Dalian Day Two

About to board the high speed train

On our second day in Dalia we were told that I must accompany Joseph on today’s business trip to experience the high speed train. Mr. Jang was very proud of the high speed train. The train goes 300 kph or about 180 mph and would take us from Dalian to a town with one of the factories working with Joseph’s and the Chinese companies. We passed some small cities, some skyscrapers apartment buildings and many rural areas with hovels like I’ve seen in Mexico or generally impoverished areas. However the predominant scenery was wintering orchards.

Miles of greenhouses

Orchards in winter from the train

As it was winter the landscape was grey and the trees bore no fruit so we inquired about the type of trees we were viewing. The orchards were primarily cherries and apples. We approached our factory town about an hour later the landscape appeared darker from what I would soon find was pollution. We were picked up at the train station by a fleet of cars including a Mercedes and a BMW and taken to a lunch spot in town. And yes, we were brought to a private room with a lazy susan round table. First, however we picked our meals out from a variety of real and fake food props. I selected three vegetable based dishes.

Some real, some fake to help you decide what to order

The new crew of businessmen were like all the Chinese businessmen we had met. They were eager to please and master class hosts. In addition to the vegetable dishes I ordered there were many more veggie dishes and also Dalian fish dishes. We then made way to the factory.

View of the factory gates from the boss's office 

In the office we dined on tea at a traditional tea table while Joseph and the businessmen talked business. When it came time to tour the factory I opted out thinking I could sit in the office and write. However, Mr. Jang, knowing me quite well at this point decided to give me a tour of all the factory animals. First, Mr. Jang brought me the boss's dad who had somewhat of a penthouse office. The office was on the third floor and was made to resemble a tropical garden. There was a fountain with Koi fish, two Macaws, a gazebo and several trees, some living, some dead and made to resemble living trees, and of course and elaborate tea table. After feeding the Macaws some chestnuts Mr. Jang and boss dad brought me outside to meet a gang of dogs.

Holding a box of chestnut treats

 The dogs were sweet and eager for attention and contained in pound like cages which was sad. They let one out to play with us which lightened things up a bit. It seemed as though they thought it was funny that I liked their dogs so much. I assume the purpose of the dogs was to guard the factory at night as they were not indoor pets. We then went to another kennel with peacocks and roosters. Their setup was roomy and the sand in their pen was freshly raked. I called out to them in my chicken call and boss dad got me some chicken feed to give to them as he and Mr. Jang chuckled over my chicken speak. Then we retired back upstairs with the macaws and the tea table. I lost my interpreter when we divided up so I bided my time hanging out with the Macaws and sitting at the tea table while Mr. Jang, boss dad, and another Chinese guy chatted. They were hospitable, kept my tea cup full but communication was a bit challenging so we didn’t try too hard.

The rooster and peacock den

Boss dad is wearing the white shirt with no jacket. 

Eventually Joseph and the rest of the crew rolled up, they did a little business talk, we took a picture, and then we rolled out to catch our train back to Dalian.

On the way to our train, our Dalian interpreter Carter asked me how China differed from my expectations. It was a difficult question to answer because I don’t know exactly what my expectations were. I’d never heard of Dalian before Joseph told me we were going there so I had no idea what to expect. But I wasn’t expecting it to look like a Russian-gothic-Chinese-Pittsburgh. I guess the overall air quality in China was better than I expected. I didn’t expect to be too impressed with Dalian but I was. An additional barrier to answering this question was that every city we had visited was pretty unique from the rest. So, it was hard to make generalizations about China. 

The presents thus far

Something about China I struggled to figure out is the hospitality. We had never been hosted so hard in our lives. At this stage of the trip I had bags of fruit, tea sets, tea, silver thermoses, enjoyed countless feasts, and had been privately escorted wherever I needed to go in fancy cars. My tea cup was always full and I had been encouraged to take more food on my plate at every opportunity. But on the street strangers were not so friendly. When I went to the Dalian train station on my own to get information about trains the workers spoke zero English and made pretty much no effort to communicate with me. They weren't exactly obliging and that’s a pretty good representation of interacting with strangers in China. In other words, the great disparity between the behavior of our hosts and strangers was confusing and made me wonder if the hospitality is a cultural obligation and not a true sentiment. But our hosts did feel warm and sincere..

Dalian at night

Still reflecting on Chinese hospitality I set out of our hotel to buy a bag to contain all of our gifts. Tomorrow, we fly to Beijing and leave the factories behind.