The many faces of China

I decided during Chinese New Year to be lazy and grow a beard. I had it growing for a good two and a half weeks. Only problem was I had to go to Hong Kong to buy beard trimmers, no way I could shave this off with a regular razor!


So with my new trimmers in hand I figured why not a nice goatee...?
Last but not least I went with the Fu Manchu or more simple "white trash" mustache for a bit of fun!

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is an amazing place in many respects. First off it's only 1 hour by ferry ride from my apartment. Secondly it's much more of a westernized city than mainland China. It has a fantastic reputation for food of all kinds, shopping and nightlife.

We went on a Saturday night to check out the bar scene. It's kind of like a mix of Bourbon Street, Las Vegas and China all at once. The street Lan Kwai Fong that we were on is well known among travelers here. It's loaded with people from all parts of the world. You can drink in the street, take drinks from one bar to another, etc. Lots of fun.

As with most of the scene here it doesn't start until late (nearing midnight) and doesn't end until the wee hours of the morning!

Typical China photographs...

Unfortunately I can't take credit for these photographs. I wish I could though. However it is pretty common to see sights like this.

For those of you new parents I'm sure I can get a stroller like this for you for real cheap!
This makes the bike couriers in Chicago look like they really do nothing at all. I'm most impressed with the balance this guy has. I'll take some others where they pretty much carry the entire family on the bike along with some suitcases!

Ancient Chinese Proverb

There is a saying here in China that I have quickly grown to like. It's an ancient Chinese proverb. If anyone has been here they will understand its truth quickly.

"1. Anything is possible in China
2. Nothing is easy in China"

That pretty much sums it up!

Macau

During the holiday I made a trek to Macau. Macau is a series of islands just about 1 1/2 hour ferry ride from where I'm at in Shenzen. Until 1999 Macau was controlled by Portugal. It was passed over to China control and the "one country, two systems" philosophy that also is how Hong Kong is run. Due to the Portugal influence you have multiple languages prevalent including: Portugese, Cantonese as well as English.

What I loved about Macau is the juxtaposition of the architecture. In much of Macau you see very old buildings and styles. However with the massive growth of the gambling industry you now also see brand new treasures, very similar to Las Vegas.


Below - a photo of a street side entry into what appears to be a Buddhist temple of some sort. It was absolutely gorgeous inside!
And now the new...growth just like Las Vegas. Here you see the Wynn on the left and MGM on the right. In addition on the other side of town are other hotels like the Venetian. The Venetian just opened and it boasts the largest casino gambling floor in the world!

Hashi, recognize this?

I found some Rogue beer on the shelves of Carrefour (the European super store similar to Wal-Mart). Kind of bizarre considering considering it was just one of a few US beers on the shelves. A few others were PBR and Budweiser. Sadly for me, no Miller Lite!

New Year's Eve

Since I was sick and stayed in during New Year's back in the states I figured I should head out for my first Chinese New Year. Before I went out I captured this photo while sitting on my couch looking out to the balcony. No, these are not professional fireworks, just another example of the love of fireworks here.This next photo below is on the way to the bar. We saw three guys run into the street with a large canister, set it down, light it and run. It started shouting these amazing aerial fireworks all around the cars that were driving down the street!
These last two photos were taken at the bar I was at that night. Near midnight they handed many of us a cylinder that shot out tons of confetti. To others they handed out what seemed like an endless supply of sparklers. Each in and of themselves would have been great. Both at the same time caused a bit of panic for many of us. The confetti started lighting on fire in small amounts all over. (Don't worry mom I knew exactly where the exits were and would have been well ahead of everyone if it picked up) It was a phenomenal scene but not too smart!

Speaking of not too smart, I guess I could be lumped in that pile on NYE. I didn't get home until after 6AM and my body was none too happy about it. I slept until 5:30PM and still wasn't recovered. Oh well it was a great CNY celebration!

Gong Xi Fa Cai

Tonight is New Year's Eve here in China. The weather has warmed at least down south. Many are still stranded and unable to get home but thankfully it is getting better. While it's only about 6:30PM right now it sounds like WWIII outside my windows. Fireworks from homes are shooting off everywhere and lighting up the sky. Even standing on my balcony is dangerous as you don't know where the next one is going to come from. It makes my Ukrainian Village place in Chicago on the 4th of July seem very tame.

Hopefully you like my new bobblehead! He is welcoming you all to a new year. The greeting of this entry is "Gong Xi Fa Cai". Simply translated that means "I wish you prosperity in the new year." One tradition is that the people buy small red envelopes then put small amounts of cash in them and give them to employees, drivers, apartment security, cleaning people, etc. The amount of cash doesn't matter but by giving something you tell them they are important. It is something you do the first time you see them in the new year.

So to each of you gong xi fa cai!

Knock-off???

So we've all heard about buying cheap knock-off merchandise right. I found this to be terribly amusing. This was on a pair of Superman slippers. Not only did they knock-off Warner Brothers and Superman but they knocked off the store. If you look closely at the store it's not TJ Maxx but rather TK Maxx! Very impressive!

Super Bowl in China!

So I'm guessing most of you watched the Super Bowl on Sunday night right? Well I'm also guessing that my experience was a bit different than yours, but still awesome!

Being that I'm 14 hours ahead of Chicago time that means a nice early Monday morning football wake up! There is a bar here that was getting the game due to an international satellite service. Therefore the bar opened at 7AM. We got there at 7:05 and it was nearly full! First thing I noticed was a couple people with bottle service. In this case it meant two guys sharing a bottle of Captain Morgan at 7 in the morning!

The bar was serving Bloody Mary's as well as a full breakfast buffet. I later spoke to the owner (the gentleman in the second photo with his manager in the Giants jersey) who is from Chicago and found out he had been cooking all night long! He never went home.

The next difference after the fact of watching the game in the morning was the commercials. Everyone in the states enjoys the commercials right? Since this was satellite we didn't get what you had. We literally had the same 4-5 commercials through the entire game. One for Alaska (powdered filled milk), one for JVC, one for the sports channel and one for Rambo 4. One group of guys got so fed up with the monotony of it that they made a drinking game from it. Every time the Alaska commercial came on they toasted and drank! It was quite funny.

Anyway the top photo shows the sports bar that all looks pretty normal, until you see the Chinese New Year decorations everywhere! Congrats to the Giants fans on a huge win!

Chinese New Year and "Gan Bei"

The Chinese Lunar New Year is coming up this week. Historically it is the longest vacation period during the year. Much of China shuts down for up to 2 weeks. However this year is already going to be different. As many of you have read this winter has been the coldest in over 50 years in China! It's making for travel challenges the likes we have never seen in the US. One day this week 800,000 people were stranded at a train station trying to get home. Many of them spent 5-6 days there. It has been reported that each year approximately 200 million Chinese people travel home during CNY. To put that in perspective that number would be itself the 5th largest country in the world! Long story is that many people are not able to go home this time. As of today it warmed up a bit down south but it's expected to cool off again.

My company hosted a CNY dinner celebration for our employees as well as our factory partners. We had about 45 people all in all. It's a very social event with lots of customs. The words "Gan Bei" were heard countless times. Gan Bei simply means "bottoms up"! As with any social event here drinking has a very important role in the dinner. Everyone including the kids got into the Gan Bei mode and yes even some of the little ones were actually drinking beer!

Kuala Lumpur Malaysia

Well since China has been very cold of late and we needed to check on some production in a factory in Malaysia we spent a few days there this week. While China has cold weather and major snow in many provinces Malaysia was over 90 and super humid! Both nights major thunderstorms came in which prevented as much sightseeing as I would have wanted. However our hotel was right downtown so we were close to the Petronus Towers. These are the world's largest twin towers and are about 1,483 feet tall! Super impressive to see and also a challenge to fully capture in a photo.