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.)