TRIP TO CHINA
In 5-14 June
2009, we participate at the trip organized by Green
Valley
Europe in China, more
exactly in Shanghai.
Taking into consideration that we promised to all our friends that we tell them
how it was in China,
and concerning the fact that we cannot meet all of them soon, we decided to
write them a travel journal.
There are many to say, and to see in the pictures.
We did as much as we could a resume, the trip was very nice,
the organization very well, all the points from the itinerary were touched,
even more that we expected.
Me and Tavi are willing to come back again anytime in this
special world..
The route,
destination and .....
Day 1:2: 6 -7 June
We join the group in Oradea, we went by
microbus at 1 o'clock in the night, we were all happy, and very excited. Once
we arrived in Budapest, we waited for about 2
hours until Paris
flight. The flight was good, even if we had a little bit turbulence, in the end
was comfortable and fast.
In Paris we waited for 5 hours, and in this time we drink coffee, or juice and we visited duty-free
shopping. The flight was long and difficult, so we didn't sleep to much,
because it was day time in Romania,
and we were confused. At least, the last 5 hours, passed very hard, even if I
was watching the route on my TV screen posted in my front seat. We traveled at
11.000 altitude, 1000km/ h speed, and outside there were minus -60 * C.
We crossed Europe through the
North countries, after this, Russia,
Siberia, Mongolia, and when we crossed the
sea, we were almost there. When we arrived there, we were scanned for the virus A/H1N1. For us it was funny and we made pictures.
The
airport from Shanghai
it's very big, Mike and Steve (our guide) were waiting for us . A bus (with air
conditioning and driven very well by San, our driver) took us half sleepy, to
our hotel Riverside. We had large, clean rooms and beds with silk covers. This
was around 9 am, at 12 pm the Bulgarian group also arrived, and then we had
dinner and went on a night cruise on Huangpu
River. We saw games of
lights, high buildings in different shapes and lightning in many colors, hard
to describe in words. My advice to all of you is to go there and see for
yourselves.
 
Day 3: 8 June
After
breakfast in the hotel, we went to Yuyuan
Gardens and to the Jade Temple.
Then we had lunch ( we were eating too often) and shopping.
  
How can I let off the visiting of
a pearl factory, we saw pearls just taken from the shell, a lot of jewelers,
very interesting
  
Day 4: 9 June
It was
raining, we hardly woke up, back home was 2 o'clock in the night, we visited
the Shanghai Museum, all the rooms with pottery,
metal, jade, paintings, coins, history in one word. In the evening we went to
the acrobatic show, what a show, I haven't seen something like this in my
entire life, such a performance EXCELLENT!!! AMAZING!!!
I will put here Mike's picture, we thank him
for giving us the opportunity to see such a show.
  
Day 5: 10 June
We are heading by bus to the
Oriental Venice Zhouzhuang
 
. Here we saw traditional houses,
handicraft workshops for art objects, pearl necklaces, jade objects, fabrics of
cotton, we saw how to weave the loom, how to cut and cart clothing and accessories,
sweats, teas, food , lots of things that are easy catching your eyes and money,
things more or less useful which are pleasing our tastes.
  
. In the afternoon we followed the
way to Ningbo. Well, we are having fun, but we are also
making business, right? Our target was Yofoto, the company which merged with Green Valley.
In the evening we had dinner and guess what? , they had forks.
Day 6: 11 June
After breakfast ( they didn't have
coffee), we went to the headquarter of Yofoto....big room, microphones, music,
photo cameras, ATTENTION........The president showed up, (a really nice man, I liked him) with some
collaborators and with the vice-president, Mr.Chan, they made a speech. After
this we went to visit the showrooms, the new head quarter and then we went to
eat at the cafeteria of Yofoto . In the afternoon we went to a huge Expo, we
were loosing there ,such a big surface. In the evening we had dinner with the
president of Yofoto, we had a good wine made by the company from wild grapes,
we told Mike he can count on us for distributing this wine, if we cannot sell
it in the network we will drink it.
  
Day 7: 12 June
We went again to Yofoto to take
some more pictures, then lunch, we received wine again, and after this we went
back to Shanghai.
Day 8: 13 June
We visited the Pearl
Tower, 270 m tall, we
went by elevator 110 floors and it was
very interesting.
   
Then, we went to a company Suneon, which
has a huge base of cactus: they are
picking the crop 3 times a year, they are making wine, soft drinks, cosmetics
all made of cactus. There we received a very worm and emotional welcome, they
were very nice people, nice dressed, we smile to each other, despite our
language barer.........and honestly I even had tears in my eyes at this meeting. Very
nice and good hearted- people.
After
the meeting they invited us to dinner, it was one of the best dinners we had in
China,
many dishes, wonderful and interesting tastes. We said good bye to them with
tears in our eyes, was amazing.
Then
we went to a silk factory, we saw many interesting things there, the breeding
of
worms,
how they are making the silk, we saw bed accessories, clothes, scarves, but a
little expensive.
I a rush we visited Green Valley,
maybe because it was Saturday and no one was working.
  
Few Words about
Chinese Food:
Every time we talked
with our friends about our trip to China all of them, made references
to the strange Chinese menus. Well, I can say that even if in the beginning
seemed peculiar to us, we got used very quickly with their style. At all the
restaurants we went, we stayed at tables of 8-10people, each of us had a small
cup of tea, a small dish for soup with a strange spoon and chopsticks. I will
mention that we also received forks. All the tables had a glass spinning cover
on which they put all our dishes, few of them vey difficult to recognize. We
had rice, vegetables, fish, meat, tofu, scrambled eggs, sea food and soup,
which in some restaurants was very spicy. After every meal we received slices
of watermelon. It was a culinary YIN YANG.
  
All the restaurants were very nice arranged, with silk and
many decorations, with many rooms and V.I.P lounges; they even had a karaoke
room. The waiters were very nice dressed and very polite. We also had
performances in a Thai restaurant.
  
A funny story was in
Ningbo, there at the restaurant they told us that never had customers from
Europe, so they didn't had coffee at breakfast, but they quickly improved the
situation by buying right away .
  
Could shopping become
one of my passions?
Now I will talk about the way we shopped in China,
in places chosen by Mike and Steve. We found out or maybe we already knew, that
for Asians negotiation is an art, lets call it a spice of commerce , a
compulsory component. Ok, we agree with this, but from a discount of 10-20 % to
rich a discount of 90-95% is a very long way, but it is true. For us was a
little bit difficult, because our education was keeping us away from hurting
people by asking such a huge discount? But these were the rules of the shopping
game, so we followed them; it was a very interesting experience. Personally I
had some performances in lowing the prices to the very bottom, and sometimes,
to be honest, I was gambling with the prices just for fun to see how low I can
get .....And I did it.
  
In the end, maybe I wrote to much, I will say that we really
enjoyed our time in China,
Chinese people are hard working, they have discipline and respect for their origin,
condition and traditions, they have impressing buildings, parks, roads, in a
word GLAMOUR.
Day 9: 14 June
Because it was our last day, we went to a Jade factory, we
saw huge and expensive pieces of jade, a real tradition in China, meaning that at birth and
marriage people must receive as gifts jade. After this I and Tavi went again to
Yuyuan Garden to spend some more money and then
we rushed to the hotel. In the evening we went to the airport with the fastest
magnetic field train.
  
It was an amazing experience, if any of you have the
opportunity to go to China,
don't loose it, it is worth while.
Author : Adriana
Burnete
Pictures: Tavi
Burnete
  
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