Taipei pictures.....last blog

My next CAR.....naah....I need more legroom and just a little bit more space.

Food vendor serving food, Taiwanese style dinner at the food court. I know this picture looks weired but it is Japanese style toilet with different water speed, sprays and heat control with a remote control.

"VW" in Taiwan?? Everyone grills their own food at Japanese restaurant. Grill set up at the dining table, I think this will be too much liability in American restaurants, otherwise I am opening one in Minnesota so we can grill in the middle of the Winter! That's the manager at young optics showing his stock numbers. I didn't understand it.....too many big numbers in one shot for me. How about a simple picture at Young optics instead of big numbers?

Breastfeeding room at the railway station.

I told her not to sit at priority seat, I took a picture as a proof...now Anna is gonna have hard time taking this picture away from me.

Three shots for US$ 4, Can you imagine what is that?............................................................................................................

White shot: Snake's weak poison

Green shot: Snake's eggs

Red shot: Snake's blood, all shots mixed with vodka! Do you feel like drinking anymore?

Flower market. That's my last Chinese style vegetarian meal in the flight from Taipei to Tokyo, how delicious?

Tall bulidings in Hong Kong

Hong Kong

The view of Shanghai from the hotel room, at least at 6 AM it was not crowded

Before we land in Hong Kong, a great view from the airplane window.

More lights come up as we get closer to next station, everything works by minutes and seconds in HongKong

Station announcement for deaf people on LCD television inside the train

HongKong and Taipei, Taiwan

I travelled from Shanghai to Hong Kong on May 30th 2007. We stayed in Hong Kong for just one night. Hong Kong is a very expensive city and also we had important business visits in Taipei on June 1st. We actually travelled from Hong Kong to Taipei on 31st May right away, one day ahead of our planned day. On June 4th we left Taipei to come back to United States. I am uploading Hong Kong and Taipei pictures together so this can be my last blog. Hong Kong was very expensive but also very business oriented city. Everything was fast, costly and high tech. Even the journey from Hong Kong Airport to the hotel was full of experiences because everything is well planned. Trains, airport, stations everything was timed out, managed with very good high level technology and designed to attract more and more businessmen. Please check out the pictures they will explain more. Hong Kong new airport is like a heaven on the ground. We have small piece of land which is in the middle of the sea where airplanes land. Right next to this runway is bluffs and mountains. The bluffs, mountains, trees and nature in this area is very well maintained. On the top of all of these nature and technology's mixture, right next to the seashore there tremendous amount of city life. There were at least 15-20 buildings that were so tall that I had to lay on the road to take a complete picture. It looks so beautiful to see all of these mixtures of nature and man made things in few minutes from airplane's or trains window. I am sure many of you want to go visit this place but until you go enjoy my pictures. Taipei, Taiwan: This used to be the Japanese colony until second world war. It is very fast growing nation. I saw a lot of Japanese influence in their life style, I also got to practice some of my broken Japanese with the businessmen who do research and development or even production work in Taipei and export most of their products to big name Japanese company like Sony. There are pictures of some of these companies with some city spotlights. Hope fully you enjoyed the blog, I would love to talk to you or email you any other details of my journey if you would like to know them. 15 Day visit to the east end of the world, woke me up. Cultural Traditions, values and moral of the life and disciplines of life or even family system that Chinese follow was just fascinating. May be I will get to visit this beautiful land of beautiful people once again in my lifetime but if I don't, I can look at these pictures and relive my memories again. Thanks Sachin sachinpadhye@gmail.com

Another day in Shanghai visiting businesses, May 29th 2007

Today, May 29th we visited 3 major companies in Shanghai. Chinaworldbest, Polaroid and Eaton Corporation. There were many mixed and interesting responses from people from these companies. I actually got a chance to talk to 2 out of 3 managers personally. China Worldbest company makes products from hand gloves for medical usage to shirts, t-shirts or even golf clubs. Their major clients are in US and Europe. One of the major shocking news was this company had much business wit Walmart but were very afraid to continue it. Cotton Hill, the manager mentioned that 40% of suppliers of Wal-Mart in China are bankrupt. Wal-mart gives them very harsh treatment with competition and they have to produce the good with certain limitations and very very low price otherwise Wal-Mart goes to another customers. Overall, this company visit was good but I could easily see the tensions and pressures Chinese businessmen have. Secondly, we visited Polaroid company. We actually met with an American businessman who has been living in China for more than 8 years. He speaks fluent Chinese and seemed to be a big supporter of Globalization. Polaroid gets most of their production done in China, this includes cameras, Television, audio-visual devices and any latest technologies e.g. JPEG image back up hard disk with automatic software. These products are selling in US, China and rest of the world only because Polaroid has a recognized name and their marketing through, Circuit City, Walmart, Best buy is very good. Actually owner of the Polaroid is from Minnesota and his name is Mr. Patterson. We heard many good things about him. He is a great businessman with very open mind towards every one's idea, most importantly because his abilities, hard work and skills he is one of the most successful businessmen in the world. Thirdly, we visited Eaton Corporation's China office. The numbers for Eaton are very big. It is a leading company in China's power assembly, automobile parts. It is growing up pretty fast and Shanghai office was the biggest and head branch of Eaton corporation. Enjoy the pictures.

Group picture at China Worldbest

China worldbest owns few floors of a tall building, this the picture of the Shanghai street from the last floor of that building.

The picture of the bay from Polaroid company, we were not allowed to take pictures of the building itself due to security reasons (hey are big money company!)

Very neat and well organized inventory of Eaton, China....interestingly enough there was only one board that gave information in Chinese, everything else was written in English.

Left to right, Kathy, Me, Wendy and Selina. they are all from China, they were great help to go around and communicate because I only know 5 words of Chinese. They like me....who doesn't?? haha...LOL

Chilling at the Eaton's main office waiting for manager to come out!

Day out in Shanghai, May 28th 2007

On May 27th 2007, we travelled from Xian to Shanghai. Flight was in the afternoon so by the time we got to Shanghai it was about 5 PM. We just went around to eat and didn't do a lot that evening. ***************************************************** Today we went around visiting different food, shopping places and many small areas of Shanghai. Shanghai is developing very quickly and has a lot of Western influence. There are some picture of Shanghai, they look very cool. Enjoy

Shanghai at night, very beautiful!

I found a Pizza hut in Shanghai, they even have Chinese Pizza!

Traditional Shanghai life style. Now every single thing is improving but this used to the traditional structure of living. Many people have to live in small places because harbor is used for business which makes real estate very expensive.

I saw many people walking, riding bikes, or driving small mopeds/scooter. This is very good way of saving gas and energy, also keeps you in good shape. Most importantly, bikes, mopeds and motorcycles are in front of big cars and truck at traffic light...they also have separate lane.

Last night in Xian, May 26th 2007

We visited Terra-Cotta Army today. This was built 2200 years ago by emperor Qin. There was a belief among Chinese emperors that when you die if all of these clay made soldiers, horses etc. are buried under ground with you you still maintain your power even after death. The most interesting part about this site every single soldier, horse and part of the army is unique. Every soldier's face is different with different emotions and there is amazing amount of detailed work that has been done on it. All of these statues were painted but because they are so old, the oxidizing effect takes away the color within 30 minutes after these statues are exposed. We have not been able to find the technology yet that can stop this oxidization. Enjoy the pictures. Me in front of the Army.

Right in front of this sign a farmer found a piece of a horse's statue. He was digging the ground to find the water because during 1970s, Xian had water shortage. After the farmer found the pieces government was notified and the whole Terra Cotta Army was found totaling more than 10,000 soldiers. Can you believe it? This circular roof is one piece and is made out of bronze (very expensive) which looks like next to impossible task 2200 years ago. Chinese workers must have had very good knowledge of metallurgy and alloy combinations. The picture of old Xian city inside the city walls. The total was distance is almost 13 Kilometers. Chinese emperor had built this wall so the city inside can be safe. I actually had a bike ride on this wall for almost 2 hours.

May 25th, 2nd day in Xian

• There were four main features of the day. 1) Visit to the Typical-Brother company 2) Xian middle school with software and online teaching ability 3) Cooking school (Yes, I learned to make dumplings) 4) Traditional Xian Music and Dance show
• In the morning we visited a company names Typical company. It make all types of domestic and professional sewing machines. We got a a great tour of the their main branch. All of the Chinese businesses have very good arrangements when students are visiting them. We had seats at their conference table with water bottles, fruits and mainly Chinese green tea. This company makes and sends their products all around the world. This included their customers in India and United States. I found a man who speaks Chinese, Japanese, English, Portuguese, Spanish, German and few words of French. No wonder why they are leading the world in Business. There are may be one or two pictures from that company. Typical Company's showroom

With the group members and company's managers. The gentleman on the front left speaks a lot of languages.

• Second we went to Xian middle school. This was for short amount of time but very interesting. Normally anyone would think that Chinese education system is behind everyone in technology. But we went to one of the best middle/high schools in China. This school is implementing a program which records teachers teaching classes. These records can be downloaded or buffered from Internet whether you are in rural China or in New York city. This is a special service for the poor students who don't' have greater access to school material and Chinese parents who are living abroad but want to teach their kids about Chinese language and culture. There were many times when I was just amazed with China's dedication towards their culture, traditions and family values.
• Third, we went to a cooking school. Fortunately that day was their final presentation day. So besides learning about cooking dumplings, I got to meet with many Chinese cooks who are currently students but will serve thousands of restaurants around the world. For the finals presentations, these students made animals, birds and many scenic designs just by carving into fruits and vegetables. All of the students (in the group of 10 or 15) ran in front of the stage in military style and performed their cooking skills. It is very interesting that they did not make any single mistakes as they were performing these actions of cooking, frying, baking etc. Me with Chinese chefs who taught me how to cook dumplings!

And now I can make these beautiful dumplings, j.k. that was a sample plate made by chef.

As their final presentation, Chinese students made these plate by carving fruits and vegetables, Can you believe it?

One more design made out of vegetables!

The group of students taking their final exam.

• Lastly, we saw a very traditional Xian based Chinese show that included wonderful performances of artist who played and sang many traditional Chinese songs. Dances were very precise and well practiced. Chinese women have a very good sense of color and every dress, color and move in their dances has a typical meaning. So enjoy these pictures. Chinese artist performing a great piece of traditional music, hopefully you get to click on this picture and see it in bigger size.

Very beautiful Dance performance!

It is just me chilling with the security guard, we are now friends, he told me to stop by anytime without any ticket! ? jk.....I wish I will be blogging soon with more updates Thanks Sachin (sachinpadhye@gmail.com )