a little over a year after I arrived in China, this post starts with the same title as the very first one back on sep 15th 04 (except with laowai spelt correctly!)
this week was dominated by a trip from hursday to friday to an investment fair in a city called Dongying that is a new, grpwing city exactly in between beijing, shanghai and dalian. Its got lots of oil related industries and big investment from Korea -plus it has had UNIDO advising them on attracting more foreign investment (and they invited us to come to the fair). It meant 7 hours of travelling each way by bus, but it was worth it for the experience.
so, why the title? well i am still (1 year later) learning about the well-of in china, the scale of things and how laowais live. on thursday night once we arrived (everything was paid for the whole time) and given our delegate bags (including VIP badges) we were put on our table, and then toasted by the different important people there who come around each table, 1 at a time. lots of baijiu :( we were higly encouraged to eat the little (expensive, ugly, non-edible looking) lobsters and then shipped off to watch a firework display that lasted over 45 minutes (no kidding) with over 25,000 fireworks (according to the information about the different acts in the show). What a huge waste of money; 10 minutes would be fine.
I guess the scale thing is always a bit double-edged in China; not just to impress the guests, but to show to the local people how well the government in impressing the guests and of course to actually impress the local people too (who were all watching too, but not on the stage on chairs like the 500 of us VIPs). Since so many companies are owned by the government you get the feeling orders are given and costs not really defined let alone considered!
later that night in our hotel we met in the UNIDO guys room for some beers since he had been given the executive suite as an honour; and when the hotel staff came to our room they seemed to do so just to practice their English -somethings will just never change here!
that dinner and the following lunch (which was different -a private affair with the mayor of the city and just our small group) also included some chips, ketchup and a chicken burger, all from KFC. We all laughed at the wonderful attempts they made at cultural understanding (since it gave us the choice of eating non-chinese food if we couldn't handle it), especially as the chips also came at breakfast.
Back in Beijing now in glorious weather and hoping to enjoy it before the art exhibition i'm going to tonight at a private pre-opening viewing in the 'arty' area of town that i have been trying to go to for ages (what a great way to go there!).
I'll write again soon with some reflections of a year in China but its confirmed I'll be back in UK from 25th/12 -8th/1 so look forward to seeing lots of UK based friends soon.
Enjoy your weekend
Adam
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