Learning Chinese Business

Hello Everyone! I hope you are enjoying the start of fall, my most favorite time of year. We haven't seen anything to hint the season has changed down here in Hong Kong yet, except there is this lovely new breeze that happens in the morning and at night. Mostly it is still hot and humid. I went to China last week for business and it was wonderful to get out on the road again. I should have known it would be a good trip when I was picked up at the airport by someone holding a sign that said "Dr. Sollazo Sidney." Hee hee, they called me Dr.!

I started off in Shanghai where I arrived on Monday afternoon. They are in the process of realigning some of their account managers so we of course had to go out to a nice big dinner to introduce the teams. We ate at a place close by the office where I was one of the only Westerners in the whole big restaurant. They somehow slid in a knife, fork and spoon to my spot at the table without me noticing, but after they saw me use chopsticks successfully for the first few courses, they disappeared as miraculously as they appeared. I was a little nervous when the person who did all of the ordering turned to me and asked "Do you like guts?" which I promptly replied "Um, NO!" and hopefully none were eaten (sometimes you really can't tell). The funniest thing was this one dish we ordered (beef cooked table side in hot oil with chillies, cilantro and red onion - so good!) comes with a presentation which the waitress tells the crowd how it cooks and stuff. Well, since I was at the table, our poor waitress attempted to do the presentation in English. No clue what she was saying, but it sure was some yummy beef.

The next morning we hopped in the car and drove about a hour west toward Suzhou. It is supposedly a beautiful place filled with lakes and little stone bridges but as we drove, the typhoon was rearing its head (more on that later) so all I could see was grey and rain from the car window. I did manage to cross the third largest river in the world, the Yangtze River! On the road we drove past a car with an English bumper sticker which said "Be Nice to Your Kids - They will Choose Your Nursing Home" which I translated to my co-workers and we all decided that the person had no idea what it said, they must have liked the blue color or something because it has no significance in this country what so ever. People don't go into nursing homes, your kids are stuck taking care of you for all their lives, especially their daughters!

On the way we were listening to the radio...mostly soft rock and a mix of Chinese and American music. The funniest thing was when Mariah Carey's hit "All I want for Christmas is You" came on and I had to explain to the folks that although it may sound like it has a nice melody and vocals, it was a Christmas song, and typically you don't play those until at least after Halloween, mostly not till after Thanksgiving! We got to talking about what the Chinese do for Christmas since most companies that are US headquartered give the people the day off but of course they don't do anything since they are nearly all Buddhist. But they told me the younger generation of college girls will adorn Santa hats and it has become somewhat of a "Hallmark" holiday for the young couples to exchange gifts, similar to Valentines Day. Interesting, huh?

In my hotel room in Yangzhou, I received a whole kit of random AIDS "prevention" materials, including underwear for both men and women, towels, socks and of course, lube and condoms! It is apparently a big problem in some regions of the country, plus with the various business travelers and coincidentally, prostitutes, it is good that they are supplying the material and instructions. However, as you can see, it was all "non-complimentary".

The other thing I learned relative to love, is that, well you know how they are only allowed to have one baby in China now due to the government mandate and population controls? Well, since many families want a son rather than a daughter, the parents are allowed to go to an OBGYN to get ultrasounds and check on the baby, but it is illegal for the doctor to tell them the gender of the child for fear they will perform abortions on the female fetus. My one sales guys wife is pregnant and the doctor is a friend of his so he was allowed to take a picture of the ultrasound home with him, but he still doesn't know the sex. So, he is staring at this blob desperately trying to figure out the gender of his unborn baby.
Another woman I met who is in the Shanghai office just had her baby five months ago and had to send it to live with her mother in Mongolia (far far away) so that she could go back to work to afford the baby. He husbands family is apparently dead and her mom won't move from Mongolia to Shanghai (um, culture shock anyone?!) so she is forced to send her baby away, only to get to see her on long holidays when she can fly up there. Isn't' that so sad? It broke my heart. I hope she and I close some big orders so she can buy more tickets to see her baby girl.

Meanwhile, mother nature was having her way with the winds and rain and the typhoon warning for the Shanghai region reached its highest of the year. I was a bit outside of the city, but that didn't stop my dad from thinking that I blew off of a mountain into the Chinese jungle and was starving or dead or something. Happy to report, I survived the typhoon, but not without getting soaked making sales calls. Here are some cute pictures of my counterpart, Marco, and I in the rain. We decided that we were very dedicated sales people as we walked from the customers gate to the main entrance only to arrive completely drenched. It was very funny!

My counterpart was very cute (even though he wore the same shirt and pants for all three days we were together). He is young and just off of the sales training program here in China for Rockwell, but he told me that he did not think I was going to be so pretty because the rest of the Rockwell women he has met from the US were "tough" and he held up his scrawny little arm and made a muscle when he said that. I will take the compliment! And thinking back to some of the women I know have been here from Rockwell, I am very happy to not be lumped into the same glamour category! Come on ladies, just a little make-up won't kill you.

Anyways, I know you have been dying to see one, so I leave you with a picture of a Chinese toilet. You don't throw the paper into the toilet, you put it in the basket right next to the hole in the floor in order to "keep the toilet clean"....um, wouldn't that make the basket quite disgusting? If you can figure out how you poop into one of these, let me know, although it will never happen...not for me anyways! I would rather die. Till next time, I LOVE you and MISS you!