October 4 – October 10, 2007: Hong Kong, Guangzhou, and Zhaoqing

I visited three cities in southern China on this trip, going to each to see friends who were living there

In Gaungzhou I met with Ivy Chen. She was in the same Finding Your Voice class as I was last spring in the UW MBA program. She came to Seattle from mainland China where she now lives again (working for Colgate). This was the first stop on my trip to southern China, and Ivy and her husband were excellent hosts. Here are a few of the trip highlights:

• The food: double skin milk (yes, skin), pigeon, chicken feet, oysters, and sweet sesame dumplings, to name a few.
• Cruise on the Pearl River at night: On a large dinner boat, with lots of young people. The weather was hot, and so was the tea. I was still sweating at 10:00pm
  Historical sights: The Chen Clan Academy (set up by the Chen family, of which Ivy and her husband both belong, to educate its members), Tomb of the Nan Yue King (an archaelogical site, complete with the remains of the ancient leader and his royal staff), Orchid Garden
• Home Inn hotel. The Southwest Airlines of the hotel industry. Really incredible how they do it- less than $25 a night, with the looks of a typical hotel chain in America. Started by the founder of c-trip (a really successful online travel booking website in southeast Asia

Hong Kong essentially felt like a weekend-trip to America. It is nothing like China. High prices, English speakers everywhere, and a more civilized society.

• Old East meets New West. A very interesting contrast between what seems like an older Chinese culture (that is, not affected by the Mao-era reforms that the mainland went through), and western-wealth and status symbols. The super-high class lifestyles can of blindsided me; famous brands were everywhere, as were nice cars and lots of lights.
• Paul, Annie, Heidi, their classmate Rachel from UC Davis, and I met in Soho on Hong Kong Island for dinner at a Cuban restaurant. It was a really great break, as I had been craving meat and cheese for some time. It had both! The streets in this area were very unique, filled with international cuisine. Shanghai also has this, but the key difference is that in Shanghai these restaurants aren’t centralized, and the staff is usually 100% Chinese. This is a key difference, and the food seemed very authentic. The prices were ‘real’ too!
• Civilization. Hong Kong citizens are much different than mainland Chinese. Even though there are still many people in the city, it seems more personal, and people seem to acknowledge each other. Also, there is far less smoking and no spitting on the streets. Paul said this is because there are rules for all of this (illegal to throw cigarette butts on the ground, and illegal to spit). Maybe there are too many rules, but I definitely like these two.

My last stop was Zhaoqing, to visit a friend I met this summer through Andrew VanSchoiack. Pat is working at a clothing manufacturer in this manufacturing town, and living on site as well. From my two days there, I was a bit jealous of his opportunity to see so much about doing business in China and (being the only English speak at a facility of about 1,500) learn about the culture and language so quickly.

• Being here gave me flashbacks to the movie that Heidi Blair organized last winter, China Blue. It was about the terrible environments that exist at many clothing manufacturers in China. I was really pleasantly surprised to find this company was totally different. The owners were Hong Kongnese, and treated the employees really great. Pat gave me a tour of the factory, from rolled fabric to finished product. Lots of being stared at, also.
• This was a great opportunity to practice my mandarin also; we spent most of our time hanging out with a few of his coworkers, and a group of security guards. For some reason, everyone gets a kick out of foreigners.