The last two weeks have been full to the brim with visitors from central China, Hong Kong and Germany (yes really, here in Salem, VA), sales calls, and computer crashes (my God, does Microsoft suck – Apple, I’m comin’ baby).

I have some great food and travel blogging drafted, but it is 3:15 AM, and I’ve been going since 7:00 AM yesterday, so you get some random dreck, DJ-style, like the great Instapundit (and yes that’s me hoping for some linky love).  I’ve been saving these up for a while, but they are still current and topical.

• Reuters – Google phases out Microsoft Windows use: report – GOOD; Vista is a war crime and the entire Office 2007 suite should have resulted in public hangings in Redmond.  How do you screw up Excel with stoopid menus?  I swear they could mess up a calculator.
• Financial Times – Rival tablets ready to bite into iPad lead – and they’re not even talking about the knock-offs you can buy on the streets of Shenzhen.
• The Anchoress – Witnessing the heart as it cracks – UPDATED – this is now quite dated by all the other bad things that happened in the Gulf of Mexico.  I only post it here to make the point whether you like Obama or not, having a President in the White House who the entire world (especially our Chinese creditors) see as an incompetent fool is not a good thing.
• New York Times – Virus Ravages Cassava Plants in Africa – This is quite sad, as Africa has enough problems.  I will be interested to see if the new colonial masters, the Chinese, come to the rescue with either aid or a scientific solution.  Somehow I doubt either scenario, but I sure hope I am wrong.
• AutoblogGreen – Study: Mass adoption of EVs in China will lead to tremendously higher emissions – It took me several minutes to stop laughing after I read this.  That Law of Unintended Consequences really is a bitch.  I love it when the local tree-huggers tell me about all the green technologies in use in China.  I wish I had a clear photo of the street lamps on a showpiece stretch of highway from Liantang to Buji.  The bulbs are fluorescent and the lamps have solar collectors and windmills!  They should be totally awesomely green, right?!  Except there is no consistent wind, the smog blocks out the sun and the bulbs are all broken.  Other than that, they are on the right track.
• The Telegraph (UK) – Chinese hiding three million babies a year – I know far more young people in China with siblings than the One Child Policy would suggest.  Anyway, as Mike is famous for saying, “there are 1.3 billion people in China – people be ****ing.”  Speaking of which…
• The Sun (UK) – Saying Sorry to China with Sex – Well, I for one applaud the young lady for trying to heal such old and deep wounds.  I mean, what have YOU done today to atone for the atrocities in Nanjing?  On a similar note…
• Good**** – China’s looming woman shortage: 5 possible consequences – this blog post is safe, but please note the site itself is NOT SAFE FOR WORK as the blog title suggests.  Despite the location of this post, the point is very valid – such an imbalance (India is said to have a similar problem) is a  huge flash-point as Beijing tries to control China’s rapid ascent.
• Walter Russell Mead – Marx Awakes as China Rises – an erudite end to this post.  If you don’t read Mr. Mead regularly, you should.

Actually, I have to end with some key words to boost our SEO, since that’s the original reason for this blog in the first place.  So here goes:

Contract Manufacturing, Contract Packaging, Contract Assembly – rah, rah, rah, sis boom bah!  Please feel free to contact me about our contract capabilities!

4:00 AM – good night, Irene.

To put that in perspective for those of you who don’t like sushi and teppanyaki, my last trip to our favorite place here in the States ran over US$100 for a very modest date night meal.

I know I have eaten and drunk over 1000 RMB worth at some of our gorge sessions.  As I have written before, I have no idea how they stay in business.

What puts this in mind was this powerful piece by Reason TV, How to save a dying ocean from overfishing…, which primarily discusses the Japanese and USA role in overfishing.  Those roles are well documented (for two great books on the subject, read Mark Kurlansky’s Cod and The Big Oyster).

What is not mentioned at all – and I find it quite curious – is Chinese overfishing.  This has been reported on for years (see here, here and here for examples going back nearly a decade), so I find it very curious that they were omitted from the article.

In any case, I am sure the next iteration of this study will have to involve the seafood appetites of the growing Chinese middle class.  One of the things I love about being in China is the exquisite seafood dishes.  While a great deal of the seafood is now farmed, I know I’ve eaten wild fish, usually the daily special.

I like the concept of a market based solution as proposed in the article, and modern China is so thoroughly capitalist that such a plan would work well.

• MSNBC – Clinton says world must respond to N. Korea
• Financial Times – US warns over Beijing’s ‘assertiveness’
• DER SPIEGEL  – Interview with Economist Nouriel Roubini: ‘We Will Have Even More Crises in the Future’ (hat tip Matt)
• Real Clear Politics – Depression 2010? (whether you agree with him or not, this future is not clear or bright – there is much excitement yet to come I fear)
• Reuters – Factbox: Sources of tension between China and the U.S.
• Reuters – China and U.S. look to close world’s biggest trade gap
• Reuters (again) – Clinton avoids China disputes, hands out teddy bears (avoid confrontation and carry a teddy bear – not exactly what the Teddy for whom the bear is named advised, but then he never had to deal with being in debt to your competitors)
• CNBC – US Plays Down European Crisis but China Worried (as they should be)
• USA TODAY – Private pay shrinks to historic lows as gov’t payouts rise (that’ll work)
• Reuters (yet again) – How Greek debt crisis could save America (God, I hope so)

Maybe get to some travel blogging tomorrow.  Or not.  You’ll have to check back to see.

So I guess I should have known that it was not reliable as an alarm clock.  Suffice it to say I am an experienced enough traveler that I don’t cut things close, so I had planned to arrive 2 hours earlier than needed.  Despite the fact that the alarm failed, the sun woke me and I showered, shaved and “packed” in about 25 minutes.  I say “packed” because I made the decision some days back to leave most of the clothes behind as I will be back in about 6 weeks and didn’t see the point.  Because the driver is waiting and I want to get through the Huanggang border crossing before the Chinese New Year rush hour starts, everything I wanted to take got unceremoniously shoved in the bag – couple small gifts for the kids, some movies and books and medicine and out the door.

It’s a glorious morning, blue skies and lots of fast moving clouds.  It is warming up fast and very humid.  We head to the main Luohu border crossing, Huanggang, which I am fearing will be a mob scene.  Although the official Chinese New Year doesn’t start until Saturday, many factories and offices are already closed.  Around 450 million people travel inside China during the 2-3 weeks that cover the Lunar New Year season.  That’s 1.5 times the entire population of the USA.  And we bitch about travel around Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Last year the blizzards in China had over 250,000 people stranded at the Guangzhou railroad station for days.  I’ve been there on a normal business day, and it is no wonder they had to bring in the police to maintain order.

So I am not surprised that Huanggang is in fact a mob scene. The company driver drops me off at the stand where they sell tickets for the mini vans that run you across for 150 RMB.  I usually get a limo for 700-800 RMB, but decide to try this less expensive method.  In the future, I will be using the limo again, more on that in a minute.

Photos inside are strictly forbidden, and I did not feel like taking the risk 4 hours before my flight, so you will have to visualize the chaos of maybe 3,000 people with their luggage squeezed into a room designed to hold perhaps 500.  There were 30+ lines for Chinese and only one for Foreigners, so getting through took a long time.  They were really being critical this morning, usually passport control for a white guy takes 30 seconds, but today he looked through every page of the passport and spent several minutes looking things up on his computer.

If I had hired a limo, I would have been able to go through passport control in my own lane, never getting out of the car.  700 RMB (cost of the limo) – 150 RMB (cost of the van) = 550 RMB = US$80.  That savings is looking less important all the time.

Outside I find our van and it appears I am the last man.  I expected as much, due to the 3rd degree from the border patrol.  Except the driver insists I am not the last, he says we are missing one.  When we buy our tickets, we are given stickers with the van’s number on it so the driver can keep track.  The van seats 7 passengers – 3 in back, 3 in the middle and one riding shotgun.  I did not look in the back when I boarded, but I take it on faith that he is correct – they would never run these things across a passenger light, certainly not on a day like today.  In the van with me are a Singaporean man, four Taiwanese men and one Taiwanese woman.  The Singaporean is mighty worried about missing his flight, and after 30 minutes waiting for the missing passenger in the 80 F warmth and bright sunshine, he is starting to get hot, as in pissed.  The driver placidly insists he can’t leave the 7th (which none of us can exactly remember) because he paid too, we have his luggage, and if we leave he will be stranded, as there is no way to hire a car on this side.  The driver is quite right…in theory.

The Chinese was fast and very heated, but it seems the Singaporean insists there is no 7th, something none of us can confirm.  The Taiwanese woman who was also in the back seat, says nothing and refuses to answer when asked.  Very strange.  He then opens to back and starts counting luggage.  He points to different bags and the various passengers chime in to claim ownership.  When he points to mine, I say “我的”, “mine” which makes him actually do a dramatic double take that the laowai can speak Chinese.  It appears the mysterious 7th has no bags, so we double count, and indeed all the bags on board are accounted for by the six of us.  The driver sees that the luggage is no longer an issue, but still insists on waiting.  The Singaporean in now in a rage and calls over another driver from the same company who just pulled in.  He loudly explains the situation and the other driver agrees to find the missing 7th, who may not even exist, and tells our driver to roll out.

Back in the car, for the the first 2-3 minutes the Singaporean loudly berates the driver, who must be a Taoist, as he is completely at peace and does not get the slightest bit ruffled under this assault.  Finally the Singaporean realizes the futility and quiets down.  I find the whole episode educational and an example of what fascinates me about Asia.  Singapore is wealthy and sophisticated city state (I lived there in 1994 and loved every minute), and this guy acted like he was a typical rich snob from good side of town.  The driver must have a special permit in order to cross the border so regularly, but my guess is he is from the Mainland.  People on the Mainland, especially the older generation, have been raised to just take it.  I’ve seen Singaporeans, Taiwanese and Hong Kongers pull this stunt on Mainlanders, berating them publicly, because they know they can get away with it.  One of my rules for life is to show as much respect as you can to the people who wash your clothes, cook your food and drive you around, etc., because they are the ones who make your life easy.  They deserve more respect than this guy got.

Huanggang border crossing

So many Chinese drivers have these awful perfume dispensers on the dash - note the gold tiger for the Year of the Tiger.

Huanggang - when you are using a Porsche Cayenne for your border crossing van, that's just showing off.

Huanggang - Shenzhen skyline

Huanggang - to Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of the coolest places on earth.  The drive to the airport is always amazing but is especially so this morning with dramatic and fast moving clouds with occasional bursts of sunlight.  The natural setting is glorious and dramatic, hundreds of mountainous islands covered in verdant green rising out of the harbor.  The cities and towns are built to work with the land, unlike the wholesale flattening of the hills that takes place in Shenzhen.  The bridges that connect to Lantau island and Hong Kong International Airport (HKG) are brilliant – one each of suspension and cable-stayed – and the whole setting reminds me of a scale model too perfect to be believed.  My camera stinks, so this is the best I could do.

views of Hong Kong

container ship in the harbor

We arrive at HKG with less than two hours before my flight, far less than I normally allow.  I know before I even get to the airport that there is no chance of getting better seats, not so late and not on the Thursday before CNY.  Nevertheless, even though I checked in online last night, I head over to the United counter and chat up the very attractive lady at the counter (in Asia it is still OK to hire public relations personnel who are good looking – it is often part of the job description) and she tries every trick in the book to get me a better seat.  Nothing doing, flight is booked solid.  Oh well, I appreciated her efforts and gave her a business card (she didn’t believe that I’d been in Asia for 5 weeks with no luggage so I told her to check the blog), so if she’s reading this, thank you very much for your help!

HKG entry hall

HKG entry hall

I head through passport control and security, and get accosted by the eager young folks who are always there taking a survey of foreigners to find out how much time and money you spent in Hong Kong on this trip.  I am in a hurry, but I take a minute anyway to talk to them.  Yes, I absolutely love Hong Kong.  I would move here tomorrow if my wife would come with me.  I’ve been here many, many times and will be back again soon.  It’s awesome and now I have to go.

Five minutes for a quick bowl of noodles and to buy some candy bars (paid for in 1 second with my Octopus card – love it).  Then up and down the seemingly endless series of escalators with the train ride to the other terminal in the middle and on to the gate.  It is very humid and pretty warm and HKG, like Shanghai Pudong, is built to be big and impressive which means by the time I get to the gate, it is now officially sticky uncomfortable.  It is February, so I don’t think they have the AC on, but this not how you want to board a plane.  The security is far tighter than the USA, with every bag searched.

I am in a aisle seat in Economy, which means the next 14 hours will only be mildly tortuous.  My seat mates speak not a word and neither do I.  Both sleep through the entire flight.  Just as well as I’m not in the mood.  United is sticking with the 4 movie format, but at least they are good – The Invention of Lying, Where The Wild Things Are, My One And Only, and The Informant!  The food sucks and is even sparser than last time.  Thank God for candy bars.

Land in Chicago exactly on time, and after a pretty thorough grilling by passport control, out into the airport.  For some bloody reason you have to go back through security again, which in O’Hare is less than fun.  Security in HKG is MUCH tighter than in the States, but nothing for it, so shoes off and laptops out.  My flight to ROA is out of one of the commuter terminals, to one with no good restaurants.  Lunch at McD’s.  blech.

I sit down to read the Wall Street Journal Asian edition they gave me on the plane and wait the two hours for my flight.  There is a great article on Chinese Intellectual Property law that I would love to be able to concentrate on, but instead I spend this time listening to an astoundingly annoying woman tell the lady across the aisle from her nearly every detail of her life and recent travel history, including how her underwire bra sets off the metal detectors EVERY TIME (I feel so much safer now knowing they actually work).  I know this because despite the fact that she was about 100 feet away, her voice was SO LOUD everyone in the terminal heard her.  At least when people in China are loud and obnoxious, they are all loud and obnoxious at the same time, so the result is sort a loud silence.  They all just drown each other out into white noise.  Oh, how I wish I were back in China.

Bumpy flight to ROA with the annoying lady talking only intermittently during the flight.  I think she was airsick.  Thank God for turbulence.

Finally, almost exactly 24 hours after I woke up, we land at Roanoke Regional Airport.  Out into the cold and snow covered mountains.  24 hours ago I was in 80 F weather, now below freezing.  Yipee.

Roanoke Regional Airport

clear and cold at ROA

It’s been a great 5 weeks, but when I see the family again, I know where I belong.

Happy to be home.

Dongmen shopping district

view from the pedestrian bridge - note the construction for the subway

view from the pedestrian bridge

Dongmen shopping district

a micro McD's that only sells ice cream in Dongmen

Chinese New Year decorations in Dongmen - featuring Disney knock-offs

Dongmen - Kobe, skyscrapers (that's Di Wang Da Sha from the front), faux temples and a plaster giraffe

Chinese breakdancers - only 20 years late to the party - as the proprietor of www.theshenzhenrules.com said, "the Chinese will never be able to beat Americans at cool".

yes, that's a Dunkin' Donuts in Dongmen - and no, I did not have one

the incomplete building across from Di Wang Da Sha - it has been this way for years, caught up in another corruption scandal

That evening we head out to meet Anne Kuschert of Karl Gross Logistics, aka Banana (adopted from China and raised in Germany and Hong Kong – yellow on the outside, white inside – her term), and one of our Endorsed Service Providers, Ms. Li Yan of the JunZeJun Law Firm.  Li Yan and I have been referring people to each other for a while now and she’s done an exceptional job with our clients, 8-0 on IP cases.  It was nice to finally meet her face-to-face.  We dine at the Da Yu (Big Fish) the crazy teppanyaki place with the all-you-can-eat, all-you-can-drink special for 150 RMB.  The place is packed to the gills for CNY celebrations.  Ultimately we are seated and have a spectacular meal.

Lamb, sushi, grilled fish, beef cooked several ways, raw kobe beef sashimi, and copious amounts of beer, sake and fruit smoothies to keep it healthy

Since we were one of the last tables to eat, the chef used our grill to make a massive batch of egg fried rice for the staff’s dinner.

that's a dozen eggs at least

you should have seen the slab of butter he threw in this thing - a pound at least - say it with me now, egg fried rice is NOT diet food

whole process took only about 90 seconds

The group breaks up after dinner, though some of us go for a few more drinks – Erdinger at McCawley’s (my favorite German beer).  Banana is with us and says I’m pouring it wrong.  That may be so, but I’m pouring it the way I like it.  Besides, my way is more fun for entertaining the wait staff.  No way to describe it, just have to show you the next time I see you.  Starts raining which sort of kills the fun sitting outside.  Head for home.

Day 33 – rained hard all day, forcing us to cancel our trip to Hong Kong and Macau.  We did nothing except sit inside all day working and watching movies.  When the rain finally started to abate, headed out to get some KFC.  Yes, I know, but sometimes you feel lazy.  We pay for it later with wicked acid indigestion.  KFC is much spicier and greasier than in the US.  Later in the evening we head out to Shekou to get rooms at the cruise ship so we can watch the Superbowl live in the morning at the sports bar downstairs.  We take our clients to dinner at Tasca, the Spanish tapas bar and have a grand time.  Early to bed.

ship hotel room at Seaworld - that's a port hole in the upper right of the "window"

Day 34 – Up early to watch the Superbowl.  I don’t care about either team, but fun nonetheless.  Our clients head out early via hydrofoil ferry to HKG, which is much quicker than crossing by land (the “business” excuse for our trip to Shekou – have to take care of those customers).  This is the first time I’ve been to Seaworld in the daylight in years, and after the rain it is a gloriously clear morning.

Seaworld in Shekou on Superbowl morning

This is the boat where Deng Xiao Ping signed the paperwork for the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone

It now houses a hotel, a Western sports bar, the New Orleans nightclub and a German brewpub where we ate breakfast. Communist...right.

The water is to give the illusion it is still afloat

Little Foreigners Town

The opposite of China Town

Starbucks, KFC, McDs, 7-11

It's far from perfect though. This was all filled in (it used to be a harbor) and this area is below sea level. All the water has to be pumped out.

Merry Christmas in Shekou - in February

Because it’s Monday (China is 13 hours ahead of the east coast of the USA, so Sunday night is Monday morning), after the game we head to work.  We have to stop by B&Q again.

I was thrilled to see this in the parking lot at B&Q - tool trucks that deliver make plant life in the USA much easier and it is a good thing this in now available in PRC.

On the way home from the plant, we see a VW Santana with a big involved graphic across the back of the trunk lid.  It says “SOCCER” and has a picture of some famous footballer.  Only one problem – it’s backwards, a mirror image of what it’s supposed to be.  You see this kind of stuff all over the place here – English words on t-shirts, handbags, advertisements, etc. that are misspelled or upside down or backwards or just thrown together at random.  My wife has a t-shirt from our time in Taiwan that says “I’m Fine Muck”.  Yes you are, sweetie.

We are interviewing a Filipino process engineer to work with me at the Assembly Center.  He looks like he’ll be a good fit.  He’s got loads of plant level experience working for major global companies and has lived in Shenzhen before.  He has family in Dongguan up the road.  He tells us a harrowing story about his last time in China when he was kidnapped and robbed at knife point in broad day light.  I have heard these stories about SE Asians in China, but never about a Westerner.  I guess the gangsters assume the police will care less about the SE Asians.  Sadly, they are probably right.

Day 35 – Last day at the Assembly Center.  We hired the process engineer, Harold Roman, this morning and he’ll spend today and tomorrow with me reviewing our kaizen agenda for the next couple months.  I intend to return for the month of April, but don’t want things to go cold after CNY.

The last lunch is celebratory, the first lunch with beer since I’ve been here.  Had I been doing the factory visit two-step, every vendor would want to treat me to an alcohol-soaked luncheon.  I was not here for that, but in this case, a couple cold beers in the afternoon is an appropriate reward.  Only problem, no cold beer.  No problem, we’ve got ice.  Iced beer.  That was honestly a first for me.

The chicken was exceptional - Teresa asked me to pick a dish (I chose the little fish), but of course when they accidentally bring the mushroom dish in the foreground, my choice is the one that gets canceled. Lao wai's don't know how to order anyway.

sizzling black pepper steak - this was great - eat it off the bone with chopsticks - easier than it sounds

the chicken feet were not eaten by the ladies because they were 'too small'

It was a beautiful day, bright sunshine, 75 F, low humidity, so we walk to and from lunch, about 10 minutes each way. Landscaping on a street in an industrial part of town. The new China takes civic beauty increasingly seriously

typical traffic on a Chinese SIDEWALK

When we get back the postman is delivering the mail on his green China Post motorcycle with saddlebags.  Very cool.  We get back to work until Julien Roger of China Quality Focus calls and asks me to join him for a business dinner.  The schedule requires me to wrap things up early and head back to Liantang.  We have our closing meeting and say our goodbyes.  I’ll be back in April, but will miss these folks in the meantime.  A good team all around.

Chinese postman - note he just drives right into the building - walking is for sissies.

Our team at Buji. Wonderful folks. L-R: Mr. Tang, Teresa Chen, Josephine Ji, me (man, am I not photogenic), Candy Cheng, Marc Yue, Honey Wu, Hebe Wang, Bruce Li (yes, really) and Nancy Lan.

On the way home I finally get a not-completely-blurry photo of the “staircase street” we pass every day.  They are not good, but this is a very cool little oddity of Shenzhen.

I tried everyday to take a photo of this 'staircase street' which we passed on the way back from the Assembly Center - these are the best two - very cool

Can you imagine living on this street?

When I get back to Liantang, the driver drops me at the end of the street.  Our street is private, meaning that you have to pass through a gate and take a ticket to get in.  If you stay on the street for more than a few minutes, you have to pay to get back out.  We have a parking spot outside the wire, so this is typical.  Nearly every shop is already shut down for the Chinese New Year, a bit of a ghost town.  I come across one scene outside of a restaurant that is very cute and hugely disturbing at the same time.

This is a lot less cute when you realize that the bunny is dinner.

Julien and I head out to meet up with Renaud Anjoran of the Quality Inspection Blog at a northeastern style restaurant.  I love this style, and was wickedly disappointed by the last place I tried, so I went in hoping for a good experience.  Julien said this was his favorite place and I see why.  It was excellent across the board.

This is the best salad in the world - warm onion and cilantro with peppers.

This is by far the best fish I ate on the trip - boneless, deep fried, sweet & sour with pine nuts - what's not to like?

A light meal for 3 people - sweet potato noodles, pai huang gua (bashed cucumbers), sweet & sour fish, lamb & vegetable dumplings, some meat dish with chilies, cilantro salad, potato 'noodles' with 9 beers for a total of 178 RMB or US$26! I love this place!

After dinner, I go for my last massage of the trip.  I have a bad back, had to wear a back brace when I was a teenager and am used to regular pain and discomfort.  On this trip, I have definitely been spoiled by the affordable and effective massages.  My back feels better than it has in years.  The woman tonight is in her 40′s and her experience shows – she is an expert and despite the momentary thrashing when I wake up in the morning I feel like a million bucks.  Total cost around $25.  Love.  This.  Place.

Day 36 – Last day at the office.  Beautiful morning.  We battle the usual chaos before the CNY, mainly problems with customer payments clearing in time to release goods to get a berth on a freighter.  Customers often can’t envision the traffic at the ports during this time of year, and think that if they get the check out on the last day that that will translate to goods on the water.  To clarify, no it won’t.  If you are one of these customers reading this blog, it is nothing personal and trust me you are not the only one, but in the future, send the money early.  The earlier the better.  The Chinese have been celebrating CNY for 5,000 years.  It’s not like you weren’t warned, and trust me, there is NOTHING I can do about it.

last morning - beautiful

Our favorite local restaurant is still open and so we have our final lunch there.  All the favorites plus this that I’d not had before.

last lunch - very good sizzling beef dish - the dish was so hot it was still boiling 4-5 minutes arrived it arrived at table

We have a very productive day and then select Mao’s House for the final dinner.  How I love those chili shrimp skewers.  We have at least 4 plates between us – Mike Bellamy, Brian Garvin, Adam Supernant, and Harold Roman of PassageMaker and Julien Roger and Ludovic Larry of China Quality Focus.  Much later we head out to meet up with Dave Learn at Viva, running into Banana and other friends on the way.  How bizarre it is to have such a dual life.  And how exciting as well.  I am looking forward to being home and seeing my family, but I will miss this place when I am gone.

Home at a reasonable hour and to bed.  Early day tomorrow.

Articles, articles, articles…

• Chinese diplomat:  Ties with US deteriorated recently – no, really?
• More from Reuters
• This is just wrong – Chinese girl, 9, becomes one of world’s youngest mothers after giving birth to a baby boy
• India forms new Climate Change body
• Uh oh – Fears of sexual frustration among workers in China
• Proof there is a God
• China’s Debt Bomb – as good a reason as any for Washington to quit spending so much money
• Dazzled by Asia – a different perspective, far less rosy about China’s future, and hard to argue with
• Five Things the U.S. Can Learn from China – a rather silly article in Time magazine, which again reminds me why I no longer read Time magazine.  As Dave Learn put it, “it sounds like an article written by someone who read a book about China”.
• And this also popped up on the Google search (from the Business Insider) – TIME Magazine’s Ridiculous Five Things America Needs To Learn From China
• China PLA officers urge economic punch against U.S.
• Stay rates for foreign Ph.D.s rebound after decline

A little random tidbit from Dave, who is going on another Asian adventure for the Chinese New Year.  Airlines are just no damn fun anymore (from the terms and conditions on his plane ticket):

- Guests can no longer carry guns and/or ammunition on flights to or from Indonesia

Killjoys.

Day 27 – A client from the USA arrived today, one of a group of three we were expecting.  The other two were delayed by fun winter weather in the USA, so they will arrive tomorrow.  After a long day at work, I met the client for drinks at our preferred corporate hotel, the 999 Royal Suites.  Nice rooms for a very reasonable price.  The bar caters to foreign businessmen and they have the standard Filipino cover lounge singers.  Some have been there for years and it was catching up with old friends.  The Filipina hotel day manager, Queenie, looks great and I am glad to see her rising in her career with the 999.  I once spent 5 weeks living at the older 999 hotel across the courtyard, so I got to know the staff pretty well.

Day 28 – We have visitors today from Karl Gross, a German 3PL based in Shanghai with offices in Shenzhen.  The head of the Shenzhen office is a self-described “banana”, yellow on the outside and white on the inside.  She was adopted from China as a baby by a German family and raised in Germany and Hong Kong.  Very interesting young lady.  We have a great lunch and then they head off to tour our facilities.  Here they are with Mike heading into our medical assembly center with clean room and sterile packaging capabilities.

L-R - Mike Bellamy, founder of PM, Anne Kuschert and Martin Kollmann of Karl Gross Logistics, prepare to enter our Clean Room Assembly Center. Too funny.

Later the rest of the clients arrive and off we go to the traditional first-night-in-China Xinjiang dinner.  Great time.  The highlight was the staff practicing their traditional dances out in front of the restaurant late at night.  I’ve seen them do this before, and really don’t understand it, because none are from Xinjiang and they don’t work in local costume and don’t perform at the restaurant.  But this is one of my favorite scenes from China.  I’ve tried before to take photos and this is the first time they were any good.

Dance Practice

I have no idea if the dance has any significance.

Kind of like a square dance.

They finally realize they have an attentive audience and fall out laughing.

Day 29 – Very productive day of meetings with our clients from LimbGear and our Endorsed Service Provider, Camrett Logistics.  They have a great new family of products and I expect we will see great things from them in 2010.  At night we head out for a Northeastern style dinner, normally one of my favorite styles, at a restaurant called 东北人, dōngběirén, literally “northeastern person” or “northeasterner”.  We were told it would be awesome.  It wasn’t.  The food was a warm cup of OK, but the service was bloody atrocious.  After waiting more than 10 minutes I actually had to get up to go find a waitress and mildly berate her for leaving us sitting so long with no tea.  She was embarrassed enough to come immediately and take our drinks order, but the service stunk throughout the meal.  This is extremely rare in China, where most of the time you have almost too much service.  If you are in Shenzhen, Dong Bei Ren near King Glory Plaza (GuoMao station on the subway) is one to skip.

It's not MONS beer.

Day 30 – Another day at the Assembly Center.  I am starting to feel the end of the trip and have so much to do I eat lunch at my desk.  When I lived in Taiwan, I loved the lunch boxes (bien dang in the local dialect).  Today’s take out was not the same (bien dang are more complete rounded meals) but it reminded me a bit.  A good light and healthy lunch all the same.  Now if I can just get my TrekDesk (one of our clients!) set up in China, maybe I could actually LOSE weight on these trips.

lunch at my desk - better than 95% of American Chinese food

On the way to dinner, we saw one of the more memorable sights of this trip.  We are fast approaching the Chinese New Year, and families stock up on fresh produce to last through the long holiday (1-2 weeks).  And when I say fresh, I mean live.

This is 3 chickens and 2 geese caged on top of an SUV, with cardboard rigged up to block the wind. These birds will be kept on the guy's balcony or in his yard until required at meal time during the CNY. Sorry, but this is the best photo I could get in the moving traffic and low light.

Dinner was one of the best of the trip, which is really saying something.

personal hotpots - chicken broth seasoned with garlic, ginger, thousand year old eggs - you add green onions, cilantro, miso paste and chiles to a soy dipping sauce to taste - cook the raw ingredients yourself in the broth and dip in the sauce - lamb, beef, tofu, wood ears, golden needle mushrooms, lettuce - wonderful

RAW BEEF SASHIMI with soy + wasabi dipping sauce - this is the best thing in the world - ZOMBIELAND be damned

Everyone’s tired and a little lubricated, so early night.  More adventures tomorrow!

More interesting articles:

• Hong Kong remains world’s freest economy: report
• For this American, the idea that the US government can get Google to do anything is silly
• Impressive China economic growth numbers
• An ode to the internal combustion engine
• Now IMDB is blocked in China
• From Wired, In the Next Industrial Revolution, Atoms Are the New Bits
• De-industrializing Detroit
• How to Push a Dump Truck Out the Window – the wreckage that was America’s 4th largest city
• US slaps duties on electric blankets from China
• Bacteria Rebuilt To Make Oil
• We Are So Screwed – a fascinating look at financial crises
• China protests US arms sales to Taiwan

The last two weeks have been insane.  The pollution was unbelievable up until this past weekend, as bad as I’ve seen it in over a decade.  I could taste it and feel it on my teeth.  Blowing your nose was a bit of an adventure and made me wish for black handkerchiefs.

It has also been fun as the Great Firewall is now blocking Bloomberg completely and Reuters about half the time.  Several IT guys we’ve worked with in the past have left China for Thailand because the Firewall is too big a pain in the neck.

Day 15 – Customer visits seem to to be an almost daily event.  So far this trip we’ve had them one after the other from USA, France, Australia, etc.  I was running late, so I hired one of the gypsy cabbies who hang out by our apartment complex to run me across the street to the office instead of taking 10 minutes to walk.  He proceeded to pull straight out into oncoming traffic driving the wrong way down the main road and then cutting across 4 lanes of oncoming traffic to get to our side of the road.  Such is life in China.  After 10 years here, Mike still doesn’t drive.

Lunch was nothing special, though I am constantly amazed at how fatty the meat here is.  In the USA, where nearly everyone can stand to lose a few pounds, fat is bad, horrible, terrible stuff.  Here, it is where the flavor is.  And hardly anyone is overweight.

fatty pork and bok choy with garlic

lovely beef and mushrooms

At night I head off to Futian to meet an old friend who is now a rep for PassageMaker.  He was born in Hong Kong but raised from infancy in the UK, so he speaks perfect British English.  He moved back to HK on the day of the handover in 1997.  He wanted pizza and beer, so we go to NYPD (New York Pizza Delivery), an outdoor place that serves the best American style pizza I’ve ever eaten.  Really.

The owners are a couple American Born Chinese (ABC) from California who developed a dough recipe that is mind blowing.  Crispy and soft at the same time, it kicks the pants of anything I’ve tried anywhere else in the world.  All ingredients are flown in weekly from the USA.  And the beer is dirt cheap, too.  Across from our table was a skyscraper with a gigantic TV across the top 5-6 floors.  We watched TV while we ate and chatted.  My camera sucks in low light, so I couldn’t take a photo.

Sitting outside on a nice night, eating great pizza, drinking cold beer, watching a TV 5 times the size of my house and hanging out with an old friend, all for about 20% of the cost of a similar meal in the USA, I wonder why the heck I don’t live here full-time.

NYPD extra large supreme

Futian at night - the colors constantly cascade

Day 16 – Worked all day and well into the night.  We didn’t leave the office until nearly 11 PM.  Given the hour, Mike’s wife thoughtfully arranged for dinner – a meal of grilled tofu, potatoes and lamb skewers, washed down with copious amounts of cold beer.  Oh, did I mention it was on the side walk, sitting on stools that would be reserved for a pre-school classroom in the USA and eating off a plywood folding table sized for a dwarf?  It was bloody fabulous.  It cost about $5.  I love this place.

eating meat and drinking beer on the street - yang rou chua'r & toilet paper napkins

grilled tofu - really good

our dining table

our chef

delivery bike - it's a good sign of quality if the locals will order delivery - they must be doing well, as a few days later they helped me make change to pay a cab driver who was out of small money - whole operation runs on a cell phone

Day 17 – A full day at the factory.  We are working on a big order that needs to go by the end of the month, and we are using this as the first test case of my ideas for operational improvements.

The view from our factory manager's window - Buji, an industrial suburb of Shenzhen

industrial park dormatories - maybe 2500 people live and work here

Who doesn't like Corinthian columns on their factory? I know I'd like them.

Every industrial park needs a decorative fountain!

The back part of our industrial park is still under construction - note the concrete erosion control lattice on the hillside - you see this everywhere in Asia

I joined the managers from the factory and had my first meal at the park’s cafeteria.  Food was not bad, certainly not as bad as they’d told me.

Beef & mushrooms for $1

That night we picked up some prospective clients for dinner at my favorite Xinjiang restaurant.  I’d gotten them hooked up with my old friend from Taiwan as a translator and we all had a great time.  One item of note, we saw the world’s most expensive production car outside the hotel.

a Maybach at the 999 Royal Suites

Day 18 – Mike asked me to join him for lunch on Saturday.  On the way down to meet him, I passed a ballot box – the apartment complex is having an election.

The ballot box

The banner announcing the election

We head to an Algerian coffee shop in the center of Luohu.  Both of us are in the mood for something other than Chinese food.  The place has several things that rare in China – a separate smoking area and SILENCE.  The Chinese, especially the Cantonese, are not quiet people.  Going to a typical food court on a Saturday is like enjoying lunch next to a jet engine.  You get used to it (by slowly going deaf), but it is a shock for first-timers used to the USA where typically people don’t shout in restaurants.  We had business to discuss, so it was a good choice.

lunch at an Algerian coffee house - seperate smoking area for the hookahs (yes, really)

Evidently Algerians eat their gyros with french fries - a North African Primanti

Shenzhen skyline - the bronze building (two towers of the same structure) has been tied up in a corruption scandal for years and has never been finished.

That night we head to Coco Park area for Brazilian barbecue and to later join friends at Club Viva.  I love churrascaria and this one was acceptable.  The ones in China just fail on the salad bars, which is a big part of the appeal for me in the States.  However there were two items of note:  camel meat and beer urns.

Roasted camel meat - they have camels in Brazil? Very rubbery and fatty - not something I will seek out again.

The urn of beer is one of the greatest ideas of all-time. An idea America needs to adopt. And Tiger Beer from Singapore no less - my favorite!

Day 19 – despite being Sunday, we go to the office to work most of the day.  Not much of note, but a few photos nonetheless.

An accidental photo of the apartments across from our office reflected in a puddle. These are very working class apartment blocks and are fugly. Note the slapdash hand poured concrete sidewalk.

This is what I was try to take a photo of. This flower graffitti appeared today, next to the trash bin no less.

Fruit and sugar cane for sale on the street. In order to eat sugar cane, you have to hack it to length and peel it. Our sidewalk is usually covered with foot-long strips of sugar can husk.

The day ended with another wonderful dinner by Mike’s wife and the maid.  Simply magic from such a small kitchen.

Dinner at Mike's

The chefs - Anita Tang-Bellamy and the housekeeper

Day 20 – I woke to ghastly pollution.  At first it appeared a lovely misty morning, but that soon turned into choking smog that persisted all week.  That said, it was a great and productive day at the Assembly Center.  The culinary highlight was a fabulous meal at a very upscale restaurant near the factory.  The place was part of a large apartment development with Spanish style architecture, a welcome departure from the typical Chinese apartments.

the mountains are obscured by smog

This is a temple, so I am told. It is a huge sprawling walled compound like a miniature Forbidden City. I hope to visit before I leave. Note the smog.

That's Di Wang Da Sha, the tallest building in Shenzhen through the smog.

A sign for Mission Hills golf course - supposedly a great course, but hard to imagine playing in this pollution.

they literally tear down mountains here

There is an army base across from our industrial park, complete with vintage jet fighter, tank and rocket on display.

A beautiful apartment complex, with a Spanish feel, with many good shops and restaurants.

Notice the planters in the road and the brick streets.

A sublime dish of squash and mushrooms.

Savory meat buns.

Sweet egg custard dumpling - this is hot and delicious.

Sweet pumpkin and taro soup.

Day 21 – Pollution continues and is even worse.  Back early to the Assembly Center to start working on the line.  We have a big rush order of a complex assembly, around 90 parts in the BOM, and an agonizing wiring step that takes around 8-9 minutes.  No way to automate it, it must be done by hand.

First thing is to head off to B&Q to buy some decent tools to cut down on assembly time as much as possible.  For the February order I will get electrical and air tools to speed things up and allow for more people at the wiring operation, but today it is just decent hand tools.  By upgrading the tools and teaching some Drum-Buffer-Rope practices, we complete the order 5 days ahead of schedule.

B&Q is like the European Home Depot.

Because land is so expensive, even a big box has to be multi-storied. These escalators are wide and flat to allow for carts, and they make them a sale point by lining them with bins. We picked out some containers on the way from one floor to the next.

How soon until this trend of patterned appliances and cabinets takes off in the States (the refrigerator is on the left)? My guess is no time soon.

Lunch was at a North West style restaurant.

I am sad this picture did not turn out - these are some of the best preserved vegetables I've ever eaten - vinegared and salted cucumbers and long beans.

Lamb bones - you suck the marrow out with a straw.

The soybeans in the back were particularly good.

One of the Little Sheep restaurants I mentioned previously - something creepy about it.

The Source of Cherry?!

Day 22 – Another day at the Assembly Center.  A good day with more smog.  Ho hum.  The highlight though was dinner with my old friend, my lao pengyou, Sabrina.  She was Mike’s first employee 9 years ago and we have become close friends over the years.  We always go for dumplings when I am in China.  She is a wonderful project manager, a very tough lady who doesn’t take any crap from suppliers.

My dear lao pengyou, Sabrina, who wouldn't hold still for a photo.

Roast pigeon - from lunch actually, but fun nonetheless. You don't eat the heads - they're just for show.

Dumplings with Sabrina.

Wonderful sweet & sour fish with Sabrina.

The fan in the bathroom was installed upside down. You see a lot of this kind of laziness here. I once saw the grill of a DongFeng (East Wind) truck installed upside down.

Day 23 – Another day at the factory, including lunch at the cafeteria.  This time we invited members of the production staff and they played “gross out the foreigner” with the lunch order.  Good natured fun and I am used to it.  I’ve never yet backed down.  Except for the waterbugs a few years ago, but I was already recovering from food poisoning.  Oh and did I mention the pollution *cough*?

Pollution is ghastly - compare with the picture above.

So far so good - a wonderful dish of tofu and pork - the reason most people in the West don't like tofu is because they've never had properly prepared tofu.

The fish was tasty but loaded with bones - what is so hard about boning a fish?

We start to go off the rails. Pig liver soup - with valves!

Now this was just plain vile. Pig's large intestines with sweet peppers. I ate two pieces to satisfy the hosts, but this will not be on the menu again.

ahhh...hmmm

Every cafeteria needs a puppy.

This is a beer poster in our cafeteria - a work dining hall that serves beer for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Why can we not have this in America?

Our industrial park's cafeteria.

Icky looking sweet pastries - I'll pass.

Basketball court in front of dormitory.

The outdoor pool tables (basketball court to the left, convenience store and cafeteria on right).

Another erosion control method is to pour concrete all over the hillside - really looks nice with the pollution patina.

Chinese construction site in the back corner of our park.

Our building.

Nice landscaping jarringly accented with fake plastic trees and shrubs in unnatural colors. They light up at night for extra class.

A plastic Japanese maple - why?

Pollution turns the leaves gray with soot and dust.

The industrial park gate.

I love the dragon turtles.

Tearing down mountains yields a lot of stone - EVERYTHING is polished stone.

We leave the plant close to 9 PM and the smog has rolled in.

We join Mike at the office and walk home for a late dinner.  This involves Mike’s preferred method of crossing the street – sprinting across 8 lanes of traffic instead of the “long way” using the pedestrian bridge.  Chinese pedestrians have no concept of jay walking.  The only thing more dangerous than the air in China is the traffic.

A late, lite meal at Mike's.

Day 24 – We head out in the morning to pick up a prospective client in Futian at the Marco Polo.  Dinner involves a trip out to Shekou for dinner at Tasca, a fantastic authentic Spanish tapas bar.  Spanish food is the only thing I like better than Asian cuisines.

Futian skyline around Coco Park

Futian skyline around Coco Park - note the cranes raising another skyscraper.

Futian skyline around Coco Park

Futian skyline around Coco Park - the handsome buildings in the foreground house the new McCawley's, a Nepalese restaurant, a Chinese-military-themed nightclub that is hugely popular with the locals. The Brazilian barbecue and Club Viva are around back.

Coco Park

TAPAS!

Paella!

After dinner we walk over to Sea World, an outdoor mall surrounding an old cruise ship.  This was the ship where Deng Xiao Ping signed the papers to create the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, which was sort of the real starting gun for the reemergence of China.  They’ve since filled in the harbor, completely surrounding the ship.  The place is now a “Little Foreign Town” catering to expats.  My camera did not work with the lighting, so no pictures.  I am sure you are heartbroken.  We went to the original McCawley’s for a drink and then headed home.

Day 25 – It’s a glorious Saturday.  The pollution is gone and it is deliciously warm but not hot.   Mike’s in the mood for pizza and his wife and daughter want to go shopping.  The car drops us off in the heart of Luohu, in the shadow of the “Empire State Building” of Shenzhen, Di Wang Da Sha.  It is one of the best looking skyscrapers in the world, IMAO.

This photo does not do it justice. The building has twin spires and from this angle, you can only see the one. It is perfectly symetrical, so use you imagination.

Scroll back up for the pollution shot of this building from a distance.  If China adopts a better energy source – perhaps modern nuclear as in France and Japan – this a pretty attractive city.  The clear days that you do get remind you of how awful the pollution really is.

Papa John’s is the choice for today, and like many US chains in China, they’ve gone upscale and adapted to local tastes.  The dining area is an alcove of sorts, shaded with big comfortable chairs.  Kind of like eating pizza on you covered patio at home.  The recipe for the dough was substantially different than in the States, and while it was satisfying, it is no NYPD.  Looking out from our alcove a gleaming new Gucci store dominates.  A Mercedes festooned with wedding decorations pulls in to park.  To the left is a brand new Hyatt and to the right the Huaan Conifer Hotel, a Chinese hotel that is by far the nicest place I’ve ever stayed in Asia.  I spent 3 weeks there once and it is decadent.  Next door to the Papa John’s is the most badass fast food restaurant on the planet.

Papa John's local menu.

Gucci

Just married - the Chinese have embraced many trappings and traditions of Western weddings, including white gowns and bouquets of flowers. It is also common to have two ceremonies, one Western (white color scheme) and one traditional Chinese (red color scheme) in full costume.

The Huaan Hotel - this photo is a pretty good summary of Shenzhen.

The new Hyatt.

Chinese chain of healthy fast food restaurants featuring steamed food - and Bruce Lee. Told you it was badass.

After lunch we go to the Dongmen (“East Gate”) Road shopping area, which is a sprawling warren of narrow streets selling every consumer good under the sun.  It was a mob scene.  And lots of fun to see that many people out having a good time.  We buy some movies and the ladies get squid-on-a-stick (they didn’t ask me if I wanted any, *sniff*) and take it easy instead of going out on the town.

Dongmen shopping street

Day 26 – Another beautiful day.  I go across the border into Hong Kong with a co-worker, just into the New Territories, not the famous city center.  We are going shopping for American style dill pickles (yes, really) for Mike, mainly an excuse to get out of Shenzhen and do something different.  We cross the border at Luohu, and see something across the fence in Hong Kong I have never seen in Shenzhen – a grave yard.

Hong Kong graveyard on the hillside facing Shenzhen. Little mausoleums tucked into the hillside.

Today also saw my first trips on the Hong Kong MRT and the Shenzhen subway system.  So now I have an Octopus card for Hong Kong (which can be used to buy all sorts of things, not just riding the MRT, very cool) and a Shenzhen subway pass.  I rock.

Hong Kong MRT

A small town in the Hong Kong New Territories

First we went to a Chinese “wet market” selling an amazing array of fresh ingredients.  The smells were powerful and it is not for the faint of heart.  I thought it was awesome.

Know your butcher.

Really fresh fish.

Now THAT'S a cutting board!

Live crabs and shrimp and oysters, oh my!

Chinese sausages - these are awesome - especially the blood sausage on the left.

Vegetable vendor.

Tofu vendor.

Dried sea food vendor - that's dried squid - yummy. No, really. It's yummy.

Upstairs they had a food court.  As I mentioned above, these places are LOUD, but I feel right at home.  This dynamic, barely controlled chaos, coupled with incredible food, is what attracted me to Asia in the first place.  We have two 600 ml Skol beers and noodle soup.

Noodle soup with fish balls and crispy fried fish skin. Roasted garlic as the final addition is served in the spoon so it doesn't get soggy.

Hong Kong food court.

Hong Kong food vendor.

After lunch we try a number of Western style grocery stores looking for the pickles.  They are located in malls that are part of the MRT stops.  Very sensible.  Not sure which is the chicken or the egg, but it works well.  The grocery stores are 100 times better than when I was last here, but they are still thinly stocked compared to your average Kroger and are positively claustrophobic.  I can barely walk down the aisles without turning sideways.  After an hour or so of looking, no pickles.  We buy Cadbury’s chocolate for the office instead.  Couple things caught my eye.

Imported beer is big in China - a real sign of wealth and an acknowledgement the superiority of European brands.

You can buy whiskey and fine American wines in the grocery store!

Defeated we cross back into Shenzhen at the new Futian crossing, a far more impressive building than the old Luohu crossing.  Reminds me of an airport.  In this place the Shenzhen River is much wider.

The Shenzhen River, facing east.

The Shenzhen river, facing west.

We take the Shenzhen subway to meet Mike for dinner.  Very clean and efficient.  Instead of a poster in the car showing the map of the lines, they have an electronic display that tracks the progress of the train.  Very cool.  We head to a Japanese restaurant that has the craziest deal I’ve ever seen.  All the sushi and tepanyaki you can eat and all you can drink – juice, soda, tea, beer, wine, sake, doesn’t matter – for 150 RMB.  That’s $22.  I have no idea how they stay in business.  By my count, I ate $100 worth of food alone, not even counting the beer.  There is no restrictions – you can order anything off the menu.  The absolute highlight was kobe beef sashimi – raw slices of rice paper thin beef.  I ate at least 3 orders, each 45 RMB.  It was fantastic.  It is now my official favorite thing to eat in the whole world.  Note to the FDA – it is far easier to control the diet and health of a cow than a wild fish swimming in the ocean.  If sushi is legal in the USA, why not raw beef?

This restaurant is in the basement of one of the big malls in the area, CITIC Plaza.  It is a bit of a maze, so we went round and around looking for it, including an elevator with the follow sign:

This Elevator Circulates Time - new this year from Dongguan Elevator Factory #1, the Time Warp Elevator!!

Last item for today’s blog, the Japanese restaurant had cool bronze dragons on the table.  I had seen these before in Korean restaurants, but had forgotten about them.  I need to get some of these for my home in the USA.

Can you guess what this is?

very cool

That’s all for now…

View from the apartment window.

view facing Hong Kong New Territories

Note the mosiacs in the pool. It is amazing what you can accomplish with a massive supply of inexpensive labor.

And though it feels cold here because of the damp, it is about 62 F.  Salem, VA was in single digits in comparison.  The company apartment is decorated with Chinese art (Mike has good taste).  We even have a life sized terracotta warrior.

Rather imposing

These are iron door pulls that would have been mounted on a pair of double doors (love the screws)

A window - the screen is hinged internally to swing inward when mounted

Our apartment complex, taken Day 5 before the rain started. The pool with the mosaics is up the hill to the left.

Entrance to the apartment complex in the rain

The walk to the office takes maybe 5-6 minutes.  The rain was coming pretty hard and the wind overwhelmed the umbrella.  One thing you notice about side streets like ours is how poorly they are sloped to drain the water.  Makes for enormous puddles.

Stopped at my snack shop for dumplings and a tea egg.  I make tea eggs at home, and they are just that – eggs boiled in tea, dark soy sauce and spiced with star anise.  The flavor is very subtle – it is 90% a regular hard boiled egg, but the last 10% makes all the difference.

Breakfast (10 dumplings and 1 tea egg = 4 RMB = $0.60)

Worked the morning in the office, and then had lunch at the restaurant around the corner.  It has a few dishes that are wonderful, but is certainly not fine dining.  The highlights:

This is the best use for broccoli - it goes fast - garlic and what I think is chicken broth. A savory delight. In the background are fried pork ribs. Awesome.

This is the best use for squid - crispy golden brown and delicious!

Back to work until late in afternoon, then I head to Futian district to take an old friend from Taiwan to dinner at an Italian restaurant.  We were the only ones there, so service was exceptional, as was the food, as was the wine, AS WAS THE PRICE.  Dinner for two cost 7 times as much as dinner on the street the night before!  Luckily she is bringing some of her USA friends to PassageMaker, it was a legit business dinner, but man it is easy to get spoiled by the cheap food over here.  I figured we all know what Italian food looks like, so I’ll spare you photos of gnocchi and tiramisu.

Day 7 – A clear day, rain has stopped.  It’s knocked the smog out of the air, so a bright blue morning.

Clear blue skies

The streets around our office are narrow and crowded

Off early to our Assembly Center in Buji.  I’m working on continuous improvement initiatives there as part of our new ISO 9000:2008 certification, something we achieved just last month.  My background is in manufacturing, and since we are gearing up for what we think will be a very strong 2010, Mike asked me to come over and assist with introducing the alphabet soup of kaizen related initiatives – 5S, JIT, OJT, etc.  Meet and greet the staff, which is dominated by women at the manager level.  Only one man on the senior staff.  You are seeing more of this in China, but my impression is PassageMaker is ahead of the curve here.  On to lunch, which is fabulous as usual.

An even better use for squid - a superior version of the dish I had yesterday

The best use for duck, although I hate the way they cut through the bones. Makes eating very difficult and slightly dangerous. And yes, that's the head.

I love these little fish

Man they do vegetables well

You have to get used to your food staring at you

On the way out, we passed the fish tanks that hold the seafood fresh and alive until it’s time to cook it.  Everything in China is prepared fresh.

If I'd known they had had geoduck I would have ordered it. Never had it before.

Duck fish

Later that afternoon we headed back to the office to pick up Julien Roger of China Quality Focus, our sister company.  Mike, Julien and I flew to Shanghai for the Global Sources trade show, a trip that wasn’t scheduled for me when I came over, but I’m glad I went.  The show went well and I’ve never really been to downtown Shanghai before, just the industrial area around the old Hongqiao airport.  We flew into the new Pudong airport and I am convinced the planning went something like this – “To demonstrate the greatness of the People’s Republic of China, we will build the longest airport in the world!”.  We landed late at the last gate and walked for 10 minutes in a straight line down the terminal until we got to the baggage claim area.  This is a seriously long building.  And thoughtfully they included no people movers like the trams at the Detroit airport.  Considering the late hour and the lack of other arrivals, you’d think they could’ve found a found a gate closer to the exit.

Heading to the hotel, Ibis, a chain of affordable hotels owned by Novotel, a French company, what struck me about Pudong at night were the vast highways.  Six to eight lane interstate grade roads as compared to the cramped streets typical of most Chinese cities.  Pudong was farmland just a few years ago, and it definitely has a planned feel.

Although they fed us on the plane (a 2 hour flight with meal service – haven’t seen that in the States in decades), Mike and I were still hungry, so we found an American bar, Malone’s across the street and had a very good hamburger while listening to a GREAT Filipino cover band.  Every bar and hotel in China has a Filipino band, all playing English cover tunes, even when the clientele is Chinese.  And nearly all of them suck.  This was an astounding exception.  They were tight and the covers were quite good, including good hard rock and heavy metal.  The singer had some serious pipes.

Back at the hotel, I noticed the bathroom is a pre-fabricated assembly.  Smart idea for a chain.  It was one of the nicer bathrooms I’ve had in China.

Notice how all the parts are manufactured. I'm willing to bet Ibis just plops this into each room as a completed assembly. The big button on the way flushes the toliet, which is a European wall mounted unit.

Day 8 – After the best night’s sleep so far, up early to get to the show and set up the booth.  On the way to the convention center, I saw this:

Just bizarre

They switched us at the last minute to give us a corner booth, which meant we had to cut up the posters to make them fit.  I think the booth looked pretty good, considering.

Mike Bellamy (L) and Julien Roger (R)

I’ve been to a fair number of trade shows over the years.  Heavy truck shows are dull unless you really like trucks and truckers, car shows are fun, and motorcycle rallies are a blast.  But in every case before, I was selling a product.  If the guy’s got a Road King we have something for him, but not if he has a Dyna.  We’re on this model of Peterbilt, but not that one.  But now that I’ve done it, nothing beats selling a service.  EVERYONE doing business in China needs Quality Inspections, Product Testing, Sourcing Feasibility Studies, Vendor Coordination, Intellectual Property Protection, Logistics and Assembly Inspection & Packaging.  The industry doesn’t matter, they all needed at least one of our services.  This was a gift and clothing fair, but it is the same at every show.  It’s like we are selling beer at a NASCAR race.  We got business cards from USA, France, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Israel, Nigeria, Iran, South Africa, New Zealand, etc.

Mike is a featured speaker at every Global Sources trade show (including Dubai, Hong Kong, Mumbai and South Africa this year), and he gave a two-part presentation spread over the first two days of the show.  He did a great job and it was extremely well received by the standing room only audience.  Rather than a canned sales pitch, he tells it like it is, barely mentioning PassageMaker or China Quality Focus.  The soft sell works and many attendees stopped by the booth afterward to tell us so.  They figure anyone with enough confidence to NOT shove his company down their throats must have it going on.  And they are quite right.  We do.

Mike is a featured speaker

Mike giving his presentation

Julien Roger is also a tremendous salesman and very knowledgeable.  I learned a great deal from watching his methods.  Selling China Quality Focus’s services is easier, as Quality Inspections are very straightforward compared to PassageMaker’s services, but the combined message of the two companies meshes very well.  We often have the same customers.

The convention center is still under construction and gigantic.  As with the airport, the point seems to be making you walk as far as possible to get anywhere.  Despite the impressive size, they apparently forgot about effective HVAC.  It is unseasonably cold and I packed for south China.  Day 1 of the show had no heat at all, which made it a real grind.  Day 2 was a little warmer, but still uncomfortable.  By Day 3 they’d gotten it going to the point it was now actually hot inside.  HVAC needs some work for sure.

They also have very little in the way of food.  The restaurants inside looked just plain bad, serving cold rolls and sandwiches wrapped in plastic like a vending machine.  However, there was a McDonald’s right across from our hall, W2.  It turned out to be the world’s smallest McD’s, about the size of a broom closet, with one little girl selling horrible looking “chicken sandwiches” out of coolers.  I put that in quotes, because they were actually pork.  Menu says chicken, she will say in English it is chicken, the box says chicken, but she insisted in Chinese that they were pork.  We passed and were directed to the other McD’s at W5.

W5 is an international airport runway away from where we were.  In 30 F weather, I was not interested in the walk, but there was nothing else, so walk we did.  Entering W5 was a shock as it was still under construction, freezing cold and reeked of paint fumes.  The McD’s was even colder than the rest of the building.  It was a huge McD’s, brand new and manned by an army of eager young staffers in winter parkas.   McDonald’s can’t heat their own place.  It was also completely deserted.  We were it for customers stoopid enough to walk that far in the cold for genuine simulated food.  Our “food” in hand we sat down to eat our rapidly cooling cheeseburgers (with cucumbers instead of pickles) in 25 F comfort, huffing paint.  Then the staff helpfully turned on the Backstreet Boys at headache inducing volumes to entertain us, because what lao wai doesn’t love the Backstreet Boys?  We’d shout over the music to tell them to turn it down please.  And they would, just a little.  As it was the only food around, we ate there all three days of the convention.  Our experience was exactly the same each time, including the yelling over the music to turn it down.  Note to China:  the progress over the last 30 years has been astounding, but build convention centers with decent places to eat and heaters.

Holy crap this place is big!

Holy crap this place is big!!

Holy crap this place is big!!!

This is the smallest McD's in the world, right across from our exhibit hall.

So why put the real McDonalds as far away as possible?

W5 under construction

Way to plan fellas

The interior of the McD’s was just as bizarre.

Huh?

What is it with women and fruit and vegetables?

This is a joke, right?

The rarest sign in China

With the first day of thee show successfully behind us, we head out into a bitterly cold Shanghai sunset.

Shanghai sunset - the pollution makes it prettier!

For dinner, we are off to meet friends at Shanghai Hooters.  Yes, really.  This turns out to be loads of fun.  Mike, Julien and I meet up with one of our sales reps, Dan Welygan, who worked in our Shenzhen office for about 4 years.  Also in our quintet is a classmate from the University of South Carolina now living in China.  Many, many wings and beer later, I have a new found appreciation for Hooters.  It was a bold decision to open this restaurant, as typical Chinese girls lack the requisite body type required of a Hooters waitress.  And they have to be attractive and be able to speak English.  A pretty small labor pool.  Our waitress was very good, spoke solid English and really new how to work a room.  A very bright young lady, she has a future in sales for sure.

Our waitress Elva

Hard to find the body type in China - the Chinese are blunt about weight and appearance. I am sure every one of them would describe themselves as "fat" and not be the least self-conscious about it.

Day 9 – Second day of the show went as well as the first.  Part two of Mike’s seminar was very well received and many of the attendees have stopped by the booth, several 2-3 times.  After the show, we meet our web developer, a French graphic designer living in Shanghai, at a trendy coffee shop for sandwiches.  This place was in a glittering new mall, still decorated for Christmas.  My cameras does a poor job in low light, so my apologies for the quality of the photos.

Christmas decorations in Shanghai

First of two Ferraris I saw in less than 2 minutes - notice the Christmas lights on the trees.

yep, that's a Christmas tree!

This is what irony looks like. The sign says "The site of the first national congress of the Communist Party of China". This historical marker is in front of a brand new shopping mall and a Ferrari had just driven beneath it. China is not a politically free country, but it ain't communist either.

So far no Chinese food in Shanghai.  After the meeting, off to meet another USC classmate at The Boxing Cat Brewery, the nicest brewpub I’ve ever been to.  As I was once in this business, that is quite a statement.  It was in a 100+ year old home in the old part of Shanghai, beautifully refurbished.  The brewpub was 3 stories, with a bar on the 1st and 3rd floors.  It felt exactly like a British pub, with beer selection and menu to match.  Since we had already eaten we did not order anything, which now that I know the chef was trained at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, I heartily regret.  I have a feeling it will not be my last trip.  My, how far this country has come in just a few short years.  However, even The Boxing Cat has moments that confound.

Where the heck do you want me to put it? You really don't want to know the answer.

Day 10 – Last day of show, and the pollution is pretty bad today.  Traffic is light, and some exhibitors start packing up almost from the opening bell.  We stayed until nearly the scheduled end at 5:30 PM, though we give up when they start dismantling the booth around us at about 5:10 PM.  Global Sources has been good to us and we thought it the honorable thing to do to stick it out to the end, though honestly the show really ended around noon.  Off to Pudong airport (which is even more gigantic from the outside and has the coolest road system connecting it I’ve ever seen) to catch our flight to Shenzhen.  Our first Chinese meal of the trip is some very good Cantonese cuisine at the airport.

Smog

Always a bad sign when the gates are in triple digits

Cantonese beef noodle soup - Chinese airport food is MUCH better than USA

Shrimp dumplings, they go fast

Mike's 'set menu' meal

Day 11 – Worked all day to get caught up from the show.  Verizon’s data service here stinks, a pale comparison to my old AT&T service (of course, that is reversed in the USA, which is why I switched).  Many emails did not come through to my blackberry.  I also discovered that Verizon is charging me $2/minute to RECEIVE CALLS.  This was one of the specific questions I asked before adding the “China plan” for this trip.  I have already written about how woefully trained their salespeople are, and this takes the cake.  Since the trip began, I have been receiving calls from clients, family and friends – including a call a 3 AM from a client who had missed I was not in USA.  My team in the USA is having words with Verizon about this, but let’s just say, it was a cute phone bill.  China Mobile by comparison, charges nothing to receive an international call.  Heck, their rates to MAKE an international call are less than Verizon.  So, if you want to get in touch with me, send me an email and I’ll give you my China Mobile number.

I join Mike and Adam Supernant for dinner at a local place in Liantang.

Chinese donuts - I like the fried ones, steamed ones not so much. Sweet dishes are not for dessert, but served as part of the meal.

This is essentially braised fat - gross.

It's very common to have fire at the table.

Quite tasty dish of tofu and pork finished on the burner at our table.

After dinner I was invited to join some of our Chinese co-workers at a nightclub.  I was flattered to be invited and went along.  After several hours, I had my first run in on this trip with the dreaded Mao’s Revenge.  I am trying to tell it like it is for those of you who don’t travel overseas, and if this strikes you as TMI, it isn’t.  You need to know what you are in for.

While western style “sitters” are becoming more common, squatters still dominate.  In a sense this is good, as sitters are not as sanitary ( I mean, everyone else is sitting there too).  But when you’re in an emergency situation and you are not used to squatters, this can get dicey fast.  My advice for survival in these situations:

1. Wear sensible shoes with good rubber shoes – I prefer Blundstones.
2. Wear jeans.  Avoid khakis – not the color issue but the way the pockets are cut.  I always keep everything – wallet, keys, passport, phones – in the front pockets of my jeans.
3. This is a very uncommon position for a Westerner.  I have pretty strong calves and thighs, and have learned how to balance, but if you never done it before, try it and hold the position for 2-3 mins.  It takes some getting used to and you don’t want to find out the hard way you can’t do it.  Luckily the squatting position is more conducive to the situation at hand, and so things tend to go quickly.
4. Carrying a small packet of tissues is a good idea.  Toilet paper in a public restroom anywhere in the world is never a given.  Handkerchiefs and socks (single use of course) will do in a crisis.
5. Carry a bottle of prescription Lomotil or the generic.  I always do and there is no OTC medicine that comes close.  It WILL stop the drama.

My evening cut short, off to sleep.  Day 12 is Sunday, market day in Liantang, and Mike and I head to Mian Dian Wang, or “Noodle Snack King”, my favorite fast food chain in the world.  14 line cooks actually making the food by hand.  Total cost of the meal is about 60 RMB, or less than $9.

Noodle Snack King

Knife cut noodles

Seaweed salad, bamboo shoots and bean sprouts

Soup dumplings

Lamb dumplings

That evening, Mike threw a dinner party at his home.  It was great to see old friends and an even better meal.  Simply the best food I’ve ever eaten in China.  Mike’s wife and the maid did all the cooking.

Two women, in this kitchen...

with this equipment and about 2 hours...

made this.

Day 13 – Monday – Last night there was a little too much “medicinal wine”.  Whenever you hear that phrase, run screaming in the other direction.  After such an amazing meal, we needed something basic to calm the acid seas, so off to Subway (yes, really).  A steak and cheese later and all is right with the world.  With some lingering Mao’s, I head to the apartment to work from home.  It was a glorious day, 70 F and clear blue skies with a light breeze.

Our apartment complex

Later Mike asked me over to finish up the leftover ingredients from the dinner party – there was no left over dishes, just raw materials.  This is the modest result.

A light meal - those ladies can really cook!

Two customer visits tomorrow and time at the factory.

All for now…

2010 should be an interesting year.

The big immediate danger to humans in China is not a potential, theoretical increase of 1 degree Celcius, but rather toxic air, land and water.  Vast amounts of coal and diesel are consumed everyday, all of it burned inefficiently in technologically primitive power plants or wretched Dong Feng trucks.  No wonder so many Chinese people smoke (an estimated 70% of men); with that much soot, why the heck wouldn’t you smoke?  If you don’t believe me, check out the photographs in this month’s National Geographic article on Xinjiang province (sorry for the link, but NG marks it hard to look at the pics if you don’t pay – freeze the video about 9 seconds in).  I don’t know about you, but when the sky is the color of cat mess, CO2 is pretty far down on my list.  And don’t get me started on the water pollution.

India has announced in advance of Copenhagen that they won’t be signing anything (heck, even Al Gore isn’t bothering to go).  I am sure the Chinese will do the same.  And there is no way the US Senate would ratify Copenhagen when they unanimously voted down Kyoto.

From my perspective, worrying about what might happen years from now and proposing fantastically expensive fixes to what may not be happening, detracts from practical efforts to mitigate what IS happening right now.  I don’t need a climate model to tell me the Asian Brown Cloud is real – I can see it, smell it and taste it (*cough*).