Day Seven - Goodview

This was our second day in China and today we visited 2 more factories. The one thing that has been somewhat surprising about the factories is that they are basically right in the middle of neighborhoods. The factory workers have the option of living in the neighborhood or in the dorms provided by the factory...kind of like in college living on or off of campus. Both factories today only had in the range of 80-120 employees and they were in buildings that just looked like a regular office or commercial building. It is interesting to note that I still have not seen anyone left-handed in China. Also, another contrast from Hong Kong to China is the number of people wearing eye correction glasses. In Hong Kong, about half of the people we met with were wearing glasses (not sure about contacts) but in China you don't see it very often...I have been told that you will only see it on the factory owners or management but not on the line workers...and in the 3 factories so far I have not seen any workers wearing glasses.

This morning I decided not to go for a jog since it was my first day in China and the hotel felt like it was in an area that was not very safe. I mentioned that to the guy I am traveling with and he said that crime is basically just petty theft and almost never anything against a foreigner. He recalled a time when something happened to a foreigner in Shenzhen and they caught, tried and executed the criminal in 3 days! Not sure if that make me feel any safer or not! Tonight's hotel is in a gated community and has a pretty long outdoor jogging track so I will probably go for a run in the morning.

The lunch meal to day was traditional Chinese...baked duck, sweet & sour chicken (they only order this because the of the Americans), chicken feet, tofu, scallops, bbq beef (not okie joe's style!). Dinner was at a buffet at our hotel (very impressive...check it out at http://www.goodviewhotel.com/ it only costs about $100 USD per night) and consisted of American, Japanese, and Chinese food. They were all giving me a hard time for eating 2 servings of both pizza and ice cream. I did venture out a little by trying oysters covered in bacon but even bacon could not make that taste good. In mainland China it is not safe to drink the water, kind of like in Mexico, so I have been drinking a lot of Coke and Pepsi for the past 2 days. I started counting today and I think I had about 10 cans today alone. Usually a 2 or 3 with both lunch and dinner plus the suppliers are always asking us if we want something to drink...so that adds several more each day.

Another interesting fact...gas masks are provided in all the hotel rooms in China...that's it for tonight. The two pictures are views from my balcony...I know, it's rough but somebody's got to do it!