Archive for August, 2009

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A word on Chinese businesses

August 27th, 2009 by Johanna | No Comments | Filed in China, Work

This is the internship that never ends. I’m polishing company profiles on the Top 500 Enterprises in 2008 for China.org. A few observations:

  • The largest companies are state-owned. Of the 200 or so company profiles I’ve gone through, about 3 (rough estimate) were labeled private. Another 190 (again, rough estimate) were “large-scale” or “mega-sized.”
  • Some companies, like Chinalco (#31) and Haier (#34), built their companies around one main product (in these cases, aluminum and household appliances). Other companies, like China Oil and Food Corporation (COFCO #26) and Legend Holdings (#28), diversified a bit, but its products and services are still mostly related. (Legend is in IT, real estate and investments, and owns Lenovo.). Still, a lot of these huge conglomerate, state-owned giants cover a hodgepodge of industries. China Resources (#37), for example, has its “core businesses cover retail, power, breweries, real estate, medicine, textiles, chemical products and gas compressors, among other things.” Another one, Shandong Weiqiao Pioneering Group Co., Ltd. (#70), is involved in spinning, weaving, dyeing-finishing, apparel, home textiles, thermoelectricity and aluminum. I get the first five but have no idea how thermoelectricity and aluminum fit in. Guangsha Holding Venture Capital Co., Ltd. (#111) started as a construction and real estate company, but has since expanded into media, energy, finance, tourism, education and medical care.
  • The diversity of industries these mega-conglomerates covers mean that they are umbrella organizations for hundreds of subsidiaries, joint-ventures, holding companies and other business types whose differences I cannot readily distinguish.
  • Among the many state-owned businesses, a frequently seen statistic is how much “profit and tax” a company earned and produced for the state.

More on Datong

August 24th, 2009 by Johanna | No Comments | Filed in China, Shenanigans, Work

I wasn’t planning on writing anything for work about my mini-holidays, but I had such an adventure in Datong that I thought it’d be a pity to leave it all out. It turned out to be a little info guide for would-be visitors to Hengshan and the Hanging Monastery.

Beijing Burgers: They more than exist!

August 24th, 2009 by Johanna | No Comments | Filed in China, Food, Work

OK, well, against my advice and wishes, work decided to put up my remaining hamburger stories without Chris’s video accompaniments.

Chris and I were not able to visit as many burger joints as we had hoped (trouble setting up interviews, etc.), but in the end, it may have been for the better. I mean, how many Calories did I consume? According to CalorieLab, each hamburger came with 531 Calories (single, regular patty; with condiments and special sauce). Even though we only visited four restaurants, we technically had five burgers each: 2,655 Calories! That doesn’t even including the fried onion rings on my Montana BBQ burger or the guacamole on my California burger or the cheeses on all of my burgers. Yummy!

Anyway, Chris and my burger quest continues: Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.

Remember me to China

August 20th, 2009 by Johanna | No Comments | Filed in China

Well, I’ve been back in the States for a week now. China seems like it never happened.

Here are some funny expressions Chinese people use:

  • “Remember me to ____.” This is the equivalent of “Say ‘hi’ to ____ for me.”
  • “Just a (little) so-so.”
  • “En” This means uh-huh. It’s actually a Chinese word, 嗯.
  • “A gay,” as in “Did I sound like a gay?” Although, most foreigners and ignoramuses use “gay” as a noun.

The long road home

August 13th, 2009 by Johanna | No Comments | Filed in China, Stories

0023 Beijing time

Beijing Capital International Airport — Less than an hour until my flight. I think I might even be boarding soon! But I’m in a small cafe in the corner of the gate, which is tucked in the basement below all of the other terminals. My return to the U.S. has not begun well. Air China overbooked Flight 981, so I got stuck with an aisle seat. For 13 hours. Oy.

Then I had to walk probably a mile and half with all of my stuff (there’s a lot of it) to Gate E52, which ended up being in the basement. Now I’m sipping a latte, which is actually a cappuccino, and it’s really small, and I paid 29 kuai for it. I wanted to use the Internet, but it’s not working. I guess I already have spent 229 kuai today, charged to my debit card, which I hope won’t rack up huge conversion costs. Please, Wachovia, spare me.

This is my first coffee I’ve had since I left the States. I can’t believe I’m leaving still…

Goodbyes were short and sweet but otherwise anti-climactic, as goodbyes usually are. Shouldn’t there be something to mark my leave? I barely notice that I’m gone.

I miss Beijing already. My last picture of Beijing is one of my breakfast, a shao bing jia jidan.

Byebye, Beijing =(

0048 Beijing time

Aboard CA Flight 981 — It gets worse. After walking for a mile and half, I then had to be transported to the airplane via bus, a ride that lasted about five minutes. Then I had to climb stairs to the door of a Boeing 747-400 in the blazing Beijing heat that struck a couple of days ago, under a sun that isn’t being blocked by the usual Beijing smog. Just to be clear: I’m carrying the maximum-size carry-on suitcase, a large bookbag and a huge purse that weighs even more. Everything is stuffed full. Thanks, China Air, for being too cheap to rent a real terminal. Oh, and I’m also in heels, which I decided to wear because they took up more room in my suitcase than my flip-flops. I realize I am a bit excessive and have completely dressed and packed wrong for the occasion, but don’t they realize that some people have three months worth of luggage? I paid 200 RMB for my overweight luggage, which if it had been 2 kilograms more would be triple that price. Actually, it was 2 kilograms more. I had to repack my luggage and cram things into my carry-ons and other checked bag. Oy.

Please, please, Wachovia, do not make me pay a ridiculous amount for paying in a different currency.

Less than 10 minutes until scheduled takeoff. Half of the people aren’t even seated, yet, so we’ll see.

1608 EST

New York — Off the plane, which wasn’t too bad, except I had an aisle seat in the center. There were several annoying little boys running around, but in the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t ire-inducing. I actually didn’t sleep that much or feel all that tired. Now I’m through customs and checked in, just waiting at the gate. I was put in the line with the slowest customs official, and every person who got off the plane after me that got to go ahead made me more sour. Then of course, my gate is at the very end of a different terminal, so I had to walk for forever to get there again. Flight’s a little after 7 p.m. Of course, my phone is dying and I checked the luggage my charger was in. I’m thinking about buying Internet for $7.95.

Even New York can’t cheer me up. It doesn’t help that it’s overcast and grey. What a welcome home.

I suppose it was time to leave anyway. My electricity was at 10 (kilowatts? megawatts?). My bathroom drain is clogged (the shower has been flooding the entire bathroom these past couple of days). My proxy has stopped working. My public transit card is all out of money. I’m all out of money.

There are two goddamn fucking annoying babies sitting right behind me and their mothers seem to be incompetent at shutting them the hell up. Time to change seats…

2326 EST

Chapel Hill, N.C. — Back in C.Hill.

I don’t want to go home.

August 12th, 2009 by Johanna | No Comments | Filed in China

Save for some toiletries, my bags are all packed. The apartment is tidied. I have to say goodbye to everyone at the office tomorrow morning and change my yuan into dollars, then it’s off to Beijing Capital.

Some friends took me out to dinner at a delicious Xinjiang restaurant, and then we went to our beer garden.

There may be Internet in the airport. If not, then the next time I write will be in the States. Signing off from 11 Qixiancun and 89 Xisanhuan.

Thoughts from my balcony

August 11th, 2009 by Johanna | No Comments | Filed in China, Reflections

I’m enjoying the Beijing night one last time from my balcony. I haven’t sat out here in forever, it seems, which makes me realize how long I’ve been here—long enough to undergo changes in behavior. Sitting on the balcony at night right before I went to bed was one of my favorite things about living here. It still is, but Beijing nights are no longer as cool as they used to be when I first got here. Plus we started staying out later, and I usually just went straight to bed after getting home and showering.

Today was actually probably the hottest day that I can recall. Tomorrow is supposed to be just as hot, around 35 degrees Celsius. But it feels nice right now, though not very much breeze. I’ve said this a gajillion times already, but I’m going to say it again: I can’t believe this is it and it’s over. Time flies. It feels like it’s been such a short time, but thinking back to the beginning—what did I know then? How did I imagine this would be?—it was so long ago and different.

Cat and Joh’s Great Datong Ice Cream Adventure

August 11th, 2009 by Johanna | No Comments | Filed in China, Food, Shenanigans, Stories

After coming back from our big adventure to the Hanging Monastery, we rested for a bit at our hotel. We decided we weren’t very hungry but should eat anyway around 8 p.m., so we went to the hotel next door. It had a pretty nice restaurant (we had eaten there the night before). We ordered some vegetables, xiao chi and dao xiao mian (knife-cut noodleds), a regional specialty. It was very good and a lot of food. You may recall that we weren’t hungry. We stuffed ourselves silly. At the end of the meal, Catherine starts telling me about how southern Chinese people traditionally believe that there are compartments in our stomachs for each flavor and that her sweet compartment is still hungry. I told her mine was, too. It was bingqilin time.

See, the night before, Catherine and I had asked one of the waitresses at the restaurant if there was any bingqilin around the area. She said no. We walked down a few streets, and after half an hour, we decided the waitress was telling the truth and we had to settle for store-bought ice cream. We wandered into the little convenience shop on the other side of our hotel (i.e., not the side with the restaurant). All they had were the individual popsicles/ice-cream-on-sticks that are in freezers everywhere around China. Sigh. OK. I picked what I thought was a chocolate/vanilla swirl thing on a cone, which turned out to be taro and white. But Catherine hit jackpot: she got a popsicle called Strawberry Empress. Pink strawberry popsicle with vanilla cream on the inside–it looked and smelled like ice cream royalty.

Anyway, after our big dinner, we decided to go back to that shop and get us some Strawberry Empress. Except–it wasn’t there! We were like, WTF? Luckily, the side street next to our hotel was a row of little convenience stores, one after the other. We started at the first store and checked every single freezer. Shopkeepers stared and looked confused. Some of them asked what we were looking for. “You bingqilin ma?” I asked to save time. Some of them said no. Some said yes, and we were shown their stock. But no Strawberry Empress.

After 10 stores or so, we wandered into a shop with an upright refrigerator (like a normal home refrigerator instead of the industrial rectangular boxes). Catherine hesitated. “This can’t be good,” she said.

That’s when I noticed the duck! It was just waddling around outside the shop on the sidewalk. I got really excited and whipped out my camera. I started snapping pictures. The shopkeeper started making noises to try to get it to come over. “Na shi shei de ya?” I asked him.

“Wo de,” he answered.

I squealed with delight. “Jiao ta guo lai!”

He tried, but the duck was hungry and looking for food, he said. It was the cutest thing ever. Then I remembered our mission. “You bingqilin ma?”

He opened his refrigerator and pulled out a drawer. “Yao shenme zhong de bingqilin?” he asked as he started showing us his bingqilin.

“You mei you caomei de?”

He pulls one out. No, not it. Another one. We peer at it. Wait–this was it!

“Yes, zhei ge! Zai lai yi ge!”

He searches and searches. No more.

Because I hadn’t yet had the greatness of Strawberry Empress, Catherine let me buy the popsicle. It was delicious. We wandered down the street, now asking the shopkeepers if they had “this kind” of popsicle. No.

Finally, we saw another store with an upright refrigerator. It was a sign. What kind do you want? Strawberry flavored. Oh, here are some. No, this kind. But this is also strawberry. No, yiding yao shi zhei zhong de.

This kind? Oh, yes!–a Strawberry Empress for Catherine.

So we asked the shopkeeper to take a picture of us with our popsicles. We are still pretty certain we bought the last two Strawberry Empresses in Datong that night.

Down to the wire

August 10th, 2009 by Johanna | No Comments | Filed in China, Work

The last intern left today, so now it’s just me. Just tying all the loose ends…

I finished my last article today and turned it in, so I can finally say that this internship is over. I organized all of my work files on my computer and cleaned out the random accumulation of junk on it. I finally left the office around 8 p.m. and went with two of my favorite coworkers to Hai Wan Ju, an old-style Beijing restaurant that had THE best zha jiang mian. Then I went back to the office and cleaned out my desk. I’ll still pop in at the office the next few days, but I seem to have caught the packing bug. I started packing last night and am actually mostly packed, except for a lot of loose items that I’m waiting to see where they’ll fit. It’s quite possible that not everything will fit in my three suitcases. It’s not that I want to leave, but I’ve been watching and hearing about all the interns packing, and for once, I am planning ahead. I know I won’t have much time tomorrow, and none on Wednesday and Thursday. I just returned seven beer bottles to our little neighborhood corner store that Chris is so fond of. They tried to give me money for them, but I kept refusing to take it. It was only 3.5 kuai (which would buy me breakfast for 3 days). I told them I was going back to the States soon and thanked them for their hospitality. I feel as if slowly packing and cleaning the apartment—I feel a really strong need to have everything in order before I leave—with a mechanical precision will preoccupy me enough to prevent me from acknowledging that I’m really leaving.

Catherine and I spent the whole day shopping yesterday as she bought last-minute gifts and I splurged on a BCBG dress. Then Celine picked us up and treated us to a nice Taiwanese dinner. She treated us to a great lunch today, too, before Catherine had to leave for the airport. And yet, I don’t think it’s hit me that it’s pretty much over.

I’m going to the market again tomorrow to buy some fabulous glasses for Catherine and me and possibly a really wild qipao that probably offends every Chinese grandmother out there. Also, apparently my mother wants me to get her a Chinese shirt. I’m hoping to have lunch with my uncle and his family, who are here in Beijing for vacation, on Wednesday.

And then Thursday is the big day.

Chinese reporter guilty of bribery

August 9th, 2009 by Johanna | No Comments | Filed in China, Media

According to American media ethics, good journalists will never accept gifts, money or other sorts of compensation for their work in an attempt to remain unbiased. Thus, I thought it was really qiguai (weird) when my roommate was given 100 yuan for covering a story on kids of government officials. Then a few weeks later, I was sent to cover a press conference and festival opening and given 300 yuan (about $45) from the organizers. It made me more than uncomfortable, but I accepted that this was the Chinese way.

Thus, it was even stranger to read that a reporter from the state-owned CCTV was found guilty of taking bribes from her lover who was the brother of a man under investigation. The Wall Street Journal explained it thus:

China’s criminal law defines the crime of bribery as occurring when “state personnel take advantage of their office to demand money and things from other people” or when they “obtain favors.” In this case, the Shanxi procuratorate’s office successfully argued that Ms. Li was an employee of a government organization, since CCTV is run by the state. However, in practice, it is common for Chinese journalists to receive “red packets” filled with cash for attending press conferences and other corporate events, purportedly to cover their travel expenses.

My cash didn’t come in a hongbao, just a Chinese money envelope. Anyway, I guess in China, it’s OK for the state to bribe reporters. Sometimes I forget how hypocritical and nonsensical China is.

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