Quick trip to Hong Kong & China

On Friday I went to China and finally saw some familiar faces from Mitsui and Transfreight. We had a full day of visiting our sister company, Transfreight China, and a plant tour of their customer, Toyota China. Both facilities are in Guangzhou, but there were no flights into Guangzhou, so that's why I had to fly into Hong Kong and then take a 2-hour car ride.

You may recall in a earlier blog that I said Hong Kong is part of China, but not really. I don't have much to say about Hong Kong since I was there for a whole 6 hours. It was dark when I arrived and still dark when I left, but in Hong Kong they drive on the left side of the road. So when we went through the border of China, then the road switched to driving on the right side!! Every time we came to a toll booth, the driver had to put the vehicle in park, get out, walk around the car, and swipe his card! The whole thing was so silly!!

After a hard day's work, we went out for a traditional Chinese dinner where 12 people sat at a round table and shared food from the center. It reminded me of Japan because the dishes never seemed to stop coming. There were so many options, and you could just grab whatever you wanted with your chopsticks! I tried pretty much everything except this fish head below. They really wanted me to dig out and eat the cheek meat, but I declined. The theme the entire night was "This dish is really good for you." Uh, well, I didn't see anyone else scrambling for this cheek meat after I declined it! I think they just mess with me some times to see much how I will believe!

Oh yeah, one plate of chicken came with even the head on it!!

After dinner we walked around the streets of Guangzhou, checking out the sights and window shopping. The Chinese are preparing for the New Year on February 14th, and they often celebrate this holiday for a whole week! Everyone loves the Year of the Tiger!!

Me and my trainer, Kawakami. I thought it was so funny to see Pizza Hut in Chinese characters!!

In one area there was a row of glass boxes and you could see a street below. This is the original street from the "Song Dynasty" from the years 960-1279 A.D.!! It's crazy to imagine the depth of the history in China and that so much of it still remains!

Trees decorated with lights and red lanterns for the Chinese New Year.

The company "361 Degrees" is a big sponsor of the Asian Olympic games, which will take place in Guangzhou in late 2010.

I love these cute cartoon characters supporting the 2010 Asian Olympic games, too!!

China was very interesting, but the air quality in Guangzhou is terrible. Visibility is poor due to smog and haze, so much you often can't see the top of skyscrapers and towers. I heard that one Mitsui guy from Japan lived there for 7 years, and when he came back his doctor told him he needed to stop smoking. But this guy wasn't a smoker!! His lungs were damaged from sucking in all of the secondhand smoke and dirty air!

You had to insert your room key in the hotel elevator and then select the floor you wanted to go to. My companions are convinced it's because the Chinese government is tracking everyone and wants to know when you are in your room or not!! It is a little sketchy... when I tried to used the internet, many sites were completely inaccessible, such as facebook, youtube, blogspot, and others!

Finally, I wasn't sure they were going to let me leave China. The Immigrations officer was really studying my passport and then me, and then back and forth again. Finally she asked "Is this really you?" I said yes. And she responded by saying the photo didn't look like me and that person was fat!! My travel buddies thought this was hysterical! I was kind of offended, but then it's better to hear that I look fat in an old photo rather than hearing that I look fat in person, I guess! I pulled my hair back, tried to form a double chin, and finally they let me get on the plane!!