Go Sports

For the first time since I've been in China, I've flipped on the TV. The first channel that comes up is the sports channel. Instead of an outdoor team sport I was seeing, the WMA which I think stands for the World Martial Arts Tournment. After dinner I saw a ping pong tournamnet, which was really cool considering our own ping pong games this weekend. Then there were featurettes on weight lifting, volley ball, snooker (which is like pool but without numbers). Honestly I've never been into watching sports on TV, but I have to say I find Chinese sports TV facinating. I guess I found another piece of me that is really Chinese.

Speaking of being Chinese, here's some more food photos, for your pleasure.

-Andrea

Shrimp with dragon fruit

Roasted Lamb

Spicy Beef Dish



Mixed Vegetables



Red Wine Pears

Fried Dumpling

Hot Pot

Going Forward

So unfortunately Blogger had a system update and a bunch of posts were deleted including my last post about the Shijiazhuang Tiedao University project.  So if you had a chance to see this limited time post, Congratulations!

I've had some great experiences in the last week.

1) Mukul and I attended a class at the Shijiazhuang Tiedao University - 1 hour 50 minutes of completely in Chinese. We answered a few questions from the students, who spoke great english (missing blog post)

2) China Team 13 visited Qiao's Grand coutyard, near Taiyuan. (Raise the Red Lantern starring Gong Li was filmed here)

3) We also got to visit Pingyao Ancient City where we got to see actors in period clothing.

4) We went to one of our translator's university and played ping pong with the students

5) I had a 1 hour body massage including fire cupping for only 45 RMB ($7 USD).  My back looks horrendous, but I feel great.

Update on bathrooms:
This weekend at the Pingyao Ancient City, we were left with only one option for a bathroom, and it was going to be another 2 hours before the next one. We were dismayed but not shocked that it was just a small four-walled brick room in the middle of a dirt parking lot with a little canal as the "toilet." No stalls so you just studiously avoid looking at your neighbors. Thank goodness it was not co-ed. Of course no hand washing facilities or toilet paper. The lack of ceiling gave us some relief for the smell if not the bugs. what shocked us was that we had to pay to use these wonderful facilities. I think the Chinese really know how to use supply and demand in their favor.

-Andrea

The Great Wall Adventure

“Ni shuo zhong wen ma?” I ask our driver, and he furiously shakes his head. Oh dear I thought, he doesn’t speak English. So starts the IBM adventure to the Great Wall. It is time to put the sparse Chinese I learned form friends, family, and Taiwanese Dramas into place.

The great wall is impressive and is just like the photos. It is fun even with all the people. We lost a couple IBMers on the wall but thankfully, we found them later. There was something that looked liked a ride down from the Great Wall and we debated taking it, but we are not exactly sure where it went and the possible hike was a bit intimidating, so we decide to go back and grab lunch.

Then it is time for lunch. All the restaurants in the area are small local restaurants. We wander into one where we found a photo menu. But we still could not identify what the food was. Then the server shows up with a menu in English, and we are like “aaaah.” In our group, we have two vegetarians; one does not eat eggs, onions or garlic. Luckily Sue has a paper that has, in Chinese, phrases like I am vegetarian. I do not eat eggs. I do not eat garlic or onion. I pointed at the phrases “I do not eat egg” and “I do not eat garlic or onion.” Then I asked “which one doesn’t have?” They pointed at beef noodle soup. I was really confused as to why they would recommend a non-vegetarian dish. Then I had an epiphany that I did not emphasize the no meat point, and I pointed at the phrase that says “does not eat meat.” Let’s just say it was another 20 minutes of wild gesturing and halting Chinese before we finally got our order in, asking for some dishes to not be spicy. We received all our food without any onion, garlic, eggs, or hot spices. The guys that ordered kung pao chicken, missed that bit of pao flavor to their food.

We finally got back to the van a bit late, looking forward to the Ming tombs. The other IBMers say they think we’re not heading to the Ming Tombs, and ask me to ask the driver where we were going. I was like, I don’t know how to say Ming Tomb in Chinese. Finally I tap the driver and point at the exit for Ming Tomb as we drive right by it. Of course I don’t understand a word he says. So we use our emergency weapon, our ABV contact, Edward, who helped arrange the van in the first place. We phone Edward and asked the driver to speak to him. We finally get to Ming Tomb at 3:30pm. So I tell the group we should try to get through it as fast as possible since we were supposed to meet with ABV in two hours and it would take another at least hour to get to Beijing. It was small tomb with some nice grounds. Nothing brilliantly exciting after the Great Wall, but it is still interesting to see.

The team finally rounded up and was back in the van to Beijing for our meeting with ABV and of course we hit traffic. If you think New York traffic jams are bad, think again. In the midst of the highway traffic, Sue tells me she has to go to the bathroom and could not wait. So we have emergency call number two to Edward. As the driver pulls off the highway there’s a little accident as another car smacks our van’s mirror. Our driver stomps out and yells at the other driver and fixes the mirror. We were sympathetic, but then driver gets back in and gets back on the highway and we see a McDonald’s pass by. There are some frantic noises from the others telling me get the driver to pull over. I ask the driver about the bathroom. He says we’re really close to the hotel. We’re staring at the traffic and Sue. I tell him in Chinese, “she can’t wait; she really, really can’t wait. Can you stop?” He pulls off at the next exit and all was see is residential buildings. Sue’s ready to go on the street. The driver pulls over, and he looks at me like, what do you want to do. I’m thinking this is crazy Sue is not going in the street and tell him “to go a little.” Lo and behold a KFC appears. People start screaming, “stop the car.” I ask him to stop the car, he just needs to go to an area where he can pull over. I say I know, but the noise behind us get louder. So he just stops in the middle of the street. Sue pleads with me to come with her. So I jump out of the van with her. I ask for the washroom in the first restaurant, and they say no. We zoom to the next building, and I ask for the washroom, and they point the way. Sue is lucky that I learned how to say washroom the day before and for some reason my Chinese is improving under stress. After the emergency is alleviated, we jump back into the van where it was able to pull over legally.

We finally get back to the hotel, where we find our Australian Business Volunteers (ABV) coordinators waiting for us. I hug Lucy and Emily happy to see a fully bilingual people that could translate everyone’s requests. I blindly follow them with the rest of the group to the restaurant, where she ordered for the group. We have a wonderful dinner with food that was properly seasoned and vegetarian dishes that hand no onion and garlic in them. Happy to just enjoy the food, I cannot think of a better ending to a very interesting day.

-Andrea

A View of Beijing

As Sue mentioned, trying to get onto the internet can be a challenge.  We all have our theories, mine is that the one internet router cannot handle the activity of 11 IBMers.  I think most people are asleep, so I'm going to post these scenes from Beijing while I can...stay tuned for a belated story of our adventure to the Great Wall.-Andrea

Summer Palace - Kylin, the legendary animal with the power to punish evil and repel the wicked 

Summer Palace - Peking Opera performance

Summer Palace

Summer Palace

Summer Palace

Lama Temple - Guiness World Record Buddha

Forbidden City - Guardian Lions (Female always on right holding cub, male always on left holding the world)

Forbidden City - Imperial Throne

Forbidden City

View of Fobidden City from Jingshan Park

View of Fobidden City from Jingshan Park

Outside Forbidden City

Great Wall Badaling

 

Taste of Beijing

Sorry for the lack of posts. I had problems connecting to blogger the last few days. So I'll try to catch up on writing the next few days. In the meantime, here's a little taste of Beijing for all my foodie friends.
-Andrea


Peking Duck Set



Pork and Beef Noodle Soup



Shrimp with Fresh Fruit

Tofu and Chinese Greens



Cold Spiced Beef with Chinese Pancake



Mock Sausage and Chicken Patties with Apple Sauce (made with Vegetables)



Mock Steamed Fish (made from vegetables)



Steamed pork buns



Foie Gras

Sweet Potatoes with Orange



Savory Mushrooms



Ice Cream with Sweet Potato, Mochi, and Red Bean

Lychee filled with Passion Fruit



Mango Mochi and Sweet Asian Pear Soup

 

second day in Beijing

Yesterday I had a wonderful evening with Andrea and her father - we went to a restaurant where we had lots of interesting (vegetarian!) food that was presented in a lovely, floral way.

This morning I met my second CSC China 13 teammate - Tom from Germany. We decided to explore the subway and after some time we found the station :o) and got to the forbidden city, which we did not enter as we will do that tomorrow with Thiago.

Two very interesting things happened at that place:

1) I was very honoured because obviously the Chinese are so happy that Susanne from Austria is visiting their country that they had Austrian flags fly all over the place in front of the palace. To my greatest disappointment I had to realise in the end that they did not do that for me... a state visit of the Austrian Chancellor. Damn.

2) When I filled in the immigration form, I had a good laugh, because they do not use the word "foreigners" but "aliens" - I thought that this was very funny, but now I know why: they DO think we are aliens! Only 5 min after we stepped out of the subway, I was being photographed like some kind of rare bird. The last time I felt like that was when I was sitting on horseback wearing a strange costume symbolizing a Bavarian mascot at a German traditional parade.

I wanted to add some photos, but it just does not work, so I will try to add them later this week.
The assignment is approaching and I am getting nervous about it - but at the moment we are still on holiday and it is fascinating to dive into this very unfamiliar world...

stay tuned!  - Sue

Packing Day

Took a good 4 hours to pack yesterday . Still not done.  Trying to wrap up all work activities before i leave later in the day. Both excited and nervous. Worry that I didnt pack the right stuff . My first time being away alone for over a month without my spouse. Kind of little odd for me :). Did a lot of cooking for the past week and my freezer is all filled up.

Would be on the plane soon. Counting down..

-Susanna

An American in Beijing

This swanky fast food café photo above is actually of the McDonalds in Wangfujing. Not only do they have the regular selection of burgers and fries, but they also feature a “McCafe” coffee and dessert bar that was absolutely delicious. Usually I love to get the old McDonalds deep fried apple pie, which some of us remember from the 1980s and is no longer sold in the US. Instead of apple pie, this Mcdonalds offer fillings of pineapple or taro.

McCafe – Chocolate green tea cake and chamomile tea - 27RMB

We also visited the KFC for breakfast. Unfortunately we were too late for the congee (rice porridge), but we got an opportunity to still try a Chinese American breakfast meal. It was pretty good. The egg and cheese sandwich had some sort of mustard mayo dressing so tasted a bit different from American egg and cheese sandwiches. I was hoping they would have multiple egg tart flavors like Taipei. But I could still eat KFC egg custard tarts any day.

KFC - Egg and cheese sandwich with hot soy bean milk and Portuguese egg tart - 12RMB

-Andrea

Tourist in China

China is definitely as lush and green as shown in travel magazine photos. The Summer Palace is absolutely beautiful. It is one of those places you think to yourself, how wonderful it would be to live in if I were royalty.

Apparently people were on vacation for the national Labor Day, so it was a bit crowded. I now know what it must feel like to live in a county with over 1 billion people. Even in major tourist areas, the majority of people are East Asian. Even with the crowds, you can still feel the peaceful vibes that would inspire names such as Garden of Harmonious Interests and Hall of Happiness and Longevity.

Culture realization of the week:
I definitely did not expect to be surprised about the bathroom situation. I knew that most washrooms were floor toilets, a.k.a a hole in the ground. I knew that toilet paper and hand washing facilities might be limited. But what I did not expect was the line situation. As a universally expected, most women’s washrooms in popular places have lines. But in Beijing, the “lines” are much more aggressive than those in my past experience. Like the NY subways, you essentially pick a door stall to stand in front of and try to slip in when the door opens before anyone else can get in. In very crowded situations, I even saw multiple people coming out of one stall. Luckily, multiple people did not try to slip into the stall with me.

-Andrea

take off!

Hi everybody,
in a few (very few) hours I will take off for Beijing and the chaos in my living room is increasing! I am quite convinced that I packed all the wrong items... I am so excited!! Next entry will be from very far away... keep your fingers crossed for us.... - Sue

Last Day at Work before Take Off

Do you know the feeling that the more you try to prepare the more you feel unprepared? Well, I can tell you, this is definitely the situation I am in right now.
When trying to look for useful presentations that could be of interest for the companies we will be working for during the weeks to come, I get lost in "too much information". At a point I stopped to download "interesting stuff". We will find a way at the time we know our clients.
The other topic is "learning Chinese". Believe me, I did not try to be over-ambitious. I tried simple things. Like pronouncing the city, we are going to, Shijiazhuang. People look at me as if I was kidding, when the tones leave my mouth so very reluctantly and it sounds something like 'schitschischuang'. The expression on my face when I say it is something in between complete despair, wonder and embarrassement. A completely different language.
A nice colleague of mine taught me to say "I am from Austria" in Chinese. This is something like 'wo shi ao di li ren'. (same expression on my face, same very unchinese sound).
When I really gave up on my Chinese was, when I learned about the different tones and ways to pronouce them which is leading to different meanings. I came across the sentence: 'Mama qí ma, ma man, mama mà ma.' Which means: 'My mother is riding a horse, the horse is going slow, mother is upbraiding the horse'. Come on!

... to be continued. All the best to you all, Sue

It's the thought that counts...

     “Clock sounds like ‘end’ in Chinese, so don’t give a clock as a present,” I was told.
     “So what would make a good present for my Chinese acquaintances?” I ask my Chinese friends and family. A condensed version of the conversations goes something like this…

     “You should get I love New York souvenirs.”
     The next person says, “Those trinkets are not useful, you should get something that they would use.”
     Then one proposes, “Vitamins, Chinese people love American vitamins.”
     “Good idea,” says another, “but it might also indicate they’re in bad health. What about American ginseng, it’s the best ginseng out there.”
     I say, “I don’t know if they like that health stuff. I really need a generic gift for any age or gender.”
     “Chocolate,” says another friend. “Chocolate is universal”
     “Chocolate is a good idea” they agree, “but really I think vitamins are better.”
     “OK. Chocolate it is!” I decide. ”I know this great New York artisan chocolatier, Jacques Torres. They’re a bit pricey, so the smaller gifts are just plastic bags.”
     “Chinese like nice packaging. You should get See’s.”
     “They don’t sell See’s in New York.” I respond.
     “Get Lindt, it’s pretty and well known in China.”
     "But Lindt is Swiss, not American. And you can get Lindt in China.” says another friend. “Try Ghirardelli, you can package it nicely.”
     “No white or blue boxes, it means reminds them of death.” Another reminds me. “Also no denominations of four, because the word ‘four’ sounds like death.”

     So in the end, I purchased two boxes of Jacques Torres artisan chocolates, two boxes of Ghirardelli chocolates, and packaged sets of 12 Ghiradelli squares in auspicious red boxes with gold ribbons. I definitely feel like there's been a lot of thoughts put into these gifts, I hope they count.

-Andrea

Ok... here we go....

Only a few days left before leaving home and heading for China. So much to do in the last office days and hopefully all is set for packing.

Somehow you get the strange feeling that you are either totally unprepared even though you have been working on your assignment for almost 3 months now and/or that you will miss to pack something extremely important to take along. Guess some people will call that travel fever.

Back to work now to get everything in my job settled before I leave and looking forward to the last team preparation call today!

- tom

Welcome to the IBM Corporate Service Corp China 13 Team Blog

 

I was trying to think of a good way to explain the Corporate Service Corps (CSC) for those who are not familiar with it, when I saw an excellent blog post by Prasad Raghunandhanan, who went to Ghana in 2009.  As he simply puts it, "IBM Corporate Service Corps program is part of the Global Citizen’s Portfolio initiative announced by CEO Sam Palmisano in 2008, to develop leadership skills while addressing socio-economic challenges in emerging markets."  The CSC experience spans six months: three months of virtual preparatory teamwork, one month overseas and two months post service. IBM has deployed over 1000 employees from ~47 different countries.

Our team includes 11 people from various functions (consulting, IT, finance, marketing, sales).  We will be meeting for the first time on May 7th in Beijing, and then traveling together to Shijiazhuang, China to meet our clients. 1-2 IBMers have been assigned to each client, however we will be living and working together as a team.   We look forward to the projects and experiences, which we have only heard about these past few months.  

We would also like to show our appreciation to IBM's partner organization, the Australian Business Volunteers (ABV),  for organizing our program.  

-Andrea