Saturday 14th June 2014

Beijing, Tuesday 07:20.

I have just been to Starbuck, an Amerciano is an Americano, and the call the sized the stupid names they call them in Starbucks all over the world. Globalisation has its place, a coffee is a coffee wherever.

A ten and half hour flight, an hour to go through customs and here I am, in the land of the Jade Dragon and other such things, and my pulse is not racing yet. Strangely. Outside the rain steadily falls from a yellow sky, I kid you not, people wander around polishing and sweeping anything. The airport gleams. It is a very nice airport, sparkly.

I woke at five, er, yesterday, and laid in bed till half past, then we got up, had a coffee and Jools dropped me off at the station for the ten to seven train. I decided to dodge London and travel to Gatwick via Redhill, which is much cheaper, and just quicker.

The train from Dover was soon full of commuters, and so it was a relief to take the train to Redhill and have a carriage to myself. At the airport, there was no queue to check in, security was just a few minutes, and so I had nearly four hours in which to get breakfast.

With such a wide choice, I chose a Mexican themed place, but the food was blandly British, with hardly any spice, and even the BBQ beans were just plain old Heinz.

I dossed around, then went to board at half twelve, but our baggage got lost and we sat on the plane for an hour whilst the bags were found and loaded, and then we had to wait more to get a slot. And then we were off, me, oddly disinterested, and yet, soon we were flying over Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Russia. Russia lasted for ours, Then Mongolia and then China.

I had a seat in the mddle of the plane, so I saw neither England slip from below us, but I did watch the in flight navigation as we crossed western Europe, eastern Europe and on into Russia. The day passed, but we were flying so far north that darkness did not completely come. The sun rose again as we headed over Ulaan Batuur and on into China.

In China rain was falling from the leaden and yellow skies. I saw us land through one of the windows across the aisle. It looked like any other international airport, it could be anywhere.



The queue at immigration were huge, but after an hour we all got through, I was half-expecting to be refused entry, but my passport was stamped and I went into China. Or down the escalator to the train station for the shuttle ride to the next terminal to collect our bags, then get through customs. And THEN you would be in China.



I had a five hour wait for Anni, which could mean much more coffee. My body clock told me it is half one in the morning, but it is bright daylight outside.

Welcome to China.

Five hours passed. I read and finish the book I had brought with me, I still had an hour to go until Anni arrived. At half twelve I went to the exit from the arrivals hall and the arrival of Anni. I saw our taxi driver from across the hall, it was all going so well.

Anni arrived, and we followed the taxi driver to the garage, loaded the car and headed off into China. Which from our seats was mostly motorway. But the traffic was a mix of western cars, some high spec Mercs and VWs and even Bentleys, and old 3rd world style trucks, hauling all sorts of goods throwing out huge clouds of fumes as they chugged along.

I guess we had no idea what to expect in China, in that what would the towns and cities look like, what would the countryside be like? We headed out of the airport car park and into the craziness that is the traffic on one of the seven rig-roads that circle Beijing. Traffic was mad, cars jostling for position in whatever lane they wanted. At each intersection, more traffic joined the jams, and no one ever seemed to give way and cars and lorries just forced themselves onto the nearest lanes.

And no one used indicators, each lane had its own speed limit, and it was frightening at times. We had some 120km to go, so we saw lots of crazy driving, sudden lane changes, but the driver always seemed in control, and anyway, we were so tired and jet-lagged we hardly cared.

Once in the countryside, we saw huge expanses of fields, criss-crossed with drainage ditches, and then rising from the flat landscape huge new constructions of flats and massive buildings, most were as yet unfinished. And then the fields appeared again. And it was like this mile after mile.

Tianjin is about 30 miles across, and we headed past the port, the old town, the airport before we made our way into TEDA, where the hotel was. We pulled up at a massive Marriott hotel, our bags were unloaded and taken into the hotel. Everywhere was black marble and shiny surfaces. As we signed in, cups of lemon tea were brought to us, before we went up to our huge rooms.



The room was stunning, a big bed, a big desk, a big TV and a big shower, which was wonderful. We met down in the lobby and walked round the block, on three sides we were hemmed in my wide six lane roads that looked suicidal to try to cross. We headed back to the hotel, had a pint of cold local beer and waited for dinner at six.



We had the buffet, which was good enough, more than good enough really, but by now we were so tired we would have eaten anything.



Wednesday.

I awoke at eight the next morning with a wooly head, I had just woken from 13 hours sleep! I was supposed to have met Anni for breakfast some half an hour before, so I quickly dressed and went downstairs to find she had tried to call me on my mobile and on the internal phone in my room, neither of which had stirred me.



So, after breakfast we decided to head out into the city and see what we could see. I had read little of Tianjin before travelling, so it came as a surprise to learn that the centre of the city was a half hour taxi ride away.



And so we hurtled off back down the motorway dodging from lane to lane, passing trucks on either side. Once again we lived to tell the tale. Once in the city, we went down wide and busy streets, until the driver pulled off a 180 degree turn scattering scooter riders and pedestrians in all directions before dumping us at the kerb.



Before us was a Chinese arch, and beyond the historic street, which we hoped would be at least photogenic. In the end it turned out to be hundreds of tourist tat shops, but the people and the stuff they sold were interesting. We wandered around, trying to avoid eye contact as the owners tried to sell us something gaudy. On reflection, buying some gaudy tat would have been good I think. Instead we walked on.



We had also decided to try to find and ride the Tianjin Eye, a huge Ferris Wheel, we had seen it as we rode across a bridge, so we walked along the river hoping to find it. As we walked under a bridge festooned with lions, there about a mile away was the Eye.



So, we walked in the bright sunshine, with the sun beating down, past pleasure boats, but mostly locals fishing and smoking. They seemed to catch stuff, which shows that the river was clean.



The wheel is built in the central reservation of a main highway in the middle of the bridge that carries the road over the river. And an impressive piece of engineering it looks to. It was seven quid to ride, which seemed fine to us, despite there being many empty pods, we were encouraged to enter one already occupied by a young couple. Oh well.


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From the top we spied a temple complex near the bottom of the eye, so once off the wheel we walked across a not very busy road, through a small indoor market and to the gates of the tmple. Hmmm, tickets would be needed, lets see if I could go to the kiosk and buy a couple.



Using the old tactic of holding two fingers up and handing over loads of cash, I managed to buy two cheap tickets and get change back too. So we went in.



I guess its surprising to find that the Chinese are so religious, after decades of communist rule, and yet there were hundreds there, praying, lighting incense sticks and doing lots of bowing to statues. We wandered around, taking shots, just enjoying being there.



It was mid-afternoon, and we were hot, could we find a place to rest and get a drink? Well, it took a while, in the end we found our way back to the old town, we bought a couple of bottles of water, but were still thirsty. We found a fast food place and managed to order two Cokes, despite the waitress claiming not to have heard of it, there was even a soda fountain behind here. So with pointing and talking slower and louder, she got it, and brought us two cups of Coke, and we were happy.

Next we had to find our way back to the hotel, so we tried to get a taxi to take us back. The first couple refused, but the third seemed to know they way, yet took us a different route, but got us back in roughly the same amount of time.

Time then for a cold beer before dinner.

Cheers

Thursday

And the day arrived which was the whole reason for being here in China; work at the factory here, show the customer round and hopefully they would be happy. I set the alarm for six, just as well as I did as I could not sleep, finally falling asleep after three and so being jolted awake after something less than three hours.

I met Anni at breakfast. Yes, breakfast. I mention this as breakfast in Asia can be an adventure; stir fried vegetables, noodles, rice, fruit, cereal, fried eggs and bacon. There was something just about for everyone, including big mugs in which to drink coffee from. Proper man-sized cups offering enough caffeine to kick start the day.

The taxi was waiting; a taxi ride is always an adventure, as most speak no English and so making yourself understood is a challenge, at least this was arranged by our hosts and so was free and the driver knew where he was taking us.

Through the quite scary morning rush hour traffic with a mix of modern cars and ancient trucks, the fumes were horrible, but as rules of the road apply even less to taxi drivers here in China than at home, we were heading out on the motorway soon enough. Every direction seems to have at least a six lane highway leading to it, and so we headed to the factory and work beckoned.

I won’t go into details about work, except to say it all went very well, and at the end of the day we were all happy and the visit for Friday was cancelled as we did it all in one day, as expected that we would.



Once all was concluded, we were herded into a large people carrier and we made the half hour drive back downtown, this time in heavy evening rush hour traffic, to a very posh and expensive restaurant. I had battled with chop sticks for dinner, but whatever skills I had learnt then, deserted me and I was only able to get a few morsels onto my plate. I gave up eating, but our hosts were very happy, and there were plenty of smiles, even laughs. I say that, there were lots of laughs as we shared jokes, it was good to see that people of all cultures can mix and get one.



Next we were taken back to the old historic street, the thought was that we would be able to buy some gifts for our families. Sadly, all the shops had closed, and we wandered around before fining one stall open and so one of our Dutch colleague’s bought four wooden frogs, which he tried and failed to haggle the price.



We ended up on the Lion Bridge as dusk fell, the sky was the colour of fire, and people were flying kites which were lit up by small battery powered lights. It was a magical sight, and as we turned away from the sunset, the full moon rose between two skyscrapers in the east.



One of the Dutch guys spent half an hour haggling to buy one of the kites, then we walked down beside the river to board a pleasure boat for a trip up the river. I was by now shattered, and had wanted nothing more than to go back to the hotel since we left the restaurant. However, we accepted the tickets for the cruise, and at nine fifteen the boat cast off and we were on our way.



Tianjin is huge, I mean really big. It is a suburb of Beijing, and is even bigger of course. Beijing has something like 25 million inhabitants, as one of Beijing’s suburbs Tianjin has 11 million inhabitants and Tianjin has many suburbs itself, one of which has 3 million inhabitants. Its mindboggling.



The modern skyscrapers stretched for miles along the river, and away into the distance. Most were lit up, many more were still being built, it was like a scene from Bladerunner with it seeming to be an electric city, which oriental voices being broadcast across the city.



We ended up at the Tianjin Eye, now all lit up and looking perfect in the dark, rising over the river. I took many shots, most of which came out, at last the boat turned to head back to the quay. I was shattered.

It was a 40 minute drive to the customer’s hotel, then another half hour to ours, so it was just shy or midnight when we got out of the taxi at the hotel. We were to be up in seven hours for more meetings at the factory, better get some sleep…..