Chengdu Trip #7 - Chengdu, Day 1

I finally arrived in Chengdu ~48 hours after leaving my home in California. Since Cathay paid for all the hotel and food, I guess it wasn't too bad. On the flight from HKG to CTU, the pilot told us the weather in Chengdu was good but a bit misty. It's always "misty" in Chengdu; I wonder if that's the official CCP term for smog. I also ended up talking to someone on the short flight. She was returning home to Deyang after two years in Perth, Australia. She moved there with her husband for a better job and now she's back to get her 12 year old daughter. It was interesting to hear her perspective about westerners vs. Chinese people. She was amazed how nice and polite Australians were and the high level of customer service. I can attest to the crappy customer service culture here in China. She thinks the quality of life is much better in Perth and she's applying for Australian PR/citizenship even if it means giving up her Chinese citizenship.

I'm staying at a friend's apartment again and the Internet connection still does not work for my computer. However, Blogger seems to be unblocked by the Great Firewall for the moment so I can see and update my blog from her computer. Last night, we went to the local supermarket to buy a rice cooker and some other foodstuff. Like everything in China, the place was totally chaotic. At least the rice cooker was cheap (¥108), not like some of the US$300 Zojiroushi ones I saw at Mitsuwa back home. Since I spent a night in Hong Kong already, I thought I was jetlag adjusted already but I was wrong. As soon as we got back to the apartment, I fell asleep on the couch. Of course I was wide awake at 3:00am local time this morning.


Supermarket lady chopping up our ribs.


Fresh (and some not so fresh) vegetables

Today is going to be a PMI work day. I'm going to the Sheraton Lido a bit later to meet up with a business visitor, and bringin him to the factory. Since Leon won't arrive until this afternoon, I'm going be the translator until then. Sigh... I've only been here for 18 hours and my nose is killing me.

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I've been religious about checking expiration dates in China now. Good thing too since this is what I got on the Dragonair flight. I know sometimes they put the manufacturing date, but this clearly says "EXP: 01 04 08" on the cover. There's no way to explain this other than the fact that it expired a year ago. I looked at the package for the person next to me and it said "EXP: 04 02 09" so something is definitely wrong with mine. I didn't drink it.