I had the opportunity to take a business trip to some city called “Wuhan”, in the Hubei province, just above the Hunan province, where some really spicy food comes from (OK, that’s how I relate the location of this new city in China. It’s actually located roughly in eastern central China). I had never even heard of this city until I realized I was going there for a recruiting trip at one of the local universities. Turns out this city is three times the size of Shenzhen, with a metropolitan population of thirty million. Jeez.

Inside the Shenzhen airport:

Three colleagues and I (two Chinese and two American) went to the Shenzhen airport around 12:30 to catch an hour and a half flight to Wuhan. Being as busy as I’ve been at work, I had no time to grab lunch, so it was fortunate that there was a McDonalds in the airport (as little as I like McDonalds, it’s a big relief from constant Chinese food). I bought a cucumber burger and the boned equivalent of Chicken McNuggets (when you order chicken anywhere, you can be assured there are bones included). Tasty.

On the flight, I remember looking at the heads of all the passengers in front of me. That sight particularly struck me for some reason – lots of homogenous heads of black hair. The flight was simple enough and upon arriving, we met the friends of one my colleagues who kindly offered to drive us to the university where our hotel was located. The flight was only an hour and a half, but the drive into the city is about the same amount of time. On top of that, the friends weren’t exactly sure the best way to get out, so we ended up driving about two hours to get to the hotel.

I liked this billboard: Chinese business men reach new heights of success (check out the “Beijing 2008″ insignia):

The drive was entertaining. The weather was Seattle-esque this time of year – cold, rainy, and foggy. We were on a modern highway in the sticks. After an hour, I began wondering just where this city was. We passed several small villages with tightly packed brown brick-and-mortar houses connected with narrow dirt paths. There were a few yaks hanging outside of a few houses. Slowly, the villages seemed to connect together as we approached the outskirts of the city. I found this part fascinating. The scene was abject – completely colorless except for brown, people standing around little stoves, or squatting and smoking, and trash. Occasionally, I’d get a glimpse deeper into the back streets and could only see more of the same. It was hard to get some decent pictures being in a moving car, but here are some:

Of course, again, the traffic was entertaining as well. My experiences as a passenger with my college roommate helped prepare me for China. More than one time, I’d hear the blaring horn of an approaching vehicle. I’d turn my head and look out the front window to see a huge bus barreling towards us…in our lane. The horn basically meant, “I’m here and in your lane so watch out.” We’d just calmly move slightly right as the bus narrowly missed us, all the time the bus driver was still leaning on the horn.

The buildings slowly grew taller and appeared more frequently.   I then noticed in front of us was a huge suspension bridge that we were approaching.   Then I realized, we were about to go over the Yangtze river.   I felt a strange sense of awe crossing such a large and famous river.   I wanted to take a picture but never had a good opportunity.

Finally at the hotel, we met Sally, the HR girl in charge of organizing the recruiting events. She’d had some food waiting for us. It was basic, but welcomed:

Here’s the food…I’m holding a fried meat popsicle:

A few moments later we were on our way to the auditorium. There were maybe three hundred students here. Matt gave a presentation on our office and each of us talked briefly about our roles. After a Q&A, we collected resumes and headed back to the hotel to go through them and pick out the ones that we wanted to talk to the following day. This took us until about 11:30PM. Sally then had to schedule and contact the students.

The next day, we met with the students in our hotel rooms. Interviewing Chinese people is so different from people in the US. I’ve done lots of observing and note taking here, but to summarize, they are very smart but express few original thoughts or desires. I spent about 30 or 40 minutes on each interview. Sally weeded out about half of them based on their ability or inability to speak English. At the end, I probably talked to eight candidates.

One of the girls who was hired for the day to manage the schedule and candidates was especially interesting. She approached me in between interviews and confessed to being nervous having never spoken to a native English speaker before. What really struck me was when she told me she didn’t like her English name, “Lily”, and she asked me if I would choose another name for her that was “more complicated” but still began with the letter “L”. Well, I felt honored. I still need to do that; I got her email address. No idea what I’ll pick.

(l-r) The student audience, the first cuts (going through resumes):

I’m finally starting to get semi-decent at ordering my own food at restaurants. I’m almost always with someone else who speaks Chinese who orders. When we’re at Chinese restaurants, I can never read the menu, so when I’m asked about what I want, I usually just say something vague like “How about some spicy beef?” or “I’ll eat anything; just order whatever you like”. The latter statement has potential to yield something interesting. Anyway, I found a noodle dish at TCL (my favorite lunch restaurant) that I really enjoy called “Yi Ping Mien”, or “First Class Noodle”. It’s a tasty spicy bowl of noodles with fillings of beef, pork, egg, and select vegetables.

(l-r) Yi ping mien, Michael and Judy at TCL:

One thing that’s hard to get used to is the lack of a cold drink at meals.   Of course, I guess I could order one, but I always just drink what ever one else does:   either a tiny cup of tea or, in the picture above, a bowl of green liquid, which is basically the residue of a soup.   The Chinese are amazingly efficient at using every part of the vegetable or meat and this is an example.

Here’s a traffic oddity in China.   First of all, the traffic lights are a little different.   There are three arrows (left, right, and straight), very short yellow lights, flashing green lights that serve as yellow lights, mixed red lights and green arrows.   The various states seem overly complex for a place like China, but they make sense after a while.   But…if you’ve got a red light, you’re not allowed to turn right on red.   OK, that’s not a huge cultural difference or anything, but what is so strange is that drivers seem to obey that (and anything that the traffic light indicates) without question, while at the same time making their own rules anywhere else on the road.   There may be no one coming, the right turn may be free and clear, but I almost never see anyone breaking that rule.   There’s a particular intersection that I’ve started watching every day where a right turn is so simple, but I never see anyone make the turn while the light is red.   When driving though, it’s common (as in every day) to see three lanes of traffic form where two are meant to be, people walking between lanes of moving traffic, cars stacking up vertically (essentially forming about five or six lanes when there are only two) to make a left turn, and even cars sometimes driving against traffic on major roads.   So, even though the “right on red” turn is a small arbitrary optimization in the US, no one even seems to consider it here.

Toufu is very popular in China. I’ve had numerous dishes of toufu, each with a different twist on it. Not long ago, I heard of something called “Stinky Toufu”. Yes, that’s the name and, unfortunately, I didn’t learn the Chinese name for it. Walking around the city the other night, I happened upon a hideous smell. I thought it was a broken sewer line but it was actually actually someone grillin’ up some “stinky toufu”. This is one dish I don’t think I’ll try. I’m pretty sensative to smells, so I doubt I could choke this stuff down. I don’t understand what the appeal is, but there are also plenty of Chinese people who can’t abide the foul food either. Here’s a shot of the guy responsible for the stink. This is on the streets of downtown Shenzhen.

One of my colleagues and good friends, Pavan, visited the office here in Shenzhen. It was great seeing him and catching up. Another group of colleagues from the US also showed up and I spent two evenings and lunches with them, fattening up on western food…and Indian food. I’ve lost about 10 lbs on the Chinese diet, but gained a little back after temporarily switching. We shared an office for his 3-day visit. Here’s a shot of the man at his desk:

Work was crazy this week. So, I had little time to update my blog. Hoping to get back on track.

Time for another kick axe haircut, this one being even cheaper at 80, about 10 bucks (I have no idea why), and even better than last time.   I’m getting spoiled here.

After that, I decided to go all out (for me) and enjoy the rest of the evening before heading back in to do some more work, so I went down to the caffe and talked to Sandro and the waitresses.   This time, I had them talk to me only in Chinese (not Sandro), unless, of course, I had to ask how to say something.   That’s good practice.   I had a salad, some white wine, and some excellent pasta.   I finished off the dinner with some tang yuan which is the traditional dessert on this final day of the Chinese New Year season.   Theyre these little balls made from sticky rice with a gritty blueish black sweet substance in the middle.   They’re served in sweetened water.   They are supposed to help bring happiness and prosperity.

Again, there were fireworks tonight, but with more frequency.   Someone told me of a party not far from where I live, but now it’s pretty late and I need to go do some more work to prepare for tomorrow.

I’d only heard a little bit about Chinese opera, and from what I heard, I suspected it wouldn’t be easily endured by my ears. Well, coming out of the subway to the environs of Mix City (can never remember the Chinese name of the exit), I heard the caterwauling of Chinese opera. The sound is most identifiable from the female – high-pitched nasal shrieks accompanied by a small orchestra of Chinese instruments. By the time I got in a good position to shoot some cheap video with my camera, the woman had finished. So, I captured a man singing…still entertaining, and easier on the ears:

More shots of buildings (right across the street from the operatic singing):