Chinese Travels 2005
Here's another adventure I thought you might be interested in hearing about. The Canadian Government's NRC (National Research Council) invited me to go to China, for 8 days of Research into the Multi-Media and Games Industry in China.
China was pretty amazing... once we got there.
Friday the 24th we leave Vancouver with Air Canada at 12:30 in the afternoon,
4 hours later, after flying over Alaska, we are told that we are going back to Vancouver,
because two of the toilets aren't working. So 8 hours of flying, and we are right back in Vancouver.
They are going to fix the problems and then the flight will leave at 9:30pm.
Everyone gets back on board, we roll out to the runway, and they can't start engine #2
so it's back to the terminal, to wait for a part (fuel valve), at 11:00 we are told it's ready to go,
but if you don't want to fly you can get off... half the plane did,
apparently two failures of an aircraft can make some people a little nervous.
After the Captain gave a little pep-talk to the remaining passengers
"I'm going to China , if you want to go, put on your seatbelt, if you don't get off the plane",
there was about 20 minutes of seat positioning, and at 11:30 we start our 11 hour flight to Beijing.
We lost a half day of playing tourist, and we got an apology letter and a $100 voucher,
somehow doesn't seem worth it, they'll get another letter from me.
Beijing, China
After a gruelling and doze filled flight, we arrived at 2:30am Chinese time on Sunday, we (me and a co-worker Jason) got up and played tourists, for the one full day we had.
Wandered the streets of Beijing a bit, went to Tiananmen Square, it's absolutely huge, I didn't have the nerve to take pictures of the large groups of marching soldiers. Yet I did have a number of Chinese girls wanting their picture taken, with the only white person they have probably ever seen in their lives. Apparently tourism from around China is popular, and us westerners don't get to their towns very often.
We spent a good chunk of time wandering around the Forbidden City , a massive walled complex where the emperors of the 12-14 th century lived with all their concubines. We had Instant Noodles in the emperor's garden and exited the Forbidden City, smack dab into a couple of impressive Gardens, Beihai Park and Jingshan park.
We finally ended up in a unique bar area on a lake, with a cold beer to cool us down. The temperature in China was between 35-40 degrees with 98% humidity... good thing the smog blocked most of the sun or we would have really burned.
The next couple of days were a combination of presentations and meetings with Chinese companies and schools/Universities, followed by some amazing dinners, the food there was Sooooo Gooodd! I was concerned about that, (woof/meow) but it really was quite amazing, the worst meal we had was still quite good. Good thing my chopstick skills are pretty good. A local from Beijing even commented that I was very comfortable with my chopsticks, right before I dropped a noodle into my drink. 8-) You know your food is fresh when they bring the live fish or prawns to your table first to show you what they are about to cook.
On Wednesday we had a meeting with a software company called Xing Xing in the morning, and the president arranged a taxi for us (cost 600¥, about $100) to take us touring for the afternoon before dropping us at the airport for our flight to Shanghai. We spoke no Chinese, he spoke no English. He took us to the Summer Palace , a unique combination of palaces on a beautiful lake.
Following that we drove for an hour out of the City to The Great Wall, incredible!!! And the stories about it being the only manmade object visible from Space... Urban myth, but still cool. Hard to believe I was actually there, it just seems to go on forever. Once you get away from the city, you can actually see the sky and the sun.
From there we flew to Shanghai...
Shanghai, China
we laughed our asses off at the entertainment show with English subtitles, Lost in Translation has nothing on China . A shot of a singers chain running from his wallet to his pocket... "Is that Justin Timberlakes trouser snake? No it's Daniel..." Still brings tears to my eyes.
Bad translation signs are all over... some are symbols, some are words... "Don't Fall Down", or this one, which is supposed to tell you not to light matches.
After our adventures in Beijing, we didn't get to Shanghai in time to do much that night, but the next day we snuck out of some of our "boring" meetings early, and headed for the downtown. The Bund and the Oriental Pearl Radio tower, and a very interesting wander down East Nanjing Road, East Nanjing Road is called the Golden Mile because of all the neon signs.
At first you think the locals are just friendly, or the girls are interested to see westerners, you quickly realize these cute young girls that look like locals wandering the mall area are actually Pro's "Want to be my special friend?", "Would you like a special massage?" "Lady Spot, Make a Love Love", I was waiting for the classic "Love you long time" but it didn't happen. Apparently it's very common for westerners to be targeted to get girls back to Canada or the US. After turning down the girls and not buying the "Rolex" watches that were for sale everywhere we ended up sitting in a bar watching the buildings with huge video screens and neon, when at 11:00pm all the lights go out. I guess that means it's time to go home.
Some more very interesting meetings on Friday, I actually did learn a lot about the Chinese industry... they say 90% of games and DVD's are pirated, actually it's more like 99%. I tried to find some real DVD's and couldn't... but if I wanted "currently in Theater" movies, no problem, trouble is you can hear people in the audience talking, and see people's heads when they go to the can. Most of the games in China are online, because it's the only way they can make any money... 35¥ per month (6$ Cdn), but with 16 Million active users, they still do alright.
Friday night we ended up in an area called Xian tin di... Jackie Chan Street, basically a street mall of shops and restaurants and bars. We had a very good dinner (they don't call it Chinese food in China), and we ended up in a unique bar called East Star, where a mix of bands and artists from China played western music, Boney M, Abba, Journey, From Full on bands to a Rock out Violinist, and finally a Chinese girl band (Destiny's Child style),it was an interesting way to end the trip.
The bands kept getting better as the night went on, or at least it seemed like it 8-)
Saturday we slept in, and very quietly did some last minute shopping, then we jumped the MagLev train to the airport... this thing is fast... over 400 kilometers per hour what took an hour by Cab, took 8 minutes by train.
The most photographed speedometer in the world. yes that is KM/H
I'll leave you with one last pic before I fall asleep on my keyboard... a little demonstration of just how bad the smog is in China . We never did see the sun. Here is a shot of Shanghai from up in the tower, Shanghai is a city that has a larger population than all of Canada , about 40 million people.
This short trip shattered a lot of opinions I had about China ... The food was amazing, the history was amazingly rich, the cities ultra modern, the people were so friendly, even when we could only communicate with pictures or hand signals, some of the people were maybe a little too friendly 8-), and I have a much better understanding of why the traffic in Richmond is the way it is. Never rent a car in China , it's just better if you close your eyes until the taxi drops you off. If you have an opportunity to go... maybe you should take it... but more than 8 days would be better.