Notes on the Week
Well, the allergies have struck! Man, my nose is like a drain. Fortunately, Andy, a customer, visiting here from Fort Lauderdale had some Sudafed to provide me. Hopefully, I’ll dry up sometime soon.
Otherwise, another busy week. All weeks are getting that way. Andy and Nick, our Hospitality Manager, have been here for a few days. And I have a major project going through production to keep me busy too.
I did do something different today. I posted a note to my favorite writer Bill Bryson. You can check it at:
http://www.randomhouse.com/features/billbryson/forum/forums.cgi?page=1&messages_per_page=20Also, for those of you that checked out my Google Earth photo of Dongguan City. Try tilting the landscape. You will see Qifeng Mountain very close to my New World Garden Apartment. Tilting is a cool Google Earth feature too.
Google Earth image of Dongguan, China, with placemarks for my Apartment, Hillview Golf Club, and the Decca Furniture factory locations.
Just Where is Dongguan, China
So where are you in China? Just where is Dongguan? Many of you have asked, and I’ve tried to tell you. But let me give you a better way to visualize where I am.
But first, have you got Google Earth? It’s incredible! Downright addictive! Get it!
Just put in an address and as if you were on a magic carpet, you’re transported across the globe to an altitude directly overhead to stare down at that exact location. Put in your address and see for yourself. Soon you will be looking right down on the roof of your home. Don’t go waving out a window or running out with your wireless laptop to see yourself on the screen. It’s not live.
This type software has been around for a while, but Google has now ended up with it. They musta bought the software. It is better than the old version. The way you get transported across the globe is
really cool.
So how do you find Dongguan with Google Earth? Not by putting in my address – addresses don’t work for China. And don’t even waster your time with “Dongguan, China” – you’ll end up in another Dongguan, China in the northern part of the nation.
But here is how you get to my Dongguan, China. First, of course, you must have Google Earth. Download and install if you don’t. You will love it. Then put in Guangzhou, China, and get transported around the globe to the city formerly known as Canton. Now zoom out and watch for “Dongguan” to appear as a city to the right. Double-click on it and you will be transported to my Dongguan City!!
Enjoy!
The top of Qifeng Mountain.
The view from Qifeng Mountain top.
The Climb Up Qifeng Mountain
The Climb Up Qifeng Mountain
Stairs after stairs. Upward and upward. No, my elevator didn’t breakdown. Up and up! When does it ever end? ………… It was the Monday right after the Autumn Festival. Folks still want to go view the full moon. And where better to do that than at the top of a mountain.
Well, Qifeng Mountain is a park very close to my home. It is right at the end of the street behind my apartment. And it has a huge red ball at an observatory at the top. We were headed up there!
Tony talked me into making this trek. I was soon having second thoughts about it. It sure didn’t look this difficult from my street. But it was a longggggggggg walk.
Entering the park, we found a beautiful pond under the glow of the mountain. Around the path toward the mountaintop, we soon found it split and went in several directions. Assuming correctly that the stairs led to our destination, we headed upward.
And on upward we went. On and on. Up and up. Checking with a trekker headed down, we were informed it would be at least 30 minutes to our destination! THIRTY MINUTES!!???!! And what a climb it was. The stairs led up at steep inclines for periods, turned down for short relaxations, and then headed on and on, up and up! What a climb! I don’t even like trekking up to the sixth floor in the plant. Here I was headed up a stairway to a mountain that musta been sixty stories up! ……… Okay, maybe forty.
………………I didn’t make it. I made to the park store and relaxation area about five stories below. We were with Xiao Pan, whom I was glad to find out had some nurse background. Tony and Xiao Pan went on up. I waited at this observatory. I could see well enough, and I had had enough uphill climbing.
What a view it was! As spectacular as it was from my level, the pictures Tony took from the top proved that it was even better up there.
We found a ramp to head back down. This was a little easier, but I’m not sure it would have been any better for climbing up. A lot of people sure like climbing mountains. There had to be thousands of people this night. On the way down around 9 PM there were still thousands headed up.
We had to go have a shower afterward before heading out to eat. We had another incredible meal in a very Chinese restaurant in Dongguan City. Fish tanks and chicken feet, of course. The beer was needed. Maybe next time I visit this restaurant, I’ll be celebrating my trek to the top of Qifeng Mountain.
In the meantime, I sure hope the elevator never breaks to my 16th floor apartment!
Tony and Xiao Pan headed up the never ending stairway!
Escargot and chicken feet at the restaurant after climbing Qifeng Mountain.
詹 百 臣
You know I thought my name was just fine. But when I got here, I found that I should have a Chine se name. How did I get this old with one name?
More than once I’ve been asked to sign something, when there is this little space provided. When I script out my “John Henry”, I get this inquisitive look, and then the typical question: “But what’s your Chinese name?”
Well, now
I have a Chinese name. Sara Lee gave it to me several weeks ago, when she needed to put in an order to upholstery a sofa for my apartment. Entering the order into the plant, she figured it didn’t do any good to have my name in English. Very few people would be able to read it, so she gave me a name. I’m now known here as:
詹 百 臣It sounds sorta like “Jim Bitson”, which I guess is about as close as my name can be in Chinese and sound similar to my English name. When you look it up online, translation of it comes out as:
Zhan hundred feudal officials. I’ve had other Americans tell me they were dubbed descriptive names, like “Big Mountain”. But in the long run they weren’t too impressed with those names.
Well, now I’m
詹 百 臣 . I guess we all know now. I just gotta figure out how to write it out!
Me with my favorite co-workers at Decca.
Mid-Autumn Festival
Bright lights hung from the trees, special cakes for treats, gifts for friends and associates, and family dinners together. Christmas in September? No, this is the Mid-Autumn Festival! It’s a full moon in a few nights, and this is the time to celebrate “the third and last festival of the living”. The cakes are “moon cakes” – a special concoction with sweet taste in the traditional flavor, but may have a cooked egg yolk in the center.
It’s a pretty special time of the year here. From what I can tell it’s one of the biggest holiday seasons. It does not rival the huge celebration for the Chinese New Year. That’s a full week.
The event is timed with the full moon and at the end of harvest season. It is a time for families to gather in reunion. Those that cannot gather to view the full moon in reflection in knowing loved ones that cannot be together are doing the same thing. The worship of the moon goes back over 3000 years.
The moon cakes popularity is steeped in many legends and lore. One has it related to the love messages of a prisoner. The more famous and respected story has it that the Chinese were unhappy with rule by Mongolians during the Sung dynasty (A.D. 960-1280). They prepared a successful overthrow during the Moon Festival in the autumn, and distributed secret messages of attack inside small cakes.
My friends at Decca love a celebration, so we had another special party Wednesday night for this occasion. It started with drawings for gifts for the employees as they finished their shifts. They huddled in the plant courtyard for a long period in the celebration. Decorations were everywhere. And I mean everywhere. The courtyard had banners. The “hotel” courtyard was brightly lit with lanterns. Even the chicken pen had strings of tree lights and lanterns. I wonder if the chickens enjoyed the extra lighting.
The management team had a special buffet at the “hotel”. Mr. Tsung led the partaking of the food and we all soon had plates full of sushi, sashimi, sweet & sour pork, and a host of other Chinese treats. Tsingtao, the famous Chinese beer or pijoue was freely flowing, and soon Great Wall red wine was as well too. I even found some sliced ham at the buffet. It had a little of everything.
As I’m finding is standard Chinese tradition, the toasts got going strong very soon. I’m finding it good to be behind the camera to minimize the partaking of the toasts. My link to pictures of this event is:
http://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=abrysoninchina&p=1A55&AID=2832355
Mid-Autumn Festival Info:
http://www.chinavoc.com/festivals/Midautumn.htm
Toasting gets underway.
Decca kitchen and hotel staff that always makes me feel so welcome!
"Hotel" courtyard at Decca lit and glowing for Mid-Autumn Festival. Waterfall is in background.
Decorations of the chicken pen near the "hotel".
More moped pictures! Sorry but too busy for more right now.
Moped delivery at our plant this AM.
Taxi driver trying to get patron to ride on his motorcycle. Yes, I said this was a taxi!
Mickey in Hong Kong
Mickey Mouse is everywhere! It’s not just popular t-shirts and dolls. It’s not because there are so many copies of Mickey from nearby Shenzhen – the counterfeit shopping capital. No, today is a very special day in Hong Kong. It’s the
Grand Opening of Hong Kong Disneyland!!And as can be expected, everything today is geared around Mickey! Everywhere you go you see the famous mouse and his sidekicks. Michael Isner is here. Robert Iger, the new chairman is here. Famous Chinese actors and actresses are here. The Vice Chairman of China is here.
But there is a lot of controversy too. The environmentalists have targeted Disney sinced the opening was announced six years ago. They are still complaining. Shark fin soup has been taken off the menu (even though you can get it at most restaurants in city). Fishermen are getting refunded for waters they can no longer fish. Now complaints center around the fireworks being too loud and with too much smoke for the polluted area.
Complaints from guests who have already been to the Park, are that it is too small, too artificial, and too expensive. The Chinese want to brag about having the park, but they just can’t be very complimentary about it.
It has already had a pretty significant impact on the area. Over 5000 jobs have been created at Disneyland alone. Not bad for an area that has been suffering from high unemployment. More hotels and infrastructure are already expanding. We even got to do the furniture for some of the hotel rooms, so Decca has benefited too.
The Disneyland Park is by far the smallest of the five in the company. But it is still as big as the original Disneyland when it opened in California. Only one major ride so far though: Space Mountain.
Plans do call for improvements and expansion. It is a joint venture in which the government of Hong Kong owns 57%. They really want to bring in the mainlanders here! By the excitement generated so far, it’s gonna work. Another reason to come see me here – Disneyland in Hong Kong! Ya’ll come on over!
来 的 参 观 香 港http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/2005-09-07-hong-kong-disney_x.htm
Diners and party revelers on Saturday night in Lan Kwai Fong section - a popular block of bars and night clubs in Hong Kong.
A Different Hong Kong Massage
Hot moist towels! Not once, but three times! Rubbing of the temples. Massage to the shoulders and head. Did I succumb to another Hong Kong massage? Nope! Those are features of the haircut I got here yesterday! Yes, I said haircut!
I’ve never had one like that! Now, I have to first tell you too, that I hate getting a first haircut in a new location. My first experience getting a haircut in Hong Kong wasn’t so good. I wrote about it earlier, and had planned to finally post about that experience, but this one was so much better that I’m having a hard time deciding about posting it. Maybe I will post it anyway to show about my fear of such first visits. (See below.)
Well, on this Saturday, it was time to get another haircut. I was getting a little shaggy. So I had to decide where to go this time. My boss, Richard, suggested a location near my doctor in Central, since I would be in that area. So off I went hunting Talianna Barber Shop in Melbourne Place. Finding it, I wasn’t so sure this would be good. The barbers looked a little older. And of course, Richard didn’t have too much hair to be referring barbers. But I decided any reference was better than walking in someplace without one.
Man, was it great. It was like having a masseuse give the haircut. It started with a hot moist towel. As he cut, he would stop and massage the head. And it ended with a strong shoulder massage! He even trimmed hairs on my neck and strays around the ear. Although having someone come at me with an old barber’s knife to shave the inside of your ear is a little intimidating.
Okay, my hair may be a little shorter now than I would have preferred, but man did that experience feel great! Mr. Jang at Talianna. I think I will be back.
My Biggest Fear
(Posting written on second visit to Hong Kong, but never posted. Finally posting to go along with new article about recent haircut.)
Oh no! It’s time! Do I really have too?
So what is your biggest fear? What are you afraid of in your daily life? And what can make a grown man tremble? What can give a big American, like me, the shakes, and to break out in a cold sweat?
Well, I couldn’t go on any longer. It was time to face my biggest fear! I had waited long enough. No matter what, I had to face it head on….. and I do mean head on. I kept telling myself, this couldn’t be so bad. It can be recovered. Couldn’t it? Wouldn’t I survive, really? No matter what, couldn’t I make it through this?
I’ve been all over the world. I’ve been up Mt. Fuji to play golf. I’ve survived the heat of Riyahd. I’ve seen the Easter fireworks show in Sydney. I have even driven over Trail Ridge Road in the Rockies (don’t want to do that again!). So why couldn’t I face this?
Anyone that has moved certainly knows this fear. Some may think of it as an adventure. I think women just enjoy it and hope that it isn’t so bad, so they have an excuse to do it again soon in a different manner.
What could make me fear so much to the depths of my shoes? I have been in China a couple of months. I had last faced this in Denver shortly before I left. I knew then that I had to do it in America before I moved on. But I couldn’t keep putting it off.
It was time to face it! I had to get………………..
a HAIRCUT! AAAgggghhhhh!!Now, okay, some of you may think this is silly. How could I fear a haircut? Well, I guess, I can say I’m luckier than many men my age, and even a wonderful, younger nephew. But I have most of my hair. I’m not ready for the Yul Brenner look. Maybe my hair’s a little thinner, and has a little more gray than it used to. But, tell me, where do you go get a haircut when you move to a new location. That’s one of the toughest decisions. You have to pick out a supermarket to shop, a family doctor, but oh I hate having to get that first haircut.
Then think about where I am now. How many men here have graying, fine hair? To say the least, not many Chinese have hair quite like mine. A barber in Colorado even told me the barbers here had bigger scissors to cut the thick coarse black hair of the Chinese. Now didn’t that help relieve me! Yea, the barber has longer scissors. Whoopee!
So I had to do it though. The concierge at the Novotel wasn’t much help. He just said there were many shops down a nearby street. And there were. The first looked like it was from the Barbararrella set. The next was packed with people. The third wasn’t so bad, but I didn’t want to do this, so I convinced myself I didn’t liked it either. Having rounded a block, and looking into probably ten salons, I was under Me.Mi.Salon. I had seen it across from the Novotel hotel on the second floor of Stewart and Lockhart streets. No use to round another block, I figured I may as well check it out. The signage and location loocked promising. But then I had to figure out how to get to it. Into a small entryway, a gentleman was sitting on a stool at an elevator entrance. There was no elevator, and when I said “Me.Mi’s”, he pointed to the stairs and motioned me to go up. More indecision. The stairway was barely wide enough for me to go up. Having ascended around a corner in the stairway though, I was soon at a counter at Me.Mi’s. The attendant at the counter took me to a chair and was getting a smock for me when I said just haircut. With only one other person cutting hair, he said something in English to ask if I wanted a shampoo. I asked if he spoke English. He said: “no shampoo” and so I didn’t get one. I guess he thought I said: “
No shampoo”. We weren’t off to a good start in communication.
After staring out a window at the intersection below for several minutes, another hairdresser showed up. I guess he was Benny. He spoke a little English, and asked if I wanted haircut. I said: “
Yes, haircut, not too short.” And YES, he repeated, “
Not too short”. Yes! He understood!! I sure didn’t want to get too short, if I wasn’t happy with the cut. “
Not too short”, I repeated again.
And off and away started the clippers. Nothing I could do now. I was in Benny’s hands for a haircut. Not conquering my fears, but I was at least a little more comfortable, especially since he had agreed:
“Not too short”.
And the cutting continued. He finished the back, and cut some of the front. Then he cut the back again, and trimmed the sides. Then he cut the back again and trimmed the neck. About the fourth pass up and down the back of my head, I was really beginning to wonder what he thought when he said
“Not too short.”Well, the haircut was okay. It certainly was a lot shorter in the back than I desired. But I guess I will survive. But I think I may find someone else next time……….. but that just means I have to go through this whole ordeal again!!
AAAAggghhhhh!
Another Hong Kong Weekend
A month has passed, and I’m back in Hong Kong. It’s time to get another visa, so here I am. Novotel Century in Wan Chai is home for about 4 days.
I’m soon off to apply again. Hopefully I will finally be able to get a multi-visit visa so that I don’t have to do this so many times. Last night was a wonderful dinner with Mr. and Mrs. Tsang, Richard, and Chris. The Chinese restaurant was phenomenal. Chris had been there before, and by all accounts it is one of the best in Hong Kong. Tonight I’ll have dinner with Chris and Richard again. Might even find a steak. And then on Sunday, I’m looking for another burrito!!!
If ya need me this weekend you have to call my Hong Kong phone from US: 011 852 6535 7553
The website for the Novotel Century is: ht
tp://www.accorhotels-asia.com/hotel/nov/index.asp
I got DSL I got DSL
I got DSL! I got DSL! About time, huh! It only took an “act of the People’s Republic”, a big headache, and about six weeks. I thought I would never get it. But I finally did!
If you read my story about the visit to China Telecom to get their help, you may have noted that this has been a major frustration to me. I lost an hour in the Telecom office trying to get them to send someone over to fix my problem. No luck there at all. They understood very little English, and just sent me to my apartment management. So back to my apartment I went to wait to meet a couple of managers. When they finally came, they concluded what I had been trying to tell them at the Telecom office all along: I NEED A TECHNICIAN FROM CHINA TELECOM TO COME AND LOOK AT IT!!
So finally on Tuesday night, the technician made a visit. It meant I had to return home early since they must be the only people in this country that don’t work until late in the night.
But the biggest frustration was actually the fix! All they did was push one button!!
ONE BUTTON!! Why didn’t someone just tell me to do that two weeks ago!! It was the on/off button on the modem. The technician told me to turn it off anytime you finished use. Who’s ever done that? Of course, I sure couldn’t read the instructions saying to do that:
关闭当不是在使用中。
Dinner with my friends at the Houjie restaurant.
Another Dinner Out
It’s been a while since I had much to write about an unusual dining experience. Well, I now have a new opportunity to write about from a dinner last week. I was invited to join the “girls: Ziyi, Jessica, and Paris,” for dinner. And we were honored to have some special guests, “Angelina and Brad”. The additional guests were special enough, but the meal had its share of surprises too.
This Thursday evening we took the opportunity to get away from the “Hotel”, and headed out to dinner at a relatively new hotel in Houjie, one of the larger towns in Dongguan. I can’t even tell ya the name. The restaurant was like so many Chinese establishments, large with many big private dining rooms. The private rooms are all the same too, large round dining tables with the spinning center tray and a television in the corner.
The attendants quickly provided us a menu that my friends were eager to show me since it had pictures with English descriptions. As I’ve said before, I really like to eat and ask what I’ve had later. But on this night the pictures were right in my face before I knew it.
And soon thereafter, the food was right there in my face too. I’ve been over here so long now that most of the items were repeat offerings. Now that is getting pretty scary. We had the obligatory pork intestines, the big bowl of fish heads, shrimp on a stick, and the famous chicken feet. But these were broiled feet instead of the barbecued style like I had been served just a few nights before this. You haven’t lived until you spit out the toenails of chicken feet!
Really a great meal though. The food was wonderful, and I was able to just try a few of the wilder items without having to eat too much of each. I’m still having a hard time getting used to the shrimp though. They are eaten whole here – shell, head, and all. I prefer to peel. And I thought the Cajun style of sucking head of crawfish was unusual!
Me enjoying a chicken foot!
Chicken Feet! Place your orders.
Dinner table with fish heads in bowl on left, clockwise to shrimp on stick, some kind of pork stomach, and vegetables.
Dinner menu from restaurant. Double click picture to enlarge, and then read items closely.
Lost in Translation
Have you seen
Lost in Translation? If not, go rent it, borrow it, buy it (really cheap over here), or go see it with a friend. The scenes of Bill Murray shooting the commercials are a good representation of my whole day. Only he had these short periods of translation and then found a pretty American blond to run around Tokyo. He gets told to “look at the camera” after the Japanese director makes a long soliloquy. You wouldn’t believe how often I listen to a long conversation to then be given an abbreviated translation, sorta like “He agreed.”
Yesterday was another day of such frustration. I wanted to play golf, but after my last round last Sunday, I slightly aggravated my bad back again. So I decided to rest the back and get some repairs done around my apartment. Principally I had hoped to finally get my DSL Internet connection working. After hooking up last week, it worked only once more. I thought I had an appointment to get it repaired on Saturday, but no service crew ever came as expected.
So on Sunday, I was out for a long walk, and decided to stop in the China Telecom office where I had signed up for DSL. Only this time I had no interpreter. I should not have even stopped in. After an hour of back and forth attempts to get them to understand that my DSL was not working and that no service crew had come by, I finally was told to go back to my flat and call my apartment management. When I finally got back, several people came from my apartment complex to look at my computer, and concluded what I knew all along:
China Telecom needed to come look at it!! THAT’S WHAT I WAS TRYING TO TELL THEM AT CHINA TELECOM MYSELF!!!!
Oh well, hopefully I will get DSL to work in my apartment someday! Until then, sorry if I’m not so responsive to emails.
See
Lost in Translation! And think of me 24 hours a day!!
View out my apartment. Over 4 million people within 6 miles!!
People, People, Everywhere
China has a lot of people. Over 1.3 Billion!! Now most everyone knows that. But unless you spend time here, you really just have no idea how many there are here.
Statistics I’ve heard:
- First, again a reminder that there are 1.3 billion people!
- Population growth rate is estimated at .58%. That means an additional 7.5 million people a year.
- There are more women between 15 and 27 than there are people in all of the United States!
- From where I live in Dongguan City there are 4 million people within 6 miles! Yes, I said within 6 miles!! I guess you can say I can see that many people in the buildings out my apartment!!
- There are 9 million people within 12 miles!!
- And 40 million within 60 miles!!
- That means I travel past about 20 million every time I go between my apartment and work. I believe it, all you see is buildings and people, unless it’s a steep mountain range.
- In China, 300 million people have been moved out of poverty in the last 25 years.
- The labor pool is 760 million!!
These numbers influence everything. The labor pool here has led to the growth of the economy and the downfall of the American industry. Everyday that I roll into the industrial park of our plant there are probably a hundred people trying to get in for a job. Another 20-30 are already past that point and awaiting interviews at our plant gate.
The number of available workers makes a big difference on just the way things are done. For instance, where American industry might automate, here you just have people move it. We probably have 400 people just moving parts. Labor is usually cheaper than investing in automation.
Wherever you go people!! People! More people! It is just incredible! You’ve hopefully seen some of the pictures about how many people there are in Hong Kong. They are not as close, but it is still very daunting numbers here in the mainland. You can’t believe how many are in a WalMart! It’s busier than a Panther’s game!
