Go wit da flow

Today I was supposed to go and train on the new control system on our signs. Both my contacts showed up on time at the hotel only to tell me that the signs weren't ready so there was no way to train. Dave B had already headed out to see another supplier so I was kind of stuck. I tried to get in touch with Dave but that kind of fell through. I was starting to feel like a caged bear and was pretty unhappy about the cancellation, so I changed into a tshirt and headed out to walk the streets around our hotel and see if I could find something on which to spend my cashy money. Now, I may have alluded to the fact that I stand out a little over here. There are taller people here, but average seems to be about 5'6" or so. I'm a little taller. What few taller people are around are thin like a bamboo stick. I am not. And I have yet to meet a Chinese citizen with a goatee. The usual reaction in a crowd so far is staring and a little blank surprise, or a chorus of "hallo" from a couple people. They're not really trying to be friendly and say hi. Believe me.

So off I go and circle a couple blocks in kind of a figure 8 around the hotel, walking maybe a mile or so. I stopped and looked at some stuff but didn't find anything worth buying. I attracted a fair amount of attention, but no aggression or ill comments. It was a little nervy at first but got easier. Striking off into the streets when you know exactly 2 words of the language (Hello and thank you) by yourself is not exactly a guaranteed win. After a couple of blocks I kind of settled in to it and could relax a little. It was pretty cool although I did draw stares. No surprise there.

After walking around I visited the hotel garden and hung out for a while enjoying the stiff breeze and nice weather that you apparently only get when there's a SuperTyphoon just off shore. I almost even saw a little patch of sky that kind of looked like it once thought about being blue in a forgotten dream. Just for Mom and cathy, here are some videos of the garden:

Why yes, Virginia, there ARE Chinese fringe plants in China but they cut them in funny shapes

The main garden

just for Cathy:

I sat in the garden until I got hungry and hit the Hotel bar for a cold Tsingtao, some spring rolls and dumplings. I was sipping my beer and waiting on my snax when this great big pot-bellied American wobbles back into the bar to retrieve the last half of his white wine bottle just as the waitress is picking it from the table. From his accent he's a yankee, but he is discussing taking the wine with him, half in English and half in Mandarin, and generally having a good time. I watched with a smile and chuckled to myself. The guy heard me and said hello. We started talking, as usual the first topic was why we were in China. The guy (Mike) oversees purchasing from several factories around SE Asia and runs some production where hi lives in taiwan, a 3 year transplanted Wisconsonite. After hearing it was my first time, he says "Hey, I was just headed down to Shenzen City to do some shopping. I've got a driver from the hotel and a translator. You wanna go?"

So here I am looking at a 6'8", half lit American expat I just met who is suggesting I hop in a car and drive 45 minutes into a strange city where I don't speak the language to go to "the WalMart of knock-off goods." And he's planning on taking the wine because there are no open container laws here. And Dave is off to who knows where with no way for me to get in touch.

Ummmm.....yeah. What would you do?

So of course I have them wrap the snax and beer to go and hop in the car. I know, not the brightest thing, but you gotta trust your gut, and good adventures don't happen without a little risk, right? Tally ho!

It was quite the adventure, and I'm still worn out. I survived easily, had a good time, and got back to the hotel safely before 6:00 pm. I will give you the full run down in a separate post. I'm too tired to get everything in the way it should be.

When I got back we ran into dave B in the hotel bar, so we all sat down and had a few drinks and discussed trading and working around the South China Sea. Now I have at least one contact in the area, sort of. Taiwan, anyway.

Dave discovered a local street vendor food court last night, so off we went into the night in search of pan fried noodles while Big Mike headed upstairs for a nap.

We found the same vendor and pointed to a bunch of stuff that he threw in a hot wok while we sat in the folding tables and plastic chair area around all the carts. In the back of the square, a DJ was playing music and a bunch of people were line dancing. Really. It was fantastic, maybe the best food I've had yet. Dave at 3 plates of noodlea and I ate 2, and we each had a big tsingtao beer, and it all came to $30RMB or less than $5. Excellent.

Dave and I were able to blend in a little since we were sitting down and it was dark, but every time some walked up to one of the tables near us, there'd be a pause in the conversation as they saw us. Pretty funny.