Brace Yourself...

I haven’t posted a blog in what seems like two months. It’s really been a week which is far too long and I apologize. However, I didn’t want to post a blog that consisted of travel information like flight numbers and boring tidbits like that. I wanted to wait until I had something exciting to report on. So here it is. Let me add a warning. This blog isn’t necessarily exciting. I would rate it more of an informative blog rather than entertaining. I apologize if it’s dull.

The flight back to Beijing was not too bad. As a side effect of attempting to spend the night in the airport the night before my flight from New Zealand, I was almost able to sleep the entire duration of my flights. My stay in Beijing was short. Highlight was probably getting a full head shave in a local barbershop. Hair is semi-normal as you’ll see in the pictures later.

I arrived in Hefei not knowing at all what to expect. I hadn’t met anyone here, I didn’t have a clue what I would be doing, and I didn’t know where I would be staying. Those questions are somewhat answered at this point.

Dr. Lu is my supervisor, you might call him, for the next two months I will be at China University of Science and Technology in Hefei. He has a PhD in Business and is a really intelligent and easy-going person. I quickly realized I would be staying at the University Guest House which is basically a mini-hotel in the middle of the campus. It’s nice. My room is quaint but absolutely livable. The first night I was here I was invited to dinner with some important guests that Dr. Lu was also responsible for. It was a good experience to get to know everyone and to get a feel for the people I was going to be working with. Dr. Lu is actually a pretty important person in China. His students range from Government officials to Presidents of large corporations. It's nice knowing that I'm in pretty good hands! Let's just say he's kind of a big deal and leave it at that!

A note on the University. China has it's set of elite universities. The comparisons that come to mind are Beijing University = Harvard and Xinghua University = Princeton. Well, according to several sources that I've talked to from the University and from America, USTC (the school I'm at) is usually compared to MIT. Not a poor comparison I guess. Pretty good in my book. Maybe I don't belong here! haha

The next morning we left for a conference in WuHu, Anhui Province—about a 2 hour drive. The Chinese government put us all up in a five star hotel in WuHu and each of us was given our own room with two beds and way too many free gifts. We were spoiled. Now, I’ve stayed at many hotels in my life, but this hotel was extravagant. My room was on the 27^th floor overlooking the Yangzi River and the rest of WuHu. I was so high up, my ears literally popped every time I took the elevator—I didn’t even know that was possible.

As soon as we arrived in WuHu we met with the Mayor of the city and he had a banquet for us at his favorite restaurant. Food was delicious and it was one of my first traditional-style meals. Chinese people love to make toasts! I think people toasted to me like 45 times in the past 3 days. Why? I have no idea.

After lunch we were given a tour of the Chery car company’s assembly line which was fascinating. Right after the tour we headed to the opening dinner of the Cartoon Conference. Did I mention this entire conference was about cartoons? Well, it was. The dinner again was delicious. I was able to shake hands with the Communist Party leader of Anhui Province. For those of you who don’t know what that means, it’s a big deal. He’s kind of like the equivalent of Arnold Schwarzenegger without all the movies. After dinner we rushed in to see the Anhui Province version of the Beijing Opera. (Shout out to Nichole, this Anhui Opera is about 100 times more interesting and more tolerable than the Beijing version). It was quite long, I was pretty tired and it finally ended. Here’s where it gets cool. Our drive from the theatre to the hotel was about a 45 minute drive earlier in the day. But, since we were somehow inserted into the Party leader’s motorcade and every street was shut down and every light was green we made it in about 15 minutes. My first thought was “I hope one day I’m important enough that I am in a motorcade that I actually deserve to be in, not just by chance.” The Chinese Party Leaders were forced to stay in a four star hotel vs. our five star because their hotel was apparently easier to post security. That’s right.

The next morning I woke up early and went for a run to the Yangzi River to get a close up view. The river is massive. There are freighters all along it and the water wouldn't necessarily be well thought of by the World Health Organization. Cool nonetheless.

After my run we ended up going to the opening ceremonies of the conference. It’s a funny thing in China. Big events aren’t considered important unless they have their token white man present. We were their token white men. I was invited onstage by the organizers but I failed to bring a suit to China. If I had a suit, I would have been standing alongside the Communist Party leader of Anhui province and the mayor. Why? Best way to describe this is to say that it has a lot to do with my international appearance! It was an interesting morning filled with cartoons.

Finally, we bailed and had another banquet lunch. Before heading home, Dr. Lu arranged for us to go fishing (see pictures below). Fishing in China was something I never thought I would have the chance to do. It was a really cool experience and although I caught no fish (I blame it on the bait they gave me), I had a really good time.

I feel like I’ve been extremely spoiled in the past two days primarily by the Communist Government. I don’t think the rest of my stay will be like that but it was a really great way to start off my time in China.

I’ll try to do some fun and interesting things as soon as possible in order to make this blog actually readable.

Thanks,

Michael

Pictures:

Polluted but pretty cool view nonetheless. Yangzi River with heavy traffic. WuHu in the foreground.

I wasn't kidding about being treated like royalty. Not enough space for my last name, no biggie. It's the thought that counts.

On a Chinese assembly line.

Turtle head anyone? Who would ever eat that?

I would! This sounds disgusting, but the brain is actually really delicious. Tender.

Communist Party Leader of Anhui Province

Fishing in the middle of farmland. Traditional style. Fun stuff.