Just back from a week in China. What an eye opener for even an open minded person from myself. There were some very interesting hours to say the least.
Flew into Guangzhou last Saturday. Something like 15 million people city. Reasonably clean I thought, and plenty of shopping, attractions etc. Went to a few close shops and there were seriously 10's of thousands of people in these centres. Went to one very shifty place with full on knock-off stock, and the spruiking salespeople at their very best with some English as their weapon of choice. Spent 2 nights there waiting for our whole business party to arrive from different parts of Australia and China.
Monday morning flew to Jinan. My goodness the smog was overwhelming. I didnt even see the runway until we hit it. First real eye-opener was the 1.5hr drive to Zibo. Lines on the road are only a guide to the driver, otherwise just free-for-all. Same with any traffic lights, only need obeying if the amount of cars at the intersecion warrent a total stoppage. The other intersting part of the drive was the contributing factor to the smog - 30km stretch of coal fired powerstations on both sides of the road. Truly amazing amounts of infrustructure.
Zibo was extremely smoggy, as they even had powerstations in the middle of the city. It has a modest 6 million people population, but seemed a little more spread out than Guangzhou with made it a little more bearable. The chinese have personal space invasion, much closer than say Aussies. I visited 4 factories over the course of the week, with some business negotiations and varying learning curves. It is very draining speaking broken english, and even more broken chinese! We had our Chinese interpreter on the job, but it is still very tiring trying to explain in a simple dialect.
Interesting facts learned over the week:
*Chinese people smoke a lot, and everywhere - airports, restraunts, hotels, elevators, shopping malls etc. Doesnt help a packet of 20 cigs costs approx RMB7, or about AUD$1.10.
*Outside a (ritzy) hotel, the toilet situation is not for the faint hearted. Whilst a 'squat' is bearable, at the factories in the middle of nowhere a couple of bricks hovering over a hole or a concrete slide into a pit is interesting (pity I couldnt bottle the smell to share the story)!
*Factory workers (where we visited) were paid on average about RMB300-400/month ($43-$57 month)
*Food - ouch! Being allergic to seafood limited many options. Some of the weird stuff I did try was donkey, roast dove, goat and some different types of roots. I had a few familiars like beef, pork and chicken, however that wasnt always an option. Ive had the hot sweats the last couple days (for those who know what that means lol). We passed on the sea urchins, most of the seafood and the field mice stew and rice offered by a factory owner (he didnt take offence thank God).
*Water - can be many different colours. Gross! Bottled water was usually freely available.
*Chinese tea. Wow, they love that stuff! Some we had was nice, but some was awefully putrid $h!t! But that is how deals are done, over a cuppa!
*Housing. Saw everything from completely homeless, to brick or iron shacks, right through to highrise developments in Zibo 20 buildings wide by 20 buildings deep by 30 odd story appartment blocks = 12000 apartments in 1 development.
*Nothing, NOTHING is wasted in China.
*Technology is very important to the Chinese people. Even copying something is considered innovative and an achievement. Dont get me wrong, there are things they are behind the times on, but they are very innovative all the same.
We had a great time outside of the factory visits and the business meetings. A few too many late nights (I dont drink, but we had to keep up with the others in the group) and early mornings, because no factories were in the city, they were 1-2hrs drive in differing directions. Im sure I will be back in the near future with everything discussed the past week, plus I learned a fair bit about some of the other places in China I might like to visit. Zibo and Jinan are not tourist destinations and I would never dream of taking the family there, but I hear Bejing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Guangzhou are fairly safe and touristy.
pinkboy.....nothing like Aussie soil and our way of life!
Flew into Guangzhou last Saturday. Something like 15 million people city. Reasonably clean I thought, and plenty of shopping, attractions etc. Went to a few close shops and there were seriously 10's of thousands of people in these centres. Went to one very shifty place with full on knock-off stock, and the spruiking salespeople at their very best with some English as their weapon of choice. Spent 2 nights there waiting for our whole business party to arrive from different parts of Australia and China.
Monday morning flew to Jinan. My goodness the smog was overwhelming. I didnt even see the runway until we hit it. First real eye-opener was the 1.5hr drive to Zibo. Lines on the road are only a guide to the driver, otherwise just free-for-all. Same with any traffic lights, only need obeying if the amount of cars at the intersecion warrent a total stoppage. The other intersting part of the drive was the contributing factor to the smog - 30km stretch of coal fired powerstations on both sides of the road. Truly amazing amounts of infrustructure.
Zibo was extremely smoggy, as they even had powerstations in the middle of the city. It has a modest 6 million people population, but seemed a little more spread out than Guangzhou with made it a little more bearable. The chinese have personal space invasion, much closer than say Aussies. I visited 4 factories over the course of the week, with some business negotiations and varying learning curves. It is very draining speaking broken english, and even more broken chinese! We had our Chinese interpreter on the job, but it is still very tiring trying to explain in a simple dialect.
Interesting facts learned over the week:
*Chinese people smoke a lot, and everywhere - airports, restraunts, hotels, elevators, shopping malls etc. Doesnt help a packet of 20 cigs costs approx RMB7, or about AUD$1.10.
*Outside a (ritzy) hotel, the toilet situation is not for the faint hearted. Whilst a 'squat' is bearable, at the factories in the middle of nowhere a couple of bricks hovering over a hole or a concrete slide into a pit is interesting (pity I couldnt bottle the smell to share the story)!
*Factory workers (where we visited) were paid on average about RMB300-400/month ($43-$57 month)
*Food - ouch! Being allergic to seafood limited many options. Some of the weird stuff I did try was donkey, roast dove, goat and some different types of roots. I had a few familiars like beef, pork and chicken, however that wasnt always an option. Ive had the hot sweats the last couple days (for those who know what that means lol). We passed on the sea urchins, most of the seafood and the field mice stew and rice offered by a factory owner (he didnt take offence thank God).
*Water - can be many different colours. Gross! Bottled water was usually freely available.
*Chinese tea. Wow, they love that stuff! Some we had was nice, but some was awefully putrid $h!t! But that is how deals are done, over a cuppa!
*Housing. Saw everything from completely homeless, to brick or iron shacks, right through to highrise developments in Zibo 20 buildings wide by 20 buildings deep by 30 odd story appartment blocks = 12000 apartments in 1 development.
*Nothing, NOTHING is wasted in China.
*Technology is very important to the Chinese people. Even copying something is considered innovative and an achievement. Dont get me wrong, there are things they are behind the times on, but they are very innovative all the same.
We had a great time outside of the factory visits and the business meetings. A few too many late nights (I dont drink, but we had to keep up with the others in the group) and early mornings, because no factories were in the city, they were 1-2hrs drive in differing directions. Im sure I will be back in the near future with everything discussed the past week, plus I learned a fair bit about some of the other places in China I might like to visit. Zibo and Jinan are not tourist destinations and I would never dream of taking the family there, but I hear Bejing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Guangzhou are fairly safe and touristy.
pinkboy.....nothing like Aussie soil and our way of life!
