IMPRESSIONS OF CHINA
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This is the land of spectacular views. When we awoke on Sunday morning at about 5:30 AM and went walking around our hotel, these are the views that we saw that few get to see:

In the next photo, Lee English is examining a totally empty street....

..that was teeming with activity just hours ago,

Monday, May 10th, was the first day of real work. On the day before, we had received explicit directions from K. K. Ku, our sponsor. Remember that the more north that you go, the amount of English familiarity disappears. So our instructions consists mainly of landmarks instead of signs.

 

The four of us made our way to the local subway station at 7:30 A.M. to go to mainline China. We first walked for about three city blocks (with all of our luggage and computers) to the Tsim Sha Tsui East MTR Subway Station (See red line with arrows on map at right). The automatic ticket machines were troublesome. Although they state that they would take HK$100 notes, the machine refused to do so in some of our cases and the ride to Lo Wu would be HK$35.80. (At this time, one U.S. Dollar converts to about 7.5 Hong Kong Dollars.) We spent what seemed like an eternity trying to get our tickets. The machine issues you a ticket that you eventually place it into the turnstile just prior to entering the platform. The turnstile gate opens and issues another ticket to you. You will need that ticket to use the exit turnstile at the Lo Wu destination. We eventually reached our platform and, at first, took the electrically powered West Rail Line train to Hung Hom, where we transferred to the train to Lo Wu. See the route below as posted over one of the five doors on each car.

Of course, Lo Wu is directly across the river from mainland China and Shenzhen. We exited that train, went through Hong Kong Customs, then through the People's Republic of China Customs and took another walk to the Hi-Speed train to Shilong. This was a 45 minute ride and at times, we reached speeds of 175km/h (108 mph). We arrived at Shilong in the midst of a monsoon type rainstorm by 9:45A.M. While waiting for the storm to subside, we had breakfast at a local restaurant where absolutely no English was spoken. We finally arrived at our destination by noon.

China is doing everything possible to ensure that they adapt to all the new cultures that are now present in the country. For example, look at this power strip shown at right. Standard voltage in wall sockets is 240 volts but the plugs are all shaped different from what both the United States and Europe are using. What we found really surprising to us is that our MacBook laptop Computer, Nokia telephone and Plantronics Blue tooth earpiece all operate on both 120 volts and 240 volts. This power strip eliminates all those interface problems. Plug in and start working.

Both George and Lee had taken a Cantonese Chinese class via Pimsleur CDs and had told our hosts in advance that we had done so. We had not even settled into the car when picked up at the Shilong train station when George Huckaby was asked to display his knowledge. As expected, they pretended that they could not understand a word and then admitted that his pronunciation was "pretty good". Even though this was Guong Dong province, Mandarin Chinese was more extensively spoken in the plant. No report could be complete without some scenes of mainland China and the new AFFA facility, which was under construction during our 2008 visit.

The facility above is the new worker dorms and factory expansion for AFFA Technologies. The dorm building is facing the camera while the factory is at the right.

The machine above is used to balance flywheels going to be placed on model engines and trolleys. This is one of the improvements made to the Bowser traction mechanism by AFFA.

The above photo is typical of almost any street in most Chinese cities. There is a store or some commercial activity with a roll up door on the first floor while there are resident apartments above these stores.

The above photo is a typical intersection without any traffic controls. He who enters the intersection first usually assumes the right of way.

The above a typical activity in the Tsim Sha Tsui shopping district.
This photo was taken at the Shenzen Train Station as we walked from the Hi-Speed Train toward the MTR station for the trip back to Hong Kong!
The team that visited China, Bowser (Lee English & Matt Herman), Custom Traxx (George Huckaby) and Craig Martyn (BLMA), have been so consistently impressed with the quality of the items produced by AFFA Technologies that they decided to provide something extra for the workers assigned to their programs along with the office staff. Late Tuesday afternoon, the team visited a local bakery where for a very reasonable sum, a large number of desserts, some of which are shown below right, were obtained and taken to the plant. Lee is shown in the center photo below carrying some of the items into the plant while in the extreme right photo below, the plant manager and Mr. Lao, one of the project engineers prepares for distribution to the various departments.

We did see both the next group of Bowser PCC Cars in production and some of the Con-Cor PCC cars in final assembly. So they are really coming. Watch the Trolleyville Times for more information as we learn it. There are so much more to tell about our experiences about China and Hong Kong so contact us if you are interested in talking about more! We close with another view of Hong Kong from Kowloon.What a great trip!
5-19-10
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