I Love China

I realise some of you may be panicking after seeing no updates for 5 days. I do apologise, I haven’t stopped blogging, but after a 20 hour flight (more on that later), I’ve only just recovered from the jet lag.

So anyway, here I am in Toronto, Canada for a family wedding. That’s the CN Tower behind me which I think the Pearl TV Tower in Shanghai seems to be modelled on. It was up until 2007, the tallest building in the world and is way taller than its Shanghai rival.

I promise to update more regularly from now on, but in the mean time, feel free to chat amongst yourselves.

When I lived in London we used to complain about the traffic. You’d often hear someone complain they’d been stuck in traffic for an hour. In China of course, all the numbers are bigger – bigger GDP, bigger number of mobile phone users, bigger population, bigger number of cities and bigger traffic jams. In fact, some drivers on the Tibet to Beijing expressway have been stuck for 9 days, in a 100km jam, with no end in sight.

Imagine the telephone conversations : mum, I’m stuck in traffic, might be a few weeks late for dinner.

The longer I live in China the more I am thankful my parents made the decision all those years ago to move to England. I hear many stories of horrific experiences Chinese friends have when trying to apply for visas to travel abroad.

In the last month I’ve heard of two completely independent stories relating the the Canadian visa centre in Shanghai that I found shocking.

My friend is Canadian but his wife is Chinese and they have a young child who was born here. The list of complaints is quite long and started with the usual ones, such as being incorrectly informed of what documents needed to be presented, resulting in wasted trips back and forth. Fine if you are unemployed, more problematic if like most people you actually work.

When my friend’s wife returned to the visa office with the correct documents, they had to wait for 2 hours with the small child who understandably became restless and started crying as babies are known to do from time to time. The response to this by one of the Chinese visa centre staff was to mutter “I wish I could just slap that baby across the mouth to shut him up”!

Another friend also applied in July for a visa. She has family / friends there so the apllication was classed as “family visit”. For this the Canadian visa office demanded the following:

1. An invitation letter stating the purpose and duration of the visit (quite reasonable).
2. A list showing the number of people in inviter’s household (erm, okay).
3. A copy of the inviter’s citizenship or immigration status document (e.g. Permanent Resident Card – please copy both sides, Study Permit, Work Permit, etc.)
4. Proof of inviter’s income and financial situation in the form of independent, third-party documentation from a Canadian source which is reliable or easily verifiable (seriously??).

When my friend called the visa hotline, she was also told she needed the inviter to visit the visa office in Shanghai. Yes, in addition to providing the items listed above, they were suggesting the inviter fly from Canada to Shanghai to visit the visa office in person! My friend pointed out that this could not possibly be correct but the girl on the phone insisted this was a requirement. When my friend went to the visa office in person, she was told this was (of course) untrue and there was no need for the friend in Canada to fly over.

Throughout the whole process the visa centre staff seemed unsure of the process and constantly referred to the staff manual whenever they were asked a question.

In a word, it was a shambles and my Canadian friend wrote a strongly worded complaint letter to the consulate. Apparently one change has already been implemented as a result : people with infants no longer need to wait in line.

My friend eventually gave up on the friend visit visa and applied instead for a standard tourist visa, which is what you apply for if you know nobody there and just want to go travelling. Surprisingly, it seems easier to get a visa if you don’t know anyone there!

So both friends eventually got their visas so it has all worked out nicely. And this little story is nothing compared to the US visa application story I have lined up for you, so stay tuned!

Photographer Tom Carter will be showing his photographs and telling stories of his epic tour of China at Glamour Bar this Sunday, 8th August at 4pm. As a keen photographer myself, I will be there too, but out of respect for Tom, I won’t be signing autographs or answering questions about my amazing black and white street portraits! Many thanks to Kim C for informing me about this event.

If you want a taste of what the book is like, check out this link.

Details below:

1 COUNTRY, 56 CULTURES 1.3 BILLION PEOPLE, 33 PROVINCES 2 YEARS, 56,000 KILOMETERS A PHOTOGRAPHER AND HIS CAMERA

American photojournalist Tom Carter spent two years traveling and photographing all of China’s 33 provinces and autonomous regions, creating a rich portrait of this diverse nation. Join us for a fascinating afternoon, as Tom shares his photographs and tells the remarkable stories of his 56,000 kilometer journey through a China that still remains unknown to the wider world.

Glamour Bar
6/F, Five on the Bund
20 Guangdong Lu
near Zhongshan Dong Yi Lu

RMB 65, includes a drink; students, RMB 10

The iconic Peace Hotel in Shanghai opened in the late 1920s (then called the Cathay Hotel) and like Hamilton House and the Metropole Hotel (both on Fuzhou Lu), the Peace Hotel was built by British property tycoon Sir Victor Sassoon, the Donald Trump of 1920s and 1930s Shanghai. It was universally recognised as the best, most prestigious hotel in Shanghai in the 30s and was also for a while – at 10 storeys high – the city’s tallest building.

I first visited the hotel back in 1999. By then of course, it was a shadow of its glorious past – dark, dingy, depressing and in decline. The jazz band members were all in their 70s and you get the feeling they had been there since the 20s.

If you’re not familiar with the building, just look out for the distinctive copper pyramid-shaped roof, which is now green. This was the part of the building that housed Victor Sassoon’s private apartments and dining room back in the day.

The hotel closed in 2007 for a much needed 65m dollar makeover, but I’m happy to report that it finally re-opened just last week. Now two separate hotels – the Fairmont Peace Hotel occupies the north building and as the name suggests, is now a joint venture between Fairmont (which also runs The Savoy in London) and the Chinese Jin Jiang hotel group.  The rather oddly named Swatch Art Peace Hotel (I believe due to open soon) occupies the south building on the other side of Nanjing Road, and the two are now run as separate businesses.

I have yet to visit the newly opened hotel, but it’s on my list along with the nearby and also newly opened Peninsula Hotel which houses Sir Elly’s, supposedly one of the best (and most expensive) fine dining restaurants in the city.

Reports to follow, most likely after payday, unless anyone would like to sponsor me to dine there and then and write what’s certain to be a glowing review!

Fairmont Peace Hotel
20 Nanjing Road East
Shanghai,
China
200002

Another fun business trip to Guangzhou. My last trip was to Shenzhen a few months ago and I ended up being delayed about 7 hours arriving at home well after midnight. I was hoping lightening wouldn’t strike twice, but alas, it wasn’t to be.

The meeting was at 9am Monday morning which meant having to travel on Sunday. The flight was at 4.30pm which meant I had to leave home around 2.30pm, so my Sunday was a right off, but I figured I’d arrive in GZ around 7pm and have a relaxing leisurely evening.

When I got to the boarding gate, the display was showing that the flight would be delayed till 1650. I looked out the window and there was no plane there so I knew that 1650 was never going to happen. We eventually boarded shortly after 5pm but as soon as the aircraft doors were securely locked, they announced we would have at least a one hour wait before we could push back. Why oh why do they always make you board and THEN tell you it’s delayed!

Coming back to Shanghai on Monday night, I had a 5.45pm flight so I figured I’d reach Shanghai around 7.30pm and be in time for dinner with a young lady of my choosing. Fortunately I didn’t make any firm commitments in that regard because the departures display showed a long list of flight delays for the usual bizarre reasons – flight delayed due to flow control. Occasionally, they would vary the reason. My favourite is flight delayed due to the plane being late!  I mean seriously, what the fxxx does that mean? Why can’t they just say the flight’s delayed but we’re not going to tell you why.

We eventually took off at 8.15pm and I got home at 11.30pm, my Monday evening irretrievably lost. I suppose if I look on the bright side, I no longer travel anywhere near as much as I used to or else this would be a weekly occurance.

Shangri-La’s Rasa Ria Resort, Kota Kinabalu

Once a year our company holds a regional conference for all our Asian offices to get together and share ideas, network, and yes, have a few drinks. Previous conferences have been held in Phuket, Bali (Nusa Dua), Ho Chi Minh City, Lankawi to name a few. This year’s conference was held last week in Kota Kinabalu in Malaysia. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m in HK (again) for a family wedding dinner and as quite a few relatives have flown in from all over, I’m staying a few days to spend more time with them.

As I was checking in to the hotel yesterday, a western guest came to the counter to extend his stay for a night. They quoted the cost as 2,000 HK dollars and he asked if that included Internet access. The receptionist replied that it did not and he then asked if he could have Internet for free. It was a slightly awkward moment as the girl smiled politely and shook her head but he was insistent and eventually she asked a manager who did a few things on the computer and then agreed.

Meanwhile, there was a European guy on the other side of me checking out. They asked if he used anything from the minibar and he sai that he had taken a Sprite but asked if they could not itemise it on the bill. I guess the girl didn’t understand so he was a bit unhappy to see that she had added the Sprite as “minibar” on his bill. He immediately pleaded with the cashier to change it as he said he would have a problem getting that past his company expenses.

I’m still a little unused to seeing westerners negotiate in these kinds of situations. I certainly wouldn’t have the front to try and blag free Internet, but then he did save himself about 100 HKD, so good for him.

I guess the recession is biting hard!

My flight back from HK to Shanghai was probably the worst flying experience I have encountered, and believe me, I’ve had my fair share of bad experiences.

We were due to leave HK at 7pm when I went to the gate, I was told Shanghai airport was closed due to fog. I guess the fog eventually cleared up because we were able to take off 2 hours later at 9pm. On our descent in to Shanghai I watched as the altitude dropped from 10,000 metres to less than 100 metres. “Ah, we’re almost home” I thought to myself. Then suddenly, I could feel the aircraft speed up and we started to climb, higher and higher. This has happened to me before, once when landing in Beijing there was something on the runway so we had to circle round while they cleared it away. No big deal.

After a few minutes the pilot announced that the fog was very low and he was going to try again. Ok, so perhaps we’ll be another 10 minutes, I thought.

After two more tries, the captain announced it was just not going to happen and he was diverting to Hangzhou which is about 180 kilometres away, so about a 20 minute flight.

We landed at Hangzhou at around 1am. I noticed the skies were very clear, perfect weather for landing. The captain then announced that the immigration officials had gone home so they were being contacted and we had to wait on the plane until they returned and we could be processed. In the mean time of course, we were waiting for news of the weather in Shanghai and if it improved, we could fly back straight away.

It was 3 hours before we finally were allowed off the plane. Several other planes were diverted so there was actually a wait for the earlier planes to be processed first. So at 4am, sleep-eyed, we went through immigration and collected our luggage and were told to head to exit 3.

There were 3 coaches waiting there and passengers rushed to put their luggage in the compartment below before boarding the bus. The problem was, the luggage compartment was too small so many people had to take their luggage on to the bus, which meant many seats could not be used. I’ve been in China long enough to know in these situations you have act quickly, so I threw my suitcase in the hold and rushed to grab one of the last remaining seats on the last of 3 buses. As I expected, about 25 people were not able to find seats and were standing by the bus looking anxious.

It was by now 5am and we all wanted to get to our hotel which the airline had arranged so we could get a few hours sleep. We didn’t know what the hold up was until we started to hear shouting and realised there was a man standing in front of our bus, refusing to let us get on our way. He was screaming “how can you lave us here in the middle of the night, I demand a full apology” etc etc. The airline representative explained the 2 buses that had already left would return to pick them up as soon as they had dropped off the first batch of passengers, but this wasn’t acceptable to the irate passenger.

Many people on the bus were exhausted and keen to get some sleep, so it turned in to a bit of a tussle between the two groups of passengers that got slightly physical. The people on the bus were saying things like “why are you being so selfish and not considering others who are tired and want to sleep”. I think they had a point but the stubborn passenger refused to give way. I get the feeling he was starting to feel he was in the wrong but couldn’t back down or he would lose face which would be a fate worse than death.

Eventually, someone managed to convince the man to move away from the front of the bus and we were on our way to the hotel which was about 30 minutes drive away in Xiao Shan, a small city near Hangzhou. By now though, the Shanghai fog seemed to have reached Hangzhou and I was quite horrified to see that the driver’s visibility was down to about 2 metres at best, but this didn’t seem to discourage him from driving at great speed. In spite of this, we managed to get to the hotel at around 5.30am and again, quick thinking on my part meant I managed to grab a room ahead of most of the other passengers and was soon enjoying some much needed sleep.

The next morning we were given two options : a bus back to Shanghai (about 3 hours) or we could be taken back to the airport and flown back. I did not want to risk further weather related delays so I opted for the bus as did almost all of the other passengers.

I finally arrived in Shanghai at 1pm the next afternoon, a full 18 hours after we were due to leave Hong Kong. Luckily I had taken an extra day off work so I didn’t have to go in to work, but on the other hand, I spent the rest of the day catching up on sleep and basically wasted an entire day off.

Travelling around Asia during the lunar new year when millions of Chinese are also travelling has had its ups and downs. Okay, it’s mostly downs. But it’s also quite amusing.

My mother was freaked out on the flight to Singapore which was almost completely full of mainland Chinese on a package tour. She pushed open the door to go to the toilet only to find someone already in there and of course, they didn’t bother (or didn’t know how) to lock the door. So she tried the next one along and it was exactly the same: door unlocked and someone inside going to the toilet!

Then on the way back from Singapore, she pushed open the toilet door and there was a guy inside the toilet reading a newspaper. I couldn’t control my laughter when she returned to her seat, shaking her head with a disapproving look on her face.

On the same flight, as we were taxiing to the runway and seconds from taking off, one woman decided it was the perfect time to go for a stroll and I watched in shock and amusement as the flight attendant came running down the aisle shouting at the woman to get back to her seat.

And of course, the man in the seat in front of mine decided to recline his seat as far back as it would go just before we took off. On a bad day I would have just used a firm arm to push the seat back to the upright position forcibly, but I was with mum and on my best behaviour, so I just let that one go.

Ah the joys of lunar new year travel … actually, it wasn’t all bad. When we arrived at Singapore airport to fly back to Hong Kong, there was a massive line to check in and my heart sank when I realised we would be lining up for hours. Then something weird happened. One of the security officers made an announcement for any English speakers to come forward. Almost everyone stayed where they were and I was led to a separate area to be taken through the security questions and then ushered to a check in counter and was checked in withing 3 minutes while the huge line was still there. I have no idea why. Perhaps there were only a small number of  security officers who could speak Chinese.

I was flying with United by the way and was surprised when boarding at HK airport to find an additional security check at the boarding gate. Is this normal procedure for American carriers? I had a bottle of water (that I had taken from the airside lounge) taken away from me which was a bit disappointing.