ChangChun Journal Part Three
5/12/96 ChangChun, P.R. China
Hello again from China. Have no fear, I am now safely back in
Changchun after a decidedly eventful long weekend in Beijing...
****
Four of us went to Beijing last weekend; me for a meeting on Friday
and to spend the weekend, and Mark, Delynn, and Charlie (all from
Kelsey-Hayes) to go home from there for a couple of weeks. So we had
two cars from the hotel pick us up in the morning for our ride to the
airport. The ride turned out to be the worst one yet; it was a
hellish trip. We were running a little late, so we sped and swerved
and honked our way through the streets of Changchun at 100 KPH, around
donkey carts and monster potholes; I literally became nauseated. I
have to tell you, I have been on a 31-foot sailboat on Lake Erie in
the middle of a thunderstorm, but never, until this cab ride, have I
had any problems with motion sickness. Thank goodness I didn't eat
breakfast that morning...
So, after kissing the ground at the airport when we finally arrived,
we were packed onto the airport bus and driven over to our plane.
When we pulled up in front of it, I had another anxiety attack. The
plane was a big Russian-built Tupelov with Aeroflot lettering on the
side- no way was I going to get on that plane! How was I going to
tell my colleagues that they could go on without me? I mean, these
planes drop out of the sky about once a week. Thankfully, the bus
driver must have realized that we were going to Beijing and not
Vladivostok, and eventually we drove on to our nice American-built
MD-82.
But Beijing was beautiful when we arrived (all the more, I think,
because I was so relieved to have finally made it...). In the two
weeks since I was last there, everything had turned green and all of
the trees were in bloom.
The Holiday Inn Lido hotel was great, too... 9 restaurants, a
supermarket with imported Western goods, bowling alley, movies, a
fitness club. I can see that it will become my escape for the next
few months (I am already trying to schedule another "important
meeting" in Beijing in a couple of weeks...) We ate dinner Thursday
night at the Texan Grill, where they have great steaks flown in from
(you guessed it) Texas and it was fantastic. I ate way too much
throughout the weekend; steak and fajitas and a burger and pizza and
even McDonald's.
And I stocked up on some Western groceries to supplement my Chinese
diet in Changchun; only the essentials, mind you, like Pop-tarts,
Cap'n Crunch, Chip's Ahoy... You pay a pretty steep premium for thes e
goods, but I thought I would ration these things over the next month
to supplement my Chinese diet in Changchun. Yeah, right; I think I
have one jar of spaghetti sauce and a can of soup left...
Last Saturday I decided to go to Hard Rock in Beijing for lunch. I was
sitting there eating, and two people walked in that I recognized. They
were English teachers at the University in Changchun that I had met once
before. I figured this to be quite a coincidence; I mean, I know 10
Americans in all of China, and 3 had just left to go back to the States.
And Changchun is 400 miles from Beijing...
So I went over and said hi, and we ended up meeting a couple more of
their friends and exploring Beijing the rest of the day. We went to the
Silk Market, where I am sure I will spend any remaining Chinese money
before I return to the States (I bought a Polo button-down for $8) and
then we took the subway to Tianamen Square. The Square was full of Mao
Zedong pictures, red flags, and people flying kites- there must have been
over a hundred in the air. I got lots of pictures there. I didn't go
to the Forbidden City or Great Wall, though; I'll save that for when
someone comes to visit...
For dinner we ate Beijing duck, but it was expensive, so all we ordered
was one duck to share. When they brought out this big plate of fried
duck all carved up, I saw what looked like three duck legs on the plate.
Intrigued, I poked at them with my chopsticks, and when I flipped over
the last one, I realized that it was actually the duck's head and bill,
all deep-fried to a nice golden brown. I was done eating before I ever
started... So afterwards we went next door to McDonald's and had burgers
an d shakes and fries; it all tasted EXACTLY like McDonald's in the
States, and no duck heads staring up at me. Delicious (and I usually
avoid McDonald's...!)
***
Before I left from the States, I wasn't able pack everything I wanted
or needed for a six-month stay, so I threw a bunch of things- tennis
shoes, sweatshirts, socks, books- into a box and asked a couple of the
guys at the office to mail it to me. Sure, I figured it might take a
while, but no big deal. Little did I know...
I got a call right before I left Changchun for the weekend that my
package had arrived via DHL in Beijing, but they needed my passport to
pick it up. I figured, "Perfect timing!" and went to see our host
company when I got to Beijing on Thursday afternoon. They asked me
for my passport, and although I really hated to give it up, I figured
they must have known what they were doing. They told me my package
and passport would be back the next day (Friday) and I should pick
them up around 4:00.
Well, next day 4:00 rolled around and I strolled over to the office.
Of course- you guessed it- no package; the power was out at the
Customs building all day (which didn't surprise me a bit), so I said,
"No big deal. Just mail the package up to Changchun on Monday, since
I have to leave Sunday night".
"No problem!" they said. Then I asked for my passport back. "Oh...
well... ummm.. your passport is at the DHL office and that's in the
Customs building and of course there is no power there and so it is
closed and it will also be closed all weekend and so you can't get
your passport until Monday and you can't get on a plane in Beijing
without it and basically you are screwed..."
Again, no big deal. There are worse places to be stranded than in the
Lido hotel in Beijing. I wasn't happy about not having my passport,
but wasn't too worried either. So I called Changchun to tell one of
the guys I wouldn't be back until Monday night, and for them not to
worry...
Remember that game you played when you were a kid where everyone
stands in a circle and one kid whispers a story to the next kid and so
on, and when it finally comes all the way around, the story is totally
different than it started out? Well...
Saturday morning at 2:00am my phone rang in the hotel. I answered it
and it was my boss from Kelsey Hayes... "Drouin! You're there!?!?
You're ok!?!?" Sure I was; I mean, where else would I be at 2:00am
except alone in my hotel room? (don't answer that...) Anyway, somehow
the story of my delay had made it back to the States. By the time the
story evolved, it was that I had been detained by the Chinese
authorities at the Customs Office for trying to bring something into
the country that I shouldn't have, and they had taken my passport and
me into custody.
Oh, and believe me, there was lots of speculation as to what exactly
it was I was trying to "smuggle" in... computer hardware... unlicensed
software... pornography... (if they only knew it was a pair of dirty
Addidas and some tee-shirts...) And the troops back home were
preparing to mobilize; they had called the US embassy and our lawyers
in Dallas, and were preparing to launch an "On Wings of Eagles"-sequel
rescue mission. And all the while I was safely snoozing away in my
cosy hotel room after having a nice Italian dinner, a couple of beers,
and sitting at the bar listening to a Filipino band playing Ace of
Bass songs...
But everything worked out and on Monday I got my package, got my
passport, and got on a plane back to Changchun.
****
So I decided to blow some of my Western groceries on Wednesday by
hosting a Spaghetti dinner for the friends I have made here (I love to
entertain...)
I invited everyone over and cooked a huge pot of spaghetti and made
garlic bread, with some pastries and cakes for desert, and, of course,
plenty of Tsing Tao beer- this is China's #1 beer, and as such, it is
expensive ($5 per case).
It was quite an international gathering. I- an American with French,
German and Irish roots- prepared an Italian dinner for an Australian
guy and his New Zealander wife , a Canadian girl and her Mongolian
boyfriend, a Chinese guy, and 3 American English teachers. And it was
quite a success, if I do say so myself. We listened to CD's and
watched "Ferris Beuller's Day Off" on the VCR. Boy, can I throw a
bash!
****
So, somewhere in all of this, I have managed to get a little work done
(although not much on Thursday morning. For some reason, I had a
splitting headache when I woke up...)
Things are kind of frustrating in how long it takes to get your point
across and to make things happen. And I have started to run into some
bureaucracy at the plant.
We are in this Joint Venture with a company called First Auto Works
(FAW). Faw is like GM, Ford and Chrysler all rolled into one (in
Changchun, a city of 1.5 million, 500,000 people work directly for
FAW). FAW is like a syndicate here, too; they control everything.
FAW Power Company, FAW Market, FAW Hotel... so the FAW guys in the JV
want FAW to do everything.
For instance, I am trying to put a telephone system into the plant and
office buildings. I have arranged for Hewlett Packard to come out and
give me a quote on a modern, sophisticted digital switch with voice
mail, paging, etc. But the FAW guys hate that idea; instead, they
want me to have FAW Telecommunications do it. They took me on a tour
of a nearby FAW building to show me FAW's great phone system. There
was some big switch gear, circa 1960 (I could hear the mechnical
relays clicking inside), along with an operator working a switchboard!
But that jives with the philosophy here; labor is so cheap that it is
impossible to convince anyone of the value of spending money on an
automated telephone system.
And next I have to sell them on buying a bunch of computers...! I
walked into the accounting department to meet the financial staff of
the plant for the first time. Can you believe- and I promise I am not
making this up- not only were there no computers or even calculators
to be had, but each accountant had an abacus on his or her desk. I
swear. And in the shops and stores, everywhere you go, the same
thing. How am I going to teach them how to turn on a PC, let alone
the differences between Windows 3.1 and Windows 95...?
****
Well, enough rambling for now. Next week promises to be a chore, as I
will begin to try to get Purchase Orders and requisitions cut for all
of this computer equipment. I will be glad when some of this stuff
comes in, so I can stop dealing with people at least for a little
while...
More to come, so stay tuned..
.
These are the ChangChun Journals. If you are enjoying these,
and/or have similar experiences
to share, let me know!
To raed the next journal, just turn the page
© 1996 Joe Drouin
