Palundian

It’s Tuesday evening here in Dalian. I’m going to try and catch up my blog to be current here. It’s been a couple of busy days. There’s been a lot to do, travel…etc….
I arrived in Dalian on Sunday night. My flight got in at 5:00 local time. I was on an Airbus A320. I’ve flown on those lots of times. In the U.S. the seats are crammed and if someone reclines you’re eating a head rest. Well, in China, you’re still eating a head rest, but the seats are bigger! This is crazy; because the people are generally smaller! Plus, the flight was 1:40 minutes, or ten minutes longer than a flight from Milwaukee to Atlanta. They served a whole meal to the plane (I didn’t eat it of course!). Delta can’t do that in the U.S. Also, I forgot until we landed about the deplaning in China. Every man for himself! Just like the elevators. A guy and girl were racing up the aisle as soon as we started to taxi on landing. An old lady hip checked me back to my seat while I tried to grab my backpack. Standard issue for a Chinese plane ride!
Once I got into Dalian, I had a car pick me up at the airport. The driver had an America n music CD playing for my enjoyment. The second song was Ricky Nelson “Travelling Man”. Great tune! A McConnell classic, both my parents were big Ricky Nelson fans, so all of us kids became fans as well. So I asked the driver to turn up the volume…it took a minute but we got it done. Then I started singing the song and the driver joined in! He knew the words! So it must be popular over here. We sang it all the way to the hotel…played it three times. He liked that we sang together. Good times!
The hotel I’m staying in this time is great! Not that any of them are bad, but this is a brand new hotel. It’s really big. They had started construction on it last time I was here. So much has changed in Dalian since I was here last that it’s hard to believe. There are three new high rises on the hotel’s street. They removed the bootleg Olive Garden and Pizza King (Which is fine). The very end of the street use to have a model ship in the middle of the square. It’s now gone and they are putting in a subway system. That is going to be an entrance. Just tons of change and growth! It’s got to be a very exciting time to live in China.
I met Jerry later in the evening. He is the guy I trained last time I was here. He’s graduated on to bigger things. He is now an instructor for Rockwell, and he is soon to take on a new role as an SA. I won’t bore you with the details, but I’m proud of him. He’s doing well. He also has visited the U.S. since I last saw him. (I was in Mexico during his U.S. visit). Apparently a lot of people took him out drinking while he was there. I think Jerry assumes everyone in America drinks 12 Jager bombs nightly. Suffice it to say, Jerry had a lot of fun in Cleveland. I can’t imagine what he’d do in Chicago. He’s going back to Dallas in early March. I’m going to send him to Billy Bob’s in Ft. Worth. It might make his head explode.
We had dinner and drinks, he remembered the names of all my brothers and asked how they were doing. I thought that was nice. I’m going to go back to his hometown one of the weekends I’m here to visit his family again. I can’t wait! I had a great time on my last visit.
The new Rockwell AMP named Fran was with us at dinner. I felt a little bad because Jerry and I were doing so much catching up. The poor guy felt a little out of place in a sea of booze, beer, smoking, and Philippine band music. I felt at home.
I did learn something interesting about Fran. Apparently Fran slipped one past the goalie. His girlfriend of six months is pregnant. I’m not sure how all this plays out. Fran is keeping it a secret from his parents, but her parents know….hmmmm….The Panda will have to investigate further…stay tuned fans!
Monday I met Fran at the Rockwell office. We spent the day reviewing our program and what he needed to learn. I told Fran we needed to have some materials printed for the launch. He wasn’t sure where we should go. I smiled and told him I knew a little place around the corner.
If you read my blog last time, there was quite a bit of discussion about a print shop that Jerry and I visited. I took Fran there and said these people would be able to get everything we need. We walked in the door and the same lady was working there. I smiled and said Ni Hao, she got all excited and started talking real fast. Fran got this amazed look on his face, looked at me, and said, “She remembers you!”
I said, “Yeah, we go way back.”
I then proceeded to tell Fran exactly what to ask her for. Fran would look at me and say I don’t think they will have such a thing here….”Fran, just ask her, she’ll get it, and try to keep up.”
Fran started translating what I said, and she just kept shaking her head yes. She would walk to the back corner and start pulling stuff out. It kind of had the feel of an action movie, where the hero is going to his weapons dealer to get all the guns he needs to defeat the bad guys…only I was ordering printed material and office supplies. Fran was completely in awe.
This time the trip only took about ½ an hour. I paid for the stuff (Cash) and we agreed I would pick it up on Tuesday afternoon. I got a 50 RMB discount (7 dollars) for not asking for a receipt. Once we left Fran was still in awe that the lady and I remembered each other, and that I knew she had all those things. It was funny.
Tuesday we headed out to Palundian. There are four ways to get to the Goodyear plant: A bus full of Goodyear workers, a taxi, a train + taxi, or hire a driver. I chose option 4- hire a driver. I had Fran do some recon before I got there. He found the driver and got it all set up. Here’s a run down of the problems with the others.
1. Bus- No Me Gusta! This option is full of the general labor for the plant. It has a specific pick up time. I would have to take a taxi to a designated point, and then hop the bus with them. No Ex-Pats travel this way…really never an option. The Goodyear people would look at you strange if you did this.
2. Train + Taxi- This one was appealing to me, I love trains! However I was voted out on this one, neither Fran nor Jerry thought it was a good way to travel every day. I thought it would be great! Still not sure why this wasn’t good.
3. Taxi- This one is viable, but you have the problem of the taxi driver possibly not knowing where the plant is in Palundian. It’s a crap shoot. Probably not very consistent, and it’s hard to get a cab in Palundian….which I’ll cover later.
4. Hire a Driver- Best way to go. This guy shows up at my hotel every morning at the same time. He drives you to the plant, then comes back at a predetermined time and picks you up. The cost is the same as a taxi ride out there. It cost 300RMB for one round trip. That is 45 dollars round trip, 22.50 one way. The funny part is that pays for an hour drive…maybe a little longer each way. The same cab ride in America would cost easily over 100.00 each way.
So this morning I met my driver, Mr. Gee (G), who is AWESOME! He’s my one man G-Unit! I have a great picture of him that I took today. (I’m taking pictures of all this stuff, but can’t post them directly.) He doesn’t speak a lick of English, but Fran was there to translate…On a side note, Fran doesn’t like to translate like Jerry did. Jerry and I would have a conversation with a driver or local forever. Jerry would really get into it. Fran doesn’t have that same quality. I struggle to get him going…I don’t think he knows how to take it.
So, I have Fran ask Mr. Gee all kinds of questions on the way out there. I have to know this guy, he’s my driver, right!? Mr. Gee is from Palundian. He is a driver for hire taking people back and forth between Dalian and Palundian. He use to sell farm equipment but gave that up for driving. He’s married and has a son. He likes to play Ping Pong and wants to play me in a game….step easy Mr. Gee! He drives a Hyundai, it’s pretty new and very nice inside.
He told Fran to tell me that he likes me because I like to talk. He said that most people just sit in the car and say nothing. “That’s how I roll Mr. Gee.” Fran didn’t know how to translate that one at first.
Mr. Gee description: He is about 5’7, 50 years old. He has black hair (I’m sure I’m not making headlines with my description so far) He wears a black leather coat that looks newer, but has a hood on it (Strange). His hat is more of a traditional hat…it’s black…it almost looks like a stocking cap that’s been chopped off half way up and sewn closed. Actually, in all honesty, he looks a little like a stylin elf. In fact, I would say the hat looks just like an elf’s hat except cut off half way up. It flops down the back, it actually looks pretty good on the guy….I bet Mr. Gee had all the ladies chasing him when he was younger…I look for that in a driver…I think…although this is my first driver….but I think I would look for these qualities.
Anyways, I have already decided that Mr. Gee and I are going to have beers together before this trip is through…actually that will be pretty funny….I’ll have to get a driver for my driver….I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Mr. Gee took us to the Goodyear plant. The town of Planudian has 200,000 people living in it. This is extremely small for the Chinese…not really even a village…just a blip on the map. However, I think the Chinese government has decided this area is going to be developed for an industrial base. There are other plants going up all over the country side. The whole area is small worn down homes and giant factories being built…with the Yellow Sea for a backdrop….and of course, smog. We pulled up to the plant, IT IS HUGE! It’s the biggest tire plant I’ve ever seen. It’s massive! It sits right on a bay of the Yellow sea.
When you approach the street the plant sits on, the ocean is behind it, a mountain bluff to the right, and a vast unforgiving country in the front. The whole place is still under construction. There is no road from the gate. You have to walk this dirt and rock path all the way to the building. The walk to the building is just over 1/4 a mile. There is no direct path, and the stone/dirt/gravel/junk path is a little treacherous at times. The whole approach has a feel like some of the scenery in The Road. Once you get to the building, it’s a good 1/4 mile through the building! It’s that big! I bet I walked a good three miles today (I say that because I made at least three trips to almost the guard gate from the back today alone!). We had several meetings in parts of the plant that took 20 minutes to walk to. It takes a good 25-30 minutes to walk to the back of the plant from the road…a lot of that time is the unforgiving terrain you have to cross. The whole plant inside is brand new. Only one machine is coming over from the old plant…the funniest thing was the bathroom….Brand new bathroom….same horrible Chinese bathroom smell!
We had several meetings with management at the plant. I got some understanding of our underlying issues…what we need to work on and improve…lots of things to get done!
Once the day was done, Mr. Gee came and picked us up. There is a funny story here. I was sitting at a table waiting for Fran, when I struck up a conversation with the Supply Chain Management guy at the plant. He was a local. I talked to him for a little while; he asked me where I was from in the U.S., things like that. After I had talked to him for a while, I remembered that I had a bunch of loose change in my bag. I always throw my change on the road into a compartment of my backpack, and then usually I dump it whenever I get home. I left it in there this time to have coins to give away…just something dumb to do. So I gave this guy a quarter, well, there were two more people sitting by him. I gave them each a quarter. They all got a kick out of it and I didn’t think anything more.
Finally Fran comes back and we leave. We make the walk all the way back to the gate. A truck driver pulls up, rolls down his window, it’s the one of the people I gave a quarter to. He says something to Fran. Fran looks at me and says that I left my cell phone on the table in the office…MAN!!!!!!!!!! Then Fran says, “Not to worry, he remembers you give him American money, he give me ride back to get your phone, you wait with Mr. Gee.”
Best quarter I ever spent.
Fran told Mr. Gee what was going on, I then sat in the back of the car. Mr. Gee and I then played a game much like Kevin Costner and Kicking Bird played in Dances with Wolves trying to talk about Ta-Tonkas. I would gesture to the car and say “Car”. I would then ask for Chinese….this confused Mr. Gee for a few minutes, then I tried other things and eventually he got what I was selling. We traded words for Car, Hand, Coat, and I think seat…but that could have been other things…tough one. It was great entertainment while waiting for the quarter express.After all this excitement, Fran and I picked up the printing, and had Hot Pot for dinner…which always rocks!