JIankou--The Great Wall adventure

yesterday i went to the great wall. it was amazing to say the least. the part we went to is not open to the public. we wondered why on our trip up, but after climbing up a 75% incline for 2 hours, i understood. not to mention, it has been raining like mad for weeks so the entire trail was basically a muddy mess. once we got to the top, you felt like you were at the top of the world. it would have been nice for it not to be so foggy--the views would have been really spectacular then. the fog, however, gave it that "real china" feel like you see in the movies. so continued hiking on the great wall through loads of vegetation and slippery rocks. then we come to this:

we're told that in order to get down the mountain we must climb over the vertical wall. so we all climb up. now i'm not super super afraid of heights, but i'm not a climbing enthusiast nor do i want to fall to my death on the great wall. although, if i had, i suppose it would have been appropriate. at least my obituary would have read: she died in the place she loved. i digress...so i get over this wall and continue going up and up. we arrive at "the nine eye tower"--wish i had a picture, but honestly, at this point, i was still really shaken up over the climb.

now we have to decide whether to climb down the vertical wall we just climbed up to get back down or take the "safer" route, which will take 3 hours. we all decide to take the safer way. at this point, our leader, claudia, is pissed at the guide because there could be some serious liability issues if we all have to get back down the vertical wall. so we continue on the "safer route". i use quotes because safer is a very questionable adjective at this point. after hiking some more, we begin to realize we are now on the backside of the mountain we just hiked up. the path is much narrower and there are fewer trees to grab hold of in case you slip. we continue on...and guess what, we arrive back at the "nine eye tower". this is where we started! furthermore, the guide tells us the only way to get down is to go back down the vertical wall. claudia, again, is super upset as she has 33 twenty-somethings that have to scale a vertical wall. amazingly, we all make it in one piece. then the hike down begins. it has rained more since we climbed up--so it wasn't so much a climb down but a slide down. i, however, did land on my behind once! that's awesome! i was so proud of myself!

we arrived back at the restaurant we started and all were in a serious mood for a beer. fortunately, there was yanjing a plenty. 

wish there were more pictures, but i was more concerned about trying to keep my footing.

suntans, check-ins, and food

i am dying to lay out, play on the lake, go to the beach, anything! i'm going to be white as a ghost by the time i leave this place. how to get sun in a country were sun is the enemy. everyone carries around umbrellas to shade themselves from the sun not the rain. unless i go and work in a rice patty, there is nowhere to lay out. there is a place about 2 hours by train from beijing on the coast that has beaches, but i'm a little nervous to try and go somewhere by myself when my chinese isn't stellar.

as for work, i've now been standing in the lobby for a week.

we had a five hour meeting yesterday to discuss improvements. spending five hours in a meeting spoken predominantly in chinese is super interesting. i tried to give some suggestions, but was shot down. there are so many things that need improvement. i worked at ritz, for pete's sake, the one thing i know is excellent customer service. the boss keeps throwing out that i worked at ritz so i can really help them, but when i suggest anything, no support.

perfect example: the boss really wants to get above a 89% score on the checking in process. this is his major peeve. the process of check in goes something like this: guest walks up, gives name, the front desk agent asks for passport, then there is a flurry of paperwork and it basically looks like a chinese fire drill with five different people running around for 20 minutes. finally, the guest is given his keys and can go up to his room. it's insanity. i can see why guests don't rate them well. in fact, i'm surprised it's not worse.

at the improvement meeting, i brought this up. i was told it's the police's fault as all guests have to given temporary residence permits to stay in the hotel. i know this...every night the police come in and check to make sure every guest is registered and they pick up all permits to key in at the local police station. in fact, they do random checks and have police officers try to check in without a passport or ID. if the front desk agent doesn't turn them away for not having the proper ID, then there is BIG trouble. however, the guest doesn't need to disturbed/bothered by the paperwork. it's real easy, take the passport/ID, make a copy, give the guest the keys, take the credit card and swipe, send the guest to the room. then have someone in the back office then copy down all of the info, fill out the permit. duh.

the inability to think outside of the box is very interesting. another example is trying to get taxi cabs for the guests. during rush hour, it is impossible to get a cab even at the hotel. western guests truly don't understand this. there is always supposed to be a line of cabs in front of the hotel. i approached an assistant manager stating the guests get extremely annoyed in having to wait an hour for a cab. is there a way to call a cab company and have them send some taxis to the hotel? NO was the answer--it is not this way in china. is there anything we can do to make the guests less inconvenienced or at least make them more comfortable (i.e. offer drinks, anything)? again, NO, this is not the way in china. huh???

ok enough ranting. the one REALLY positive thing about the hotel is the food. it is awesome! i never really know what i'm eating, but it all tastes amazing. it's like my chinese mamma is cooking up wonderful yumminess for every meal. there are chinese pancakes at every meal too--it's this bread that is delicious especially if you sop up the sauce from the mystery dishes. of course, my co-workers think it's really odd that i eat the pancake with my hands and sop up the "gravy". once a southerner, always a southerner! they also don't understand why i don't eat rice...

Various articles

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Read this document on Scribd: the road ahead for capitalism in china

Temple of Heaven

also, i went to the temple of heaven yesterday and made friends with 2 finnish girls, who ended up going to the temple with me. see i can make friends and am friendly no matter what the IHG people say! i took so many pictures and then accidentally deleted them all b/c i don't know how to properly use my camera. grrrr...and i'm so not a picture person and i was so proud of myself for bringing the camera and using it!

UPDATE:
so i went back to the temple of heaven with joel hinzman (who would have thought...random!) and took pics and didn't delete them! yippee!

standing and standing and standing

no news about the job except the make up and hair things. i haven't washed my hair in 4 days and today, my boss tells me my hair is much better than it has been. i'm so gross, i know. other than that, i've been standing for 7 days straight. i have tomorrow and thursday off. very excited. training isn't exactly stellar. i've taught myself how to use the front office system...think i could actually provide some really useful feedback about what they could do better but no one ever seems to have any time. weird b/c at the ritz pentagon, we had a much smaller front desk, same amount of rooms, and fewer people yet we were more together same goes with the guest relations/service staff. more pre-planning was done so you didn't have to run around like mad (unless you had less than 5 hours notice of an arrival). i've also been told i don't smile enough and i don't talk enough. all this positive feedback i'm getting is amazing!

random thoughts on life in china

so in the states, mcdonald's gives off this over powering aroma of french fries and hamburgers. it smells delicious even though the food is disgustingly bad for you. and i'm a sucker for hamburgers and french fries (especially mcdonald's--love my salt sticks!). china does not have this aroma emitting from the mcdonald's. i should know i have a mcdonald's exactly 2 minutes from my apartment (and it's open 24 hours--aren't i supposed to lose weight in china???). i would have thought i would be tempted every morning and afternoon, but guess what--without the smell, i barely think about it. in the states, you can smell mcdonald's from literally 2 miles away in your car going 60mph with the windows rolled up. obviously, we all know mcdonald's uses some weird (disgustingly bad for you and probably causes cancer) agent to create this scent to draw in the fat americans. i have figured out why they don't do that in china! if they did, it would be like the beijing subway and so many people would be shoved into the space, you couldn't breathe and it would end very poorly...like those tragic nightclub accidents with so many people.

i realized this this morning as i rode for 25 minutes with my face shoved in a stinky man's armpit and my hair being messed up by the arm of the man behind me. who ever said all chinese people are short--not as true as it used to be. amazingly, if your people get fed 3 well balanced meals a day, they grow much much taller. i'm still short here albeit not the the shortest of the short like at home. if mcdonald's emitted the american smell, all chinese mcdonald's would be madhouses--they are already overrun with people morning, noon, and night. the 24 hour concept in china--i wish i had pitched it! i would be very wealthy now. at 1230 at night, there were at least 15-20 people in the restaurant. i haven't even been out on the town yet--wonder how many people come stumbling in at 2, 3, 4, and 5am.

then there's the fashion thing...how can most american clothes be made in china, yet what the chinese wear very rarely resembles anything you would see in an american store? ok, cultural differences, etc..but they have the exact same magazines--vogue, self, marie clare, whatever--and they read them. there is a newpaper/magazine stand every 1/2 block with a crowd. my most favorite "chinese" look is the cocktail dress worn to work with hose and fancy shoes. these ladies are not hookers...they are women going to work at jp morgan, citigroup, major big companies. i kind of wish the trend would start in the states to be honest, then i could get more use out of my "fancy clothes".

totally kidding. having to put real make up everyday for work is about to kill me. yes, major eye makeup and lipstick are two SERIOUS requirements for my job. along with perfect asian hair that doesn't frizz or go out of place. the makeup, might look a little lady of the nightish, but i can deal. the hair, however, i cannot control. i am white and i have blond hair. it doesn't always want to go where it should.

i'm sure i'll have more random thoughts about random things later...

the work adventure

the first and second days at work have gone by and they jury is still out. i think being at the hotel during the olympics is going to be awesome...the rest of the time, i'm not so sure. i spent 8 hours standing in one spot yesterday as my training with the concierge. granted there was a super important group coming in so everyone was running around like crazy trying to prepare. i just felt so useless and i hate that feeling. i, however, was able to sort of earn my keep when 3 american college grads came in and wanted to know where to go out. they were all from UVA and doing the asia pacific tour before starting their real jobs. so i gave them some advice about the city and places to go.

the other highly amusing experience at work is the amount of make up i was told to wear. so obviously in the states, less is better. heavy make up is strongly discouraged as it might give the wrong impression. so the first day i wore light eyeliner, blush, mascara. i was promptly told that i needed to make it much much more. in essence, really heavy eye make up--dark eye liner and heavy eyeshadow as well as heavy lipstick. so yesterday, being the compliant employee i am, i lathered it on. so i went to work looking borderline whorish and came home with make up running all down my face because it's so hot. i sort of looked like i got punched in the eyes b/c all of the black kohl had run and run. awesome.

then there's my boss. on my first day, he had his lunch delivered to his office by room service in front of all of the front office staff. meanwhile, just prior to, he had been ranting and raving about how supervisors and managers needed to be cognizant of their behavior and how could they expect the employees to do the right thing if they didn't lead by example. now what is his behavior saying about him...hmmm...pre-madonna much? one of the staff told me yesterday his nickname was a**hole and i can certainly see why. he then tried to say he was just kidding...but in every joke, there's an element of truth!

tiananmen, forbidden city, and the pearl market

went to tian an men and the forbidden city today. there are just so many people in china. it's ridiculous. there is never not a crowd or semi-traffic jam. it's so amazing. also went to the pearl market, which is where all of the best hand bags and clothes used to be, but now not so much. apparently, the World Trade Organization and the olympics, have forced them to be less obvious about fakes. so you have to ask to see a fake prada or louis viutton. made it much less fun. the store ladies are also much more aggressive and they hang on to you trying to get you to spend $50 USD on a fake bag. yuck. got to find a new place to bargain or i'm not going to find any handbags! what a tragedy!

and of course, i forgot my camera. so i don't have any pics of tian an men or the forbidden city. grr....why am i just not a picture person? i really want to become one! i still haven't developed my pictures from when i lived in beijing the first time!

first night staying in

so this is my first night that i'm staying in my apartment and not going out. i made a grilled cheese for dinner and will probably eat an apple later. even funnier i ate before 8pm! and i've done two loads of wash! however, the washing machine is very small--so a load is equal to three shirts, underwear, and maybe a pair of light sweat pants! of course there is no dryer so it's all air dry baby. makes for really uncomfortable clothes because they're all stiff when you put them on.

here are some pics of my apt:

the kitchen

dining room

entire studio

studio


studio from opposite direction


bath

the lady at the big big (i mean super size grocery/everything store--bigger than walmart) store was really nice. but when you don't know what you're asking for (ie sheets, blankets, towels) or getting for that matter and then on top of that you have to bargain so you don't get ripped off--it just was really overwhelming. bargaining for shoes, clothes, or hand bags is one thing. you say this one, that one, too expensive, and walk away. then they call you back and you get a great deal. when things are necessary like sheets and blankets--it becomes more difficult.


my first and second chinese meals were pretty good. not as good as i remember. and i think i figured out why. both have been at fancier chinese places...not dirty, small, chinese restaurants. i think i like the dirtier kind better...more flavorful probably b/c more dirt. but hey i feel the same way in the states at least some of the time! fancy chinese food scares me b/c it's so elaborate. it's sort of like fancy american food--some of it is just too weird and saucy.

i start work next tuesday. apparently, monday is a new holiday. i haven't been to the hotel or met anyone i work with yet. that won't happen until next tues.

my hair has been up the entire time i've been here. so no gropeing yet! finally got a hairdryer! so i might wear it down now! might being the operative word. of course, my mom told me to wear it up the first day of work so as to not scare everyone. she also has implored me to by a mop ASAP because my feet keep getting so dirty (i have been wearing crocs) and she wants me to make sure the floor in my apartment is clean so i don't get sick and die. i figure it's all sidewalk--there aren't any weird worms that can crawl up through concrete and into my feet like they could on the farm! the only worms to worry about are the tummy kind and well quite frankly, i can't control that so much. can't be any worse than my first chinese hospital experience which was in the chinese backwoods and a very chinese hospital. the have western hospitals in beijing! no worries!

the adventure finding the apartment!

well i made it here ok. flight was long but not bad. watched movies, slept, and read. got in on june 2nd and of course couldn't find the people i was meeting for over 2 hours. how many little blond girls are coming into beijing by themselves...not many but i missed them and they missed me. finally we made contact and went to my little rinky dink hotel. i'll give it that's it clean and relatively new but that's about it. then i slept for almost 18 hours.

claudia, my sponsor contact with abroad china, and i went on the house hunt this afternoon. 8 apartments later we found one. the first one was ok but occupied and has some crazy dark kitchen that scared me to death. the next 5 were dirty and sort of scary. most didn't have shower curtains in the bathroom...if you've ever showered without a shower curtain (ie--mom, dad, tracey, and tom--on the boat), it is gross and makes everything disgusting. the last two were in the same building and very similar studios. the driver met a new real estate agent after the first one showed us such crappy apartments. she took us and then it was a process to get the real estate agent gone so we could deal with the land lady directly. the land lady slipped me her card behind the agent's back so we could contact her and she wouldn't have to pay the agent some fee. then the driver found another agent located in the building we saw the first studio. turns out he was actually "in" with the land lady. so we went from the agent's "office" downstairs to the office upstairs. and guess who was the there--the original land lady! they showed us another studio which had more furniture and was a little less cramped (not in terms of space but layout). so now i have a bed, frig, microwave, fluffy chair, and dining room table instead of a bed, frig, microwave, and rickety folding chair. both have a sky light and semi-outdoor porch--it's enclosed by windows but creates a 2nd room of sorts. plus, claudia negotiated the lady down from $500/month to $450 per month (3500RMB to 3200RMB). considering i'm making 4000RMB ($571) per month--let's hope i can still eat and shop! mom and dad--any help is ALWAYS appreciated!

here are some links to pics of the apartment and the apartment's website:
Pics of the apartment
Apartment website

i can't actually see my blog in china because the government has blocked all blogging websites....however, i can still post via google docs. my blog is www.1billioncustomers.blogspot.com. so i'm going to keep a diary of sorts and post all of my emails on it in case anyone is interested in my adventures. if the blog looks silly because i can't format it correctly, sorry.

i start work at the intercontinental as the ambassador to the olympic athletes on june 10. i'm not entirely sure what i'll be doing yet...but will keep you posted.
keep in touch. can't wait to hear from you. sorry for the mass email!

My first day

after some trouble finding my contacts at the airport, i have arrived in beijing. i'm in my hotel/motel. and slept for 14 hours after i finally was able to take a shower. i'm going to meet my other contact, claudia, at 1pm today to go and look for apartments. the city has changed so so much since i was last here in 2001. so many more buildings--it's amazing. granted i'm scared to death right now to leave my hotel room. not entirely sure why--but being scared to speak chinese, as i don't remember it so well, is part of the reason. i can't access blogger or any other blogging site--so we'll see if i can post via google docs or not. you can reach me on skype if you get a webcam or headset. i already talked to my parents this morning. love the internet! will write more soon.

how the move came about...

how the move came about....well, not sure if you remember, but i've always had this thing for china. it was my major in college, i did study abroad here, and have basically spent my entire life trying to be chinese (a little hard for a southern blond girl but whatever). so in march, when i realized i was graduating and going to have to get a job, i realized that i didn't really want to get a real job and really wanted to go back to china. so i started looking on the internet and found this org, abroad china, that sponsors people to get a chinese visa and finds them an internship. so i applied and was immediately accepted because in my essay i said it's my life's dream to live and work in china. so then i interviewed with the intercontinental hotel (IHG) and immediately got the job because..well...i'm white and american and the olympics are this summer and lots of americans are going to be here. so now i'm the ambassador to the olympic athletes!

last week, i arrived all by my lonesome to beijing. i got an apartment on the second day which is small but clean and has a skylight and closed in all windowed porch. yesterday was my first day of work. the people are super nice and while i don't understand much when they speak in chinese, all of them speak english. i have training for the next month and will be visiting all of the different front office departments. it's a little strange being called a management trainee after i've already been a manager at a hotel and also ran my dad's business...but it's okay. i'm in china! all of the staff at the hotel think it's a little strange and wonder why i "took a step backwards" to become an intern. i have to admit--i do too, but it was the only way to get to china. several years ago, i spoke with the head of the asia pacific of ritz-carlton about getting a job in china. his response was you have two choices: wait twenty years and become a director of sales and marketing or general manager--then you might be transferred over OR got to dubai and you might get transferred to the asia pacific after serving there for several years. neither of those options seemed very appealing. i would like to get married some day...hello!