Before I start the following is a brief synopsis of my recent trip to China for work. As you can understand some if not most of the trip must remain confidential for many reasons so I’ll discuss what I believe I can.
So I finally made it back from China Today some two days later than planned.
I flew out the previous Friday night, arriving early Saturday. Dumping my stuff off at the hotel we had lunch then headed back to the factory. It was cold – about -10c so my really thick jumper/jacket came in handy.
The factory was an hour outside of Beijing. It did not take long for us to arrive and we were greeted by the usual group of people. Some of these speak some great English I must say.
We were ushered into the factory and had a look at one of the units. Although slightly disappointed in only seeing one unit we quickly made our comments and left. We know they can pump these things out very quickly so coming back on Thursday for another inspection with our client did not concern me.
We were then informed that the factory was not open on Sunday – which was nice to know! It would have been nice to be told this before we flew out.
We headed out for drinks at Mix – A nightclub playing Hip hop and R&B. Great fun and very loud.
Sunday we started late and headed to the Great Wall – some distance from Beijing. We headed out to Mutianyu.
I was assured this was less busy than Badaling. They were right. It was fantastic! Very cold, very quiet and very clean – a stark contrast to Badaling I must say.
After several photos and some brisk walking we returned to Beijing.
For dinner we headed to a hotpot restaurant called Ding Ding Xiang. As usual there were sixty plus people sat downstairs waiting for a table. Our driver disappeared briefly and returned with a big grin. Our table was ready!
The hotpot is a fantastic meal as everyone sits around the table and cooks their own food in two containers, simmering over a flame. One with a hot (spicy) soup and the other cold. It’s a great way to eat as everyone interacts and talks to one another – something that is lacking in western society these days.
I headed to the airport early on Monday to meet everyone else who was visiting. We headed into the city passing through some current projects and had the token Peking duck, along with scorpions! Yep you heard right. In fact I had two of the little critters. We were then quickly whisked off to visit the Birds nest, Watercube before catching the flight North to Shenyang. We arrived to a shockingly cold -20c or less.
We were up early on Tuesday and headed to the factory. With the obligatory tour over we discussed several design issues at length. The day was finished off by heading out to see the very impressive testing rig. To say it was large is an understatement.
Wednesday morning we had another brief meeting before heading to the airport. It had started to snow and it delayed our flights by two hours. Finally we made it to Beijing and headed to the factory. After another brief tour and short meeting we agreed to reconvene after lunch Thursday to give everyone time to resolve some technical issues.
In the evening we headed to another well-known restaurant of which the name escapes me, followed by an hour or two at “The world of Suzie Wong” another great nightclub!
In the following afternoon I was instructed to stay for another two days to check on production. This is easier said than done when you are in a foreign country, cannot speak the language and they don’t won’t you to find out.
However, you’d be surprised in fact how easy it is to work out – and so were the guys in the factory!
I caught the flight back and made the most of the Etihad lay flat seats in BC. Great service, great flight but they must learn to turn the heating down, as it was far too hot! It wasn’t long before I was back at work.
Now, what you will not pick up from the above is that:
- The days are very long – typically only 4-6hrs sleep per night
- Meetings take three times longer as they have to be translated
- On return to my hotel room at night I am still working for another hour or so checking, reading & replying to emails. I ended up working until 3:30am one night compiling a report.
- Then there is of course all the extra work when you return
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