Yoga and Shopping

Thursday, July 9, 2009


A few days ago, I’d located a yoga studio nearby, Body and Soul Yoga. With our schedule, this was my first day to try it, however, I missed the morning class, so went to a noon “Flow” class.

You may know the popularity of hot yoga in the states, well any class at done at 12 noon in a inside an non climate controlled studio is, hot yoga. I got a work out. Pradeep, the instructor/owner is a yogi from India. I liked his style, would show the pose, and as you held it, walk to you and a gently reposition or improve your pose. A great workout, I just won’t do another class in the middle of the day again.

Extra bonus, on the corner of the same street of the yoga studio is an Café 85 degrees I mentioned earlier, woo hoo!! I picked up dinner, vegetable and wiener focaccia breads, and headed home.

While on the way to the yoga studio, the taxi took me through the finer shopping district around the apartment. So I decided to meander back that way. I wandered into a Silk shop just to browse, hoping to find some 4xl silk tops. No such luck. However, with the tailor shop on the second floor, I did order 3 silk tops and a pair of silk pants, custom made to my size, $USD 325. This is comparable to mid-quality off the shelf clothing in the states. I would have to return Friday after 7pm for a fitting. I’ll break this little purchase to John sometime, or not. We’ll see if he reads the blog.

More later, Letica

Sans Luggage

Next day
First, I’ll back up to a bit of drama we had the previous day, that carried over to today. As we were getting in the cab catch the train, John finally received an email from our contact in Cixi City telling us the he’d received permission from the Chinese government for us to visit his plant the next day (Wednesday). Yikes, we did not pack for this, expecting only to visit the GBF plant and return back by train same day.

Not knowing we’d have a lot of time at the train station, we did not turn around and go back for an overnight bag. We hoped / planned to find a good hotel with overnight laundry service and local store for other amenities. In the Hangzhou Bay Resort, we were lucky and found just what we needed. We arrived tired and dirty, after checking in with NO luggage, I took a cab to a local Walmart style store, and purchased two t-shirts, a blouse and Capri pants. Luckily, they had my Chinese size available (4XL), but I found nothing for John.

After obtaining clothes, I went back to the hotel. Changed into my new Chinese outfit, then John and I gathered all the clothes we were wearing, and I called for housekeeping to request overnight laundry. After a very firm discussion across the language barrier, (Staff, a young woman of 20 or so, “Tomorrow 12pm, is ok?” Me, “No, not OK, need by 8:30am”. Staff, “maybe 10:00, ok?”, Me, “No, not OK, need 8:30 am”). This young woman, after discussion with others in chinese, “OK. OK.”). I released the clothes to the staff and prayed for the best. Of course, this meant dinner in the room, since John only had a hotel sheet to wear.

This morning, all went well, promptly at 8:15, I asked about my laundry. I was told a few more minutes. 30 minutes later we, got our freshly laundered clothing, still a bit damp in spots.

After a leisurely breakfast, Mr. Le Gang’s assistant picked us up at the hotel and we went to his office to discuss using Cazseal’s ceramic board, Kevlar fibers and carbon fabrics for the oil field industry for John’s associate, Dr. Fleming. Mr. Le Gang also sells gaskets primarily to the oil field industry. After this discussion, Mr. Le Gang and his assistant took us to lunch at a local restaurant, were we had a great meal of vegetables, fish, soup and fried rice. Mr. Le Gang and Brian at lunch.

After lunch, Mr. LeGang and Brian dropped us off at the local bus station for our trip back to Shanghai. The hotel staff recommended that we take the bus back to Shanghai instead of the train as it was a shorter trip. Luckily we were able to make the 1:10 bus. The bus was very crowded and although air conditioned, still very warm. After an uncomfortable 3.5 hours on the bus, we arrived back in Shanghai, grabbed a cab, and were back to our hotel by 6pm. Over all a successful two days. After a light dinner of left over pizza and salad we were off to bed.

more later.. Leticia

Visit to GBF

Tuesday, Plant Tour

The morning started early, 4:00am. Because of John's mobility issues and
we did not know the layout of the Shanghai Railway station, we left the
hotel at 04:30 for our 6:08 train. John wanted to make sure if it was a lot of walking, he had time to make it. We made it alright, the Shanghai Railway station turned out to be a 7
minute cab ride and even with the trek to the train lounge, we were waiting at
the gate by 5:00am. We were there so early, the lights were not on in the
lounge. Yawn.

We wanted to get a coffee at the station, but none of the coffee shops were open. I did get John a nescafe from one of the smaller vendors, while I stayed with water.

The train trip was uneventful, except our seats were not next to each other, so after the 2nd stop as the train filled up we had to move. One note, we order green tea on the train. Yummy. It was great green tea, much better than we get in the states billed as premium tea. Full green leaves that we were able to use 3 times before losing flavor.

We arrived in Hangzhou at 8:06, our host Sunny and her sister Eva met us at the exit. After a quick stop for fruit from a local vendor for breakfast (Lychees, oranges, and bananas), we headed out to the plant in Dongyang county in the city of Hengdian. Hengdian the home of the famous Hengdian World Studios, the Hollywood of China. We did a quick drive by tour of the Studios lots, which is surprising close to the plant. The studios are impressive.

Then on to the plant where we met Mr. Hu, the Chairman of GBF and Eric, the international sales director. After shooting pictures of the product display, we headed out to lunch. This was the best meal we've every had in China, including last years trip. We had baked fish, a sauteed leafy green, similar to water spinach, but not, a whole chicken soup (including feet), squid sauteed with chilis and a green aspargus like vegetable, fried rice, lettuce wraps, and a bun served with a chicken, vegetable mix. Yumm...

After lunch, we went back to the plant to discuss our plans to promote GBF products in the states and get to know each other better. The our discussions focused on the standarization and certification of basalt fiber worldwide.

I requested and did get to see the plant, which was very clean and quiet. You hear a lot of negative press about plants in China. At this plant, the workers are fed well, the plant is clean and safe. I could not take pictures for trade secret reasons, but I was very impressed with the process. The plant uses electricity instead of gas for process of the rock. Most of the process is automated so workers are not at risk handling the high temperature equipment. Here is a picture of the plant lunch room serving a nice meal with chicken, rice and vegetables.

After our discussions with Mr. Hu, Eric and Sunny, where we discussed the actions we wanted to take to promote/offer basalt fibers in the US, we prepared to leave. Sunny and Mr. Hu, graciously arranged for our driver to take us to our hotel in Cixi City about a 3 ½ hour trip away. We greatly appreciated this generosity. Here it the leadership of GBF and us as we prepare to leave.

We said good-bye, and Sunny had Eva and the driver on to our hotel, the Hangzhou Bay Resort in Cixi City.

A very good day for us.

more later.. Leticia

Jet Lag or just really tired

Sunday and Monday in Shanghai.

It's either jet lag or an accumulated lack of sleep. In the weeks prior to this trip, John and I were running at 110%. I tried to wrap up as much as I could at work, at the same time keeping up with my health routine. Staying up late, then up early for spinning or boot camp. My sister and her beau arrived on Wednesday to couch camp with us and stay with the cats. So of course I stayed up late visiting with her.

So what do we do when we get here. Sleep, eat breakfast at the hotel (included with the room), run down to the corner Family Mart for fancy raimen noodle soups (I love the super spicy one - I need to find it when I get back to Dallas at our local Asian food store, H Mart). Nap again.

We did plan for our trip to the GBF plant in the Hangzhou area on Tuesday. This included a 4km round trip trek to the Railway office for tickets. Shanghai is HOT and STEAMY. When I got back, I was exhausted from the heat. After a bath, took another nap.

Our apartment hotel is at the edge of the finest upscale shopping areas and the local hardware store district. My trek for tickets went through the hardware district which consists fo many of little shops selling, tank gauges, giant industrial glue sticks, piping, gaskets, wood carpentry pieces, tool shops, lazer levelers, and other construction/industrial items. Each shop sold only a small range of items and had 2-3 very hot, tired clerks, ready to service any need for these pieces. In addition, the sidewalks are parking and roads for bicycles and motorcycles, also construction abounds.

A successful trek, as I returned with tickets for the train to and from Hangzhou, where our hosts from GBF planned to pick us up for the trip out to the plant. Traffic laws in Shanghai seem to be considered suggestions, rather than law, so it was an adventure of dodging pedestrians, bicycles and motorcycles on the sidewalks and taxis in the crosswalks.

On the way back, I found a gem of a local cafe, Cafe 85 degrees C, which sells delightful pastries, foccica breads with wonderful toppings, frozen drinks, coffee and tea. I know where I'm having breakfast while I'm here.

It's to bed early again, (yea!! more sleep), as our train leaves for Hangzhou at 06:08, yawn.

More to come.

Eclipse Adventure 2009

John and I are starting our eclipse adventure once again. This year the eclipse starts in India and ends in the middle of the Pacific http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEmono/TSE2009/TSE2009.html.

John and I will see the eclipse at center point on the Costa Classica ship. At the planned location, we'll see a 6 minute 39 second eclipse. Extra bonus, my good friend Kathy, who saw the 1998, 1999 and 2001 solar eclipses with me, will be joining us with her husband (also named John). We'll also be joined by our eclipse buddy, Lynn, who traveled on the same 2008 China Solar eclipse tour last year with us near Yiwu. See last year's posts for a description of that trip.

We started out today via American Airlines direct flight to Narita, Japan. John and I settled in nicely. He with some reading materials and plans to sleep. Me with downloaded Torchwood episodes to watch on the laptop. After a 5 hour layover, we went on to Shanghai. Pictures shown here are John settling in on the airplane for the 13 hour trip and the JAL Business class lounge at Narita.

Last year we visited Beijing as part of our July/August 2008 eclipse trip. This year, as the universe helped us arrange, our best option is Shanghai as John is now representing GBF, a basalt fiber manufacturing company located near Hangzhou. So our plans are to base ourselves out of Shanghai, visit the plant, then travel to Tianjin, where we'll do a day trip out to visit another company John represents.

We arrived safely in Shanghai and took a car to our Citadines Apartment hotel. It's a nice 2 bedroom, two bath, with kitchen apartment that will be our home until July 13, when we travel to Tianjin.