Friday, April 13, 2012

Business trip to Dalian


Part I Old impression

My last trip to Dalian was in the late 90s. I travelled by ship with my family. For a small town girl, Dalian was a large city with wide streets and blue skies.

Almost 15 years later, I found Dalian no different from other Chinese cities. The sky became smoggy. LV and Cartier opened their stores on Renmin road. The streets seemed narrower. Nay, the city did not shrink, but my horizon expanded. Nevertheless, I still felt comfortable in Dalian as its climate, dialect and cuisine were so similar to those of my hometown’s.

Part II Last minute task

The plane landed in Dalian at 11:20am. I turned on my mobile phone and saw a text message from my colleague telling me I needed to do product training for our cable operator at 1pm. She wasn’t kidding me! A training session wasn’t on the plan at all. I was caught unprepared. Fortunately my audience was busy preparing for a meeting in the afternoon and the training was postponed to the next morning, giving me some time to update the ppt.

Part III Drink and get drunk

Drinking is an indispensable part of doing business in China. The more you drink, the more impressed your clients will be. How I hate to see people getting drunk and losing control of themselves at the dinner table! (We were doing fine this time in Dalian. I was worried about our next trip to Suzhou. Every time I think about last year’s dinner with them, I wanna quit, no, retire.) 

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

One man’s meat is another man’s poison


Over the past few months my colleagues must have asked me more than 5 times why I don’t use weibo (a Chinese version of twitter). Well, I’m not interested. As the says goes, one man’s meat is another man’s poison.

I don’t care who eat what in which restaurant. I don’t care who travelled where with whom. I don’t care whose dog is sick. I don’t care whose flight is delayed. And I don’t see any necessity for everyone to know my whereabouts. Living in an era of information explosion, we are being bombarded by all kinds of news and ads everyday. I’m eliminating the trifles and giving myself a little break. 

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Last minute trip to Shanxi

2012 is my 12th year in Beijing. It is the last city I wanna stay in for a 5-day Ching Ming holiday. On a lazy Wednesday afternoon, I stared at the map of China on a website, trying to find a destination for a spring fling – somewhere not too faraway as air ticket prices already went up at the last minute; somewhere not too close to bore me. On a whim, I decided to go to Shanxi.

I arrived in Datong in the morning on Saturday and met 3 girls at the airport. As we were going to the same places, I decided to join them so we could share a car. Later we found out that we were alumni! What are the odds! Knowing them was an amazing part of the journey. 

So, be spontaneous. Follow your hunches. Embrace the unexpected. 
Xuankong temple
Pingyao you won't see from travel guides

Next to a local Catholic church