Oct. 2012

Asia trip Oct./Nov. 2012

Oct. 24th, left Halifax. Another 3 weeks trip to Asia. Some worry inside me and not feel good, renovate kitchen at home, very busy with business and taking care of Seasy. George's watch TV every night till middle night. I followed to middle night. But, end up I am exhausted . Sleep quality is very low. Only fe hours a day . I became short temple. Less patient. 

Kind of happy I can go, do not have to worry about anything, life always better in trip. 

Flight transit in Chicago, business class to Tokyo , slept in the air, dinner with Umeda San and Kaori  San at tappenyaki  Restrauant inside garden , very nice feeling. Karin looks great with short hair , her kimo therapy did not stop cancer. Brest cancer came back 2 weeks after . She said she lives with 3 kaori . Happy One normal like before, hurt one by cancer, sad one with pain. I felt very lucky George's was not like this. He is a happy person over all . 

Umeda San wants us help to buying his building, he lost all his asset during the exchange rate booking with bank. 14million total lost. But he wants to keep building and plant for 50 employee . It is a strange feeling as I always know he is a successful business man, do not know how he can loose everything just by 1 mistake and no chance to correct it. 43 years of hard working all gone, he is close to 70 , own company for 33 years, did not rest and now no retirement money . 

We slept in the night, no time difference at all, very smooth . Wake up at 6:00am, 26th, Saturday , we live now n future as Halifax still 25th. Met Umeda San to tour around Tokyo fish market . He guild us walk around close to 2 hours . Very impressive, feel so good many people doing same as me .  The cleanness in Japan is my deepest impression. Taxi class window like crystal, so clear, fish market no smell , crowded but clean , even sales man cut fish every where, it is clean ! Majority are fresh and live items. All kinds of fish over the world gather to here, more fish than i can name it. Biggest is whale , smallest is fish roe . Most expensive one is 2.5 million CAD tuna, bought by a local Restrauant owner , cheapest is mussel less than 1.00. I saw a salmon fish for over $400per kg ! Like over $2000 for a fish . 

Tuna booth is most attractive , a couple of man busy with one tuna, put on cutting machine to split them , then, use knife ( longer than me) to do filet . Rey chop head of then disassemble the head . Very interesting process to see a 250lb tuna change into small cube or slice. 

Vegetable fruit market is there too. There are 8 aisle of fish dealer there , every aisle is over 100 dealers . Market is huge. There are many sushi Restrauant next to the market, people line up 2 to 3 hours to eat sushi there .  Also, in noodle street, we saw a booth with 2 man only serve 10 dishes each time and serve 1000people per day. In accessory street, you can buy all the kitchenware , many local people here mixed itch tourist. Close to 20 million Tokyo people purchase there daily needs from here, it is the most crowded area in Tokyo , there is even a  police man standing snide fish market to manage the traffics ! 

From Tokyo center to airport needs 2hour bus, them 2 hour before departure needs to me in airport, just leave Tokyo , you need 1/2day, to arrive here is 1/2 day, at least in Tokyo, needs to visit for 2 days .  Next time, I will rent a room with kitchen close to market , just cook or eat sashimi every day . Or Sushi all. day alone . 

Tonight will arrive shanghai and liu bin drive me to nanjing . Tonight can live in my home town finally .  Hotel is new, golden eagle, very nice. We arrived at middle night and next day went to see my parents, like normal, George's went to choose the nice flower, liu bin came over with his family, we all eat at nicest seafood restrauant next door. Great egg york Dungeness crab. 

Oct.29th, Monday, we went to new office, nanjing rent a huge office, very nice environment, I am very impressive . Meet accountant ,my friend Michael, went to a couple times massage, went to meet my child hood friends, very nice time. 3 days times flying so fast. 

Nov. 1st, we fly to see china southern, meeting was nice, I met the general manager and the manger in charge, very nice.  Same a day, we went to Shenzhen , met jin tai . To my surprise, he proposed to buy off our china distribution, he treated us in Hilton hotel Restrauant, a massive place,  VIP room is huge, never see so fancy Restrauant before . Really like a palace. 

George's got perpetration, heart beat randomly. I have to delay flight so he can feel better.  It last for quite long time, he is a real fighter, we talked outside of hotel . Visited Shen Zhen again, finally, it stopped. We fly back to shanghai. Meet office staffs and Leo's father, we ate all the way in nicest Restrauant, the food we eat is a lot, I definitely gain weight . George's went to order the home theater curtain, night, liu bin came, we all went to massage and ate hot pot . Hotel is best western, but, people fight in the early morning, police came, we wake up very early.  Got all sorts of card with girls pictures. It's. IST be the dirtiest hotel ever. W decided to change hotel. 

Nov.3rd, we met insurance company, afternoon, Kathy arrived. We moved her to raddiso hotel with us, very nice hotel with sauna, grad opening is feb. everything is new, I felt totally different right away, liu bin has an very nice contract rate. 

Night, we went to fish market, kind of familiar already . Next day, train to Beijing, 5 hours, chat with Katy all the way. She has a kind of tolerance like Chinese . Very smart working American lady. 

Nov.4th, arrived Beijing, very cold,  just snow, wind can go through your bone, 

We ate Beijing duck and went to seafood market to meet liu qiang, next day, fly to dalian . 

Nov.5th, we arrived Dalian , hotel is Hilton , brand new, chandeliers hanging like 3 floor high.  From window, we saw the nice apartment building , 100% Europe style. 30 floor high at least, beautiful ocean. Front. Rmb40,000 per square meter. Very nice. 

Night, time to meet tony, kind of excited some how, I booked best Restrauant in town, dalian is a seaside city, seafood Restrauant is like a palace, fancy to the top . Europe Rome style with good and yellow bright colour, roman fingering , multiple moulding , we got a private room. Own toilet, big bar, 2/3 servants. Dalian tian bao  seafood has 6 floor, we are at 2nd floor, with at least 20 rooms. 1st floor for order and Radom seating. Seafood is plenty, even has geoduck . Bill is reasonable, we 7 people paid rmb2700. Kindly of surprise for the cost. Going to the show next days , liu bin, liu qiang and yao yao all came with me, 5 of us is strong group. Plus katy, Many people stopped me , times goes so fast, before I realized where to go. It is already time to close the show, I did not even have time to visit the show . Clearwater has a huge booth, they must did great business in china, it is nice to be a big company some times. Customer will come to you anyway, we met to y again, went to Tai massage, it always has so much fun with Tony, we laugh so hard, Tai massage in dalian is so different , I have a by and he has a girl. The tiny girl needs to lift him up, after all these food I ate in china , it is not easy to left me up either. I am very flexible, the boy manage to put my legs on top of my head. Oh, we all wear the huge pants, pants is square on with and length. I can fit myself inside one leg only. It is really fun, 

Dinner is at 2nd best Restrauant in dalian, another good seafood Restrauant . 

nov.7th, Next day, we flew back to Beijing with Katy, Xiaopo picked us up from airport , we went to Great Wall directly, Great Wall has snow! Two Japanese died a they can not walk out in Great Wall . Today is first day open , we are lucky, this trio, everywhere we go, snow stopped and rain stopped, we always get blue sky and good weather. Can. To remember when is last time I went to Great Wall, maybe I never, i felt so proud as a Chinese , it is a amazing how ancient people can do , 13 years, 700,000 people build this Great Wall that can be seen on aerospace. What are vision from the empire 2000 years ago. Just can not believe how much human power can be . 

Great Wall just opened a little bit, so we decided to go back to tiananmen Square to have lunch, it was very simple Lunch, but we visited an antique. Street of Beijing . 

Nov.8th, George's and me flew to Xi an , the terry cotta city. We have a driver follow us all trip, a lot easier, fist hotel is build in Da tang yuan, there is a 1300 years old temple in a big square,the whole area is built base on style 2000 years ago. In the nights, when all lights on, it is very pretty. Out hotel located in the centre, it built for movie taking, then, transformed to 56 rooms top luxury hotel . Most VIP stayed here when they visited Xi an . 

First impression is good, very traditional, unique history style, then, found out service is very poor and price is extremely high. Room is freezing, no hot air come through , does not what you do, we gave up, changed another hotel next day. 

We went to see the start point of Silk Road, the manufacture of Terri cotta, the Museum of how Silk  is made and of course Terri cotta. There are three pits for public visiting, only part of each pit being dig out . Solder lost colour Original colour, carriage crushed into pieces , china does not have the technology to keep the old shape and decided to stop dig . We saw a bounded terri cotta from 2300 year ago, the whole old army in front of us . W kept on astonished by the artist and designers wisdom . The gesture, the real action of the solder, the face of each solder and  even the leash of house is made of real jade . Every statues consists of perfect detail . We have to admit the ancient Chinese are super smart, they can turn human power into any thing. Qing shi Huang also build the Great Wall . 秦始皇的气魄，见识，智慧是旷世罕见的。

In the night, we went to the Xi an city wall, 4900x2300 city surrounded by river. South gate still functional for lifting and closing , wall is very thick , 3 car can drive at same time,  there are 8 place you can come down . Inside city wall is oldest Xi an city , streets full of Manchu 清真 food, for the first time, I ate the lamp leg, it is no doubt the best lamp I ever ate . 

From xian we went back to nanjing, I am happy to see my parents and family again.  Company in china gets stronger, profit is accumulated . I made 2013 plan for the company, full of confidence that we can build this company for long term and for good profit. 

Times always fly when I am travel, nov.13th, we have to leave back to Halifax, this is 22days asia trip . Still did not feel enough time . China is very expensive now, good hotel costs is about cad150, food is very cheap if you can cook, good Restrauant very expensive, but cheaper than Canada . Cloth gets so expensive in stores that you have to go to market to get wholesale price. I am very proud tnt china company now can provide , cover our trip expense . I felt more and more fun in china. Maybe some time, I will come back. 

Flight back is 24 hours, we transit in Tokyo , then to Toronto , I got check by custom , looks like every Chinese got check. Do not know why custom officer does not like us. Feel kind of races in custom here. Nov.14th, finally, I will sleep on my bed . 

Kitchen is almost finish, tomorrow is last day, I will have a new kitchen when liu bin and Tina comes. It is so excited to have brother to visit me in Halifax .