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.