Work Work Work

Its been a very busy start of the week. 12 hour days... We will most definately work the whole weekend as we will be off a few days next week for Chinese New Year. Not sure how many days, but more than one will be very nice!
Today another beautiful day in Beijing. Not a cloud in the sky...pollution though. But its sunny and not too cold. Had a progress meeting yesterday with our two top managers. They put a lot of trust into us which also puts a lot of pressure on us to perform. We will do our best, learn as we go and try to keep sane at the same time. Will be two quiet days at the office as all managers (everyone except myself, Zach, our third management trainee Ivan and a few secretaries) are in training at our sister hotel. Nice and quiet means more work done. Tonight is dumpling night and tomorrow the GM is inviting everyone for Peking Duck! Looking forward to that one!
Time to go for lunch. Will be interesting to see what culinary delights are on offer today. Maybe pig ears or liver....I think I will choose plain rice.

Shanghai

After a week and a half at work I went on my first business trip. Down to sunny Shanghai. I had no idea why I was going but it could have been because I am in charge of implementing the Interactive TV system to the hotel. We (myself and Joy, our IT-manager) got picked up in the early morning. Traffic to the airport was unbelievable. Good thing we left early. Quick through check-in. Had a western coffee before take-off. The worst caffe-latte I have had in my life. But the girls serving were nice and helpful. When I think about domestic trips, I think about small airplanes with no service just taking you from A to B. But domestic trips chinese-style are different. Huge planes...this one was a Boeing 777 and breakfast is served. Most passengers fell aslepp as soon as they sat down...and they are not quiet. Breakfast was served and it was also a surprise. Yoghurt, water, small salad with smoked meat of some sort, rice/been curd porridge and the special marinated egg that you get everywhere. It has been marinated (I think) in soy sauce giving it a salty taste. It is therefore a brown egg. Does not look good, but it tastes ok. Touch down Shanghai and pickup at the airport by representatives of the supplier who also paid for the whole trip. Crazy traffic again. Got to Shanghai cit in time for lunch. And what a lunch. Traditional Chinese style. Very formal. Around 15 dishes placed on a turning table in the middle of the dining table. Tried it all, some better than others. Its a new experience sitting for 1 1/2 hours without understanding nothing of what people around you are saying. Just smile! After that I did some site inspections to two hotels to look at their Interactive TV systems. Quite interesting. Even got time to do a little bit of shopping. Tried out Shanghais most famous shopping street under the command of my guide Lisa. The supplier told her to accompanying me. No shoes in my size (the had 252 and 253) but most places had some kind of sale because of the Chinese New Year approaching soon. Took the subway to Shangri-La hotel for dinner. I expected a small personal dinner but I was again mistaken. A was rushed into a huge function room and directed to the VIP table. What the heck was this??? I was the only westerner in the room. Probably the youngest also. But there I was, surrounded by hotel executives, IT-managers and consultants. The dinner started at 6:30 PM. It was a 12 course dinner with wine and tea. It is customary here in China to taste every dish so it was just to grab those chopsticks and dig in. Most is ok. Some other stuff are worse To my surprise there was entertainment. Games and a magician! Not bad! The chinese people love playing games. Like at our housewarming party. Many guests came up to me to introduce themselves, handing over their business card and expecting one in return....but no. I have not been issued any. So I just told them who I was, what I was doing here and that I really enjoyed China. I just loved the face of the Cisco executive when he asked me how many years I had been in China.....1 1/2 week!!!! We left in a hurry at around 8 PM to make our way to the airport. Personal chauffeur. Plane was due to leave at 10 PM. Got back to Beijing at 11:45 PM and in bed at 00:45 AM. Long day, but very eventful!!! / Martin

Days goes by...

I haven’t updated the blog for a long time, but it is not because I am lazy but because we have been busy like crazy here. This is the end of my first month of work…We work a minimum of 12 hours a day and I had about 3 days off this month. So as you can see, we are working very hard. But it is all good, because I seriously love what I am doing and I do not mind spending all this time at the office. All our workmates are great and the atmosphere at the office is great. As well working with a GM like ours is an amazing experience. I am learning so much just being around him. I don’t think I could have chosen a better job to start my career. The only bad thing is that it does not leave us much time to enjoy ourselves. Our days are usually work, home, sleep….very boring but really need the sleep. Went out a few times, there are quite a few good places to go out in Beijing so that was a very good surprise. The best part is that our apartment is located very close to a few very nice bars... But it is a big change from Manly where we use to go out a lot more. Since I arrived I went out clubbing three times and we had a party at our house once that is about all the night fun I had in a month...which is close to nothing.

Otherwise Beijing is a very nice city. I like it even though it is so huge. It is kind of difficult for us to get around because the of the language barrier. Like Martin said, every time we step out of the house we are up for an adventure. I think this is what I like the most, the fact that you have no idea how things will unfold in most situation. Sometimes the language barrier is so huge that it is impossible for us to do anything. This really makes you feel like you retarded or disabled and it is hard to get use too. Like yesterday we wanted to go to the post office, but it was impossible for us to understand each other, therefore no posting!!! Here simple things are not simple and requires patience. Even shopping is a pain in the arse, everywhere we go we have people trying to sell us stuff. There it is important to start bargaining to not get ripped off… and sometimes it is not very easy.

With Martin we realized that our blog has not been updated to much lately and to make it more interesting for you reader we are going to link to a photo gallery so we can share our pictures directly with you. As always Martin keeps snapping around so we already have heaps of pictures. We will try to set it up ASAP, but it might have to wait until Chinese New-Year next week. There we will have a week holiday and we will be able to catch up on things we have put aside. / Zack

Day off!

Finally got a day off after 6 days straight with an average 11 hours per day. Really needed it. Used it to the full. Took a cab to Hoi Hai, a lake/river in central Beijing to meet up with a few colleagues. Very popular location with both locals and foreigners. Must have been thousands of people on the lake, skating in different styles. Normal skates, tandem-sleigh, bike and motorised bobsleigh. An amazing sight. It was like going to the park. People selling candy, merchandise and balloons. Pay a rental fee and off u went. I got a bike and Zach got a pair of 1920s porn boot skates. Nice one! Must say he was quiet good. Had a bad fall at the beginning due to the lady design of the skates. They had stubbs at the front. So on the head he fell. Sore knee was the result. Was cold but sunny. Nice day on the lake. Went for brunch at a traditional chinese noodle house. We both got the chance to welcome guests at the door by hitting a gong. The gong-boy gave it to us after a few photos. We got a private diningroom inside. Cold though. Were served a number of exotic dishes. What about cow stomach and fish head. Spicy, but good. Zach had the most delicious part of the head....the eye! A bit chewy though. Did some shopping in the afternoon. Got myself a mobile phone thanks to our colleagues. Shops were crazy...sales everywhere due to Chinese New Years coming up. Had a nap when we came back to the apartment. Finished off our day at the W Sports Bar & Restaurant, owned by the famous Swedish ping-pong player Jan-Ove Waldner. Due to me being Swedish, we got the royal service. The bartender put on a swedish documentary about J-Os life on the big screen. Also got to meet J-Os chinese manager, Chris. So now we are speical friends, exchanged cards and we were also given a loyalty card. We will be back when J-O is in town....

SNOW!

Its snowing outside my office window. Not much, but slowly and gently. Its beautiful. Lightens up the otherwise brownish, polluted sky. When it snows in Beijing, there is chaos on the roads, my colleague told me. Right for sure. Add snow to this crazy traffic and you get more accidents. As if there are not enough. Wherever we go we see blue and red lights blinking helping some poor driver out. I am glad I am not driving....

IKEA

Yeah, we could not stay away. After two nights waking up with sore backs, we had to take action. Had an early one at work today, left at 6. Took a cab in rushhour to IKEA (Ji Tia). All good! Everyone know the shopping haven in blue and yellow. Straight up to the restaurant. Can you believe it...live jazz music!!! Nice! Had the meatball menu, 15 for me and 20 for Zach. Not the cheapest...but very nice. Nearly got lost trying to find the bedding section. We were on the hunt for a top mattress to soften up our sleep a bit. After a little bit of discussion and mostly sign language we got our piece of paper. Down to check out where they told us to pay. But where were our mattresses? In the warehouse...And where is the warehouse..."Fast Fast Fast!!!" Probably meant that it was close by. So we decided to do something that probably not many foreigners do. Take a cab to the warehouse to pick up our stuff. After all, we wanted a night of "soft"sleep. Showed the map for the driver. He nodded. A good sign. But it was easier said than done. He took us all the way to the outskirts of Beijing...dirt roads, dust & exhaust fumes and heavy traffic. And it was completely pitch black outside. This could have been the end. But our brave driver hanged in there and we finally found it!! No signs, nothing. A police officer pointed us in the right direction. Handed over the piece of paper to the warehouse supervisor. A person in somewhat supervisory position always wears a large woolen coat, russia style and some kind of a uniform hat. He got a boy to go and get our mattresses. Into the backseat with me and off we went back home. We left work at 6 and was back home at 9. But it was all worth it! Now we will have some good sleep. Zach needed a haircut so we tried out our local guy in the basement of the building. He got it a little bit shorter than he wanted. The wonders of language barriers. As you can see, every day is a new adventure. We are now fully into project work.. I picked 5 today and Zach another 2 to add to the 3 he already is working on. Very interesting stuff. A lot of responsibility and accountability. Tough time frames, but after all. The hotel is supposed to open in 76 days!!!

Touchdown!!!

Im here. Im actually here. Zach picked me up at the airport. The hotel driver drove us to the apartment. Traffic is crazy. No rules but it seems to somehow work. The police do not do anything. Probably just there for the looks of it. The apartment is amazing. Got what a westerner needs. Zach is happy about the flatscreen tv in the living room. Im happy about the toiletseat warmer. Nice on a cold day! Think I will be spending some days there...stomach already a bit upset. Have a little shop down in the bassment of the building. Like a convenience store but with a huge section of wine and spirits. Nice! They even have Coopers!!! Took at taxi to a shopping centre in the area. Its important to have the destination written down in Chinese as the taxi drivers do not speak any English. We got there in one piece...no seatbelts in the cab. Zach went crazy with the shopping. Got a fake winter jacket and a fake Swiss made watch. Its pretty cheap though. Just need to bargain. Its a shoppers heaven! Found a Starbucks across the street. Tastes the same as in any part of the world. Then we tried to find the bar strett Sanlitun. I had an idea where it was, but Zach wanted to take a cab. The taxidriver took us around the block and dropped us off about 500 metres from where we had caught it. Nice one Zacky! Had a huge walk back to the apartment. Its absolutely freezing here. Nice to feel alive!! Now time to go shopping at the Carrefour supermarket. 10 min by cab! /Martin

Time to say goodbye

I about to leave home! Last items have been packed up and we are about to leave for a two hour drive to Arlanda Airport outside of Stockholm. Mum and Dad will keep me company. Its always the same feeling...I am totally lost! One day I'm in Sydney, the next day its Christmas, then I'm in Norway with Vibeke and a second later I'm by myself on the plane for Sweden. I have never felt it before, but time is actually something scary. It just keeps going and you better hang on, because it will not come back. Ceasar was totally right...Carpe Diem!! Make the most out of your day, because you can never do it again. Anyways, I am very excited about going. Zach will be picking me up and thats all I know... I'm counting on you boss!!

New Year

Happy New Year all our blogg readers. Wish you the best for 2008.
I had a great night in Haugesund with fireworks all around. Zach is now in Beijing and he will update you as soon as he has time. Can not wait to join him soon. But first I have another week of relaxation with Vibeke in Norway.