Hong Kong Strong

After a late night of kareoke I woke up early with coordinated time zones to wish my mum a happy birthday.

Next was our bus ride to Kowloon. When we got to the Hong Kong border I didn't know if I had been asleep for 15 minutes or 5 hours, but it was time to get up. I knew that Hong Kong was a special administrative region, however I didn't quite understand what that meant until I when there.

On the Chinese side there was a security check to actually leave China, and on the Hong Kong side there was a whole new security check with bag scan to arrive in Hong Kong. Crossing the US border from Canada is actually significantly easier.

Hong Kong had a lot of autonomy, but for a good reason: it was a totally different place.

We had our check-in at the Dorsett Hotel where Christina and I decided to make a fort in our room that night and eat ice cream in it.

We took a ferry to the Hong Kong side where we took a bus tour in what gradually turned into rain. The size of Hong Kong took my breath away, it was like this was where the world came to meet. Culturally we would find out just how different Hong Kong was from China. Things were much more expensive there, but the quality was better. Ultimately it had the same comforts as any developed place would. No spitting, no strange toilets, it was another oasis.

Our bus took us to the cable car at Victoria Peak. As a Skyride operator I was particularly interested. It definitely paid to hang around at the top because the sky gradually cleared up thanks to the wind and revealed the Hong Kong city lights.



Our trip home was where the rain made a new appearance. Never have I seen a river moving so carelessly down the street. Almost everyone was keeping shelter indoors and it felt as though we were the only ones leaping across streets and stepping cautiously under covered areas.

After getting fresh towels and sheets, Christina and I used our time to create an elaborate sheet fort and held a low-key ice cream party.

Judgement Time

The marketing presentations consumed the morning. The only ones more confused than me must've been the Chinese students trying to keep up with the presentations. Given the time and the language being used it was impossible to satisfy all parties with the presentation. Still, I will never forget the four P's of marketing:
Place, Price, Product, and Promotion
And now I know what SWOT is, strengths and weakness of the product, and Opportunities and Threats in the market.

As much as international marketing is a foreign concept to me, much of it is so similar to just being adaptable. With regards to altering a product for the market, that's not to far from changing your own attitude and habits for a new culture.

Next was our long bus ride to Shenzhen to visit the watch factory. I was forewarned that Shenzhen was an international city, focused on production and development, and the watch factory echoed that warning. Peering over tables of intricate, simple processes done repetitively made me thankful for my own job back home. It wasn't exactly appropriate to pity the workers, since most of watch production cannot be automated, why not provide some jobs? Although there must be some irony to a high emphasis on turn out while making watches, keeping time.

Running late from the factory brought us directly to dinner with the university president who was willing to share a meal with us. Of course respecting power distance meant there was only one Cap student at the table, but the meal was proper none the less.

From there we moved to our last English corner with the students at Huizhou. This one was an open debate on a certain topic, my group was debating whether or not one should watch Hunnan TV. As I learned this particular TV station plays programs similar to our MTV -meaning lightly scripted reality TV. The students were divided into sides and each side had 5 seconds for someone to stand up to speak or they lost for that round. The objective was to come up with as many valid points as possible.

As the five second countdown began you could ensure that someone was going to stand up right at "...2, 1". The students, while a bit shy with their English, they were still very competitive.

We then hopped in the bus and went to KTV, a kareoke place. Kind of ironic really that the students and I had argued that there's better ways to spend time than watching reality TV, but everyone wanted to go to kareoke -which we can assume has more validity that reality TV?

Last little touch of globalization must've been the kareoke music videos of Vancouver in the 80s. When a song didn't have a music video instead we got clips of Vancouver in the 80s, random.

Robstep into the Future

It was an early morning to ensure plenty of time to work on the marketing assignment. The team gathered at the wifi cafe where we planned our approach to market the Robstep people transporters. While crunching numbers and drawing notes be snacked on French Toast -which many people had craved since seeing it on the menu.

We worked straight up until lunch. Then we moved on the the TCL factory.

Talk about futuristic, here we went through the typically sales presentation. The technology was unimaginable 3D TVs natural light TV, and even a smart home control by one system. The factory floor itself was clean and well organization, part of the factory was a museum to tv development. There was a lot of pride for the end result and the company had big plans to develop.



I was excited to get to witness something like this, especially since a Global Stewardship degree may discuss production economies, it doesn't focus enough on it to get to see something like this first hand.

We returned to the cafe to put more work into the project at the cafe. I thought I wouldn't have much to offer a group of business students on the presentation, but since technology was limited it was up to us to present using posters and pens. Finally, a chance to draw.

That night we went out of a real authentic Chinese meal, one of the best in my opinion. The chicken was so greasy and tender it was best enjoyed by hand -so plastic gloves were provided. Every time the plate of pork neck came around I ate two pieces. Same with the warm homey taste of the pumpkin taro soup, I over ate out of enjoyment.



The night only got better when the Huizhou students put on a huge presentation for us about Chinese culture. It began with a demonstration of Tai-Chi, then music on the Qiguan, an introduction to Chinese calligraphy and papercutting. It was a good day for the unbelievable arts, culture, and food of China.

Tourist In Huizhou

We started the day with a breakfast in the canteen.

A bus tour around Huizhou helped us to understand the magnitude of this place. We stopped at one of Lin's favourite places, Iwo market. It was several stories of small shops put on each floor, a floor for womens clothes, for bags, for toys, and so on.

Outside the market I had a chance to try some of the food in the area. In contrast was the mall that we stopped at next. The stores appeared as they would in Capilano mall. Unlike the market -which was fairly crowded- this mall felt almost empty, and I ran into other students frequently. Kathryn and I decided on McDonalds out of sheer curiosity, and since the mall didn't have many affordable food options. McDonald's has an admirable way of adapting their menu to the local cuisine, in Hawaii I had a macademia nut pie, in Mexico a queso pie, in China I had a taro pie, while Kathryn had the pineapple. To be honest, I probably wouldn't buy a McDonalds pie in Vancouver, since there's nothing special about it, but in China it seems more special. As did my genuinely spicy McSpicy Chicken -which I will probably crave the rest of my life.

Then the bus took us to Westlake, a beautiful area when it's not pouring rain, which it was. We made a quick escape to the Kande Hotel where we were early for our tour.

The tour of the hotel was fascinating, and was made more fascinating by listening to Lin's thoughts afterwords in the hotel lounge where we had tea. Lin trusted the hotel as somewhere he could bring foreigners and know they would be comfortable. The extravagant hotel was an oasis in Huizhou, a beautiful view of Westlake and all the amenities to suits ones needs.

We returned to the university for our Hakka style dinner, of which I presented on. The meal was incredible, it was rumoured to be very oily and could result in stomach aches, and my research made it sound soft and flavourful. The experience was a positive on and I expect to be search for Hakka cuisine back home.

We closed the night with our first English corner with the Huizhou students. We had a split into groups to talk about international marketing although none of the Huizhou students in my group were actual business students. Even still they remained very engaged, they were curious about Canadian packaging standards as with nutrition facts and bilingual information.

After the assignments we were free to talk amongst ourselves. We talked until we were kicked out the entire time I hadn't check the time or even looked away from our little group. They wanted to know about money, family, relationships, jobs, rent, schooling, and pretty much everything if we had had the time. There's that push and pull, the students tell me that they're shy but they don't hold back on the questions. Even in a culture where uncertainty is common they still have great curiosity about the rest of the world. Even so that they far surpass the interest that Canadian students show in International Students.

It was so different to think that in Huizhou we were treated like celebrities, because we were from somewhere else. But when international students come to Canada they're greeted much much more modestly, and in many cases they're not treated all to well by their peers.

Huizhou, Expect the Unexpected

An early wake up and a long bus ride to Huizhou university. Some of the Chinese food culture must be rubbing off on us since snacks were getting passed around the bus throughout the trip. A  few students from the university even came to sit with us and eagerly pose questions as my neighbour on the plane had.

Alex informed us about some of the history of Huizhou. I had the impression from most people that we were going to a small place where we should expect the entertainment we received in Guangzhou. However Alex mentioned to my surprised that Huizhou and Toronto have roughly the same number of citizens. So was Huizhou big or small?

Our first introduction to Lin, our partner at Huizhou University. We stayed in hotel meant for parents visiting students at this large university.

We met Lin at the cafe next to the Hotel, it became a favourite hangout spot because of it's free wi-fi. From there the students gave us a tour of the campus. The dormitories we visited held six bunks with a small study/storage space underneath, and led to a shared bathroom at the end of the room. I was impressed with how committed the students were to studying, giving their small space. Even the library -while large by our standards- is known to fill up daily. The students were very thankful for their education.


We had dinner with Lin in the canteen next to the hotel, we had planned on having a Hakka style meal but that was bumped to the next night.

Anxious to find out the really size of Huizhou we went downtown that evening. We started with green tea ice cream from McDonald's, and went roaming. Eventually we found a large patio space where we stopped to relax, drink and watch the night go by.

Free Day in Guangzhou

This morning  held an 8:30am breakfast -it felt like a sleep in. We left at 9:30am for the Buddhist temple, with a slight "detour" through the old streets of the Song Dynasty.

Stanley once again offered his experience by explaining some of the Buddhist worship traditions. Engaging in worship unfamiliar to oneself it's always sort of a grayzone. For me, I've taken time to learn about a number of religions and the ways they worshipped, I've been to temples, mosques and many churches and I don't see what I did as offensive. It's about learning, tolerating, and maybe even understanding. However, Buddhism is often seen as an exoticized religion, it has great appeal in the west, but some of the more important parts are overlooked. Never the less I swam through the borders of my comfort zone and planted my incense infront of Buddha, praying three times.

After the Buddhist temple we went to a local restaurant on a whim. Yvonne ordered chicken feet and offered to share. This is a great example of one of these things I could say "I'm stepping out of my comfort zone and eating chicken feet!". But for me, trying new foods -no matter what- is very normal for me. Some thing like the trade fair was much more adventurous than chicken feet, after all, they taste like chicken.



We made our way to Shamian Island. A colonial-style area that looks like no where else in Guangzhou. The Victorian era building that housed a Starbucks became the venue for enjoying a green tea frappacino with red beans. Colonialism is a universal commonality in my travel experience. Only a few months prior in the Guatemala field school was I looking in wonder at the historic buildings of Antigua, not colonized by the British, but still very much colonized. Many colonial areas are still alive and well in Ghana and St. John's -which is where I had my Canada World Youth experience.  Whether we like it or not there's only 22 countries that Britain didn't invade (and most of those were invade by other European powers), so we do share a surprising amount of common ground historically speaking.


Then we moved on to the opposite side of the "in-common" spectrum, the medicine market. Instantly greeted with new smells and the halls are lined with sacks of shaved antlers, dried seahorses, bugs, and animal parts that are not easily identified. To return we went through the fruit and vegetable market, and through the meat market (where I understand we made a couple vegetarians).



Funny thing about meat in China, Canadians either don't want to know anything about their meat or they want to know everything about it. There's this McNugget mentality, where meat should not resemble the animal at all. No head, no bones, and don't tell me what it is, I'll just eat it and not think about it. Then there's this opposing idea  the "what's in this anyway?" idea, it usually accompanies the food that the McNugget people like. I actually prefer the Chinese connection to food. The butchering process is not something to hide, and people have more of a direct relation to the food they eat.

Lastly, we finished the evening shopping on the strip and grabbing some dessert. The market atomsphere here was more comforting to e and I even bartered down a backpack for myself, another Guangzhou backpack.



We cabbed back to the hotel where Stanley and I attempted to book some flights for after the field school to Shanghai and Xi'an. It was getting late so Ian and I walked around the corner and got some crunchy egg crepes. In addition to relation to meat, meals as a discussion space, I really appreciate the ease of access to food that we experienced in China. Even fairly late at night its easy to get cheap, delicious food, even without speaking a word of Mandarin beyond shey-shey.

Baby's First Culture Shock

Shower, breakfast, bus to Canton Trade Fair.

Decked out with our ID badges and our blue Capilano polos we dispersed into the Canton Trade Fair. I had expected to see mind-blowing innovation in a few small but quality booths. Instead I was exposed to something that looked more like multiple airports joined into one. The merchandise for sale was mostly fairly standard things. The workshop for the world had to supply the dollar stores of the world too!

The food, the metro, the people, the language, the toilets, I could handle that, but the Global Stew in me crumbled into culture shock at the Canton Trade Fair at the expansive of stuff. I was completely overwhelmed by it size and scope. The map felt more and more useless and I felt time running out to gather information for the assignment. They dealt in bulk orders, and a  lot of the booths were really just supplying fairly standard thing, setting themselves apart more by low cost and quality, than by design or functionality. I could rock a public finance class but I felt like a fish out of water at the Canton Trade Fair.

Still, it was an incredible experience, definitely not something I wouldn't never have encountered myself doing outside of the field school. It was meaningful as the fair is really and economic world wonder of my time, and I'm thankful for being there.

Next Iain broght us to The Fake Market  made famous for its cheap knock offs. Again I found myself in a market environment I'm not often exposed to. It's no wonder my backpack came from Guangzhou, in fact I'm sure many of my things came from Guangzhou. The city is a story of economic market success. From the Canton Trade Fair to the tree lined parks, Guangzhou is a real example of prosperity.

The subway hoe was much less devastating than the previous day. However Sally and I preferred to keep it simple and have ice cream, Guava juice, dumplings and chow mien for dinner rather than adventure back into the city for a big dinner.