Traveling in China - Guilin Part Three

Our Trip to Guilin was the most interesting and fun time I've ever had in China. I usually worked in the South of China, which is closer to the Hong Kong shipping ports and airports. Factories were built there because of ease of shipping and foreign travelers coming into the country to work on their projects. There are also factories in the North of China, but it does take time to reach them, and sometimes trucks on Chinese roads to get to ports can damage product. The roads in the South are pretty good now, because of the money brought there by foreign trade.

The cities in the South of China, are modern and well, pretty dirty because of the factories and no pollution control. They remind me very much of what the US was like back in the 60's, or at least where I grew up in Cleveland. Back in the 60's and early 70's you would get a face full of soot from the steel mills, just walking around downtown. It's very much like that now in the South of China. You can't ever even see the full sun, because of the pollution haze.

Guilin is different. The air is clear and the scenery is vibrant. Instead of tall modern buildings, there are pagodas and huts. There are a few modern hotels and restaurants, but mostly Guilin is full of history and a sense of what China really was in the past.

The Chinese treasure their past, so much more than we do. I think that may be, because their history is so much longer than ours is. Even their soap operas on TV are based in historic times, not the present. If' you've seen "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and thought it was kind of odd, that's the sort of show they have on TV every day. It's not unusual in China to see that period of costuming and magics. It might have seemed strange to us, but to the Chinese who see it every day, it's a beautiful part of their culture. I'm sure they think our westerns are quite odd too. 

One of the days on our trip to Guilin, we went to see the sights. We climbed mountains and saw the view of the city from up high, went into the vast caves, and saw an art exhibit at a local school. The mountains are tall and it's pretty tiring climbing, but the view was spectacular and the caves were amazing. One was natural with glittering minerals and rock formations. It was vast. I wish I had pictures, but the camera didn't really work well there. The other cave was a cave of Buddhas It was filled with all shapes and sizes of Buddha, carved in rock or other materials and placed there. It had, in the past, been a place of worship.

Modern Chinese don't openly worship, but because religion was so much a part of their history, it has been transformed to mean luck and prosperity. Many traditions are still held, but more as ceremony that faith.

This last picture is hard to see, because of the rock colors, but if you click on it, you can see many figures carved into the recesses of the rock.

This will be my last post on Guilin. I am going to have a hard time letting go of it. As I said in the first post, Guilin is where I fell in love with China. It's where I could see how the Chinese could love their country so much. There was so much more to my trip, and it was for only 3 days. I've never been so saturated with a culture in such a short time. I haven't been to Beijing, or the Great Wall, or the Stone Soldiers, which are famous tourist areas, but I don't think that I could have learned as much about China there, as I did in beautiful Guilin. 

There was a show on the river. It was at night. The show depicted the famous movie of the young lovers of the area and their life on the River Li. There were literally thousands of performers on the river, in boats and rafts and pontoons. All carrying lanterns, or with lit costumes. It was one of the most amazing things I had ever seen. I would recommend that you visit Guilin, if you ever find yourself in China.

Traveling in China - Guilin Part Two

Another day in Guilin and we were treated to a wonderful treat, seniors doing their morning exercises in the center of town. After breakfast we set out to find the local markets.

Buying from Chinese markets can be a challenge. At least for me. All prices are up for negotiation, everywhere, with maybe the exception of Walmart and McDonalds. And many brand name stores are fake, like the Apple store I read about recently. Fake store, fake product. If you find an incredible deal on name brand product, chances are, it's a fake.

I'm not great at the bargaining thing, especially where the sellers are so much poorer than I am, and I can afford their already reasonable prices.

I helped out my traveling companions by teaching them how to say too expensive in Chinese. One of the first Chinese expressions I learned. That and chicken without bones, although the Chinese still don't know what that means.

Sometime though, you will get bombarded with little children trying to sell you things like this one who was selling flutes. They are sure that "round eyes" have more money. And they are probably right. But you can't buy from everyone.

Of course it didn't help that we told the little girl that our friend in the picture had all the money. She followed him around the whole time we were there, whining at him to buy, until he finally broke down and bought one of her flutes. Then she chased after another in our group.

 My traveling companions had a blast. They spent the day seeing how much they could talk down the locals, and feeling like they got great bargains. I had a feeling they were still paying more that another local would.

I think this young man did the best actually. He was so proud of his skill. I'm not sure what the camel was for. It might have been for rides, but the whole time we were there, no one rode it. I'm sure the woman in the picture was explaining, but who knows what she was saying.

Traveling in China - Guilin Part One

I've rarely had any vacation time in China. It's mostly business for me. But one trip, by boss brought his 14 year old son on our trip and a business associate, so it was a big party and quite an adventure.

We spent an extra day in Hong Kong, touring the city, including a Buddhist Temple. We sat in an airport all night waiting for a storm to stop, but those are stories for another day. This post is about our mini vacation to Beautiful Guilin, China.




You've probably never even heard of Guilin, but in China it is a very famous city. The town and surrounding areas are a bit staged for tourists. But that makes it more charming.

There was a movie made there about a couple who fell in love. It's a romantic story about traditional life on the River Li. Our tour guide asked us if we knew that movie. When we said no she couldn't believe it. Everyone should know that movie. This is a picture of a Traditional River Li wedding.


Or trip started on the River Li. It's so beautiful. The rock formations are very unique and beautiful.

This one is called Elephant Trunk Hill.

The people on the River Li still use cormorants for fishing. They have a ring on their necks, to keep the birds from swallowing the fish. The birds dive, catch fish and bring them to the fisherman. The birds love their owners, and are fed well for their efforts.



We rode on a huge river boat, down the river and back. There were singing boatmen and girls on the river that we passed. There were farmers herding their Water Buffalo to the water's edge to drink. The weather was perfect and the scenery was idyllic.

There was a litle incident, where another river boat almost crashed into ours. It was a scary. If you get hurt or seriously sick in China, prayers are about the only thing to save your life. Although I had an associate that had a heart attack in China, he survived and was very impressed with his care.

I wish I could describe how wonderful my trip to Guilin was. So steeped in tradition, I started to feel like I understood what it meant to be Chinese and have all this wonderful history of China in my memories. Guilin is where I finally fell in love with China. Those girls singing in their whiny little voices, squat toilets and dirty dishes didn't bother me anymore. I found it charming, and finally found China charming too.

What Evah! - a Taste of China

OK, it's not all as bad as you might think. There are some parts of China that have McDonald's and Wendy's, and even Starbucks. Well that is if you like corn and shredded carrots on your burgers instead of Lettuce, pickles and tomato. I'm not sure they even know what Mayo is there. Not really sure I want to ask them.

I do remember a companion trying desperately to get a glass of milk to settle his stomach. We were staying in a Chinese hotel where no one spoke English. We finally called someone to translate and he got at glass of reconstituted evaporated milk. There was no fresh milk available. That particular hotel tried it's best to satisfy international clients.

At the breakfast buffet this restaurant had an item marked sausage, but it looked incredibly like a hot dog. Tasted that way too. Forget ketchup, you get soy, or some other stuff that looks and tastes a lot like Kitchen Bouquet.

I have eaten in many different restaurants in the East and eating things you wouldn't feed to your cat. My favorite type of restaurant is the seafood restaurant where they keep huge tanks of all kinds of sea creatures and fish. You pick out what you want and it gets prepared the way you like. I never picked, because other than the eels and spiny lobsters, I had no clue what anything was.

Those are the good restaurants that are usually safe to eat at. Used to be that many restaurants weren't sanitary. They didn't wash dishes properly. It is a custom still when eating with Westerners, to take your first pot of steaming hot tea and wash your bowls, plate and chopsticks with the hot water. This way they will be safe. I have however been given greasy plates and was very glad of the boiling tea water.

In the bigger cities, there are many international restaurants. People have found they can make a decent living off of all the international business people working at the factories. There were a lot of Argentinian restaurants where I worked in Guangzhou. That food was good too. But when in China....

I liked the restaurant at the top of this post. You see those big pots? They aren't for decoration. A man makes soup in them every day. He waits outside the restaurant for customers to ask for the soup. The server will go out to the man and get a bowl of soup from him if you ask for it, and he gets paid. The restaurant does not make it's own soup.

That restaurant would make just about anything though. I did have frog there. They also served dog, although I wouldn't try that. At least I don't think I ever had any. You just never know what they will try to pass off on you there. A lot of Westerners will only eat in McDonald's, because they feel that's safe. But what fun is life if you play it safe all the time.

I've had Peking duck and I so love it. It's pretty special though and I rarely got it. The duck is hung and the skin inflated and cured, then the skin is crisped and the duck cooked. The best part is the skin, wrapped in a pancake around scallions in a soy dipping sauce. So yummy.

Once I went to this very cool restaurant where they made noodles in front of you. They took dough and stretched and folded ad stretched and folded over and over until there was a huge bundle of fine noodles.

And there was this tea that was served by a man with foot long fingernails from a teapot with a 3 foot long spout. They shoot the tea across the table into your cup. Scary but cool  - and the tea? My fave Ba Bao Cha or Eight Treasure Tea.

I also had the pleasure of Pizza Hut in Taiwan. The factory owner was so pleased to be able to offer us this. But Pizza in China is not quite like ours. The crust in not risen, no yeast, and again, there's corn and carrot slivers but the best part is the tiny unknown fish with their heads still in tact. Kind of like some unknown minnow. You eat them head, bones and all. Mmmmmm.

The Chinese prepare their food intact. They believe that all the body parts add important flavor. They also like to have the critters look at you if they can and the eyes are the tastiest part. They are kind, however, to Westerners who don't like to have their food look back at them. Usually you will eat beef, because it is taken off the bone after cooked, or served with bigger bone pieces. Chicken is usually chopped up with bone, so there are lots of bone splinters in it. Most Westerners don't know how to eat food carefully.

One day I watched as my Chinese companions, who ate fish so carefully with the tiny bones. I realized how we don't take the time to eat slow and truly appreciate what we are eating, like they do. They have to eat slow, or die with a sliver or bone in their throat or gut. I think I like how they eat much better.

I've eaten so many meals in China that I can't recount them all for you. Many scary, but I lived. Some International buffets in Hong Kong were unbelievable. But why don't you take a chance and try it out for yourself?

What Evah! - Chinese Factory - Not Possible!

I was commenting on a post about biodegradable sneakers, when I thought of how hard factories in China would try to make these possible. One thing about Chinese people, is that they are clever an industrious. Not that there aren't lazy or sneaky, cheating, deceitful people there, just in general, most are hard working.

I also made mention that, although you will get anything you want, not without being told that "It's Impossible".

I can't begin to tell you how many times I've been told by the workers or managers "that's impossible" or "no, we can't do that". Who taught those people that word anyhow? If you teach English to anyone Chinese, please do not teach them the word "impossible"

I've never even asked anyone at the factory anything that I couldn't do myself. So when I was told it was impossible, I would show them I could do it myself. If a carver said it was impossible, I would grab their tools, if a painter said they couldn't do it, I grabbed the paint and brushes.

Not really sure I could make eco friendly sneakers though. But even though the workers would like to complain, in the end they would always find a way to do what you wanted. I swear they just say it's impossible to make themselves look better when they finally complete the task.

I just can't begin to tell you though, how much clever and inventive ways my Chinese friends would come up with to make my wildest imaginings come true.



Images via http://www.chinaenvironmentallaw.com/2009/08/14/recyling-in-china/ and http://www.weirdasianews.com/2007/06/08/beer-sunshine-hot-water/

What Evah! - Chinese Factory - Lost in Translation

restaurant near factory

I didn't much like the movie Lost in Translation, even though I'm a Huge Bill Murray fan. Maybe it was just the state of mind I was in when I watched it, but it just seemed so, pedantic and slow. Not so funny and not so touching. I did, however really relate to the sentiment as I was on a 17 hour trip to Southern China to work in for a few weeks in a factory there. Actually you take a jet or 2 to New York and board a jet to Hang Kong and either take the ferry, a bus, or a car into China to your final destination.

To get into China you have to have a passport and a visa which you get by having a letter of invitation from the factory you are visiting and then have it approved by the Chinese Government. You also have to get a quickie health inspection to pass the border, most of the time now since SARS. Basically they shoot a temperature scanner your way, so if your temperature is above normal, no crossing the border either way. You get sick in China, you stay in China. 

So what's it like to work in China? Well imagine a bathroom with a stall that has a shelf about 6" taller than your toilet seat. And imagine crawling up on the shelf with toilet paper in hand, without touching the walls or platform because you have no idea what has touched those walls or platform. Now imagine pulling down your pants, but holding them up so they don't touch anything with the tissue in your hand. Now squat over the hole that you are balancing over on the platform 2 feet above the ground, and aim for the hole. Don't dare miss. Now try to clean yourself without dropping your pants on the platform and DON'T toss the tissue in, because that will ruin the septic. It has to be thrown in the wastebasket outside the stall with all the other soiled tissues.

no closets - no dryer - hand wash laundry hangs on balcony

Now are you ready to go to work in China? Don't laugh, I spent one solid month doing that every day. No days off. 14 hour day, but with long lunch and dinner breaks. At least for the workers. Some days they actually worked longer, and I'd leave for the day, but I'd stayed the full 14. For lunch I walked to a local restaurant with one of the factory managers. The food at the factory was not deemed "safe" for me. Not that the restaurant down the street was much better. We had the same food every day, because the other food was too scary. I tried something different and was sorry I did.

Workers were wonderful though. I just loved the people, and amazingly enough, was even able to communicate with some, with a VERY limited Chinese vocabulary. I could tell them when something was good, very good, bad, very bad and beautiful. Usually I had to just show them what finishes I wanted on what pieces by putting the finish next to a sample of the product. It took a while, but I could communicate without an interpreter eventually. I really miss those wonderful people. I did spend a lot of time with them.

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Some of the bad things were, no EPA, toxic fumes everywhere. Lighting was horrible. Heat and humidity was unbearable for me and even the AC in the office was bad. I had to work practically naked, tank top and light weight skirt or pants, and a rag for the pouring perspiration. Electricity in China is subject to the whim of the government and often off. Puts a big dent in production. I was working in R and D or research and development. Not actual production, but I did often visit other factories and see their production. 

I actually worked in many factories on China, some actually had flush toilets for visitors. But often, even restaurants had squats. Flush squats, but squats. And those are flush and run, because the whole floor flushes. Hard to describe, unless you've seen them. 

Food can be scary too, depending on the kindness of your host. Some factory owners like to screw with Americans, and it's rude to refuse anything offered. I think I've eaten everything offered to me. I even ate something from the sea that looked kind of like a trilobite or giant bug. There was no meat and it had no taste so I know the host was just screwing with us. I, being a woman often had to keep up with the men to be taken seriously. 

Picking up 3 peanuts at a time with your chopsticks and eating them is a boastful and brave feat for an American Woman. I did not, however keep up with the drinking. I did drink, but you can't out-drink the Chinese, so why try.

There are so much to tell that this is only a tiny touch on what working in China was like. 

It's kind of like these batteries that were made in China. Lost in Translation.

China vs Etsy

Cafe near China Factory 

First I want to say that I love and support Handmade, but there is a balance, I also support factory made in the US and Overseas, because we aren't all artists and we all need work.

Lately, I've been thinking about this China factory issue. I know that Etsy sellers and other indie artists on sites like Artfire and Zibbet are upset that as soon as they post a new design on their site, a China factory is copying it and ready to ship to the US. As a former product designer that worked in China factories, I'd like to give you a more global look at what is happening to you and to others like us.

I don't deny that it's a crime that can't be stopped, that other countries are copying  our designs to retail in the US at a fraction of what it takes us to produce. But is it the fault of the Chinese or any of the other countries, like Vietnam and India, who also produce for our purchasing pleasure? Not really. We ourselves are to blame. Our need to have, have, have and at the lowest cost possible is what drives this. 

Product would not be made overseas if we as a nation were not buying it. Our US companies are driving the overseas factory to watch our seller sites and copy merchandise. The Chinese have no idea what will sell here, they are directed by Americans as to what to copy. Believe me, it is true. 

The Chinese citizens are for the most part kind, hard working, and very talented people. I have been to a lot of countries for work and never have I enjoyed the people more. Like us, there are a few bad eggs, but for the most part it is a wonderful country, very different than ours, but wonderful.

There is another aspect that I would like you to consider. Like my own story, design jobs are getting harder and harder to find. There isn't a need for product designers anymore when designs are readily lifted off the internet for free. Why would a company need to pay a staff of designers? Some do as they boast in house design, many smaller firms don't care in this economy, so many of my design colleagues are out of work or finding new careers like selling craft as an indie. 

There are so may sides to the geodesic dome of life. We should all consider what is on the side we can't see.

A MOST UNUSUAL THANKSGIVING DINNER

In 2007 My family went out of town for Dinner so I chose to accept an out of the country commission, in China. Here's how I celebrated Thanksgiving that year.

Thanksgiving 2007

Today I enjoyed Thanksgiving lunch with my Chinese family, a Designer, an engineer, 2 factory managers, a product manager, and our driver. I was the only American, as all of my associates had gone back to the States to have Thanksgiving with their families. It was only lunch and not quite Thanksgiving Day in the US, but I imagined that this was my Thanksgiving dinner.

We ate things that might have been eaten in America that first Thanksgiving, rabbit, corn and beans. I was sure that the bamboo sticks the rabbit was threaded on, and the shiny aluminum foil protecting their ends, were not used that first Thanksgiving, but the meat was very tasty.

The corn, which I am sure the pilgrims must have eaten, was very good also, although ours was cooked in egg yolk and sprinkled with large crystalline grains of pale brown sugar. The green beans were cooked with almost neon purple skinned eggplant that had a fire-roasted flavor. This was the best of all of the dishes, but I’m positive that eggplant hadn’t arrived in the Americas for many years after the first Thanksgiving.

We had a pot of animal insides, stomach, liver, and I’m not sure what else, that were boiled in broth with some sort of meatballs, and quail eggs. I was not really sure what animal it was or what the meatballs were made of, and maybe I didn’t really want to know. We were served a heaping platter of pork meat with even more heaps of dried hot red peppers. The meat wasn’t very spicy , I guess the peppers were just decoration.

We had a plate of finely chopped broccoli. Not the best tasting thing on the table though, and I like broccoli. It was steamed with no seasoning. Too plain for my taste, but healthy so I ate a large portion. The best tasting dish was the rice noodle with spicy sauce. Large flat translucent noodles with garlic and spicy oil, and so much hot pepper that the oil is a deep glistening red.

There was a small iron dish of bubbling hot spicy beef. This one is a favorite of mine. Small tender strips of beef, that simmer in a little oil and broth with a lot of hot peppers, garlic, and fresh cilantro, and have a flavor similar to Mexican food.

The food was all served on a large rotating tray, like an over sized lazy Susan. That’s how my Chinese family eats in a large group. It is really a nice way to dine. You rotate food around and take only what you want, when you want it, no fighting. There is plenty for everyone, and no mother over stuffing your plates with amounts and food you don’t really want.

The conversation went on, just like any family dinner. There were heated discussions and lots of laughing. I didn’t understand a word of it. I did hear my name mentioned once and was told that they complimented me for something. I believed them.

We sipped hot tea and a canned herbal tea drink and enjoyed the company of friends and good food.

My mind wandered to my many years of Thanksgiving with my family in the U.S. This was my first Thanksgiving away from home. I have spent my birthday away, many times, and I have been without part of my family other holidays, but never so far away.