Thread: China - work trip

I packed and unpacked my bag a few times trying to decide if I would just carry on or check in my bag......only two night in country. Ended up checking in a bigger 1/2 empty bag.....although Cathy Pacific are petty lenient

Flying business is nice although I struggled to sleep

Glad I didn’t have to lug carry on between connecting flights in Hong Kong....glad I checked in luggage. Having lounge access is also nice.

Hong Kong airport is busy but well laid out and easy to navigate.

End destination was Qingdao Chine to sign off equipment being built at a factory.

Border control at Qingdao was straight forward even if they don’t speak and rely on pointing.

Short....cold walk to the hotel as I was dressed in shorts and t-shirt, temp was low single figures, must have looked a site. I was in the same flight as the owner of the Aussie company who designs the equipment, it was rugged up with about three layers.

Room was OK, with only a few English channels. First one I’ve ever seen packets of condoms for sale on the bedside table. Thought this is interesting. I mentioned to the Aussie guy and he said this hotel is one of the few in China he doesn’t get a midnight knock on the door.

Qingdao is classed as an industrial city with a population around 9,000,000

Got picked up by the factory as the owner wanted to take us out for dinner...Aussie guy went straight to the factory after checking so we swung by and collected him along with a few others. We than continued on deeper into the back streets of the province.....we pulled up at what didn’t look like a restaurant.....certainly strong fish sneak and fish being dried on timber along the street. After walking through a maze of live seafood tanks they opened a door to a private dining room....the food that followed was sensational to say the least....sea snail, raw lobster, chilli lobster, fish, oysters, abalone, steamed veggies....don’t recall rice. No knives and forks but I handled the good old chops sticks OK. They were also keen for me to drink Chinese beer, Aussie red and of course tea.....all at once. I didn’t realize the Chinese were into beer. Well we rolled out a couple of hours later, by far the best shiners meal I’ve ever had. The factory owner went to a lot of trouble and takes hosting very seriously. Good thing they sat one of the girls next to me as her English was quite good.

Hotel breakfast was straight forward after the language difficulties in getting it billed to my room.

Picked up by the factory for the factory inspection......pretty chilly low single figures. Man they drink some tea, constantly offer tea. After formalities in the office I learnt it’s a bit quite at the moment and they only have ~450 ish workers. Pretty sure they said they have 500,000m2 of under cover factory space. There is also a shortage of skilled labour which I was surprised at.....to keep workers they need to provide them three meals a day and onsite accommodation for those that travel outside the province.

We started in the machine shop......first one I’ve seen machines this big....for those that are quick to mention Chinese manufacturing is poor quality and they just copy stuff and punch it out cheap..on the table is an engine frame for Rolls Royce Marine. For some reason they didn’t want me to take a photo of the horizontal borer (equality as big) behind this machine either either way it was machining components for General Electric. I forgot to step out the bed length of the lathe, at an estimate it would have been 25m long.


Next was the sheet metal shop

Than the pressing shop

Than onto the protective coating shop

Than into the fabrication shop where my equipment was. It was unbelievable how clean, neat, tidy and organized this factory was. And quality control is bordering on over the top, I haven’t witness quality control like it. It was hard to believe our vessels were going to be ready for pressure testing three days after our visit.

All along I didn’t believe the trip was going to be value for money given knowledge of sizable order another Aussie company received last year......well i ate humble pie as I picked up a design fault...well the lack of a very important feature which wasn’t picked up in the planning stage. The factory engineer and production manager were part of the group and between them the Aussie businessman that had it sorted after a few communication challenges and after looking at a couple of photos I had. By the end of the day the drawing to adjust and presented for sign off and they indicated it wouldn’t delay pressure testing. They gave me a full run down on quality control which exceeded my expectation.



China approach to pollution....while walking around I pointed out some mountains in the distance...the Aussie businessman mention that when he started visiting Qingdao nine years ago he didn’t know the mountains were there...in the last two or three years that have become visible due to the crack down on emissions. Also the owner of the factory loves his orchids and veggie patches and is constantly squeezing more in...oh he has a vested interest as he need to feed his workforce. Again this surprised me as I didn’t see this at other factories.



The factory still use coal to warm the building during winter, they have upgraded the coal fired plant and reduced emission and are working on an alternative

Time for lunch and again the factory owner wanted to impress, we are in his dining room and his no. 1 chef preparing a meal.....again the food was awesome, as they even make pork dumpling just for me.

From here the presented me with six bags of tea and once the new I was born in 71 and it was year of the pig I was also given a display ornament pig thingy. They seemed really chuffed.

We than spent the afternoon being shown around old Qingdao by his staff. Didn’t realize the Russians occupied China for a period. Oh the they don’t mind showing off the old navy hardware at a massive museum



Again the factory owner hosted us for dinner, we dined at a highly respected Peking Duck restaurant....again an unbelievable dining experience.....well except for the about of liquor (rocket fuel) bloody rough stuff and after 10 toasts I was pretty toasted.

At the end they present me with three bottles of this rocket fuel spirit.

I reckon I dosed off pretty quick when I got back to the hotel room but was woken by the dreaded knock on the door......I tried to ignore as I was suspecting i might be offered a lady, the knocking got louder and I was worried about the other guests (all Chinese) being woken so I peaked out the door....low and behold it was a staff member holding my gift of tea........couldn’t believe I had left it in the car. Phew

Next morning I hung around the hotel until I was collected at 11am for lunch....a Korean Restaurant which I thought was strange...the factory owner seemed to be a little annoyed when ordering the food.....I assume the food was really good as the staff really enjoyed it...it was my least enjoyable meal.

As they dropped me off at the airport they presented with a tea set to go the the tea. This surprised me but the girls seemed really happy.

Going back through Qingdao Airport was a whole lot more serious.......full pat down of everybody and all very serious.

From the time I left the airport til the time I got back to the airport I didn’t see another European/tourist.

The high rise apartments they are building is mind blowing

Coal fired power station in the suburbs.

Although traffic was heavy and ranged from brand new cars to some very interesting forms of transport it all seemed to flow

Their traditional food is amazing

They are awesome hosts

The equipment coming out of the factories is faultless.

Spotted one disco and two Range Rover sports. The factory owner had a rangie and I don’t reckon it’s ever been wash...it was difficult to tell what colour it was.

I didn’t notice a lot of EV charging points....but didn’t see one EV

Why aren’t our trucks running on CNG...seems popular

Next time I’ll catch a super fast train to another city and fly out from there.

I somehow squeezed all my gifts into my checked bag.....and though what a good idea....

Landed in Brisbane and my bag didn’t make it.......was cursing my decision for checked baggage. Grrrrrr

Overall and amazing trip.

Enjoyed the story a lot. Thanks for the report.
Sounds like you being there and picking up the design fault would have more than justified the cost of sending you over.
Hospitality is very important in doing business in Asia. Business links can often be based on personal links and hospitality is a big part of that.
The technology they are using can be amazing and they are really trying to be the best in the world, and succeeding in many areas.
As for driving across China, do they still have the rule that motorised visitors have to hire a local 'guide', who is basically there to report back to the superiors that you didn't try to spy on anything sensitive. Apparently the guides are quite expensive and do nothing useful for the traveller.