Home

I am finally home after 90 days of being in China. I stayed in Shanghai the night before with some family friends and left early in the morning for my flight. The plane was supposed to leave at 10 am so we got to the airport around 7am and I was done checking-in and going through security by 7:30 am. However, when I arrived I noticed this:

So I didn't get to board the plane until 1pm, although they did give me a $6 food voucher which I used for burger king =). After a 13 hour flight, I got to Detroit Metro Airport at 3 pm and was home by 5:30. Luckily I was still able to make the concert I was planning on going to with my friends in spite of the 3.5 hour delay. China has been an awesome experience this summer, and thanks to everyone for reading my blog and keeping in touch with me!

Last Day of Work

As the title says, today was my last day at work. It was a good 2 months, and although I did not do a lot that had to do with my major (chemical engineering), I feel like I gained valuable experience and really learned a lot about Chinese business culture. I was able to talk to people who worked there, and really become comfortable working in a foreign environment. I think this experience will only help me in finding a job in the future as it will show my flexibility and ability to work overseas, especially in China. Less than a week before I come back to the US now. I can't wait =)!

My little cubby: (I moved out of the office when one of the 'bosses' came back)

The Office:

My Co-Workers:

Random Fun

Today my cousin and I went to random places in Hangzhou.  First we went to visit a ceramics museum that featured many old/ancient ceramics objects.  There wasn't a whole lot to see, but it was nice and cool inside =). 

Afterward we went to try throwing clay ourselves on a pottery wheel in a little DIY shop nearby.  My cousin had already tried it once, so I did it myself.  It's pretty challenging and took a lot of practice, but I kind of got the hang of it.  I wasn't really able to make anything really cool, but at one point I had what seemed to be a decent looking bowl.

We then let one of the experts make me a flower pot, and it turned out very nice.  It took a lot of skill, and I was quite impressed.  However, I won't be able to take it back to the US since it won't be fired in the kiln until August 30th. 

Nearby there was a small park that featured a traditional Ba Gua field.  For more information, see Ba gua.  Just like the diagram, there were essentially 3 compartments and 8 sections total, and a different crop was grown in each compartment, allowing for 24 different crops.  Traditionally this design was more for show, and usually used by the emperor to emphasize agriculture and for his own purposes as well.  It was pretty cool in my opinion.

This week is my last week of work.  Can't wait to come back home!

Business Trip: 天目糊 (Tianmu Lake)

I was just on a business trip from July 18-21 at Tianmu Lake. The purpose of this trip was to discuss a new project with some people from another company for what I would assume is some sort of power plant. They chose Tianmu Lake for the nice scenery/location and to stay at the Hentique hotel which is right on the lake. First four of us left Sunday morning, Han Zong, Yao Yao, Chen Jun, and me to set up rooms and prepare for the rest of the people from our company and the other company to come on Monday. It was about a 2 hours' drive from Hangzhou. I roomed with Yao Yao; he's 26 and pretty outgoing and funny, so we got along pretty well. He went to buy gifts for the people we were hosting and he ended up buying them 160 GB Ipod classics. Nice gift I'd say =P. For dinner, we went to a nearby restaurant where I had snake, which is apparently a delicacy even in China, since most restaurants won't serve it. At night we went swimming and to the hot springs they have on the mountain side. They weren't real hot springs, but it was cool since they made it look natural by making it out of rocks and being pretty much right with nature, which unfortunately means there are large cicadas swimming around in the pool and mosquitoes everywhere (each foot has at least 5 bites and they itch like crazy. I guess mountain mosquitoes are very hungry).

The next couple days were mostly the same. They had meetings in the hotel, and I just stayed in my room during that time, relaxing and watching TV. They were planning on going sight-seeing on Tuesday, but they had more business to attend to Tuesday afternoon. When they finally finished, I went swimming again for a little while with Han Zong and another co-worker, since a couple people were still out running errands. We ended up going to dinner pretty late, and when we finished around 9 the people in restaurant pretty much all left and we were the last ones there. They pretty much forced us out. Afterward five of us (all guys) ended up going to get massages. I'm a bit ticklish, but it was very nice. I got lucky and got a pretty cute girl too =P. Definitely the best part of the trip =).

It was a really fun and relaxing trip. Only 2 more weeks before I come back the Michigan! Below are some pictures from the trip.

Hentique Hotel:

Our room: (Note the bathtub...)

Restaurant in the Hotel:

Business Meeting:

Tianmu Lake:

Orchestra

Yesterday night, a family friend of ours took me to see the Lille National Orchestra (from France) at the Hangzhou Orchestra Hall. The surroundings were quite pretty at night, with some interesting buildings and pretty lights. The orchestra was very good, and they ended up doing three encores! Everyone in the crowd seemed to really enjoy them. Some pictures from the night are below.

A cool looking hotel:


A new government building:


Hangzhou Orchestra Hall:


Lille National Orchestra:

Shopping

So this weekend wasn't extremely eventful, but I got a lot of shopping done. On Saturday my uncle came to help me find some things that I would need help buying, and we ended up getting really good deals on all of them. They key to bargaining is just to name a price, and if they're unwilling to give it to you to just say "we're leaving" or "we'll go look some place else." Usually they'll start to give you a lower price. We ended up spending less with everything put together compared to the original price of the first item! Today I went to Hefang Rd. where there are bunch of shops and vendors to buy some more stuff as well. The weather in Hangzhou is getting really hot and humid though, with a heat index of well over 105 F. Therefore I've been trying to stay inside and enjoy AC =). Another week of work ahead of me. Also only a month before I go back to the US.

Kenny Comes to Hangzhou!

Kenny Tang came today to visit Hangzhou. He's been in China for a couple of weeks now, visiting Beijing and Shanghai (for the world expo). Quite an interesting turn of events took place... First he called me at around 9:50 and said he was at the train station, so my cousin and I walked there and then called to ask where he was. He told us he was at the ticket office, but when we walked over there he wasn't there. I called him and it turns out he was at the other train station in Hangzhou, all the way to the south. My cousin happened to notice a sign that seemed to say that bus 537 would take him to our train station, and he luckily saw one and was able to get on. However when I called him later he didn't pick up. When we (my cousin, his girlfriend, and I) finally ran into him at the bus stop (about an hour later), it turns out he had dropped his phone right after that conversation and had broken the screen so he couldn't unlock his phone (it's a touch screen phone). On top of that, no one could understand his English while he tried to borrow someone's phone to call me back. It was a crazy turn of events, but thankfully we were able to find each other. We had lunch at a restaurant called "Grandma's" and proceeded to visit West Lake. It was a bit cloudy and drizzly (it rained for only a few minutes though), but it was still a pretty good day for sight-seeing.

There was this really cool looking tree:

We then decided to climb the mountain you see in the background of the first picture. We got to see the tower up close:

There were also some really cool rocks on the mountain, and people were climbing these really steep rocks. It was quite impressive.

Thankfully Kenny is big and strong:

After dinner we walked him to the bus stop so he could take the train to the south train station. It was a really crazy day, but I'm glad we were able to run into each other. Nonetheless we had a lot of fun =).