The group went to Baosteel today. It is the largest state-owned company in
China. I did not go, I was able to arrange a visit to the Nike Suzhou HJ
factory in Taichung. The GM and VGM (General Manager and Vice General
Manager) arranged for me to be picked up at 9 from the hotel. I met my
driver downstairs at 9 and proceeded on the hour drive to Taichung. Taichung
is very close to Suzhou and very close to where I was yesterday. He was
able to drive much faster, then the bus, and weave in and out of cars. I
think that the traffic lines and rules are purely taken as suggestions. I
heard that if you get in an accident it is determined on site who is at
fault and that is when you pay your fine.
Once at the factory we stopped at the security gate where I received a VIP
pass. I said xiexie (thank you) to the guard, this surprised the driver
because he turned around to me and said "Ni shuo zhongwen ma?" (You speak
Chinese?) I replied with Yidiar. My laoshi should be proud. Well not really
as I have only used a fraction of what I learned.
Sally Feng (the Export VGM) met me in the lobby and took me upstairs to
introduce me to the John Changchien (the GM) and the ASM VGM (I can't
remember his name). John and Sally gave me a nice presentation on the
factory and Feng Tai (the Taiwanese company that manages the HJ factory for
Nike). I asked a lot of questions and learned a lot. After the presentation
Sally walked me around the facilities. I saw Airbags being made, the
warehouse, shoes being made (including rubber mixing, soles, midsoles and
uppers). It was all great to see and helps to add to my perspectives on Nike
and what we do.
After the tour Sally and I visited for about a half an hour while we waited
for lunch time to roll around. We talked about Nike, Feng Tai, her time at
Feng Tai and HJ, my Chinese, her English, etc. At one point I was
"inspecting"the shoe she had on her desk when she asked if I liked Nike
shoes. I of course said yes and before I know it she has asked me my size
and is on the phone getting me a pair. This is something I completely did
not expect. Lunch was good, I think it was the "Managers" cafeteria. After
lunch Sally and I talked for another 30 minutes while I waited for the woman
who I was going to share a car with back to Shanghai, to wrap up her work.
I was a completely rude American and did not bring Sally and John "Thank
You" gifts. So once I am home I plan to pick up some Moonstruck chocoalate
and send it to them. They were very gracious hosts.
I returned to the hotel around 2:30 in the afternoon so I decided to head
out and wander around for a while. I walked down Nanjing Lu for a while and
then turned and headed towards Yueyuan (where were went the first night) and
then I turned again and headed over to Pudong. I didn't get to the ferry
to Pudong until about 4:30. I paid the 2 Yuan for the ferry ride and picked
up 3 postcards (2 Yuan each) and jumped on the ferry to Pudong. Once in
Pudong I headed to the Jinmao tower (Grand Hyatt) and rode the elevator up
to the 88th floor where I mailed my postcards from the highest post office
in the world. I was the only non-asian on the ferry, which was a little
strange, but I was pretty used to it after my afternoon of walking around
downtown Shanghai. It took several confused looks and a lot of pointing to
figure out how to get to the elevator that would take me to the top. The
first guy I asked about the post office said there was no post office, just
an observation deck and then pointed to a closed door.
Once down from the tower I headed back to the waterfront to try to find the
Bund Sightseeing tunnel, to take back across the river. It took me about 45
minutes to find it as I walked along the river rather then on a street so I
passed it. On the Shanghai side of the river you are hassled to buy
everything, but I was never hassled to buy anything on the Pudong side. I
didn't really know what to expect with the tunnel. Turns out you pay 30
RMB/Yuan to ride a little gondola like car under the river. The tunnel is
filled with fluorescent lights, weird music and a voice calling things out
like Rain Forest, Lava, etc. My guide book said to take this tunnel for
transportation purposes only and not for the 'site-seeing', I definitely
agree with this.
Yachin had left me a note saying that a group of people had gone to dinner
at a crazy seafood place, at 6:30 and she left me the address in Chinese so
that I could give it to the cab driver if I wanted to meet them there. Since
I didn't get the note until 45 minutes after she left it I decided I would
just go out and grab some dumplings. I went to the dumpling place down the
street from the hotel. I went in and asked for the English book (since I
don't know menu in Chinese). I ordered dumplings and soup. This didn't
fill me up so when I got back to the hotel I stopped in the lobby and got
ice cream and cookie like crackers. I was halfway through my ice cream when
Gabby knocked on my door to see if I wanted to go get dinner. Since I was
still very hungry I did. We went down the street from the hotel to a tiny
little place where they were starting to close up (it was 8ish by now). We
proceeded to order with pictures (us drawing them), Chinese characters
(gabby can read them because she can read Japanese) and spoken Chinese. We
ended up with some very good rice-vegatable dish, kan pao chicken and a
tomato-mushroom-egg soup. (at one point during the ordering the owner
brought out a tomato to confirm that was what we wanted in the soup.
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