Taiwan: Days 5 and 6

Wrapping it up.  This picture is of one of our impromtu wine tastings after work at the factory.  Richard, the engineering manager, has his own cup. 

We mostly worked these last two days; finishing up some projects.  We found time for a few diversions.  We had an excellent Taiwan seafood lunch one day.  Jack took me on a tour of an area where they have all manner of plant nurseries; I don't think I'd ever seen so many in one place before.  We had lunch at the Japanese restaurant again on Friday, but with a much simpler menu: sashimi, fried rice, grilled sea bass and various vegetable dishes.  Also something I hadn't tried before: fresh tomatoes dusted with a mixture of sugar and cherry powder (not sure what that is). It was really good.

Friday was our last day at the factory.  We all loaded up Stefan's car and he took us to Taipei, about a 2-hour drive.  We stopped at a Hakka restaurant (one of the many cultures from the Chinese mainland) and had dinner before going to the airport for our 11PM flight.

We arrived at SF without problem, though the flight was kind of bumpy; 10.5 hours.  We arrived before we left: about 7PM Friday, SJ time. 

That's all for now.  Check back later and I'll post more on my next trip.

Taiwan: Day 4.2

Part 2

After looking around the temple, we walked around the back and there was a large market street area that focused mainly on tea.  Tea is grow in the hills here.  Some friends of Jack's saw him and came over they invited us into a tea shop and we had to sample various kinds.  They didn't speak any English, but just kept giving me stuff; "try this, try this."  They send us off with a jar of candied locquats and something else I'm not quite sure of. 

We walked around the market and looked at all the produce and other things for sale.  All the tea stalls had people out front handing out little cups of tea to try.  We sampled a few.

We made our way back the way we came.  Jack drove back a different way so I could see the town where they grew tea and pineapples.  We got back to the factory and the others were still working, but had broken out the red wine by then.  The others were busy so Jack later took me to his favorite potsticker restaurant in the nearby town of Beidou. 

We had a lot to eat and chatted the whole time.  Jack's really an interesting guy.  He has a couple of houses in Taiwan, 3 in California.  He visits CA a couple of times a year because he just likes to go there and have fun.  His wife doesn't like to travel. 

After dinner - yes, we're still on Day 4- he took me for a massage.  It was the hardest massage I've ever had [I'm still sore].  They even did the walking on the back thing which has to be felt to be believed.  Jack nodded off at one point and the girls were giggling about it.  I really don't know how he could sleep through that.

After that, Jack drove me back to my hotel.  It was a long and full day.  Here are some pictures:

Pictures from Day 4

Taiwan: Day 4.1

This is Jack. He was my tour guide for the day.  Well, not really.  He's actually the owner of the factory I've been visiting.  This is one of his rare, non-smiling moments.  He's 72 years old and you have to run to keep up with him.

On Day 4 (Wed) I was busy working in the morning.  We all went to lunch at Stefan's favorite beef noodle (niuroumian) place; literally a "hole in the wall" and very good.  In the afternoon Jack and I left the others working at the factory and he took me in his 20-year old spotless Mercedes up into the foothills near the factory.  We are on the west side of the Taiwan island, near the middle in a town named Tianzhong (middle farm).  There are rice paddies all around. 

He told me we were going on a hike to look for wild monkeys.  OK.  We did see lots of monkeys along the steady incline through a semi-tropical mountain canyon.  Then we climbed some steep steps and came into the courtyard of a large Daoist temple.  We lucked out and there was some kind of celebration going on: firecrackers, music, people in costume, etc.  They were moving little statues around inside the temple and there was a lot going on.  I'll post some pictures in my next post.  The temple looked brand new and the painting was all very recent.  Jack told me the old temple had been destroyed in an earthquake 4 year ago and this was the new one.

Stay tuned for Part 2 or "the day I spent a week in Taiwan."

Taiwan: Day 3

Today was the first full day at the factory.  The factory is literally a "mom and pop" operation.  Most day to day operations are managed by the "son," Stefan.  "Pop" is Jack. More on him later.

We spent most of the day working, but Stefan and Jack took us to a local Japanese restaurant for lunch.  I had some things I'd never had before: Shark and sunfish cartilage.  It tastes as good as it sounds.  Also: pufferfish.  Not very tasty either.  We did have some excellent tuna sashimi along with shrimp fried rice, squid, deep fried little fishes, and tuna fin. 

We worked late.  We were all still full from lunch when dinner time rolled around. Jack said he'd pick up some popstickers and bring them in.  We had some white wine, some red wine (Stefan has a good collection of wine from all over the world) and enough potstickers and vegetables for a small feast.  We got back to the hotel about 11PM.

Sorry I haven't posted any pictures yet.  I haven't had the time.  Check back here again soon and I'll hopefully have some.

Taiwan Day 2

Taipei south to Changhua County

Still very overcast and grey today. Stefan and I visited 4 factories of various suppliers on the way to his company's factory today.  Everyone was very pleasant and helpful and I saw an overview of the suppliers.  Just getting to know all the suppliers in this new job.  See some pictures from the day here:

Tw Day 2

Had a (thankfully) lightish lunch of beef noodle soup; the national dish: "ni rou mien."

We ended up at Stefan's family factory.  Did some work, had some wine (Stefan and George are big wine guys) then went to a really good Thai restaurant near our hotel.  Still haven't had Taiwanese food (except for the noodle soup).  This area is very 'provincial.' and doesn't have the cosmopolitan feel of Taipei. 

Still haven't caught up on sleep so will try to get some more tonight.  I'll be at this location the rest of my stay.

More later.  Stay tuned....

Day 1: Taipei

Day 1: Taipei
Arrival in Taipei

After a 14-hour red eye in which Saturday was just erased from the calendar, we arrived in Taipei at 6AM on Sunday. Stefan, who works for the company we are visiting, picked us up and was our guide for the rest of the day. It rained all day. We were pretty exhausted from the jet-lag and not having slept much, but we kept busy so as not to go to sleep until the evening. I'm traveling with George, one of the engineering managers.

We visited the National Museum and saw a lot of ancient Chinese ceramics and artifacts. It was interesting to hear the "china" story from the Taiwanese (TW) point of view.
We had a great Italian meal for lunch then walked all over the malls via the footbridges that connect them with Taipei 101 and the hotel. It rained non-stop all day. Still people were out strolling.
We finally stopped and settled into one of the hotel bars and had a couple of drinks (still full from lunch), we didn't feel like dinner. We talked business and George and Stefan went over old times. They've know each other for years. We finally called it a night (or an afternoon) about 6PM and each crawled off to our respective executive suites. All the "cheap" rooms were taken.
Btw, Stefan told us that when the US gov't evacuated diplomatic families from Tokyo after the recent earthquake because of fear of radiation, they ended up at this hotel, the Grand Hyatt. He said they mostly gone back to Tokyo or home now. There were radiation detectors in the airport we noticed when we came in.

I'll post some links to pictures later when I have more time.
[if the picture doesn't show to the right of this post, click on the little black square to show it. I'm not sure why it's not showing up.]

Off to Taiwan

Hi all,

Well, I have a new job now and so probably won't be going to Beijing again any time soon.  But I am going to Taiwan late tonight.  Taiwan is not "China" according to the mainlain Chinese, but according to the Taiwanese it is.  The official name for Taiwan is "The Republic of China."  The official name for mainland China is "The People's Republic of China." 

Anyway, I hope to post pictures of my trip on a daily basis.  I will only be there for 1 week and I have a lot of work to do so I hope I have enough time for that.

The picture on this post is of Taipei 101, the tallest building in Asia.  The hotel I'm staying it is within a block of this building.

Stay tuned...

No, I'm not back in China, but I thought I'd check in anyway. This is picture of the driveway to my work location here in San Jose, CA. I won't be traveling to China again until after the first of the year and no definite plans for that yet. Take care. Have a nice Christmas holiday.

It's been a while since I posted something here. I haven't been back to China since August. I saw this article (see below) on how bad the air quality is in Beijing this week. It brought back some not so fond memories. I mean, I grew up in LA in the 70s and it was never THIS bad. The picture here is of Tianenmen on a particularly bad day. You can barely make out the Forbidden City in the background.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101119/ap_on_re_as/as_china_pollution

Here's a 10-minute video on food in Beijing. It has everything, touristy stuff, food, history, and, of course...Chinese rap!

Beijing Food

Electric bicycles are great. The only problem is you can't hearing them coming. Add that to the fact that they are ridden in any direction in any place in complete ignorance of traffic laws. I've had a few close calls, but luckily never been hit by one.

So, in this picture, how many safety violations can you count? Let's see...no helmet for driver or passenger. Riding through a plaza where children are playing....

I've seen a whole family on a moped or e-bike this size before, none wearing a helmet, of course.

Sometimes you just have to wince and look away.

Books on China

I've recently read a few good books on China. The most recent is 'Dreaming in Chinese' by Deborah Fallows. It is the first-hand account of an American linguist trying to overcome the difficulties of learning Chinese while living in Shanghai and Beijing. It is a light read full of all kinds of insights into the words, writing, history, and culture of the Chinese language. I learned a lot from it. Here are a few others you might like to read if you are interested:

China Road, by Rob Gifford

Lost on Planet China, by J.M. Troost

What Does China Think?, Mark Leonard

The Man Who Loved China, by Simon Winchester

Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven, by Gilman

The experiences the author had upon his first trip to Beijing in 'Lost on Planet China' were very much like my own. It is a fun and irreverent book, if not a bit exaggerated.

Shekou, Shenshen

After being in Beijing for 2 weeks, I flew down to Shenzhen in southern China, near Hong Kong. This time I stayed in a part of Shenzhen I hadn't been in before: Shekou. This is more of an "expat" area. I stayed at Fraser Place Apartments and had a large, 1 bedroom apartment with a dining area, kitchen, laundry room, living room, a DVD player, 2 TVs, etc. Very nice.

I also realized that I'd been eating Chinese food for 2 weeks and when I saw the Irish pub there I thought, "Fish and Chips really sounds good." And it was. I met an American woman there, too, who was with her husband and 2 twin baby boys. She gave me a good recommendation on a massage place. Over the course of the week I was in Shenzhen I had German food, Mexican food, and pizza. We ate at the same restaurant for lunch every day. It is a Hunnan place right next to our factory. You can see it and other pictures from Shenzhen at the link below.

Shenzhen Photos

Team Lunch

The last day in Beijing I took my work team out for lunch. I'd been to this restaurant, Hung Mao, before and really liked it. They specialize in 'jiao zi,' or dumplings a type of what we'd call 'dim sum.' We had a private dining room and lots of great food. Some of these people I've known for 2 years now, some I just met this trip.

See a few more pictures of the food here.

Dancer in Bei Hai Park

Below is a link to a video I shot of a dancer and musicians in Bei Hai Park, my favorite Beijing park so far. After I uploaded this to YouTube, I realized there are lots of similar videos posted there so take a look at those too.

These are amateurs. They aren't asking for money. You will see lots of groups of dancers, musicians, martial "artists," etc. all getting together to do there stuff in public in the parks on the weekends.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDx0ZzsnyhY

A Day in My Life

So, here is a typical day staying at the Pullman hotel in Beijing and working at our factory. After I've gotten over jetlag with the help of melatonin, I get up about 6:30 or so. I go down to the pool on the bottom floor and swim laps for about a half an hour. Go back upstairs, take a shower, check my messages and see if there is time to get a few emails in before breakfast [it is about 4PM in CA so I can work with people in San Jose (SJ) at that time.] I go down to the breakfast buffet. They have a good selection of European and Asian food for breakfast and pretty good coffee. Sometimes I even run into collegues from Sweden or the US who I didn't know were going to be there; we all use the same hotel because it is close to the factory. I go back upstairs and pack my bag for work.

The walk to the factory takes about 15 minutes. Even at 9AM it's already hot and I'm sweating by the time I get there. There are food carts selling a sort of flat bread with onions that looks pretty good, but I am always way too full from breakfast to try any. The Business Development Area (BDA) is a very large industrial park outside of downtown Beijing (BJ). This is where I work. If you know what a modern industrial park in Europe looks like, that's pretty close.

It's nice to come to a place in another country where you already know people. I know a lot of people in the factory; managers and engineers, but there are always new faces. We have some "black taxis" that hang out in the front of the building in case we need them. I know one of the drivers. Jon always has a warm greeting and a smile though he doesn't speak much English. He was the one who picked me up at the airport when I arrived this trip. I told him I didn't have any Chinese money yet, but I'd pay him the next day. "Mei guanxi," he said, "don't worry about it."

I set up my laptop at the "guest" desk and get to work. I can plug into the company network and access my files just like I'm in SJ, or Stockholm, for that matter. I work on my projects with other team members, have meetings, go to the factory floor and work on manufacturing setups and such. [Sorry I can post pictures here of the factory, but if anyone's interested, I can show you some offline]

About 11:45 I go to lunch in the cafeteria with one of the engineers. The food isn't bad, not great, but edible. All the factory workers get a lunch ticket for every shift they work. Sometimes we go out to eat and there are some great restaurants - which you wouldn't expect it in the BDA.

So, the rest of the day is work until about 5. At some time along there, Sweden comes on line and I sometimes work with colleagues there via email and the network. We also have an in-house IM system that allows voice and texting. I walk back to the hotel. Sometimes I eat in the hotel or take the cab ride into town and do some exploring, get something to eat, then back to the hotel. TV is pretty limited in BJ, but sometimes I have DVDs I can buy cheap there.

On this most recent trip, a colleague from Sweden showed me a shopping area with lots of restaurants right in the BDA. Definitely no tourists there! It was extremely hot and humid when we were there, but we had Hunnan food (everything has red chilis in it) anyway. The was a huge supermarket there and even a massage place. He showed me his favorite Halal restaurant there, too.

Well, that's a typical work day in Beijing.

Dragonfly

The first weekend I was in Beijing I went with some new friends to a small village in the mountains. Here's a link to the slideshow. http://picasaweb.google.com/104196247008740226494/Cuandixia?authkey=Gv1sRgCIvCwfCP5ZGgoQE&feat=directlink

The second day we hiked up Double Dragon Gorge. Although we didn't see any dragons, we did see these beautiful iridescent blue dragonflies with black wings. Dragonfly is "qingting" in Mandarin. That word appears in various sayings:

Qingting dian shui: The dragonfly touches the water lightly (a metaphor for superficial contact).
[Sorry I can't seem to paste the pinyin with tones marks or the Chinese characters in this blog; still learning]

Dancing in the Park

This is in the Temple of Heaven Park (Tiantan) in Beijing. On the weekends, in good weather, people get together for a variety of activities. This picture is of a small group of people who were dancing. They might have been learning or just ...dancing. I've seen formal ballroom dance instruction, hackysack players, spike fiddle players (all playing separate songs together), harmonica ensembles, martial arts demos and classes, singers, and many others.

Beijing Traffic

You've problably heard about the huge traffic jam outside of Beijing that is now in it's....I don't know...15th day or something like that. Well, this was nothing like that, but it seems to me that the traffic was a lot worse than the last time I'd been there in June 2009.

Where I am staying and working is far from the city center. I have to take a taxi into town if I want to visit anything of interest. I usually take a taxi to the nearest subway stop and then the subway from there in order to avoid the traffic in the center. Even that took longer than usual; one time it took almost an hour. One night I took a taxi all the way to the center to meet a friend for dinner. It took an hour and a half.

The good news is that they are extending the subway/train system out to the BDA where I work so I will be able to walk to the station and take the train all the way to the city center. I've heard various estimates, but it seems it should open by the end of 2010. In the summer of 2009 they had only the supports for the elevated track done. Now, they have the tracks completed and are running test trains on it. It might be open the next time I visit. Things like this happen fast in China.

Arrrrrgh!

I created this blog before I left on my most recent trip to China in July. The idea was to make some short posts from time to time during my trip with pictures. When I got to China, I found out that all blogs, including this one are blocked. I couldn't access this blog to post anything.

So, I will be posting some pictures and observations that I remember from my trip. I will also post links to some slideshows I've created.