Getting Things Done in China

Here are some snaps I took of how things get done in China. You might notice a common thread.

At the Olympic Park they were pulling out some heavy electrical cable that was probably used to power some of the temporary facilities. Check out how practical the vehicle is.

Need water for your new factory? It's cheaper to drill a well than to connect to city water.

And on most construction projects, the workers live on site for the duration. That's not two benches for work breaks in the tent, its two sets of bunk beds with a tarp over them.

Here's a portable air compressor.

This photo was taken at the Olympic Park in Qingdao where the sailing competition was held. They are removing lighter electrical cables.

Of course, most machining is done on manual machines.

And, it's easier to remove concrete in larger chunks if you have to a) break them by hand, and then b) pick up all the pieces.

Beijing 2008 Olympic Village

Beijing is still the Olympic City. There are Beijing 2008 banners and billboards all over the city. Anywhere they don't want you to see something, they erect a fence or billboard like this, or a "One World, One Dream" version.

The Olympic park is impressive. The Bird's Nest in an impressive stadium. So big that I could never get a shot of the entire stadium.

And the nearby Water Cube is also impressive. It's much bigger than I thought.

The entire park has a coordinated theme. This is one of the lights near the Bird's Nest.

Across the street is the Olympic Village where the athletes lived. The tall building represents a dragon. It is on the center line axis of Beijing, at the north end, giving the city very good fung shui. Notice the big screen TVs on and between the buildings. They are now, of course, displaying advertising.


Here is a better shot of the lower screen. It's the biggest I have ever seen.


There were a lot of people around the Olympic Park. Nothing was open, we were all just wandering around looking at the buildings and such. Easily 50,000 people, and maybe twice that.

Signs

More and more signs in China include English translations. That's good for me, as I only know the Chinese symbols for entrance (入口) and exit (出口).

But sometimes the translations are a little off the mark. Usually I just chuckle, but once in a while I pull out my camera and take a picture.

You have seen this one that describes the use of the shower valve in my hotel room.

Here's one we saw in front of a bar that, I think, makes an all-you-can-drink offer. Rob thought it was a strip club, which makes sense, as 100 yuan is a lot, even for all the beer you can drink.

Just because it is the name of your store doesn't mean that you have to take care with the translation.

And maybe I should just let you wonder what this sign means. Last night we had dinner at a German restaurant on a land-locked ship, that was adjacent to a driving range. We were supposed to keep an eye out for errant golf balls.

When the waitress noticed the three of us (including two Chinese guys) laughing at the translation, she fixed it by removing the extra C in wactch. All better now!

Chinese Hotels

Let's start by saying that we don't stay in five star hotels when we visit China. There are of course world-class hotels that are no different in China than, say, Paris. I've been in the lobby of a couple. I think you could find a Holiday Inn in most cities that you could not tell from the one in Pittsburgh. And, of course, the rates are world-class, too.

When I am with Henry (who, as I am sure you have figured out, was born and grew up in China), we stay in in mid-range business hotels. I am writing this from a Motel 168 in ShenZhen. Motel 168 is a chain with about 35 locations in China. I can't stay in a hotel like this on my own because no one here speaks English.

When Henry booked the rooms here, he asked me if I wanted to upgrade to a larger room. As the upgrade added about $10.00 a day, I said yes. My room is almost 3 times as large as Henry's and includes the computer I am using. Pretty good value in my book, as Henry has trouble moving around the bed in his room.

There is about as much room this side of the bed as shown. A very spacious room by Chinese standards. Did I mention that, with the upgrade, this room will cost me about $45 a day?

OK, so we are in a room. Recognizable as a hotel room anywhere in the world. Always has all the required elements (including a western toilet). Maybe not as clean as in the US, but passable.

So check the bed. The Chinese have taken "firm" to a whole new meaning. Somewhere between brass and aluminum on the Rockwell B scale. The bed in my Beijing hotel room actually hurt when you sat down. Think of a piece of plywood with about a quarter inch of cotton padding on top.

I have a couple of strategies for dealing with the hard beds. If there are twin beds, I strip one bed of all the bedding and put it under the bottom sheet of the other bed. I also carry a Therma-Rest Z-seat, which is a 13" x 16" seating cushion for outdoor use. I use it under my hip, which suffers the most from the hard beds.

Bedding is always a thick comforter inside a big bag made of sheets. Since it is usually way too hot to use it, I sometimes take the comforter out of the bag. I put the comforter under me, and use the bag as a cover.

This room has a rather complicated shower valve. There are two shower heads (one fixed, one on a hose) plus a bottom outlet to fill a non-existent tub.

So they helpfully provide instructions on the use of this monstrosity.

At first glance, my room (shown above) looks pretty nice. Lots of up-scale amenities, and lots of glass. Architectural glass is used all over China. Scares me the most when they use it for floors, since I figure I am pretty well out of the design range for loading.

The reality is that the drawers don't work very well. The cabinet doors don't work very well. The shower door may or may not latch. There is always crud or mold in the corners of the showers. And we don't think that any hotel owns a vacuum cleaner. At least they don't use it in the guest rooms. Oh well.

Xi'an's City Wall

The city of Xi'an was once totally enclosed by a city wall. The wall is still there, but the city which now has a population of some 7.3 million has expanded well beyond it.

The Xi'an wall in it's current form was built during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). While there have been many, many restorations, the wall itself has survived pretty much intact. Henry used to climb it when he was a school kit. Over the years, people took the bricks that surface the wall to build homes, but all that has been restored now.

This is the main gate. There are extensive fortifications around the gates, including two gates with a courtyard in between. If the attackers breach the first gate, archers can pick them off in the courtyard.

The wall is 13.7 km in length. That's 8.5 miles. It is 12 meters high (almost 40 feet) and 12 meters wide at the top. That's a lot of rammed earth!

The wall is also surrounded by a moat. And there are plenty of windows for archers to shoot at the enemy. I guess you can plink taxi cabs now days.

It's just a little incongruous that the view from the main gate is of the new subway being built.

There are a few replica weapons, such as this armored personnel carrier.

And this Mao-era air raid siren. Henry says they used to practice for air raids when he was a kid. I told him that we did too.

The Subterranean Army of Emperor Qin Shi Huang

Qin Shi Huang was the first emperor to unify China. This was not done by diplomacy. Since he was quite a guy, he decided that he needed quite a tomb. Thus the terracotta army and other attractions within a few miles.

The terracotta army is impressive to say the least. There are three excavation sites, called Pit 1, Pit 2 and Pit 3.

Pit 1 contains some 6000 terracotta soldiers. Plus 40 chariots, each with 4 horses. It is 260 meters (850 feet) long and 62 meters (200 feet) wide. That's almost 6 football fields.

Pit 2 has 350 chariot horses, 116 cavalry horses, plus 900 solders and 89 chariots.

Pit 3 has 66 solders, 4 horses and one chariot. It is the headquarters for the terracotta army.

There is also a fourth pit which was dug, but no soldiers installed. It is about the magnitude of pit one. The emperor died fairly young, and they surmise that it just wasn't finished in time. This pit would have completed a typical fighting force of the day.

The ranks of soldiers that we have all seen photos of are all reconstructed from broken pieces found in the trenches. After the emperor died, there were peasant uprisings, and the area was broken into and burned. The fires burned the wooden chariots and the ceiling beams, so the roof fell in. I think the fire just sped up the process. It is not likely that the wooden roof would have survived for 2000 years, with or without fire.

These figures have been restored and are awaiting their return the the pit. Each figure is different. Each face is unique. And they were all carved and painted in quite a bit of detail.

Henry was busy yesterday, and didn't want to take the tour One More Time, so he helped arrange for a car and driver. The car was a Jetta-like VW with 282,000 km on it. A real sports car. Actually, having an underpowered car is an advantage here. Helps to limit the terror.

Anyway, car and driver for the day was 380 Yuan (about $57). That includes driving about 90 miles, tolls, and parking.

The driver speaks no English, so Henry wrote the names of the three attractions (the terracotta soldiers, a huge tomb mound where I guess the emperor resides, and a hot springs area with baths for the royals) on a card. He also wrote "help this guy buy a ticket". So I just showed the driver the card and pointed to the next thing on the list. Worked great.

At the end of the tour, I met Henry at a hot springs resort nearby for dinner. As Henry spent the night there, we needed the driver to wait through dinner to bring me back to the hotel. The driver was not up for this until Henry offered 100 yuan to wait. The driver was more than happy to hang around an extra five hours for an amount that probably doubled his income for the day.

How did the driver know where to meet Henry? I called Henry on my cell phone and handed the phone to the driver. When the driver had a question for me (did I want to stop and shop for souvenirs?), he called someone who spoke English and handed his phone to me. I thought it was kinda funny. His phone speaks English, mine speaks Chinese!

The hot springs area had hot baths for the emperor, the empress, and the emperor's favorite concubine. (I don't think this was the same emperor.) There were several hot springs and many buildings, the uses of which I am not sure. One nice looking building had a sign out front describing the toilets of the day. I thought it was a restoration or exhibit, but it turned out to be the bathroom.

These dancers were performing at the hot springs area (which I am sure has a proper name, but the ticket is all in Chinese).

The tomb mound was good exercise. Would have been a good view, I think, except it was foggy and rainy. I now have another folding umbrella that cost 10 yuan ($1.50). Worth every penny.

While working with an emperor was probably a pretty good gig, when the emperor died, things got a little tough. All the Emperor's brothers and top advisers were buried with him. Coincidence that they all died at the same time? I think not. Sounds to me like a good way for the new emperor to ensure a clean transition of power. The dead emperor surely needs them to help him in the afterlife.

Shanghai

Getting to Shanghai was interesting. My flight details were in a text message on my phone in Chinese rendered in roman characters. The only way I know the name of the airline we were on is because I found a comment card in the seat pocket. One side is in English and shows the airline name--Juneyao Airlines. There are a lot of domestic Chinese airlines that never show up in the US. My boarding pass had no airline name or flight times on it. Probably good that we went directly to the gate as the flight pushed over 15 minutes early.

The flight was uneventful and Shao Yi Ping from SIEG was there to meet us.

This is the SIEG showroom. All their machines are on display for easy comparison. Also on display are a couple of their new CNC machines. That is Shao Yi Ping with me in the photo.

SIEG is expanding. They have leased space in the factory next door. There are now two large passageways between their plant and the new assembly area next door. It gives them about twice as much space for final assembly. Plus, they have opened a new plant for building their CNC machines. This is the CNC assembly area.

As usual, they are working on something new. This is a base casting for the machine that will become the X4 mill. Pretty stout.

All of the CNC machines are run in at the factory for 10 hours. These machines are moving all three axes during their run in period.

After a very productive meeting, and a tour of both plants, SIEG treated us to a very nice dinner and delivered us to our hotel.

The hotel is one block from Nanjing Road, two blocks from Peoples Square, and about a 10 minute walk from the Bund on the Haungpu River. This is where you want to be in Shanghai.

Our first evening there,we walked Nanjing Road to the river. For most of the way, Nanjing Road is a walking street with no cars. This is high-priced shopping with all the worlds luxury brands represented. Neon signs and big-screen billboards reach 5 or 6 stories into the sky.

And of course, besides the real branded items, there are plenty of fake Rolex watches and such available. You are sure to be accosted at least every 50 yards if you are over six feet tall and have round eyes.

I did take advantage of the situation to purchase a Prada bag for about $15.00. I'm pretty sure it is real. I'm getting a collection of small suitcases from Shanghai because for some reason I can't fit all my stuff into the suitcase I arrived with when I leave Shanghai. (In this case, however, it is because of the two big binders I got from SIEG. Not gifts for the kids. (Sorry girls.)

The Bund is a collection of European-style buildings along the Haungpu River. These buildings were build built by the English, French, and Germans about a hundred years ago. They are lit up at night and make an interesting sight. There are about 5 or 6 blocks of these buildings.

Across the river is Pudong. Fifteen years ago this was farmland. Now skyscrapers.

The Chinese have taken advertising to new levels. Many elevators have a flat-screen showing nonstop ads. And why waste a perfectly good river. This is a boat that's only job is to carry a floating advertisement up and down the river.

Not all of Shanghai is glamorous. This is the kind of street that we find interesting. This street has shops on the ground floor and housing above, which is the norm in Shanghai.

Qingdao, Tsingtao

Both words are pronounced the same; "Chingdow". One is a city--Qingdao, and one is a beer Tsingtao. They are pretty much inseparable. Tsingtao is made in Qingdao. And much Tsingtao is drunk in Qingdao.

We arrived on the new "bullet train". The maximum speed I saw was 244 km/hr. That's just over 150 MPH. Faster than any train in the US, but not too fast compared to other high speed trains. But the trip took 6 hours instead of 13 hours on the train I took four years ago.

We are here to visit trading companies that gather tools from the many manufacturers in China and ship them to the United State. While their catalogs are surprisingly similar, they all have strengths in different areas. One trading company has the best selection and prices on machine accessories, another specializes in measuring tools. We have visited five companies so far.

At one stop we visited a new warehouse under construction. It's going to be a very nice facility.

To save on water fees, they are drilling their own well. The well drilling crew simply moves on site for the duration of the project.

That new warehouse is a mile down a small country road. This is typical of what one sees on that type of road.

Last night we had dinner at the Tsingtao brewery. Well, the original Tsingtao brewery. There are 4 or 5 around town. Plus a beer theme park. And yes, they serve food as well as beer.

The street the brewery is on is Deng Shou Road, but it is generally known as "beer street". The brewery is on one side, the other side is lined with restaurants with sidewalk dining.
The beer truck comes by a couple times a night to restock the restaurants. Look closely. It is a flatbed truck with kegs of beer on the back.

Beijing Duck

Beijing Duck (known as Peking Duck to many of you) is one of the best dishes I have eaten. Don't visit Beijing without trying it. We had lunch at Quanjude, the oldest Beijing Duck restaurants. They give you a card with the serial number of your duck. Ours was 399,565. And I didn't even know that ducks had serial numbers. OK, so it is the number of ducks that the restaurant has served since 1864.


Lots of food in China is cheap. Beijing Duck, at one of these well-known restaurants is not. Lunch for three was 795 yuan (about $116). Like any city in the world, if you go to the famous restaurant in the middle of the five-star hotels you will pay New York prices. A couple blocks away we could have a good lunch for $1.50 each.

The restaurant is located on one of the major international shopping streets in Beijing--Wangfujing. All the internationa brands have shops here, and the prices are about 20% higher than in the US.

People

On Sunday, we walked through Tian'anmen Square. Part of the 4 hours total we got to sightsee in Beijing.

Tian'anmen Square is the largest open urban square in the world. And on Sundays there are quite a few people there. Like maybe 100,000 or more. It's not easy estimating crowd sizes (ask the Pasadena police), but I was judging by the crowds we see at a full Rose Bowl game.


One of the draws in Tian'anmen Square is the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong. Apparently you can view the body. If you are willing to stand in line a while. I'm guessing the line was over half a mile long. It wrapped entirely around the building and snaked back and forth a couple times.


Henry says that travel to Beijing was restricted before and during the Olympics so there is a surge of tourists now.



There are a lot of things left over from the Olympics all over Beijing. In Tian'anmen Square there are some huge floral exhibits that look sort of like football field sized Rose Parade floats.

And of course, Tian'anmen Square is the gateway to the Forbidden City. Lots of people were headed that way too.