Our China Trip... August 08, 2007

Well, we're recovered from our jet lag and figured we should post about our trip to China.  It was a tiring trip but was fascinating.  We went for my work (we paid for Laura's expenses ourselves) so it was filled with work, but had some fun too.  Although we had a great time, we want to go back as tourists so that we can see more tourist sites and avoid eating the webbing from duck's feet.

Yep, you read that right, we were served the webbing from duck's feet.  We didn't eat it but some in our group did.  Apparently it tastes a bit like chicken skin but is tougher.  We took their word for it.  That was one of many unique experiences on our trip.

It started with a 29 hour trip because of weather delays.  We got stuck at the Beijing airport for a bit waiting to make our connecting flight to Shenyang, the capital city of the Liaoning province, which borders North Korea.  We left our home at 8:00 am on Saturday the 7th of July and got to bed in Shenyang at about 4:00 am on Monday the 9th.  We got three hours of sleep and I went to work and Laura visited an orphanage.

Our meetings were interesting, with the provincial officials outlining things that we could export to them.  I started learning Mandarin before the trip, so I listened hard, but mostly just waited for the interpreters.  The Chinese system of government is intriguing.  Separation of powers probably doesn't have an equivalent Chinese phrase.

Laura's visit to the orphanage was fun and she said it was much nicer than she expected.  We hope to adopt a child from China someday so it was a unique experience for her.

We met up again at lunch and spent the afternoon touring a BMW factory and a university.  It was hot and humid and people were tired, so people started getting sick.  Laura was one of those.  She went back to the hotel and we finished up the evening with a formal meeting and a formal dinner.  For the most part, that's how our days went; formal meetings, formal lunches, formal dinners, and Laura and the other wives getting an occasional side trip while we had another formal meeting.

We can't complain, we had a motorcade with a police escort and we were well-cared for.  Laura and I wished for a little more autonomy and ventured out on our own for 20 minutes here and there.  Not enough, but it was fun.

We visited the cities of Shenyang, Anshan, and Dalian before going to Beijing.  Anshan was the smallest of the cities, with a population of about 4 million people.  Shenyang and Dalian both have between 6 and 7 million people.  Beijing is close to 17 million people.  You hear a lot about pollution in China and it's definitely there.  It wasn't as bad as I expected, but blue sky was rarely on the menu except in Dalian, which is on the coast.

Dalian is a beautiful, clean city on the peninsula separating Bohai Bay and the Korean Sea.  It has strong Russian influences because of the Soviets' long occupation of this area of China. The city is also home to many western companies, particularly high-tech ones.  I could live there.  Everywhere you turn, you see nice, new buildings.  They're building so much in China.  I had heard about how much building is going on, but I was still startled by the number of cranes and construction areas I saw in every city we visited.  I didn't count, but I wouldn't be exaggerting if I estimated that we could see between 50 and 100 high-rise cranes from our hotel window in Shenyang.

China is in the middle of some of the most impressive economic growth in history.  It's amazing to see how modern it is.  Most of the young women you see on the street could easily fit in here.  (And yes, you do see girls here.  Although demographically there is a surplus of males in China, it's not really noticeable as you look around.)  The improvements over China's poverty in the middle of the 20th century are huge and real.  This is not to say that China is not without its problems.  Income gaps between city-dwellers and rural folks are growing.  The environment is not well-cared for and personal liberties are lacking.  Still, the economic growth is clearly making a difference in China and the people seem occupied with excellence, which we could learn from.

One of the coolest moments not just of the trip but of my life was a visit to a middle school in Dalian.  When we pulled up, hundreds of kids were lined up in the courtyard and traditional music began to play.  The kids had a dance number they did for us before we continued on our visit.  It was really cool.

Our next stop at the school was the orchestra room.  These kids--between 8 and 12 years old--played incredibly.  And incredibly, they played John Philip Sousa's "Stars and Stripes Forever."  It was really moving to hear these beautiful Chinese children playing one of our patriotic songs so well and with so much fervor.  I'm a crybaby, so I cried.

Our visit in the province was filled with a lot of work, but it was fascinating work and we got some really great experiences that you wouldn't get as a tourist.  Although we had a couple formal events during our day-and-a-half in Beijing, we had more free time, which was nice.

We were able to visit the Great Wall and the Forbidden City--briefly.  You can see those pictures in another section of our website.  We also got to have dinner in the Great Hall of the People, which is like China's capitol building.  It was very formal and very impressive.  The building is enormous and beautiful.

After that, we wandered around Tiananmen Square for bit.  The square is also huge and is filled with people, including people illegally selling "Rolexes" and other stuff.  In fact, the next day we went back for a bit and saw a guy get arrested for selling the stuff.

The next morning was Sunday and we didn't want to go shopping with our group, so we visited a park near the Forbidden City that was filled with Chinese people out enjoying their morning.  There were hardly any westerners there and we got plenty of stares.  In fact, that was one of the fun things throughout our trip; the people were interested in who we were and many wanted to practice their English.

The park was gorgeous and we've posted some pictures of it in that part of this site.  There were so many beautiful little buildings and it was fun to explore them.  People in China have different diversions than we do (although they have some of the same too.)  We watched old ladies dancing, people practicing with swords, and older folks using calligraphy brushes dipped in water to write (draw?) Chinese characters on the ground.  I guess if you live in a big city, you yearn to get out and it doesn't matter too much what you do.  We asked a few of our hosts what they do and the most common answers were ping-pong, karaoke, and watching Desperate Housewives and Prison Break.  No wonder the world wonders about us, they watch our television shows.  Seriously, it took some hard work to convince them that our lives were not like those on Desperate Housewives.  Scary, huh?

One of those hosts is a young guy, named Steve.  He's recently married and his wife is pregnant.  He's a super nice guy and we enjoyed our time with him.  One thing he shared with us that we didn't know was that most doctors in China, even though they perform an ultrasound on pregnant women, won't tell the parents what gender the baby is.  Although the preference for male offspring is still there, it is dying and fewer and fewer people are aborting little girls.  However, there remains enough fear that they want to avoid any problems.  We were actually a bit surprised by that.  Probably because we just hadn't thought about it.

Chinglish is another of my favorite things about the Chinese.  You've all seen the bad translations before.  Here's one for you.

 I have absolutely no idea what they're trying to say here.  Another I saw said "those with bibulosity should not swim."  Funny.

Anyway, we had a great time on our trip and there are a million little things I can't write here.  It was such an insightful experience for us and we look forward to going back as tourists and as parents to a little Chinese girl.  For now, though, we'll just avoid eating duck and be homebodies.