YOGAYUGA

I was quite busy last week in Mainland. The trip was fine. The flight was a bit delayed but not too bad. Work went well. I found more materials for the design of my products. My supplier took me to an interesting wholesales market for ideas sourcing. It is the world biggest wholesales market. You can find all kinds of products in there such as houseware items, hardware products, gemstones, jewellery parts, travel bags, and many many. It’s too much to explain in details. However, those are low end products with low quality. They are good for selling to Eastern Europe, Africa and Middle East. It’s not something suitable for what I am doing.

I saw people selling tiger skin on the street. I asked the seller if it was real, and of course he said it was real, but I don’t think so. The hair was so soft. It didn’t look like real. If it was real then it would be very bad as tigers are animals under protection. They really shouldn’t kill them. The seller told me that the skin costs RMB2,400.00. My God! RMB2,400.00 for a piece of tiger skin if it was real. I feel bad about it.

I was extremely tired after I was back. I used to go for work trip without feeling tired, but now I need to have long hours of sleep to recover my energy.

I read a very criticising article on the plane. It’s the airline magazine published by China Southern Airline. It’s a four A3 pages long article. It’s about comparison of Zhang Zjiyi and Gong Li as well as all the Chinese actresses who ever taken movies in Hollywood. It wasn’t a good article about Zhang Zhiyi. It’s quite mean to her actually I am very surprise to read that. She is very famous in international movies, but not gaining popularity of market in China. Her acting has been criticised not having much improvement compared with Gong Li while they were both in Memoirs of Geisha. Although Gong Li is older than her, and only taking Hollywood movies in recent years, her acting is whatsoever much better than Zhang Zhiyi. It said the Hollywood movies Gong Li ever acted which were much better standard than those Zhang Zhiyi was doing. Well, personally, I am not sure about it as it seems those Hollywood movies Gong Li ever acted, which are not stories able to express her real acting. They are just movies directed by the famous western directors. I guess this article is more or less related to the bad attitude of Zhang towards public media of Greater China area. She always refuses interviews with local media but accepts the interviews from western medias, so it’s inevitably of her being written in this way in her home country.

It seems that the whole article is not very pleased with those Chinese actresses who want to get famous in Hollywood. It mentioned those who can get famous in the west by acting, who are only Gong Li, Zhang Zhiyi and Maggie Cheung. The rest who can get their names appeared in Hollywood those must be willing to take off their clothes on the big screens, those who don’t mind acting low class characters, maybe those who can do fighting movies or those who are pretty but can’t act. It also mentioned western movies could have extra benefit in international market if they have famous Chinese actresses playing in the movies that related to the popularity of Chinese heat. It seems that Chinese media is very much prefer their own actresses going home to do more acting rather than in the west.

For some reasons I like this airport. I feel like being in the airport between 50s and 70s in China. I also feel like I am in airport somewhere of former Soviet Union or any small airports in Eastern Europe. It’s very small and backward, but I just like it. You can only go to three different destinations from this airport. It is very simple, just right down south, Shenzhen, pass through Xiamen, and up to north, Beijing. I always like things being very original and simple. Modern airports are built up by high technology facilities, which are in practical form, but old small airports do have much closer relationship with their passengers.

I think I like small cities in up north China more than big cities like Shanghai and Shenzhen, Guangzhou in down south. People are simple and up front in the north. They are easy to get close to. Business people are not too tricky, but of course there is always exception. I guess I am lucky to meet honest business people so far….so it’s also part of my fortune….

I have ever lived in many hotels of China, but never seen such funny shape of hair dryer…. ^_^ Cool eh!

Ahhhh! I eventually arrived in Yiwu, an industrial city in Zhiejiang, China. I spent five hours waiting at the Shenzhen airport due to some not understandable reasons. I thought China Southern Airline is the best airline of China but it seems not quite at all. If my trip was related to personal holidays, then I wouldn’t mind waiting as I could have plenty of time but my trip was related to work then the schedule was very tight. It’s only one flight a day, and three flights a week flying from Shenzhen aiprort to Yiwu in the whole canton area. It’s the reason why I was so nervous if the flight was cancelled completely. The next flight will be on Friday then I need to travel back to HK from Shenzhen by boat again. It would be extremely troublesome and inconvenience. The public announcement of flight details was totally unclear at the airport. They announced two different departure time in two different languages. They announced the flight would be delayed to 4:50pm in Mandarin, then announced again 7:00pm in English. Such announcement was repeated again and again. When I asked the airline people to confirm the details, they just can’t give me any answers. However, I am very glad I eventually arrived though it was five hours delay.

I just found out that domestic flight is always delayed as the local people around me who took it casually. They didn’t react like the way I did. There must be lots of complains if such case happened in HK. They only offered us a bottle of water in five hours which couldn’t be happened in HK. Airlines in HK must offer free lunch for five hours delay in terms of compensation. Well, anyway I sincerely hope that there is no delay on Friday flight as the local airport is extremely small. There is not much space for sitting. If the weather changed to too cold, then it would be horrible to wait at the airport as this airport is very much in outdoor.

Hahaa I think this is very interesting and maybe funny. Speaking of policeman, there was a policeman distributing straws to customers inside McDonald. I did have a quick supper in McDonald before I got on the coach back to HK. After I got my meal, and wanted to get a straw for my coke; the cashier immediately pointed at the counter behind me. I looked back, and saw a policeman was distributing straws to every guest. He only gave one straw to each person. Someone dropped it on the floor, and asked for one more, he wasn’t very willing to give additional one to him. I think this is funny. Everyone was queuing for the straws with a tray of food meal holding in hands. I have never seen such scene in McDonald before….

Three Chinese policemen were hitting a young Chinese girl right in the front door of an exhibition hall. The girl was standing around the security area of main entrance giving promotional leaflets to visitors. The policemen asked her to leave in very impolite way. She didn’t want to leave, and they started to argue. The policemen grabbed her, pushed her on the ground, and even pushed her against the post banner behind her back. She was hurt, and shouted, “Don’t touch me! and I won’t leave!” She was strong and tried to fight with the policemen. At last, she walked away, and the policemen didn’t arrest her. I know she shouldn’t stand right in front of the security area of the main entrance but she is not deserved to have such treatment. I have never seen policemen hitting woman like that on a public street. It was even happened in the biggest international exhibition of canton area in China.

I was in the exhibition browsing around product showrooms today. I was sitting in an outdoor cafe having ice cream and ice cappuccino during my break. There was a French couple sharing the same table with me. A Chinese waitress came along, and made an order for the French couple. The French woman ordered a glass of ice coffee from the menu and specially stated she didn’t want milk. The waitress came back with a glass of coffee with milk. The French woman told her she wanted a glass of ice coffee without milk in English. The Chinese waitress didn’t understand what she said, and naturally looked at me for help. Then I told her in Mandarin that the French woman wanted her coffee without milk. She replied me the coffee was without milk orginally. I told the French woman in English what she said. The French woman looked at the waitress and insisted by saying “Yes, Milk!”. Then the waitress said “No, milk!” They were repeating this “yes, milk” and “No, milk” dialogue several times, and in the end they both looked at me for the answer. I was very odd, and felt so funny, and didn’t know what to say. At last, the French woman gave up and said “Okay! I only want sugar now.” The Chinese waitress understood what she said this time, and came back with sugar. They both said to me “Thank you!” at the same time but one in Mandarin, and one in English. It was so funny while they had this dialogue, and I was sitting in the middle of them. It looked like a scene in the movie or something.

I don’t know if there was milk inside the coffee or not, but I guess there should be milk with it. I was having ice cappuccino. Her coffee looked similar to mine. In fact if you want to have the real black coffee in China which you can only find it in some international hotels, very good standard of western restaurants and some cafes where are full of western tourists. Well, sure you can make it at home! If you happened in a general local cafes or western restaurants in China, the only ice coffee they can offer which is coffee with milk. There is the only choice even you ask not having milk.

I am not flying alone…

I was trying the inflight e-mail system on plane, but their service was super slow. It took more than 10 minutes from one screen jumped to another. This one hour journey was much better than the 13 hours LA flight as the plane was new. I feel fine with long hours journey, but when the plane was too old then it’s not so comfortable though…