sorry for the random posts. for some reason typepad is blocked here now, so i can't see things.
here is the conclusion:
we had an awesome day the first day in disneyland. after figuring out the layout and the fastpass routine, we were able to ride 16 rides/attractions this day. we had lunch and dinner in the park and got to see a great halloween parade. at about 8:30 we limped back to the hotel after 12 hours in the park. we passed out pretty quickly after arriving home.
we awoke the next morning at 6:30 to rain...and it stayed with us all day. good thing amy packed panchos, because we needed them. we survived, but the combination of the rain and a park more designed for older kids (their top 5 rides were to dangerous for caroline to ride on), left us wanting to return to disneyland. the day was fund and we made it to 7:30pm...but we knew we would return to disneyland the next day and had our fill of disney sea.
the next day wasn't nearly as rainy, but we did get some rain. we crossed all of the rides off our list and were able to even squeeze in a nap in the hotel in the afternoon. we did not get on the monsters, inc ride, because at literally 10 minutes after park opening, there was a 2 hour line for the fastpass...so we passed.
after these three days, we had our fill of disney.
we decided to spend the next day exploring tokyo. we took the subway to the tokyo tower and then went to a famous temple and shopping area. it was fun but exhausting. the subway system is really complicated, but we mde no mistakes. we ended the day with a nice dinner with one of my dad's business partners...it was nice and the kids were behaved quite well.
the next day we relaxed in the morning and headed back home.
a few reflections about japan:
1) the banking system totally sucks - getting to an atm is really hard, and my chase card wouldn't work at all. this place uses more cash than i would have thought, so the atm problem was exacerbated
2) you can definitely tell that the japanese are more well off because the kids and women are much, much fatter than chinese kids and women
3) my visa in my passport has a high res barcode, while both the us and china have old school stamps
4) for some reason there is an obsession with taking elevators for people who don't need it...for those in wheelchairs or double strollers, this stinks as you wait in line behind able bodied people waiting for the elevator when an escalator is 10 feet from you
5) maybe a function of their stagnant economy - no one is in a rush anywhere - except getting the monsters inc fastpass
6) people are super nice
7) i was surprised about how many chinese characters are in common, but the pronunciation is so different...its as if you saw apple and someone told you it was pronounced shish kebob. but the meaning is close...very strange
we had an awesome time, but we were glad to get home. the kids will have very fond memories of this trip as will we.
I am back after a 6-day 3-city trip throughout China. The purpose of the trip was to do some market research and to conduct some training. Overall it was a successful trip, but I am tired. Starting from Beijing I went to Nanjing, Guangzhou, Chengdu returning home last night. I am very thankful for the trip because when you do a business trip here it is not just land, go to meeting and then move on - it is much deeper than that...and if you try to do it that way you will offend. When you visit you have to respect the local area by learning about it, participating in the culture via local meals and sometimes seeing local points of interest. I had the pleasure of doing all of this in each of these cities.
I started out by arriving in Nanjing to some much cool weather...a big plus. The hospitality in general is always outstanding. You are personally met outside of baggage claim where they grab your bags and escort you to the car. They then take you to the hotel to check in and rest for an hour. Then you go to lunch. I was worried about the hotels (see last week’s post) but it ended up being fine. No four seasons, but clean, air-conditioning, toilet with a seat and internet access. The bed was small and hard, but I survived. And it was only $40 a night. Because we essentially do business with the government, we got the government rate. Also, later I found out that 2 of the 3 hotels we stayed in aren’t even open to the public. This was also true of a few of the restaurants we went to. Government employment and party memberships have lots of hidden perks like access to these places. It was interesting to peek into this even at the superficial level.
Nanjing is a place with lots of History in China. It used to be the capital of the nationalist government. It also was the place of some horrific Japanese actions in World War 2 during their occupation. Its not the only reason, but if you want to understand why the Chinese hate the Japanese, just click here. We had a nice lunch and dinner. The Nanjing people eat lots of seafood. They have these wonderful lobsters (more like the size of langoustines) and they cook them in this deliciously spicy sauce. Also they do a wonderful roasted pigeon (i had eaten this before in egypt). Generally they do not drink that much, so I was spared any of the macho one-upsmanship of previous trips. The next day after a half day of training and branch visits, we went sightseeing. We started off going to Zhong Shan Park where the mausoleum of Dr Sun Yat Sen (very famous nationalist and father of Chaing Kai-shek). It was just absolutely gorgeous.
We then went to the former offices of the nationalist government. There were also some other interesting artifacts from older warlords.
The next morning we hopped on the 1:45 minute flight to Guangzhou. First thing off the plane was holy shit this is hot a humid. Now Guangzhou really doesn’t have the same historical significance as Nanjing. It is best none as the heart of the factory business. It has grown tremendously since China became the world’s factory. Things are very modern and the city is not the urban planning miracle of Beijing...small roads, too many cars. We arrived and checked in and immediately went to eat. Now I hadn’t had too much cantonese food...I have focused on the more northern and western chinese cuisines that are heavier and spicier. I was stunned with the quality of the food. Out of the 6 meals I had in Guangzhou 4 of them are in the top 10 of all meals I’ve had in china. Its hard to describe, but its just delicate, slightly sweet and amazingly presented. I didn’t eat anything too weird, and it all tasted great. Another bonus was that here they didn’t drink too much either...whew. One thing interesting is that the Guangzhou people aren’t nearly as political as the other provinces...they are more like business people and not politicians. They even said that they don't watch cctv because its too political. I don’t engage in these conversations because its just not a good idea. Also they speak Cantonese here (Mandarin is understood and spoken as well, but the locals speak cantonese). It is so different that Mandarin. The people I was traveling with couldn’t understand a thing...its a different language with different words and tones. I got to at least understand when they are speaking it...it is much more tonal and sounds much more lyrical...almost like when you were a kid and pretending to speak Chinese.
The last evening they took us on a great boat ride on the main river...here are some cool pics.
Back to Sichuan. I was a little worried because this was the site of some really heavy drinking. Upon arrival I was warmly welcomed. They seem to like me very much greeting me with “Fei Zong!” (My chinese surname plus the honorific of Zong (leader). We ate some good Sichuan style food and we did some drinking - but red wine - my wheelhouse. It wasn’t crazy heavy but much more than the other places. I was worried about dinner.
They took us to a hotpot place. Now I hate, hate, hate this food. I ate as little as possible and survived the drinking as we stuck to red wine again. After dinner they took us to get 2 hour foot massages. These are good and only cost 80 rmb (that right...$11). It was good to see friends and felt like I dodged a big drinking bullet.
The next morning they took us to SanXingDui. It was really cool. After this we were to go to the airport to catch the flight home. And then they said lets stop and eat at a local farmers restaurant next to the airport...and thats when I knew they had me.
We drank red wine and they had each of the 10 people from Chengdu come up and toast me...they don’t sip it, they shoot it. And I lost count, but there is no way I didn’t drink over three bottles of wine...in less than an hour. Luckily we had to go, so we got dropped off and I somehow got on the plane. Three hours later I woke up as we were landing...ouch. Those darn Sichuan people. I like them alot, but man!
It was a great trip, and I continue to enjoy uncovering new things about this place and its great people.
It has been really, really hot here. Last week it reached 40C...which is well over 100F. Combine it with some thick pollution and its pretty tough. When I walk to work in the morning the weather is perfect, which means by noontime it will be unbearable. I have been wearing these great underarmour undershirts that keep me much cooler than the cotton ones I used to wear (and they also don’t turn grey like all the cotton ones), but you still break a sweat. I’ve commented on how the temperature in the office is a constant battle. On a day last week where it was 38C outside literally someone had the windows open in the office because they were cold. I tell you what. If I ever lose my cool in china it will be about fucking losing my cool in china.
It was a busy week. Amy’s CPAP finally showed up so now we both can get much better sleep (we left it in the car that took us to the airport - $180 in fedex later and 6 days clearing customs). We had dinner with some friends from Wilmington on Friday night as they were in town doing the whole tourist thing. We ate at Duck de Chine and had a really nice time. They are only here for three days and had an action packed agenda, so I’m glad we got to see them. With this crappy weather, I couldn’t help but think that they must believe this place sucks...it doesn’t, its just not very nice right now.
On Saturday, Amy and I bought the kids some new shoes (they are growing so fast), and after my Mandarin lesson we went to look at some more apartments. Actually during part of my Mandarin lesson, we conducted an in-person interview for our second Ayi. Her name is xiao zhou and we liked her very much. We were haggling a little on price, so she was going to get back to us today. I hope she accepts, we liked her very much. She also seemed pretty mellow, which will hopefully be a good offset to Ivy’s manic personality traits. If all goes as planned she will start on July 13th.
The apartment hunting was good. We saw four more apartments, but still love the one I described last weekend. I took some video that I’ll put at the bottom of this. We are really happy with the options. Also the Marriott people aren’t negotiating in good faith, so we will definitely not be living here after September. With occupancy way, way down and expats leaving beijing in droves (the economy) its curious to take a hard line stance on rent when the marketplace is so competitive...oh well, their choice.
Las night, we had burgers and milkshakes with the kids at the All Star grill in Solana. It was alot of fun. Caroline had a huge milkshake and mom and dad had margaritas. We walked back through the big open square at Solana and watched the kids play in the drop fountain. Here is some video (check out Elizabeth’s evil move at the end):
This week will be a hard week for us as I am going on a long business trip...I leave tomorrow morning and spend two days each in Nanjing, Guangzhou and Chengdu. I arrive home on Saturday evening around midnight and then I go to Zhengzhou for two more days starting the following Monday. This doesn’t happen very often, so we will get by. But its tough on Amy to have the kids all alone. Its also tough on me if its going to have all the heavy drinking that the last trips had. Lets cross our fingers. On this trip I will be traveling with our local partner. They have a slightly different travel policy than the JP Morgan one. Now we are extremely cost conscious as a corporation, but our minimum standards are above what our partner’s max is...and to avoid the two different worlds issue and too keep team cohesion, I will be staying in hotels following their travel policy...I’m hoping for AC and a private non-squatty potty. Yikes. It does raise a common issue in hybrid organizations - pay/benefits disparity. It’s just so VASTLY different, and it will always be a sensitive topic. I wont give details here, but over a beer, I will explain it to you.
One thing I wanted to mention too is that I had a comprehensive medical exam this week. I have always been bad about doing this, but with too many of my friends getting sick, I thought it was wise. I bring it up because as I watch the healthcare debate in america I get very frustrated with how we settle for shitty, expensive and inefficient. The care I got during the checkup was outstanding. In 73 minutes (and the clock started when I walked in) i had the following done - medical history, full physical check, height, weight, mole survey, ekg, urine test, blood test, singulair prescription filled, prostate exam, breathing volume, japanese encephalitis vaccine, MRI scheduled (getting the aneurysm thing checked out based on family history) and a GI doctor referral (check out my 20 year battle with heartburn). It was incredible efficient and Private. Politically I am for comprehensive reform and think a public option is good, but the experience I had shows that you can have a private insurance program and receive high-quality and efficient care. I don’t believe there is anywhere in America that I could get all of this done in 73 minutes - and the other thing...68RMB co-pay. $10 for all of that. Who is my insurance? Cigna. See, so it can happen. Lets trade shitty, expensive and inefficient for good, cheap, and efficient. Who wouldn’t want that?
Minor issue here this week with Google. Its well understood that the Chinese government filters the internet. So they wanted Google to improve some of their pornography blocking - Google didn’t respond they way that the Chinese government wanted, so they shut it down. Now google is not the #1 search engine here (it actually has only a 5% market share) BaiDu is #1. Looks familiar huh?! For searching it was no big deal while google was down because we just went to bing (I actually liked it, so it was nice to experiment with bing). It was a problem for email since Amy and I both use gmail for personal boxes...oh well. It came back a day later. We used facebook and my work email to communicate during the outage.
Have a great week and hopefully this Michael Jackson things dies down (come on, he was a pedophile and the world is probably better off without him) and we move onto more meaningful issues like iran, iraq, north korea, the economy and things that actually impact our lives and our future.
Apartment Video (i did it at lower res than the one above - my video rule - only the kids get hi res)
Its 4:32pm on Sunday afternoon and everyone is asleep. We had a very fun father’s day. After a relaxing morning which included a swim with Caroline, we went to the JW Marriott for brunch. This is the same place we went for Easter brunch. They have an outstanding buffet with bottomless glasses of champagne and other adult drinks. They also have a great setup for kids - a big grassy area with toys, crafts, face painting, kids menu and ayis to watch-over them all. Amy and I had a great time, and the kids had to be pried away at 1:30. On the kids home we had to keep the kids awake because we knew a monumental nap was coming...and it did. Great Day!
Here is some video
In general, things area going well here. Everyone is fully adjusted to Beijing time (except we are still missing Amy’s CPAP machine which we left in the car on the way to Newark - its here in China, just awaiting customs clearance). Work has been good, but very busy. We have alot of initiatives and too few people, but that is life.
Two Fridays ago we went and had drinks at this new bar close to my work called Xiu. It was really nice. We then walked across the street and had a really great Cantonese Meal at Summer Palace. I had been there for a work luncheon before and knew it was great. I’m trying to get Amy to try some new chinese styles and she hadn’t done cantonese yet. We had vinegar soaked turnip that was sliced like the petals of a flower (and presented that way), braised pork rib (best meat dish in china so for for me), beef cheek and eggplant and the most perfectly cooked asparagus.
This past friday night, we went to a new Hunan restaurant called Karaiya Spice House in Sanlitun. It is run be the same restauranteur that runs the great sushi place, Hatsune. We ordered the big bridge of pork, some shredded duck and ginger, some pea shoots and assorted mushrooms in garlic. The big bridge was delicious, but a little light on the meat. It was perfectly spicy and when washed down with a Riesling, was almost perfect. The shredded duck was frankly too hot and not very tasty. The mushrooms and pea shoots were great. This place was good, not great. Probably wouldn’t come back given the many great options we’ve found here in Beijing. We closed the evening with some drinks at Sureno.
Amy has been busy. She enrolled elizabeth in an art class that meets once a week. Its Chinese language only, but thats no problem for Elizabeth - she can choose not to listen in any language she pleases. This is a good chance to get Elizabeth in a classroom setting preparing her for Eton after her third birthday this December. She is very proud of her backpack and gets very excited to go (she slept wearing it the first night).
Amy is also planning all the logistics for Caroline’s upcoming 5th birthday. She will have some friends over for a party downstairs in the multipurpose room. She is working on all the details and it will be a great time.
We also have been making progress on our potential move. We saw an apartment yesterday that was amazing. We really, really want it. Its not in Palm Springs, but next door at Park Avenue. So we don’t leave the neighborhood, but we do leave the apartment complex. Park Avenue has a courtyard that is not nearly as well manicured as Palm Springs, but it is much more kid friendly with a larger playground and open grassy spaces for kicking a ball around etc. The apartment is much bigger than what we have (423 sq m). Its on the 32nd floor, but the views are more southern and eastern (northern is the best and what we have now). Also the gym is outstanding and the kids indoor playroom is gigantic. I think we will move here, but there are many steps that need to happen before its official.
We also worked out a deal with our current Ayi, Ivy, about securing a second Ayi. I know sitting in america is sounds obnoxious, but we need a second Ayi. Especially in this new apartment which is not serviced (no cleaning, sheets and towel), a second Ayi is required. Its also will make Amy less stressed during the 4-7pm time on weekdays and gives us coverage on Sunday. Basically Ivy works M-Th 7:30am-4:30pm and F-Sat 7:30am-10pm (focused on kids and their meals). The new ayi will work from something like 11am-8pm (focused on cleaning, laundry, our dinner) and all day on Sunday. We now need to find someone who will work with our situation. We were very lucky to find Ivy without much difficulty. We have no illusions about being that lucky twice.
Weather here has been hot. It will be like this through August. We’ve also has some really bad pollution days. On twitter, I follow Beijing Air and it gives hourly updates on air quality. Usually the rating is “unhealthy.” There was one day last week that it acutally said “Hazardous” it was the first time I saw that rating. Yikes.
This upcoming week we hope to make progress on the apartment and on Friday, we will have dinner with my friend Joe’s wife and two adult kids. They are visiting his oldest daughter who teaches English in Shanghai. Amy and I will take them out for some roast duck and amy will give them the lowdown on the best shopping places.
Have a great week and happy father’s day to the dads out there.
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