So now life is back to normal, well, if you consider living in China to be normal! Our business trip ended last Sunday so now it is home sweet home Tianjin. Last phase of the Canton Fair was a bit more relaxing than the previous ones, maybe because of the type of products we were looking at. It was mostly hand bags, accessories, underwear, home decorations and stationary, it felt more like going shopping with a friend than running around looking for suppliers. Like every week, Paul and I were accompanied by a different group of colleagues and once again they were all very very nice!  

Coming back to Tianjin on Sunday I got to see all my friends who I had missed since they had planned a welcome back dinner in our flat! It was really good to see everyone again! There has also been some new arrivals, Anne-Marie from Quebec and also Phoebe, our new Chinese flat mate, so we are now a really big group! It felt good to be back but I realized I needed a few days to get used to everything again. I feel very happy and satisfied with my trip. I got to see and learn a lot about trading and also I got the chance to visit many nice places, with Hong Kong being impressive and with Guangzhou charming me a lot, it definitely got a place in the top list.

This week I’ve been back has been quite busy: swimming, Chinese class (this language is so difficult!), Akio’s coffee tasting, dinners, Phoebe’s birthday, daytrip to Beijing. Oh and another important thing! I finally, after 3,5 months, tried chicken feet! Phoebe loves it and she was eating it yesterday at home so.. why not? She even chose a good piece for me! The taste is ok, tastes like chicken, a bit spicy, but everything else makes it quite disgusting, I warn you before you keep on reading. So first you bite off the nail and then you have to find the joints of the bones in order to break them off and chew on them before you spit them out again. Don’t know if it is understandable how I wrote it but if anyone is interested I can bring some back home and you can have a try!

On my way back to Guangzhou from Hong Kong I decided to make a short stop in Macau. After having been in Hong Kong for 3 days Macau was quite a change! It is really easy to get there, just a one hour boat ride and then you have to go through some customs again upon arrival. As soon as you step your foot in Macau you realize it used to be a Portuguese colony, since suddenly on all the signs, there are not only Chinese and English texts but also Portuguese. Also the currency changes from Hong Kong Dollar or Renminbi  to the so called Patacas. I only spent a few hours in Macau and I am sure there was more to see than what I did but I managed to see the most important things and get a general picture of the place, it is very small anyway. It was around 28 degrees and 90% humidity the day I was there so I didn’t really feel like walking around more than I did.

So, I saw two main, very different areas. The first one was in Macau Peninsula and it is the area where all the Portuguese-style buildings are. I haven’t been to Portugal but this is more or less how I imagine it to look like. Being a holiday, there were a lot of people, something I had had enough of after all these crazy markets in HK. From there, there are free shuttle busses running to the major Casinos which are located on Taipa Island. I got on one of those (nice A/C!!) and drove through the casino district and entered one of the biggest ones.

 In my guidebook they call Macau the playground of China and I couldn’t agree more. It has of course many Chinese features but then it mixes a bit of Europe and a bit of U.S.A., 2 places I think most Chinese people like and they get it all in these 29.5 km2 , just outside of Mainland China. By the way, I read that Macau’s revenue, with 30 casinos, exceeds the one of Las Vegas!

Leaving Macau was once again long queues at the customs and stamps in the passport but then you just walk over to Mainland China. Suddenly much fewer people speak English at the bus station but after some pointing and translating I got on a three hour bus ride to Guangzhou for the last phase of the fair!

It’s been a while and I am already back in Tianjin, but let’s go back a few days.

So, on my break between phase 2 and phase 3 of the Canton Fair I went to Hong Kong and Macau. They were both excellent places so I believe they deserve separate posts ;)

Getting to Hong Kong from Guangzhou is very easy. First you take the train to Shenzhen and when you arrive at the train station there, you walk through the customs and, there you go, you are in HK. Then there is another train ride that takes you to HK Island.

When I arrived on Friday it felt in a way like it was me against HK. I had no orientation, the crowded narrow streets with the flashing neon lights and the high sky scrapers where overwhelming and the fact that it was raining was getting on my nerves. I didn’t even realize that the traffic was left sided until someone pointed it out to me the next day. Also, it was the first time travelling by myself and I didn’t really know how it would be. But after a few hours wandering the streets, crossing the Victoria harbor with the star ferry and meeting nice people at the hostel things started feeling just right.

The next day, I spent the morning with one of my new friends exploring the Wan Chai electronics market; HK is after all famous for cheaper electronics, and also the Old Wan Chai neighborhood which had interesting street markets and nice buildings. Later on during the day I went with another friend to see what they say to be world’s largest seated bronze Buddha statue.  It is located 500m above sea level and the view from the cable car getting there was amazing. I was there on the 28th of April which apparently was Buddha’s birthday so they were offering lunch for free, it was really good! On the way down from the mountain we stopped at Tai O, a small very charming fishing village. Not having planned my trip almost at all I had nowhere to stay on Saturday night since I had only booked one night at my hostel. So when back in the city I went for hostel hunting. Not having booked a hostel actually turned out to be a good things since I go to know the Chunking Mansion. Chunking Mansion, referred as the Mecca of cheap sleeps in my guide book, is a big, dirty, almost scary building at Kowloon. It has more or less 16 huge floors and on each there floor there are hostels, people living in tiny rooms, manufacturing shoes, sewing, hanging their clothes in the corridors, it felt like China in a nut shell! After some searching I managed to share a room with 5 Chinese women. The next day however I went back to my previous hostel, one night was enough!

On Sunday morning  I went to Stanley, a small beach town with a nice market and an even nicer beach where I spent a couple of hours doing nothing, just what I needed before my more or less 9 hour walking marathon around Hong Kong. I was mostly on the side of Kowloon , where I walked through various markets:  Temple street night market, Ladies market, gold fish market and more I can’t remember the name off. Really, I have never seen so crowded and loud streets in my life! And so many flashing bright signs, this was I think the image I had of China before getting here. You just had to stand still for a few moments to soak in all the impressions. I ended my day, and also my 3 months anniversary in China :), at the Avenue of Stars, where you get the view of the Hong Kong island. At 8pm they have the Symphony of lights going on, which is basically that they synchronize the lights of all the skyscrapers on the other side with some music played, it was nice but I expected something more impressive.

Overall, I can say I really like Hong Kong. What I liked the most is that in one moment you are in this impressive overwhelming city and then by taking a bus or a train for half an hour you can get a break at the beach or in the mountains, really nice scenery. Also, everyone speaks English and is so nicely dressed! Endless shops, some of which even close at 1 am! I feel very satisfied and like I did all I wanted during my trip, the only thing I missed out on was the Victoria Peak. Actually I went up there but getting off the peak tram, was like stepping into a cloud, and of course you couldn’t see a thing from what must be an amazing view. Maybe next time :)

_Free days off means no time to lose and exploring new places. Thursday and Friday Paul and I decided to stay in Guangzhou and see some more of the city, and we did see quite a lot even though it was raining most of the time. After having seen some more districts, I must say this is a very interesting place since there is a great mixture of crazy busy streets, peaceful gardens, countless shops, modern areas and old traditional ones. I realize it must be like his in most big cities but the humid climate and all the trees add something special to it.

It is hard to tell what impressed me the most but I must say Shamian Island and the area around was one of my favourites. On Shamian Island the houses are in European style, since it used to be a French and British concession. Very aristocratic buildings and a wonderful pedestrian street while just over the bridge, where the Old Town is you can get lost in the alleyways where you can find everything from shops selling dried bugs to butchers slaughtering the chicken you like right on the spot and if you are a bit indiscreet you can get a glimpse inside of some traditional simple homes. Also, Yuexiu park was interesting. An oasis of green in the middle of the city and the weather made it look like we were in a rainforest somewhere. We discovered another shopping street which I revisited on Monday by myself so I wouldn’t have to torture Paul too much. It would have been shopping paradise if all my proportions where a bit less and if I didn’t have what seem to be here gigantic feet – at most places biggest shoe size is 39! But if you search a bit you can still find some good stuff.

Saturday and Sunday were dedicated to Shenzhen. Actually there is not much to see in Shenzhen. It is a Special Economic Zone so it is more a business city, one of the wealthiest in China. But still we discovered some nice places to have food, some (more) shopping streets and we went to the Shekou port where the ferries to Hong Kong go. The port itself was a failure but that didn’t disappoint us much; we found a luxurious hotel instead with a nice garden where we spent some quality time. There are also a lot of amusement parks in Shenzen but obviously that doesn’t interest us much. But the main reason for going there was not the city itself but to meet Pedro who was in India the same time as me last year. Last time we met was on our goodbye party in June in Chandigarh, we were both leaving on the same day. Had no idea then we would meet in China next time! It was really nice to see him and refresh some Indian memories. On Saturday night he and Lilya showed us the nightlife in Shenzen, including a rooftop bar which was awesome. Sunday I spent with Lilya from Russia since Paul had to leave early. She showed me some nice places, like the bridge in Futian district with a cool view of the skyscrapers, a relaxing place even though it is the middle of all the city buzz.

Now we are back to business in Guangzhou. I must say that except all the new places and the Canton Fair, we also get an excellent culinary experience here! Every evening after work we go to some nice restaurant and one place has been better than the other. Our leader is a really funny guy and he definitely likes beer. The thing here in China is that when they cheer, they say ‘gambei’ and that means ‘bottoms up’. There are a lot of those during dinner but I manage to get away with it most of the time, I leave it to the guys to handle. Tomorrow is the last day with this team since most of them leave and others will come on Monday. So there will be good bye dinner, wonder if it can get any better than all the previous ones.

This post is getting too long, but I promised Raghda to give her something to read at work ;)

_As soon as I got off the plane at Guangzhou, the hot and very humid weather hit me and I got a glimpse of palm trees and other ‘tropical’ plants and I realized that, yes, now I am in the South. It seems like every flight has to be an adventure for me here in China. When we got off the plane everyone got their suitcase except me. Just when I had started filling in the documents stating the value of the things in my bag it turned out that someone had taken it by accident because he thought it was his (who does that?). So an hour later I got my bag back and problem solved. It was a lucky day for me as my colleague said, since I found something, ignoring the fact that I lost that something first but that’s what looking at the bright side of things is.

So we got here on Saturday and on Sunday was the first day at the Canton fair. So, the fair. I knew it was one of the biggest import-export fairs in the world but being here I actually understood what they meant. The exposition area is huuuuge and there are incredibly many people. Inside the expo main area you kind of get the feeling of being in an airport. Huge halls with people from different parts of the world carrying around suitcases (to put the brochures in) all heading to different gates. What we do in this fair, is looking for potential suppliers. We are interested in all kind of products, but the past few days I have been looking at sanitary ware, car parts and construction materials. How it works is that Paul and I we divide into 2 groups and we each have a couple of Chinese colleagues with us. Usually we are the ones approaching the booths making some initial questions and if the company seems interesting, the others take over the conversation in Chinese and discuss further details. The suppliers are more likely to show interest and take the company more seriously if there is a foreigner rather than if there are just Chinese, so that’s why we are here ;)

It is a pity I miss big part of the negotiations being made, since I can’t understand Chinese. But it gives me time to notice other things. I can understand a lot from the body language and each time we sit down in a booth to discuss, it is like a small role play going on which I really enjoy being part of.  Each time I show equal interest in the products whether it is a bathtub or car accessories. I also spent a lot of time noticing other peoples name tags. I have realized most visitors at the fair are Russian, Indian, from the Middle East and from South America and then there are some Americans and Europeans here and there. Also, I have realized once again how important it is to be good at what you do, at least when it comes to your profession. Some of the exhibitors are so unprofessional I wouldn’t want to work with them even if they had the cheapest price. A funny incident, was yesterday when we walked by some solariums and my colleagues Amanda and Elsany wondered what they were. When I explained, they were wondering why we want to get a tan and when I said it is because we think it looks good they refused to accept that we try to get darker in order to look good while they do everything for a fairer skin. It is funny how people always want what they don’t have.

As for my colleagues, they are all very nice! They take good care of us and are very friendly, generous and fun to work with. We reach the fair around  9am and leave at about 5pm and after that we go for dinner, always at a different restaurant and everything provided by the company. The other day though Paul and I met up with Sammy and Bella, the first flat mates I had in Tianjin, that showed us the TV tower which was impressive . Everything happens for a reason in the end. I would never have imagined I would have gotten flat mates from Guangzhou and even more I never thought I would come here! On Tuesday we had a look a t Beijing Road, a big shopping street with many shops, lights, music, trees, restaurants… so many people and so much going on! I don’t know if it is the warm weather, but there always seem to be people out in the streets and there is such a good atmosphere, the shops close at 11 comparing to Tianjin where they close at 9.

Don’t know how many cities I am allowed to fall in love with, I still have more to see here and there are other important stops coming up such as Hong Kong, but Guangzhou is definitely highly ranked on my list! Now we have 4 days off until the second phase starts so it is time for some exploring!

I have said this too many times already but today it’s Friday, and once again I have no idea when this week went by. On Monday we got our salary so Ragdha and I decided to have a girlie night and spent maybe too much of our freshly earned money on shopping, but it was worth it! Also, this week we had two very interesting dinners! On Tuesday we were all invited to a restaurant to have dinner with the AIESECers, around 12 of them. We have been to a couple of their events before but this was the first time we got the chance to really chat with them and get to know them better. Food was amazing of course! Yesterday we had another big dinner, this time with the whole marketing department. The dinner was a kind offering from the company :) We went to a really nice pizza place and we had a lot of fun, much more than I expected! Not what you would call a regular after work dinner, I think. This is a really young company and everyone in our department is below 30 I think, it was a very nice atmosphere. We had a lot of food, and played a game which included some punishments and we all had to do some funny stuff, some pics can’t be uploaded, I’m sorry!

The breaking news is that tomorrow I will leave Tianjin for 3 weeks.  Paul and I are going on a business trip to Guangzhou. There is a big fair going on there, called the Canton Fair and we and some other Chinese colleagues will attend it. It is divided in 3 rounds and we have some free days in between so hopefully I will get to see some other parts of Southern China too.  It feels strange to leave Tianjin for so long; I think I will miss it and everyone here.  I have no idea what to expect from the tree, let’s see!! No expectations, no disappointments I guess! By the way, Tianjin, that was all frozen and grey when I got here, is becoming more and more beautiful every day! Trees are blooming and the weather is perfect to stay outside.  But there will be more Tianjin after the 6th of May!

 I hope I can keep the blog up to date while away!

After a very happening week in Shanghai, there was one working day and there was weekend again, perfect!  Today it is rainy and the winter jacket is back on but the last few days the weather was really good and we had a lazy weekend, spending as much time in the sun as possible. On Saturday we went to the water park, and spent half of the day there doing more or less nothing. Our plan was to do nothing while laying on the grass but you are not allowed to do that here, all these beautiful lawns are just for watching,  not sitting on!  You can give it a try but then the angry guards come with their whistles and that’s it. In the evening we had dinner at a newly discovered restaurant and we took the step to order from a menu where everything was in Chinese, no English, No pictures, but with a helpful waiter, basic language skills and Google translator it worked just perfectly!  

On Sunday it was Easter in most parts of the world. Here of course you couldn’t notice anything but we decided to cook dinner and celebrate, not Easter I think, but just celebrate, anything and everything. Jon and Ilyana joined us too and there another weekend flied by.  Unfortunately Elise went back to Canada so our group is now -1. But is some time there will be more people coming.