Xiamen and Jinmen

The operation in China is still in its infancy, so there wasn't much for me to do. The plus side was that I met the staff there, which is good since I end up dealing with a lot of their orders. I also met the Chinese partners as well as the president of the Korean company that we are partners with in China. It's good I know a little about politics and recent Korean history since it always impresses Korean people that Western people actually know it and much less care.

I impressed myself since just by hearing her speak I could tell one of the ladies in the office was from near Beijing and I could tell by his face that another guy was from Manchuria.

I also had tons of comments about how well I use my chopsticks, I think that's really strange that using chopsticks impresses people so much. If I was not able to use them I don't know how I could eat a lot of time. Then again for white people in Asia the bar is low...they think you don't like the food, you can't eat spicy stuff, you cant use chopsticks, and you can't speak the language...I do all of those with relative ease.

The picture below is the street behind my boss's house. I didn't have many pictures from China.

I had a lot of business dinners. However, my favorite meal was late at night. I had came back from dinner and I was walking around the area where my boss rents his house and I walked by a street side diner (squat tables set up on the street). There were 4 girls sitting there and one said in Chinese, not realizing I understood, "Hey, look there's a handsome foreigner"and they all turned around. Being me I laughed really hard and told them in Chinese "I can understand what you say" and kept moving.

But I passed by on my way back and they invited me to sit down and eat and have some warm beer. I had a good conversation with them. One of them asked me if I dislike black people, I said I have no problem with people of any race and America is much less overtly racist than 50 years ago. To try and make that clear, I told her I voted for Obama. Then they told me they hated Japanese people, oh China. After that they asked if I thought Taiwan was independent, this was a landmine so I did my best not to answer. The conversation got even better when I found out that 2 of the 4 girls were lesbians. I can't make this kind of stuff up. I ok with everything since one of the non-lesbians was really pretty.

My impression of China this fourth time around: I actually like it still despite the lower standard of living. I forgot how fun it is to have people stop and stare at you. It just has an energy to it and you can literally see it modernizing. But more than that it makes me think. I saw a Hummer there in Xiamen. I always think what happens when all of these people here want to consume things and drive cars like Americans do? What does that do to the environment? The globe? What do the poor people in the countryside see when they are seemingly shut out of the progress and how do they express that?

On the way back, I got to ride in the cockpit of the ferry to Jinmen (Taiwanese territory) Island. I had lunch with my boss then rented a bike for 2 hours and rode around a bit and took pictures. I swear there are more temples on that island than any place I've ever been. The people there don't see many white people so nearly every kid yelled "hello!" to me. One kid asked me in Chinese "Are you a foreigner" I told him in Chinese "No I'm from China." He stopped for a bit and got a confused look so I laughed and told him I am indeed an foreigner. Then I grabbed a flight back on my own and now I'm back in Taiwan.