pick us up and drove us back to the hotel afterwards. After lunch at the hotel we were picked up by the 2nd company to visit their facility. Said second company then drove us to the airport to take our flight back to Shanghai.
Chinese airports seem very efficient, I checked luggage each time flying and the baggage is always at the carousal as we walk to it. The factories we tour are clean and neat, filled with fairly new equipment and loaded with employees.
Saturday I was up and around quite early, I walked a few blocks around the hotel area to check things out and found some guys fishing in the canals with fibreglass cane poles! They were after some big shad type fish about 5-6 inches long).
Jet Lag got the best of me and I slept from 2:30 to 10 pm then got up and went to bed. Sunday was get my stuff together sort of day, I had been having troubles with my cell phone and Vonage systems. I wrote a couple Nasty-grams to Vonage and took my cell phone to China Mobile. I couldn't talk to the China Mobile people but I dialed a number for them to hear the Chinese message that I couldn't understand.
The Chinese people are always quick with a smile and seem very friendly to me. Most of them say "allo" to me and I answer Nee Hao to them. They really do seem to like hearing a Westerner use a little (very little) of their language. Today we had fish head soup for us cooked at deer camp. I call it deer camp because it is a temporary office, pretty rustic and I know I'm missing opening day back home so I'm entitled to pretend. Anyway, after dodging around the eyeballs with my chopsticks, picking the meat off the head and going for the cheeks, I told the cook "Hung How" (very good). And before you even ask, no I wasn't asking him a personal question.
My two fingers are tired of typing, lets hope this get posted on the right site. Bye for now!!
Today is Tuesday, November 14th, I arrived in Shanghai a week ago about 10 pm and then took a 2 hour car ride to Suzhou where I stayed the first night. The plan was for me to meet a co-worker from our UK company (staying at the same hotel) at 8 am and then we would be picked up by our Chinese counterpart for a 3 hour car ride to Ningbo.
The best way to describe being on the highway system in China is to compare it to the video game MarioKart. All lanes and shoulders are fair game, double yellow lines are only there to add color and traffic lights are a suggestion. Few people drive a uniform speed (maybe truckers), the rest jack rabbit start, drive as fast as possible only to stomp on the breaks. Then repeat for the entire duration of the trip.
Lights and horns are also used to communicate lane changes instead of using the blinkers.
After arriving in Ningbo we toured a Tooling Company and then went to our hotel. We were picked up by the company we had toured and taken to a nice restaurant for a sit down meal around the lazy susan. One person ordered for all of us and we were treated to beef, chicken, pork, lamb, several types of vegetables, fish and a special treat containing some jellyfish. It had a nice crunch to it actually.
The next day found us driving back to Shanghai in the morning in time to visit some more toolmakers in the area. Upon arriving in Shanghai we had time to grab a quick bite around the lazy-susan. We ate some more Pork, beef, fish, etc...treat of the day was some sort of dried fish that had been prepared with a crunchy batter. Best way to enjoy these was to eat the fins, heads and tails altogether.
After touring the toolmakers we had to catch a flight to Southern China just outside of Hong Kong...Shenzhen. We arrived to the hotel here around midnight and it was 77 degrees. Woke up early in the morning to get a quick start to visit 2 different companies that day. The first company sent a car to pick us up and drove us back to the hotel afterwards. After lunch at the hotel we were picked up by the 2nd company to visit their facility. Said second company then drove us to the airport to take our flight back to Shanghai.
Chinese airports seem very efficient, I checked luggage each time flying and the baggage is always at the carousal as we walk to it. The factories we tour are clean and neat, filled with fairly new equipment and loaded with employees.
Saturday I was up and around quite early, I walked a few blocks around the hotel area to check things out and found some guys fishing in the canals with fibreglass cane poles! They were after some big shad type fish about 5-6 inches long).
Jet Lag got the best of me and I slept from 2:30 to 10 pm then got up and went to bed. Sunday was get my stuff together sort of day, I had been having troubles with my cell phone and Vonage systems. I wrote a couple Nasty-grams to Vonage and took my cell phone to China Mobile. I couldn't talk to the China Mobile people but I dialed a number for them to hear the Chinese message that I couldn't understand.
The Chinese people are always quick with a smile and seem very friendly to me. Most of them say "allo" to me and I answer Nee Hao to them. They really do seem to like hearing a Westerner use a little (very little) of their language. Today we had fish head soup for us cooked at deer camp. I call it deer camp because it is a temporary office, pretty rustic and I know I'm missing opening day back home so I'm entitled to pretend. Anyway, after dodging around the eyeballs with my chopsticks, picking the meat off the head and going for the cheeks, I told the cook "Hung How" (very good). And before you even ask, no I wasn't asking him a personal question.
My two fingers are tired of typing, lets hope this get posted on the right site. Bye for now!!
posted by Roxanne Gillett at
11:17 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home