Time to hang up the chopsticks!

Last night, my mom told me that the day I don't eat lobster because I couldn't figure out the chopsticks, is the day I need to hang up the chopsticks! Alas, today marks my last full day in Guangzhou. Tomorrow morning, I'll wake up, pack, and head to the airport... in effect, hanging up the chopsticks, at least for this go round. 

Of course I am so excited to go home. It's been an incredible, mind blowing, fun, confusing, crazy, scary, lonely, interesting, funny, and amazing experience all wrapped in one. But, it's time to get home. I'm not sure when I will ever have such an incredible opportunity to be welcomed in as a visitor for 40 days to a foreign country and welcomed with such open arms. Tonight the team in Guangzhou took me out to a great celebratory dinner, so of course, a blog post wouldn't be complete without a few shots of what we ate. In addition to that and much more importantly, I'm including photos of some of the many people who have made my experience here so wonderful.

This is Jessy (left) and Sylvia (center). Both have been frequent lunch and dinner companions for me here in Guangzhou and just great friends to have in the office. Jessy is an avid traveler and a passionate fan of Japan, so we have been able to swap stories and chat about future trips back to that wonderful place! We work together often when I'm in NY, so we weren't really saying goodbye tonight.... just goodbye until our next 7am EST/8pm China time call! Sylvia is soft-spoken, but so great to chat with, and one of the nicest people I have ever met. She has been so helpful to me in my time here, and I can never thank her enough for bailing me out of the cab when I left my wallet at home! 

Above: The same shrimp as last night - with the shell on, but this time even bigger! 

Above: Winnie, the one with the biggest smile on the S&S Guangzhou team. 

Above (clockwise from left): Kenny, Pain, Virginia, and Winnie. Virginia has been my go-to person in the office as she is my Switch partner's AE. She gets things done before I even think to ask for it! I can't thank her enough for all of her help these past 5 weeks!

Above is tonight's dessert. This is a Shanghai-style rice type dessert flavored with a type of Chinese wine. I've noticed that the Chinese are a lot less into sweet desserts compared to Americans. Actually, the desserts really aren't sweet at all. One night I ate red beans for dessert!!! 

At dinner, they asked me to name the Chinese food I will miss the most. I admit, I struggled with that one. But tonight's dinner was absolutely delicious, so it would have to be something from tonight - the pork wrapped around the crunchy veggies with spicy sauce on top. Though I admit that I won't exactly miss the food, I will definitely miss the people in the Guangzhou office.

I can't thank the entire Olay Saatchi Guangzhou team (Queenie, Iris, Cathy, Sofia, Sarah, Winley, JC, and Karen who were not able to join us tonight) and my team at Saatchi New York enough for this experience. This is TRULY once in a lifetime. I know I will reflect on this more as I head home tomorrow and will likely not realize for days, weeks, years to come the full impact of an experience like this, but for now I know I will never regret saying "yes" to this opportunity. Thanks to my new friends in Guangzhou for all of your kindness, patience, and for not laughing at me when you really should have!!! It's been quite "a China Adventure." I hope to repay the hospitality to each of you one day in NYC. 

Until next time....

"Not for all the tea in China!"

Like I've said before, I love the markets here. It's just amazing to me that you can be in a place where everyone is seemingly selling the same thing, yet each little store seems to be a thriving business! I guess I need to check out the Flower Market and others in NYC once I get back! Today my co-worker, Sofia, took me to the tea markets of Guangzhou. You wouldn't believe how much tea there was! There were places dedicated to black teas, exclusively... green teas, exclusively.... flower teas... tea pots.... amazing. It felt a bit sketchy, but I bought a kilo of green tea today! 

With Sofia's help, I bought the tea from the man above who ran one of the many many tea stores on the block. You can taste any of the teas, so of course we took advantage of that. He sat us down on stools next to the little table above and then began heating the water. He set out the cups, poured hot water in each to warm them up, dumped the water out onto the table (it has a grill-like cover, so the tea pours into the table), put tea leaves in the pot and poured water over it, and dumped it out, added more water to the tea leaves.... and voila! We finally we had our sample. Such an elaborate process, but well, well worth it.

Above: Sofia enjoys the green tea sample. 

Above: More tea... I am thinking this could be black tea?

Above: Bricks of black tea... the packaging is so unique. You crack off little pieces at a time when you are ready to drink it. I really wanted to buy one of these, but I just pictured it cracking and spilling into my luggage! :)

Today I realized something: as much as people hurry around here, they really take their time with important things... the tea, for example. It took him a few minutes to prepare and pour the tea just for our sample. Clearly, he had such pride in his work. Not only that, Sofia took time out of her busy day to show me the market today. As I rushed around saying "just one more shop" or "I'm going to just look in here quickly..." etc, she would tell me not to worry - don't hurry! She wanted me to get the full experience and you could tell how important it was to her. She was totally focused on it - asking the shopkeepers questions, helping me find just the right green tea, a better photo opp, or a cuter tea pot.... I am so distracted sometimes in NY doing ten things at once. Today really made me reflect on that and appreciate the opposite in the people I have met in my time here.

Earlier today, I joined a meeting with some of my clients from the States who are here for a week or so. It was great to start getting my head around some of the projects I will re-inherit on my return to New York next week. They also invited me out to dinner tonight with their P&G China co-workers. We ate at a very traditional Chinese restaurant. I am not sure if the meal was dim sum or not... it had the "lazy Susan" in the center with all the dishes on it, but since it was dinner, I wasn't sure. I should have asked! It was a lively dinner full of more unusual food and great conversation. 

Above: This lobster was alive when we got to our private room in the restaurant. A few minutes later, he showed up like this. As much as I love lobster, I didn't have any. All the lobster was still in the shell and I couldn't for my life figure out how to eat this with chopsticks!

Above: The fish pokes his head out of the dish....

Above is a picture of the very first dish that was on the table when we sat down. To me it looked like just the shells of shrimp. Eventually, I asked my co-worker and was told that it was, in fact, whole shrimp. And as I've heard quite a few times here, he said, "You can try it". They also say, "You can eat it." These phrases both seem to mean try it. But, as they say, "Not for all the tea in China...." Eating the shells just seemed a bit far to go tonight just as I'm preparing to head home! I am not taking any chances ;)

Below is a picture of Jim, one of the P&G team members from Cincinnati. His face reflects what happens when you take the offer of "You can try it." He  tried a noodle dish that some of the Chinese were warning him NOT to try..... a brave, brave man.

Lastly, they presented all the Americans at dinner with tokens of their appreciation, even me, a last minute addition to their meal. The gift was two frames reflecting a traditional Chinese male costume and the other reflecting a traditional Chinese female costume. Such an incredibly sweet gesture and an extremely thoughtful way to end a very fun night!

* PS apologies these are all yellow-ish pictures! The walls were yellow, the lights were florescent, so it just didn't come out right! A flash would have been a lot better but a bit more intrusive to dinner. 

A first: Behind the wheel in Guangzhou

Today felt like a day back when I first started in Guangzhou, beginning at lunch with a co-worker over interesting looking food! Sofia (above) took me to a Chinese restaurant she normally goes to for lunch. She is an incredibly nice girl on our team here, so even though I haven't been feeling the Chinese food lately, I went. We had such a nice chat over lunch. She's from Guangzhou originally and is an only child still living with her parents, so it's quite interesting to hear about her life here. Plus, since she is a local, she was able to fill me in on some questions I had about the city and let me know the good spots to pick up some last minute souvenirs.

Above: The menu at her normal lunch spot.... a bit difficult to decide what to order when all is in Chinese.

Above: I ordered shrimp dumplings and noodles and milk tea with Sophia's help.

Sofia was kind enough to ignore my embarrassing attempt at noodles with chopsticks. I haven't improved in this department and noodles are close to impossible.

During my lunch with Sofia, we had a funny moment. She told me about her time working in Shanghai and how an American co-worker cooked for her during one of the American Festivals (Thanksgiving). He cooked a turkey, she said, but it was not good! To which I replied, "Yeah, turkey isn't really big in China, is it?" Of course she replied (gesturing with her hands), "no, no, very small." The subtleties of language are so funny and so complicated! So many meanings for the same words. How would I ever master Mandarin? How do so many of them have such a command over English? It's impressive.

For dinner tonight, I met up with my friend Dave's good friend, Billy, who lives in China. Billy started out selling sports equipment over the internet back in the late 90s when he was in college, graduated to importing goods from China, and is now involved with a company with 30+ factories here. Quite an incredible story. I realize when I meet people like this that my 5 weeks here is nothing compared to the adventures other people have had! He's been doing business with and in China since he was in his early twenties. I'm almost thirty and this is my first trip here! It's just a nice reminder to continue to get out and explore....

We had dinner at the Westin.... back to an experience I had on my second day in Guangzhou. This time, instead of two cabs dropping me off in the wrong spot on my way home, Billy drove his own car. And, to top it off, at one point he stopped the car and told me it was my turn to drive home!

The pictures above are not fake. I drove. Not far, but I can say I drove a car in Guangzhou. Pretty much 2 blocks. It was a riot.... especially as we drove past security on the way into my apartment complex and the guards looked at me sideways. There goes the little American girl we see every day in a car?!? Anyway, it was good for a great laugh.

The little American girl is getting super excited to get home but also trying to make the most of the last few days in Guangzhou. Tomorrow, Sofia is taking me to a tea market during our lunch break and has also promised to show me the subway system here. For now, there's still time for more "firsts" here.

"Good morning, Twins!"

The people in our hotel in Beijing kept asking if we were sisters. We laughed it off, but they seemed to enjoy asking each day. This morning we came down to breakfast to a bright and cheerful doorman calling out, "Good morning, twins!" Quite funny.

My 'twin' and I set off for our last day in Beijing with a lot on our agenda. But in the end, we decided to forgo the Temple of Heaven and Summer Palace for the local side of Beijing. Having been wowed by The Great Wall and The Forbidden City, we thought this would be a really nice way to wrap up the trip plus, I always like to leave a place wanting more. 

We headed first for the Hou Hai lake and the surround Hutongs (another word for neighborhoods made up of traditional courtyard style homes and small little lanes). We decided to take a "rickshaw" tour and were happy we did (see above picture) - we couldn't have covered as much ground on foot in the little time we had. Plus, today was pretty cold, so it was the best way to stay warm!

Below are a few sights from our journey around the lake and the surrounding Hutongs. It really felt like an authentic view into a typical Sunday in Beijing...

Above: Small corner store within the Hutongs

Above: A local doing his morning exercises along Hou Hai lake. I see this in the back of my building in Guangzhou and always assumed the adults were using some of the kids' playground equipment, but I'm beginning to think these are actually built for the adults... they just look a bit like playground equipment!

Above: Along the lake, a heated game of table tennis. This man was really good and very enthusiastic!!

Above: A man we observed jumping into the mostly frozen lake... it seems we stumbled upon Beijing's version of the Polar Bear Club

After our rickshaw tour, we headed to the Panjiayuan Market across town, a market I was told was a "not to miss" in Beijing. We were not disappointed. You can probably gather by now that the local markets have been one of my absolute favorite parts about my time here. It's just a treasure chest of pictures and such a neat way to observe how the city moves. This market was filled with antiques and so-called "curios"... essentially, a lot of faux antiques, books, pottery, art supplies, jewelry, games, really anything you can image! Here's a glimpse:

Above: Enough beads for you?? Colette in one of the many jewelry/bead stalls

Above: A few little trinkets. As usual, I didn't buy anything, but snapped pictures like a crazy person. 

Above: Some Mao Communist memorabilia from one of the stalls. I adjusted the books to take my picture, and when I walked away she snapped "get back here - put back!!" WOOPS. This is probably not the right stall to mess with!

Above: Rows and rows of vendors selling books

Above: One of the vintage looking gramaphones (I think that's what it is). This shop also had real looking Singer sewing machines, but apparently it's all fake. Crazy!

Above: A vendor in the market 

This really was a perfect way to end our stay in Beijing. We were so wowed by what we had seen in the previous two days, but we were really lacking a feel for Beijing. Today certainly helped us get that. Beijing is a city of massive proportions - the buildings and roads are just enormous. It was nice to get off of the main streets and into the back roads to really see the people of this amazing city. 

I'll be back, Beijing!

Almost once in a lifetime

They say a picture speaks a thousand words, but like our experience yesterday at the Forbidden City, I have to disagree in some cases. We visited the Great Wall of China today, and I don't think there is any way to capture how remarkable this is in a photo. 

We drove two and a half hours outside of Beijing to the Simatai location, an 'unrestored' section of the Wall. I wasn't sure what to expect, but as we got further out of the city and into the mountains I started asking myself if the Great Wall would be on top of mountains as steep as the ones I was seeing. How could it possibly be?? Above is the view from the parking lot at Simatai. The mountain was just as steep as all the ones we had been driving by and the Wall runs across the steepest crest of the mountain. To the right in the photo above, you can see a small gondola. It takes you about 1/4 up the side of the mountain to the Wall. Then there is then a tram to take you to about 3/4 of the way there, but it was closed because of the winter slow season, so we walked. And I huffed and puffed. Not an easy climb, but more than worth it. I really had nothing to complain about.... when you think that the Wall was made by hand starting around 200 BC (BC!!! That's over 2000 years ago), my small hike was nothing. How did they ever get all the materials up such a steep incline?

This is the view from our little two person gondola. All I could think about is "what happens when this gondola drops us off?" It looked so far up to the Wall!! Thankfully it was a perfect day for our visit: 45-50 degrees and perfectly sunny. As we began our climb, we quickly shed our layers and enjoyed the crystal clear blue skies. 

After hiking for about 30-40 minutes after the gondola dropped us off, we got to the first watch station on the wall: #8 above. This is Colette peeking out. There are watch stations about every 150-200 feet on the wall, so you can stop and take in the view in all directions.

As we looked back, we could not believe how far the Wall stretched on and on in the distance. It looked like a little rope that snaked across the top of the mountains for as far as our eyes could see. Since it's the middle of winter, we really had the Wall to ourselves minus a few other tourists and a few locals selling trinkets and water (that came in handy!). 

Above: the view out from one watchtower to the stairs taking you up to the next one. So steep! 

Above: I'm making Colette take a photo and a breather!!!

As I mentioned, the Simatai location is not restored like some of the other Wall sites, so the quality of the Wall varied. In some locations it was pretty easy to walk on and in some locations it was extremely difficult because the terrain was rocky and the path was a bit discontinuous. You can see the contrast in the two pictures below. 

Above: A smooth portions of the Wall to walk on.

Above: Bumpy roads ahead!

This point above marked the end of our climb because, as you can see, it starts to get extremely steep and nearly impassible here. There was a guard sitting at the top guarding this location next to a sign warning people that if they kept going, they would face a fine of 200 Yuan ($25). However, he told us if we paid him 100 Yuan he would let us pass. Gotta love a little bribery, but NO THANKS. We had climbed through 4 watchtowers and come a long way, so we decided to head back after 1 and 1/2 hours of climbing. 

Above: Success. At the end of our climb, a view out on the mountains in front of the Wall. The landscape was so dry and barren - it reminded me a bit of Arizona!

On our climb down we were able to take in the incredible view from yet another vantage point, and it was just as incredible coming down. This was not an easy climb in either direction, but coming down was a bit easier and quicker. After about 2 1/2 hours hiking and on the Wall, we were back on solid ground and got back in the car for our drive back to Beijing. I fell asleep within 10 minutes and had a nice nap all the way back to the city!

Tonight Colette and I decided to go see the site of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. They do a water show nightly in the Water Cube (home of the swimming events), so we were able to see that and get a look inside the building. There was an orchestra in the center of the arena set between the swimming pool and the diving pool. The water danced to the music of the orchestra. It was just very to cool to be in this building and think that just a few feet away Michael Phelps had won all of this gold medals. I can't imagine what this building felt like then, because it was pretty impressive now filled with music and tourists! 


 

Above: At one point they showed a montage of images from the Summer Olympics on a wall of water. You can see the projections above in this photo. 

Above: The lights/water and the orchestra in the center of the two pools.

Above: Water Cube from the outside. A very striking building. 

Above and below: The Bird's Nest stadium... so pretty at night. 

Another pretty incredible day here in Beijing. I can't believe I got to see the Great Wall of CHINA. I'd say this was a 'once in a lifetime experience,' but I know for sure I'm coming back here with Brian at some point. It is something that has to be seen to be believed. What an amazing experience and a day I'll never forget.