the Exquisite Machinery of Life

Here is the long-awaited sequel to my previous post of my doings in China.

On tuesday, I met with a colleague and we set up the video equipment and taped the opening dinner. The CEO of our company arrived in a suit while wearing a green T shirt underneath. His luggage was lost at the airport and I had brought the suit in my luggage. The dinner was great, but i felt tired and sick afterwards.

On wednesday, I woke up and found my colleague having some serious back problems, so i had to take over taping the convention using the handheld camera. Now I dont know if any of you have used these before, but they are absolutely awesome. I was using a Canon XL2, and the form factor is perfect for shouldering the camera. I taped a very large meeting with about 200 Chinese executives and government officials. It was interesting when my boss was speaking and he brought up an example using the word “communism.” The translator (who was the best translator in the city) stuttered for about 2 minutes, and then said something to the audience which probably did not equate to anything close to what he said. I guess people there are sensitive to that topic still. I taped 2 more meetings, the bulk of which were just internal company meetings and then decided to go across the street to the hotel “club” and got a foot massage. It was interesting to see that the chinese have made it into such a luxury item. They place you in this large hotel-like room with one chair/bed, TV and some water and tea. They make you take off your shoes and relax on the bed for about 20 minutes. Then someone comes in and massages your feet for about 30 minutes using this weird mixture of soap, sand and some other type of crystal-like substance in almost scalding hot water. It was pretty relaxing and i definitely felt better walking around afterwards. In the evening, we went to a downtown restaurant, and the waiters actually built a pyramid out of champagne glasses and filled them by pouring into the top glass and letting it overflow to the glasses below it. This is where I saw the ONLY bottle of soy sauce in china. This had to be REQUESTED by my colleague who was of american descent. We went shopping in this large mall afterwards, and I bought a few gifts for a few friends there.

Thursday was the best day of the whole convention BY FAR. I slept in because I was so tired, and i missed the Tai Chi in the morning. I taped a few conferences and set up for a presentation and then went out by myself to this area in the city known for selling musical instruments. The instrument I was in search of was a flute called a dizi (pronounced DEE SHEE). I found 2 of them at a shop and purchased them for a very cheap price. Then I walked farther down the street and stumbled upon a small guitar shop selling all kinds of western instruments. I couldnt resist, so i walked in. I found 3 guys sitting down and jamming. One was playing drums, one was playing guitar and another was playing sax. I picked up a bass and motioned them to plug me into an amp. One of them asked me if i knew some blues, so i nodded my head and they started to play some classic 12 bar blues. It was having fun jamming with them and decided to take a solo. The 3 guys in the shop seemed to like it a lot and all of a sudden I had a small audience of about 10 people crammed in this tiny shop. One guy even brought a bass and wanted me to play it. Its amazing how a little bit of experience on an electric bass here can seem like a lot where it is not really known of. I found it so awesome that the only way i could really effectively communicate with everyone else in that room was through music. None of them knew english, and the only thing i knew in chinese was “thank you.” After about an hour of jamming, I took a taxi back to the hotel, where we immediately left for a restaurant downtown again. This time, the restaurant was right by a river, and the mosquitoes were evil.

On Friday I did some Tai Chi in the morning and then went out with the VP of a company called Focus on the Family to do some exploring and shopping. He bought this large chinese sword, and i bought some clothes and more gifts. We stumbled upon this huge mall, which dissappointingly had everything western. It was funny to see people overflowing out of an ice cream shop in the mall…i guess its a fairly new thing for them there. In the evening, there was a closing dinner at a country club that the hosts of the convention owned. There were dances, performances and even a HUGE fireworks show that was put on just for us.

Saturday was horrible. I woke up feeling sick and got on the plane. By the time we landed in LAX, i had a fever and could not stay awake for longer than 20 minutes at a time. I had to miss my friend’s concert and was pretty much confined to my bed for about 2 days.

All in all, i would say this trip was great (as all trips are), but I am not staying in polluted cities for extended periods of time. I like to see the sun at least once in a week.