One more thing...

The Chinese bootlegs have come a long way, but occasionally something rather funny slips through.In this case, the critic's quote on the V for Vendetta dvd slip case says: "V for Vendetta is a poorly paced and spectacularly disjointed rehash of Orwellian themes." -Julian Roman.

Funny stuff.

DVDs and Stuff

Hey Everyone! Bob and I just got back from quite the shoppin' trip. We bought 197 dvds.


X-Files Complete Collection - 62 DVD

CSI Collection - 49 DVD

Miyazaki Collection - 35 DVD

South Park Season 1 & 2 - 8 DVD

Hikaru No Go (Complete Series) 12 DVD (Jealous, Charles?)

24 Season 5 - 8 DVD

Lucky # Slevin

Pitch Black

Inner Senses

Crash

Cannibal Holocaust

Sin City

V for Vendetta

The Machinist

Tom-Yum-Goong - Ong Bak 2!!

Shaolin Soccer

008 Forbidden City Cop

Land of the Dead

The Godfather 1, 2, 3

Equilibrium

Seven Swords

Se7en

Stay Alive

Braveheart (Finally)

The total price was $137 USD. Not too shabby.

After the dvd shopping we bought eight 20 oz. bottles of soda plus one can in a big supermarket for a grand total of $2.60.

Bob also tried some mighty funky Chinese fruits in a market stall but we ended up simply buying some peaches and bananas.

At night, the streets are packed with people watching TVs placed outside of shops. It is not uncommon in DongGuan to see a little shop with 25-50 peeps clustered about watching the telly. I think that they are all addicted to Lost :o). One thing they are not watching is Family Guy, which is not even available as a bootleg. This is a very good thing because it keeps the maidens pure. (This "maiden" thing comes directly from our Chinese teacher who told us on the first day that you should never curse a maiden. [Although she was happy to teach us Japanese swear words.])

Bob is bugging me to finish up so we can watch some South Park (which is available in China. Go figure.)

Peace out, Napoleon.

2 More Pix...

China!

An out of focus HK nightclub

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Stuff I forgot in the last post (tho chances are you're reading this first.... Well Don't! Stop! Come back whem you're done!)

Also in Dongguan is a big ol' sneaker factory. They manufacture sneakers for Nike, Adidas, etc.
I find it pretty cool that so many brands have the same point of origin. (Kinda like food, I guess) This factory has over 10,000 employees!!

Another thin I forgot to post is that the rabbi of the Sephari shul told me he'd put me in touch with a Jewish lawyer who lives in China and speaks Chinese. (Cool stuff, huh?) Since (surprise!) I missed Shacharis this morning, I need to call him to get the info.

Ok, that's about it. Good morning to you, good nite to me.

Long Time No See

Mops, I think



Puuuush!!




About half of the factory. That's me on the right. The two buildings to the left and the one to the immediate right are factory type buildings. The edifice to the far right contains the offices, the engineerinf dept, and some storage. Directly ahead of me, and also the identical building behind me are dormitories. The bottom floor of each dorm is for eatin' and recreation, the second floor is the men's floor, and the third and fourth are for the ladies. If you follow the path in the left foreground around the building, through a locked door, and past the dogs, you'll get to the "other" dorm. The factory conditions are not bad and one floor of one building is even testing an A/C unit which will be fully implemented into the whole factory if it works well. My suggestion was to keep the fans 'cuz A/C is too expensive (and in my mind will raise the price of speakers) but I don't actually have much of a say. ;o)



A guy on a bike in China

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Yup, it's been a while since my last post. This is for a variety of reasons, but rest assured your favorite blog will be updated as often as possible.

Our second Shabbos in Hong Kong passed pretty uneventfully. Once again we davened and ate by the Sephardi shul. The most amazing thing about Shabbos there, is the rediculous (in a good way) spread these people produce each week. The sheer amount of food is mindboggling. (This week Friday night they served 3 kinds af fish including sushi, chicken, 5 kinds of dips, Sephardi stuff like cigars, kibbeh etc, roast, salad, taters and so on. Also, it all tastes so darn good. Although I certainly am not used to the Sephardic davening, the food makes it all worth it.

The Sephardi shul is located on the second floor of Wing-On plaza (a building) right in the heart of Tsim Sha Tsui which is in Kowloon which is in Hong Kong. There is also a new chabad house right nearby, but I'm perfectly happy where I am. HK also has 2 more shuls on it's island side. This past Shabbos there were about 75+ people in the Sephardi shul alone. (Pretty crazy if ya ask me.)

On Sunday afternoon, we took an express train back to Dong Guan, the city where the factory is located. The train ride from HK to DG is about 1 hr and 10 minutes. The factory has about 600 employees who work mornning to night making speakers. Twice a week they get off early from work (5:30 PM instead of 9:00 ) and relax and play basketball etc. Surprisingly, they are actually pretty good at it! Today we also moved into the dormitory. Our room is on the first floor and we have good beds, a private bathroom and shower, etc. It is all far better than I imagined it would be. I kinda wonder what it would be like to live in the real dorm with the factory workers instead of with the engineers.

The days here at the factory have thusfar been kind of boring. Although I initially was supposed to work in the engineering dept, the language barrier stops me. I often can get my ideas accross in somewhat passable Chinese, I really almost never comprehend the response that follows.

Chinese lessons have started, and like I feared the gap between Moshe and me is really to big for us to be taking lessons together. However, so far we have only had one lesson so I'll see how it goes from here.

There is more stuff I probably should post, but I am really tired so I give another crack at putting up those pictures.

China Day 2...

I am writing this as I sit in a lovely five star hotel room situated in ShiLong, China. The hotel is beautiful and and aside from a swell room features a spa, sauna, and bowling alley(For about $47 a night). Yesterday we stayed in a hotel which was also pretty nice but not nearly as swell as this one. The best feature of the previous hotel was the glass wall between the bedroom and the bathroom (sexy). There is a curtain which you can pull down if you like. On Tuesday or Wednesday Moshe and I will be moving to the factory's dorm but our future room is currently occupied by a Taiwanese technician. Unlike the factory workers, who come from deep in the mainland and sleep in a very simple dorm, I will be staying in the Taiwanese (the people in charge) dorm which is a nice house with a pool table, A/C, and a telly. And 3 guard dogs (plus lotsa cuuuute puppies).

The factory is tremendous and although I have not seen any production lines yet, I have seen many jolly Chinese people workin' away in the technical department. Tomorrow evening I will be going to Dongguan City (about 1/2 hr. away) to test out a Chinese tutor. The going rate here translates into about $7.50 an hour. I am going for a free test lesson first because if the teacher can not speak English well enough, then the effort is wasted. Also, Moshe wants to attend lessons with me. I'm way too nice to say no, but I hope he does not stymie my effort since he has no background with the language and I already have about 50 hrs. of lessons under my belt. We'll see...

China is very very different from Hong Kong. In Hong Kong everything is in English and almost everyone speaks at least a few words. In China, on the other hand, There is just about no English at all. Even something as American as Coke is completely in Chinese. Also, aside from the busiest of intersections, there are no traffic lights. Just lots and lots of scooters scooting around. In China, unlike Hong Kong, cars drive on the American side of the street, an obvious product of Britain's owning Hong Kong for so many years. In Hong Kong, the locals are quite used to foreigners since the City is such a popular destination for both vacation and business. Here in China, on the other hand, Moshe and I seem to be quite a spectacle for the locals, who could not be more friendly.

Earlier today, Moshe and I bowled in the hotel's bowling alley. The best thing about the bowling was that two attendants stand behind you and clap whenever you get a strike. Soooooo cute! Also awesome was the endless supply of hong cha, red tea, offered by said attendants.

Ahhh the tea. For a tea freak like me, China is heaven. In Hong Kong I bought Jasmine Tea, Jasmine Pearls, and I received one free Dragon Pearl (which for those in the know is like a weeping rose only made of jasmine green tea). The tea shop nearest to the Kowloon (a section of Hong Kong) hotel had 3 grades of Jasmine tea. Being me, I obviously bought the highest grade since I could never leave Hong Kong wondering about the tea that might have been. I also brought my tea pot with me and have used it frequently.

There is much more to say, but I don't have the patience to type any more. But, if anyone has specific (or general) questions feel free to post 'em in the comments and I'll do my best to answer. For now, here are some pictures of China taken by Moshe. Unfortunately (sort of), he is quite the artsy-fartsy type so even when there is a beautiful panorama, he is likely to zoom in on a single leaf or bug. This idiosyncrasy makes for some nice pix, but doesn't really help me with my blog.

...10 Minutes later....
Unfortunately, hi-speed internet in China is not very speedy, so I'll have to get the pix up later.

Got me some customs

I just got back from purchasing my very own custom suit. The color is grey with light blue pinstripes which match my Rolex (heh heh). I also got 2 handsome shirts. Total damage was about $300 US. The fabric for the suit is top quality. They advertise much much cheaper prices for big combo packages but the overall quality is quite poopy. After choosing my fabric, the Indian shopkeeps called the Chinese tailor who took my measurments (reaching into bodily places I didn't even know I had). Today I also picked up 2 "top quality" poly blend ties for about $1.25 each. These cheap ties are so nice, that now I wonder if my $7 Dolce & Gabbena is silk. I'm just a bit worried about traveling with 'spensive clothing. The tailor, however, did a good job convincing me of the fabric's quality by twisting it as hard as he could and showing me that it had no wrinkles. The suit's style is a two button high cut. I hope I made a good choice since it was hard for me to convince the Chinese tailor that this was the style I liked.

I don't know if this post interested anyone, but I am leaving to China on Sunday so increasingly interesting stuff should follow.

Heh Heh...

I just had to post this 'cuz it's pretty cool.

While meandering behind the hotel, I was approached by three um ... unwholesome women who asked me "You want a girl?" To their surprise I answered, "Xiexie. Danshi wo you nupengyou." Which means "Thanks. But I have a girlfriend." Heh heh. Knowing Chinese, albeit very limited, rocks.

The Night Market

I just got back from the Hong Kong night market. The market is made up of a tremendous number of densely packed stalls which sell a variety of items. The most common are fake clothing and fake watches. My dad told me to shop at markets which only sell one type of item, but some stuff is very hard to resist. The best part of market shopping is definitely the haggling. As soon as I thought the vendor has reached his or her lowest price, I broke out the Chinese. (Wo mei you qian, Wo gei ni san shi wu HKD) Trust me, it helps big time. Even if i am speaking the wrong dialect :)

My haul for the night is (in US $):
1 Rolex $35 (serious bargaining in the US this is at least 150-200)
If only I could figure out how to set it.
1 Diesel Knapsack $10
2 Hugo Boss shirts $5.50 each
1 Bluetooth headset $20 (very nice)

And that's it for now...

Oh, also I came here wanting to have a custom suit tailored. I still plan on having it done, but it is amazing how hard it is to get away from the stupid tailors. (Who are not even Chinese.) I wish I knew who to go to...

The island side of Hong Kong... about 2 blocks from the hotel

Here is a super-popular capsule toy store with an interesting name...

Nighttime view from the hotel window...more night pics coming soon

Rawk on!!!

A LOT of bamboo!

First of all, I have changed the settings so that non-members can post comments. Feel free to do so.

I don't have time for a long post now but I just thought I'd put up some pictures.

16 hrs...

YAY!! I'm finally here! (And still leeching wifi)

For those who are wondering, I do not recommend sitting on a plane for sixteen hours unless it is absolutely necessary. Scratch that, even if it is necessary to meet someone across the world, there is much to be said for teleconferencing. Although the flight was very long it was not all bad. The legroom was great since I was sitting in the first row. Also, there was a very interesting middle aged fella sitting next to me: an american who spoke perfect Chinese. When I asked him how he learned it, his response was kinda depressing since he studied Chinese at Harvard for three years and then it took him a full year in Taiwan before he could speak like a native. He told me that I'd need to spend at least a year in China if I wanted to have any hope of mastering the language. Hmmmmm....

After a sleepy 45 minute busride we arrived at the hotel. The check in was quick and Moshe and I quicky headed out to explore the very very very neon streets of Hong Kong. The first thing that struck me was the amount of Chinese people everywhere. :o)
The streets of Kowloon around the hotel are loaded with a tremendous variety of shops which sell clothes, electronics, and food. Lots of food. Surprisingly enough, though, everything was quite expensive. My dad warned me about this but I kind of didn't belive him. It is mostly this area which is expensive. Kinda Manhattany. Lots of very expensive cars on the streets and what seem like tourists but I can't really tell because they are all Chinese to me. I went to a seedy arcade and beat some locals at Virtua Tennis (Go Dreamcast!). Unfortunately, I did not have my camera with me so pictures will have to wait 'till the next post.

The weather is warm and very humid but it was supposed to be raining so I guess we're lucky enough.

OK. I'm really tired and must go to sleep. I hope my post was relatively clear.
Until Next time...