Blog of Rexus

The golden arches is just down stairs and cheap, great place for breakfast. There’s also a Starbucks next door, but turn out to be terrible. Sticking with the McD cheap coffee.

The weather was pretty good, I decided to walk to Tian’anmen Square. I knew we were walking in the right direction, there was increasing number of fancy sounding government agency buildings and increasing number of security.

The entrance tunnels to the square is like airport security, with x-ray machines and metal detectors.

Judging from the accents, the square is full of tourist from around the country. Many stood inline to visit Mao memorial hall. I wasn’t patient enough to sit through some propeganda. So it’s time to cross the road to the Forbidden City.

Forbidden City is not as grand as I had imagined. Maybe it the dozen of “tour guides” following you around ruining the mood, or perhaps it the cheesy gift shop peppered throughout the city, the whole thing just felt like a cheap tourist trap.

Yonghegong Lama Temple: old Lama temple that some how survive the cultural revelution. The temple was much more enjoyable then the Forbidden City.

BeiHai Park: back of the Forbidden City, also have lama temples. Cost ticket to get into the park, and more tickets to visit the temples. The park i s pretty with many trails.

Tiantan/Sky temple: One of the icons of Beijing, the park is huge. It’s like the Central Park of Beijing. It’s full of people playing Chinese hacky sacks, cards, and singing.

Overall impression of Beijing: avoid it if you could. It’s most a big tourist trap. The food is terrible, the people are rude, and the air is dirty.

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Beijing, Day One

December 2nd, 2009

Arrived in Beijing in the morning (Dec. 1st) from Guangzhou via China Southern 8 AM flight. The plane was only 2/3 full. I guess its not peak tourist season. The reason became more apparent when we left the terminal.

In this part of China, there’s real winter. According to the locals, it’s a warm week here. It’s about 7 C (45 F) during midday. The temp drops to freezing at night. There is still some snow on the ground from recent weeks. Winter also means bad air quality due to the increased use of coal for heating. It’s technically mostly sunny (which doesn’t help with pollution). Everything is in a pale yellow haze, one could barely read building signs a block away. It’s felt worse than the worst day I could remember in Taipei 25 years ago. I wander how many people have respiratory problems here compare to Liping. I think the Birds Nest will look like it’s been deep fried in a few years.

We had a meeting with an old friend at his office located in the industrial park in the south west region of Beijing. It’s was a brain storming meeting. Everyone freely exchanged experiences and ideas. There were about equal number of pure engineers vs tech savvy business people. This means there was an equal amount of technobabble and biz buzzwords flying at each other. At times it was hard to figure out who was more full of it. I actually enjoyed that meeting, I even piled on my fair share load of bull.

Due to slow connection I will put up pictures later. Tomorrow, back to be a tourist.

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Liping, Guizhou

November 30th, 2009

China is not the homogenized place most westerner media portrays. Just like California is not the same as Arkansas, Liping is not Guangzhou or Shanghai. In this vast country, one doesn’t have to travel very far to see it’s diversity. This diversity isn’t just in language and diets, but also in the levels of economic and infrastructural development. In my recent trip to Liping, Guizhou, I saw some of these difference first hand.

Last week I decided to pay Phil a visit in Liping, Guizhou. Liping is in the southern part of China that few outside of the province have even heard of. When I checked in for my flight at the Guangzhou airport, the lady behind the counter asked her co-worker, “Where is Liping? We fly there?”

Before the opening of the airport in late 2005, travelers to Liping had to take a bus from Guiyan that can last 12 hours on a mountainous bumpy road. Lucky for me, my uneventful flight from Guangzhou to Liping took about 75 minutes on the ERJ 145 jet.

Large parts of the province of Guizhou is designated as autonomous regions for the many minority groups. Liping is mostly populated by the southern Dong people. The Dong is perhaps best known for its carpentry skills and its singing. Traditional building such as the drum towers and covered bridges were built without nails.

Phil and Jack met me at the airport which is about a 20-minute taxi ride from the airport to the center of town. The taxi ride reminded me of taxi rides in Taiwan 25 years ago: passing and speeding around blind corner and the constant use of the horn. These taxi drivers would make pretty good rally racers. Many things in Liping reminded me of Taiwan of yesteryears: street foods, open air markets, dusty/muddy/tight streets, and even the people. It’s not hard to see why Taiwanese businesses have done well in China.

Coming from Hong Kong/Guangzhou, Liping was a lot colder. At night, it’s close to freezing. But when sky clears and the sun warms the valley, the temperature can warm up by 30 F. This means therms undies when you leave the house, t-shirt by lunch, and putting the layers back on for dinner.

The numbers of white foreigner in Liping can be counted with one hand. Phil stands out here and it felt like everyone knows him. I was astonished by the number of people that speak English in this neck of the woods. Phil and Joanna must have done a really good job. I think I met more good English speakers here then in Guangzhou.

The foods here tends to be simple and on the spicy side. The table condiments usually includes a couple of different kinds of hot sauce and a bowl of crushed chili peppers. Hot pots are common when it gets cold. The cost of eating out is about half the cost of Guangzhou, which is half of Hong Kong. A bowl of noodles with pork and eggs will cost about 10-15 YMB. I picked up 500g of freshly roasted chestnut for 8 YMB, the same bag would cost 25 in Hong Kong.

Liping is more then tripled in size in the last few years. Since Phil and Joanna first moved here 5 years ago, many terrace farms near the city have been converted to tall buildings. Old single story wooden houses were demolished to make way for the new multi-lane roads.

I had the honor of participating in a couple of Phil’s English classes. The students are English teachers from the surrounding areas. They are here to learn not just the language but also some of its culture. This make Phil the perfect instructor. Phil’s very good at relating to them and showing them the differences in the cultures. And I am glad to be part of it. The students were very curious in my background of being an ABC and lived in Taiwan. They were surprised that how much Liping reminded me of Taiwan.

My time in Liping was limited and the weather wasn’t the best. I will have to come back soon to learn more about it.

Up next: It’s time to go to see the completely different part of China: Beijing.

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Roast Duck and Live Fish…at Sam’s Club

November 18th, 2009

This post is going cover just about every category.

One the way back from dim sum (see older post), I noticed Sam’s Club. There was a line cars waiting to get into the parking lot. Dickson’s mom said that she and her friend had just got a friend/family membership together. Since we didn’t have anything else to do, we decide to give it a try.

Walmart is not new to China, it’s been hear for over a decade. This latest addition of the Walmart China invasion was opened in late October. It is the first Walmart in Guangzhou. Walmart now has 163rd in China, about double in the number of the stores from a couple of year ago. Much of the rapid expansion was achieve through the acquisition of Trust-Mart for $1 Billion in 2006.

The roof is for additional parking. The warehouse is split into TWO floors, kind of like a typical IKEA. The first floor is mostly electronics, e.g. TVs, computers, blenders, hot pots, and wash machines. At first glance its not very different from any Sam’s Club in the States. Then you notice the giant Panasonic Plasma TV for sale, the Bose store, and a long row of laptop computers. A long angled moving side walk takes the shoppers and their carts up to the second floor. The second floor is where you really know you are not in Arkansas anymore.

Gone are the giant frozen food section. The freezers are still there, but much reduced. In their place is giant fish tanks of live sea food, where shoppers can net their own fish from the tanks. When Walmart first opened in China, it managed to offend the shopper by offering dead fish packed in Styrofoam and cellophane.

In is also racks of roast ducks and bbq pork, cut to order. In addition to pizza by the slice is braised beef tendons with rice and vegetables. The free samples are still there: tea, quick prep curry with rice, duck gizzards, Chinese pickle vegetables, and instant noodles. Pork out numbered beef. There’s more choices of pork than I knew what to do! There’s organic, free range, different local breed of different colors.

In the past Walmart had lost hundred of millions of dollar in its international operations, however it appears that the lessons have been learned.