Dinner Time

The custom in China is for the hosts to hold a banquet for the the business guests. The range from unbelievably elaborate to relatively simple like this one. Here we are eating at a Mongolian hot pot establishment. The meat - beef and lamb - is very thinly sliced. You dip it in the boiling water at your seat for a few seconds to cook it. Then dip in spice as you like then eat. Repeat. A few interesting side dishes. The white one in the foreground is bone marrow. In the back we have beef trachea. There are some fish balls and shrimp balls. You cook those until the float. All this is washed down with copious amounts of bai jiu. Bai jiu is a white liquor up to about 104 proof. Hard to describe the taste but let me tell you a story. A couple of years ago there was a huge scandal involving the second most popular baijiu in China - a brand called Kweichow Maotai. Another company was producing fake Maotai. They has discovered that by diluting grain alcohol and then adding a couple of drops of DDT (yes, the pesticide) they could exactly duplicate the taste. They then counterfeited the bottles and packaging and were in business.

Four of us went to dinner at this seafood restaurant near the hotel one evening. Intersting concept. First you pick some dishes from the display case and the waitress records your choice on her handheld device that links to the kitchen.

The you choose from the fresh seafood bins.

These are especially fresh! As each dish is prepared it is delivered to your table. Total bill for 4 people 250 RMB or $USD 9 per person including beer, tea, tax, tip (no tipping actually.)

Company Town Life in Tanggu, Tianjin, China

The custom in state run companies in China is that the workers take a long break of about one and a half hours at lunch time. Most take a nap. We used the time to wander around the village/town area near the plant. This area is basically a company town. In days past, the company built and provided the housing free to employees. They also provide the steam to heat the homes in the winter. You can see a steam pipe in the picture above. In China, the state owns all the land. Companies and individuals can only lease the land for 70 years. Not so long ago the state run companies turned the housing over the the employees and they no longer assign housing. People can buy or sell the right to live in the property for the remainder of the lease.





This is a small courtyard with 4 or 5 homes opening from it. It is across the street or alley from the picture above.





This is a tailor shop in the area. Basically the front room of the home. The husband was wearing a Dagu Chemical uniform and the wife does the tailoring. One of the Shaw women in our group (who is Chinese-Canadian) took some things here to get altered. Bascially USD$1 to redo a lined jacket to make it a size smaller.


On the right, this white sign says funeral home - full service.





On the left, the trucks are handymen. Plumbers, roofers, etc.









Interesting construction on this building. I guess the reeds are for insulation.

These folks are making an extruded crispy puffed rice snack on the street. The engine powers a little extruder like device that pushes the stuff out in a ribbon which is wound up into the rolls you see. Tastes pretty good. Only saw them one day. I imagine that they moved to a different place every day. They reach a wider audience and stay a step ahead of the vendor enforcement police.

Same deal with this guy. He is making popcorn and puffed rice snacks. He loads the corn and a little sugar into the black pot, closes the lid, heats it up for 6 minutes until the pressure reaches about 70 psig, then he kicks the lid open and out flys the popcorn with a big BANG!

This is a bus stop sign advertising painless abortions.

This is the local hospital. They specialize in burn care according to the sign. I'm a little skeptical.

There is a market in the village near the tailor shop. Lots of fresh vegetables. Didn't see a grocery store so I imagine this is where everyone gets their dinner. Here is a Google Maps link to the area I'm describing. The market is the 6 vertical roofs in the center of the picture. You can click the View Larger Map and explore the area.

View Larger Map

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=39.009122,117.625535&spn=0.003043,0.004828&t=h&z=18

This is the road leading down the street to the market above. It connects to the north west corner of the market in the picture above.

This is the egg delivery truck. I guess he goes around to all the markets and supplies eggs.

This is an assortment of beans.

You know the fish is fresh when it is still swimming around. This is apparently a time honored way of buying fish. You can imagine that if people are willing to put melamine in baby formula they wouldn't think twice about selling you week old fish.

This place is selling prepared food and snacks. The package in the lower right hand corner is spicy dog meat. I bought a package for my teammates back in the States. No report on the taste, yet. I'm guessing similar to chicken. What do you think?

This is a view from the fourth floor conference room that we met in everyday. Big contrast on the two sides of the river.

Most days we took the ferry. You can't read it but the blue sign says the capacity is 300 people, 12 cars, 74 life jackets. No need to worry - the life jackets are safe. They are in a locked cabinet.

Saturday in Tianjin City

Here is a picture of the old Catholic church in Tianjin. It was built in 1917 by French Jesuit missionaries. I used Photoshop to adjust the perspective. Because the camera was pointing up to get the entire church in the frame the fornt of the church and the camera sensor weren't parallel. The original picture looked like the church was falling backwards.

Here is the original picture for comparison.













Here is the inside of the church. Still being used for services everyday.


I used the same perspective adjustment technique on this picture, also.







Across the street from the church is the beginning of a long pedestrian only shopping street. The first thing we see is a car dealer promotion. As you can from the picture the construction workers were fascinated by the model, too.







It is apparently wedding planning season on China. This shop sells wedding photography, I believe. They are trying to attract attention and stand out from the crowd.






This shop window is using live models to model the wedding dresses. I was admiring the life-like mannequins when one of them smiled at me. I had to take a picture. I should have tried the polarizer to see if I could get rid of some of the reflections.





The department store down the street was having a fashion show on the sidewalk in front of the store. I don't know too much about wedding dresses but these look a little down scale from the ones above.

The models are preparing to go out on the street in this picture.









I don't recall what she was promoting. She and another young women were standing in the middle of the street. A guy was handing out brochures to anyone who stopped to look.








This place was a block or two away from the shopping street. We saw it as the taxi drove by. We walked back down to take a look. I'm still not sure what the place is all about. Some combination of tourist attraction and antique store. Entire building is convered in ceramics.







Here I am standing in front of the wall.







From the shopping street we went to what is known as ancient culture street. Here I bought what were claimed to be Qing dynasty era moon cake molds. Could be - the dynasty ended in 1912. They look old.










This women was cruising through the area looking for stuff to recycle.