Chengdu Trip #5: Wednesday

It rained last night so people in makeshift tents were all wet this morning. I had to step around people sleeping in the apartment lobby. With a lot of people volunteering in the earthquake damage zones, the traffic is noticeably less during the morning and afternoon commute. There were no aftershocks last night so a lot of people spent the night in the rain for nothing.


Driveway to Jinghou hotel. People were sleeping in tents, under tarps, and in their cars.

For the past two days, we’ve been taking a different route to work in the morning. I think our drive likes this route since a portion of the road is under construction and there are very few traffic lights. The problem, for passengers, is that the road is still unfinished and there are many obstructions in the roadway, mostly manholes that stick up about 6 inches from the road surface. Everyone still drives fast through this section so you see all these cars, including ours, in a crazy slalom race.


Why is that huge piece of concrete in the middle of the road?!


Road outside the current PMI location. Still unpaved since my first trip to Chengdu one year ago.

We stopped by the new factory again this morning to discuss the electrical room construction with the general contractor. We also took a look at the 2nd and 3rd floor of the building to see if anything was damaged during the earthquake. Almost everything is complete, including bathroom, showers, and the kitchen/dining area.


Some serious cooking equipment


Power conduits for our casting furnaces along the wall


Grrr, what do you want?


Some chickens at the back of the building lot. Maybe we can make kung-pao chicken with the huge woks in the 3rd floor kitchen.


Lunchtime! There are a few other companies in the same compound as PMI. I think they get rice and a few dishes in huge pots and bring their own bowls/utensils and eat out in the parking lot.


We went to a nearby restauant for lunch; I guess we didn't want to join the local lunch crowd. Kung-pao chicken! It wasn't too good... the chicken was kind of tough and the peanuts were not crunchy.

After lunch, we had a pretty long meeting to go through our costing information and manufacturing process. I need to determine the new factory’s output capacity, lead time required for new orders, and a comprehensive cost model to make sure we're making money. I think this is more work than I normally do for my "real" job at Broadcom.