Archive for June, 2010
“Miss, please come with me.” -Airport Security
17
It all started with a suitcase. We checked our luggage, which was a pain because of crazy overage charges for our XXXL bags. I won the prize for heaviest luggage. We were all frustrated, but everything was for the most part fine until we walked through security. I made it through after struggling to balance my laptop, tea set, and backpack.
As I was putting my laptop back into my bag, a uniformed man comes up to me and says, “Excuse me miss, can I see your passport?” I agreed. He looked at the passport, looked at me, looked at the passport again and said, “Okay, please come with me.”
With a puzzled look I told him that I needed to tell my group where I was going. He said okay and that I would be better off leaving my bags with my friends. I dropped my stuff off with the gang and followed this man through the airport. He led me into an unfurnished hallway and looks at me and says, “We need to ask you a few questions.”
A lot was going through my mind at this point. “Will I miss my flight? Did I make the do-not-fly-list in Asia? What the hell am I doing here?” And something along the lines of, “Oh my goodness. I hope they don’t kill me!” He then led me to a run-down looking metal door. We entered this room that was just like you would see in the movies. The walls were bright white and the lights were blinding.
“Have a seat,” he said, “We’d like to ask you a few questions.”
“Who’s we?” I thought.
I waited for a few minutes for the others to arrive. That few minutes felt like an hour. I really was freaking out at this point. Some other men soon arrived with one of my suitcases and asked me to stand up and open it. I did and everything practically fell out since it was stuffed so full. Then they asked me to start taking everything out. Like I said, I won the prize for heaviest suitcase, so you can imagine what this was like. Once I had completely ruined what little organization was in my suitcase to begin with, they found the culprit, a set of faux old coins. They took them out, examined them and started asking me the most random questions ever. I basically gave a rundown of my whole life story. It was hard to concentrate because the lights were so bright and this huge black bug kept buzzing in my ear.
“Why are you here? Who are you here with? How old are you? Are you a student? What school? How many people are in your family? Okay, you are here with school, but why are you traveling? Where have you shopped? How much did you spend? Why do you have these coins? Who are they for? What was the reason for this purchase? What do you intend to do with them? Where did you grow up? Have you traveled before? Are you enjoying your trip? Do you like Chinese food?” Etc. It was out of control.
After typing what seemed like pages and pages of material into a computer, they finally told me why they had brought me there. The coins that I had purchased were knock-offs, but they thought I was trying to smuggle old coins out of the country, which is illegal. They took my passport and boarding pass, stamped the hell out of it, took me back through a private area of security, and let me go on my way.
I was very flustered at this point. The man who had picked me up brought me back to the BSU gang. Everyone could tell that I was a little shook-up and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t. This was quite the experience. I picked up my carry-ons and we continued on to our terminal. We got lunch and boarded the plane and that was the end of it.
Wait… this isn’t… Pizza Hut?
2China is seen by the modern industries of the world as the land of opportunity. They see it as a place where they can take their industry and carve a niche for them to contribute and grow. These industries not only see China in this way, they are helping China make it that way.
Food is one of those industries and food franchises from the United States have one of the largest presences of anyone. Whether it’s been Shanghai, Beijing, or Hong Kong, all of us on the Ball State team have been just a quick stroll down the street from something that is very familiar. But sometimes what seems familiar on the outside, is really different on the inside.
It’s our first night in Hong Kong. All of us walk down the dense streets of a city that has a Times Square on every corner. It seems impossible for any one neon billboard to stand out among the Festival of Lights that is Hong Kong, but one actually did… Pizza Hut.
We haven’t had pizza for the longest time, so we jumped at the opportunity. When we arrive at the front door we only see a podium and a host. We then walk up several flights of stairs to arrive at what seems to be a mistake. Looking around the restaurant we feel as if we took the wrong set of stairs, or maybe this is the restaurant people go through to get to Pizza Hut. Nope. The host sits us at our table and we are still in this seemingly Bizarro Pizza Hut. Mirrors cover the walls and are engraved with beautiful cursive words that say “Delightful,” “Togetherness,” and “Delicious.” The carpet on the floor has a design that gives the impression of walking on rocks. The lights give orange glows from both lamps and beams on the wall. Sitting in this seemingly chic Tuscan villa, I’m thinking to myself “When did Armani and Pizza Hut get together and make a restaurant?”
The design isn’t all that is new. Pizza feels like an afterthought in the back of the menu at this place. I didn’t even make it to the pizza section until someone put another menu in my face. Spaghetti, salad, and lasagna seem to go on forever on these menus, and everything seems so (to quote the mirror) “delicious.” Dishes such as the Seafood Spaghetti in Sicilian Soup look absolutely amazing, especially after you read that it is “an alluring combination of seafood and Sicilian soup together with Al Dente spaghetti, a perfect match to bring out the freshness.” Dishes in America such as the “Cheese Lover’s Pizza” just don’t have the same ring. I’m not saying it’s not delicious, because everyone on this trip can testify that I will eat just about anything on a plate; I’m simply stating that Pizza Hut has really raised the bar when it comes to making Italian food.
With that said, I suggest we all burn down the Pizza Huts in Muncie so we can get one of these chic ones. You don’t want to do that? It’s against the law? Ok fine. I guess we’ll have to just wait until they rot and fall over (it should only take about 50 years). I’m willing to wait.
In the meantime, check out what these Pizza Huts look like at pizzahut.com.hk. You’ll feel like your reserving a suite at the Bellagio Casino Resort.
Chinglish
3One of our favorite sources of entertainment while out and about in all three of the cities we have been to has been signs everywhere written in Chinglish. Chinglish is a failed Chinese attempt at English. Often, it is the kind of direct translation that comes from an online translator, the kind that makes automatic translations between languages that usually come out woefully incorrect. These kinds of mistakes can be seen on signs everywhere in China, even in culturally diverse areas where better English might be expected. In some situations the mistakes aren’t so bad that the intended meaning of a sign can’t be deciphered, but there have been a few times when we have been left with no idea of what a sign is trying to say. For example, at the gate leading into the parking lot at the section of the Great Wall of China we walked, one sign read “The Tourist Gets Out the Bill Enrollment in Preschool.” I can only assume that the sign probably meant to say something like, “Have Your Ticket Ready Before Entering the Gate,” but who knows. Since getting to Hong Kong, because of the British influence, the English seen and spoken in public has been noticeably better, but not perfect. Being able to better understand different signs has been great, but I do enjoy a good laugh at an incomprehensible attempt at English. Below are a few of the better signs we have seen during our journey.
This one we spotted at The Great Wall
This one was on the revolving door in our hotel in Beijing
This one was found at the 2008 Olympics site to apparently stop visitors from walking in the flowers
An afternoon with ESPN
2Everyone in the U.S. knows about the vast resources and reach of ESPN as a leader in sports programming. What they may not know is that in Asia, ESPN and its partnership with NewsCorp (the Rupert Murdoch owned media company) makes it the sports programming king of Asia and Australia, as well. From China to Hong Kong to Singapore to India to Taiwan to Australia, ESPNStar carries sports of a variety unmatched even in the U.S. with cricket, Australian rules football, rugby, motor sports as well as all of the traditional American sports.
Thursday afternoon, we had the opportunity to visit the Hong Kong based ESPN International offices. In fact, it wasn’t just the ESPN offices we saw, all of Disney Corporations Asia offices (ESPN’s parent company) are located in Hong Kong. It was an informal meeting set up through a friend and former colleague of mine that is an executive producer with ESPN in the U.S. And although informal, it was a meeting full of great information and insight into the business of sports programming and media in general. Michael Morrison, VP and General Manager of ESPN Asia Pacific, along with Kelly Cooke, Director of Business Development for ESPN Asia Pacific, spent nearly an hour and a half talking with our group; offering information and insight into the future of the media business, including alternative platform delivery and describing to the students the type of skills they need to acquire now to be better prepared for a career in media.
Michael T. Morrison and Kelly Cooke of ESPN Asia Pacific talk with students about the future of the media industry.
It was an informative and enjoyable afternoon from the view out their office windows to the conversation. Thanks for ESPN for everything.
Imagine this view everyday at work. The view from the conference room at Disney Corp. in Hong Kong.
Bye bye Beijing, Hello Hong Kong
3We said our goodbyes to Beijing on Wednesday, after a great week and a half. Again, the trip out was full of drama. If you thought flying in the United States could be challenging, it’s even tougher here. Thank goodness we got to the airport three hours before the flight. Even though we stayed in China, going to Hong Kong is like traveling to another country. We had to go through customs, immigration and extra security checks (Sarah will have more on that). We had a great flight on Dragonair. It was a spacious plane with good food and it was quite smooth.
The arrival in Hong Kong was also really smooth. Immigration was short and sweet. The bags were waiting for us. The ride to the hotel was quick and easy.
Then the shock set in. Hong Kong is truly a different place than Shanghai and Beijing. It’s hard to describe. My first impressions… Hong Kong is Shanghai meets New York meets Los Angeles meets Miami.
Here’s why I bring up that eclectic mix of places. It feels like Chinatown in New York City. While all of the signs are in Chinese, there is plenty of English too. It also has the energy, bright lights and crowds of New York. But wait, then there is a big difference – the mountains! They’re everywhere. Suzy compared it to Southern California. It is beautiful. But wait, there’s more. It’s tropical, aka humid! So, so humid. Think Florida in the summer. This is going to be a neat town to experience. We’re going out to explore much more of Hong Kong today. So more details are ahead.
The view from Terry's room at the Cityview Hotel in Hong Kong. It's the big city and the mountains all in one!
Video Blog 6
1Be sure to check out the full HD version at http://vimeo.com/12555155. Thanks everyone!
The Silk Street Market
4“Hey lady, buy a bag?” Words I’ve heard often while in Shanghai and Beijing. Nowhere near as often as I did on Sunday afternoon when four of us headed to the Silk Market. We experienced what can only be described as AMAZING.
The Silk Market is a seven-story mall of sorts with individual stalls selling all sorts of wonderful and fabulous goods. Coats, underwear, silk scarves, luggage, jewelry, purses and custom made clothing; anything you might want or need. The amazing part of the experience of the Silk Market is the negotiations that go on when buying an item.
It quickly became apparent to our group that Sarah Brannan is an expert negotiator, sometimes getting the sales girls to drop their prices to 20 percent of the original asking price, or getting them to sell two for the price of one. Sarah moved from stall to stall haggling with the various sales girls, working her magic and buying a multitude of items for herself, her parents and her sister.
Terry, on the other hand, was a sales girl dream. As Terry would pass each stall, he apparently looked like an easy target, as sales girls would grab him by the arm and pull him in before he realized what was happening. While he would get away, it would sometimes take awhile. And even though he got caught the most and for the longest time in the web of the sales girl, he in fact bought the least; leaving the Silk Market with only a suit and some small gifts for others.
We each left with several items and in the end we all felt good about our purchases, our haggling abilities and our experience!
Shots from around Shanghai and Beijing
1This are some shots from around Shanghai and Beijing over the course of our trip so far I took.
Apologizes everyone for not being able to embed but you can still check out this video by going here!
Please go to http://vimeo.com/12531700 to watch it in glorious HD, enjoy!
Weaver Popcorn
14When Weaver popcorn signed a deal with Stellar Cinemas of China, Ball State University was there. Jack Meyer and Sarah Brannan interviewed Will Weaver the COO of Weaver popcorn. Their stories were published on several web sites around Indiana, including www.theindychannel.com and www.indystar.com. The audio story aired on several Public Radio stations across the state.
Here is a chance for you to listen to Sarah’s audio story.
Breaking news: One newspaper is expanding
2Every day, it seems like we hear about newspapers cutting costs, laying off employees, or shutting down. But here in China, we found one newspaper that is in expansion mode. The China Daily is the English-language national newspaper, published by the Chinese government. It’s based in Beijing. And we got an awesome look behind the scenes, thanks to Bill Gaspard, the design director (and a friend of Jennifer Palilonis at Ball State).
Bill has worked in the big cities like Las Vegas, San Diego, and Los Angeles. Now he is working his magic at the China Daily. It is one good-looking paper. And it is getting bigger. It recently added an American edition and will soon expand to Europe. That means jobs. And we met some folks who have recently taken jobs at China Daily, which recently celebrated its 29th anniversary. We met Annette Fuller, a veteran of newspapers in Indianapolis and Dallas, and Todd Balazovic, a graduate of Central Michigan University, who had previously interned at the China Daily. All three explained to us why they left the comforts of home to come to China. The common theme – they wanted a new challenge. And they found it!
Bill also introduced us to his boss, Qu Yingpu, the deputy editor-in-chief. He explained the newspaper’s mission and the plans for the future. From the looks of it, the future should be bright for the paper, and its staff.
China Daily's Bill Gaspard gives the Ball State crew a tour of the newspaper.