My first Chinese birthday was spent on a business trip at the Ford assembly plant in Chongqing, a major city in South Central China that was temporarily the Chinese capital during the Second World War.
I set off on Sunday evening for what was to prove a slightly disappointing travel experience. As it was a domestic flight, rather than the business travel to which I have become accustomed, I flew economy class on Sichuan Airlines. The food is of dubious quality, so I had planned ahead and saved some pizza from the night before to take with me. As I checked in I had a heart sinking moment as I realized my very tasty dinner was still sitting in the fridge. Still, I managed to put the disappointment behind me and boarded the flight. I got stuck in to my book, when suddenly I started to hear what sounded like Chinese singing; confused I looked around only to realize that a fellow passenger in my row was indeed singing. The man in between us did not seem at all fazed by this so I decided to just try to ignore it for the rest of the flight.
The week proved to be quite a culinary adventure. On the Monday night we had the local delicacy of Chongqing Hot Pot. This is rather like a fondue, only instead of cooking your meat and vegetables in oil, you boil it in a pot of spicy soup. We opted for the medium spiced soup with lamb, beef, pork and prawns. When the prawns arrived they were on skewers sticking out of a bed of ice and one of my colleagues took great enjoyment from picking one out and then demonstrating how the legs started to move frantically, as yes, you’ve guessed it, they were still alive!!!
For my birthday I started the day by opening all my cards whilst enjoying a Chinese style Full English of bacon, eggs and of course chicken sausages. For dinner we went to a river boat restaurant and had some Chinese wine to toast. Having had a good fill of various Chinese dishes, I was surprised to see a large bowl of noodles being put on the table. This I was informed was the main course, as it is traditional in China to eat ‘long noodles’ on you birthday as they symbolise long life.
On returning to my hotel room I discovered a box on the coffeee table and inside was a birthday cake, that one of my colleagues had organised for me, which I took it into the office the following day.
On the final evening my boss and I went to a very small basic noodle restaurant, where you sit on plastic stools. The rather dirty looking, innocuous looking establishment turns out to have featured as one of the best restaurants in Chongqing in a travel programme and did indeed serve excellent spicy noodles. I inadvertently ended buying my boss dinner as when we asked for the bill we were informed it would be 14RMB, which we assumed was per person. I handed over my money and when my boss then did likewise they informed her that I had already paid, so she promptly put her money back in her purse. Hopefully this can only be a career enhancing move though, due to the generosity I showed by paying the full £1.30!!
During our first 6 months in China we have become used to all the fake goods on offer, but in Chongqing I managed to experience a new fake first. When heading back to our hotel one evening we got an unofficial taxi. I was surprised to see that he had a new looking Mercedes, but on closer inspection it became apparent that this was in fact a fake. It was a simple deception, which I am sure you could all try at home. Simply rip of the badge of the low cost Chinese brand and stick in it’s place a Mercedes badge. The disguise is completed inside by simply blacking out the badge on the steering wheel and Voila! you are now the proud owner of a Mercedes!!
All in all it was a good week, although, rather like the Queen must feel every year, it was lovely to return home to celebrate my ‘official birthday with Lucy, William and Oliver. They surprised me by coming to meet me at the airport and when we got home this is what greeted me.....
No comments:
Post a Comment