Around the World and Back

Hello family! For those of you who are probably more familiar with my older brother, George III, this is Michael Pierce. I am George's other son. I broke from the tradition of mechanics in our branch of the family tree and am a manufacturing engineer for Lexmark International. I have to make two or three visits each year to the factories that I support. Unfortunately, those factories are all in southeast Asia. On October 24, I went back to Dongguan, a city in south China and just a two hour or so drive from Hong Kong. Lynnis asked me to post some information and pictures from my latest adventure.

First, it's a long trip. After a short flight from Cincinnati to Detroit, it's almost 13 hours to Tokyo. Unfortunately, I've never had an opportunity to go into Tokyo. Then it's another four hours to Hong Kong. From the time I leave the house until I reach Hong Kong, it's a full 24 hours. It was 11:00 PM when I got to Hong Kong, so I just took the train into the city and then a taxi to my hotel.

I didn't sleep much the first night, so I got up and watched the Bengals - Bears game on my Slingbox. I walked around the Kowloon part of Hong Kong for a little while and then checked out of my hotel. I was braver than usual and decided to just take the subway up to the Hong Kong - China border (about 35 minutes on the subway) and walk across. That was very smooth, leaving me in Shenzhen, China. Then I took a train from Shenzhen to Dongguan. That's a short 31 minute train ride. It's also cheap at just 55RMB (just over $8). This is where the trip gets interesting. I don't speak Cantonese (Hong Kong) and my Mandarin (spoken in mainland China) vocabulary consists of the words for hello, beer, and , check, receipt and thank you. Much of the younger population can speak some English, but not the taxi drivers. Luckily, I kept a card from my previous stay at the hotel. The driver studied it a minute, and thought he knew where it was. He got me close, but tried to drop me off at the hospital that is a block from the hotel. I just sucked it up and walked the last block, dragging my luggage. I forgot to mention that after 10 trips to Asia and five to Europe, the handle on my trusty Samsonite broken when I was getting off the train in Dongguan. Handling it was not fun, and it's over 85 degrees in south China, with humidity to match. All I wanted at this point was something to drink, and a shower.

After getting cleaned up, I walked to the nearest Bank of China ATM. It's the only ATM where I can use my corporate AmEx card. Then lunch at Subway. Yes, I eat at Subway when I go to China. Real Chinese food is not like the stuff we see on our favorite buffets at home. No General Tso's chicken, and no fortune cookies. Fortune cookies aren't even Chinese. Next, is a trip to Wal-mart. I don't normally buy much at Wal-mart, except some snacks for the hotel room. Later in the trip I found a small western style market where I could get real Mt. Dew (Chinese formula is awful). Above Wal-mart and in the same building are two floors of other shops. My favorite DVD shops are there. I needed some entertainment for my trip. Later in the day, was dinner at the British pub near the hotel and relaxing for work the next day.

Most days, the car picks me up from the hotel at 9:00 and it's about a 20 minute ride to the factory. Most of my day is consumed with meetings and spending time watching the assembly line. Not too exciting. Luckily, most of the engineers speak English. We had lunch the first day at KFC. KFC is probably the largest US fast food chain in China. It's a little different. You can get a chicken sandwich with vegetables inside it. It's not good. And the Chinese don't like white breast meat in their chicken patties. They think it's too dry. Still, my chicken sandwich wasn't bad. Work usually ends around 5:30 and it's back to the hotel.

Being by myself, I don't like to venture too far from the hotel at night. Wal-mart is the furthest I will walk, and it's about 25 or 30 minutes from the hotel. I eat dinner at either One for the Road (British pub), Subway, or Papa John's. I just found Papa John's on the previous trip to Dongguan. It's much better than Pizza Hut. Pizza Hut doesn't use much sauce. There is also McDonald's here, but we go there for lunch some days. There are also a few Starbucks locations. I don't like regular coffee. I do like the occasional Frappuccino. This time I found an Italian restaurant that I had read about on the previous trip. It was very good!

I am used to working weekends when in China. This trip was an exception. On the first Saturday I took the train back to Shenzhen and walked across the border into Hong Kong. A couple years ago I had bought some pearl earrings for Julie and for my mother, and Julie asked me to get some for her mother. She doesn't read blogs, so I don't have to worry about ruining one of her Christmas presents. My favorite store for these earrings is in Stanley Market. After taking the subway into Hong Kong, I only had to cross the street and hop on the express bus to Stanley. I like to sit on the top level of the double-decker bus. It's a relaxing bus ride, but always take the express. The other buses stop at every stop and it takes an hour to get there. Stanley Market is a lot like a flea market. I only buy these pearls, and some new golf shirts when I go there. A shop there is an outlet for Greg Norman golf shirts. I bought a couple of those and two pair of earrings. I was wearing my Bengals hat and ran into two other Americans. One was a Browns fan, the other a Lions fan. I know that kind of pain. Because of the hot, humid, sticky weather, I decided that I had seen enough of Hong Kong and went back to Dongguan.

Not much noteworthy happened the rest of the trip. The funniest thing was a Chinese prostitute who followed me on to the hotel elevator and propositioned me when the other people had gotten off the elevator. It was all I could do to not laugh, as she fumbled with the English words. I made sure that she did not follow me off the elevator, and I walked the wrong way just in case.

I had to stay a few days extra and finally headed back to Hong Kong on November 10. I checked into the hotel and took the subway to Hong Kong Island. I had dinner at Fat Angelo's (good lasagna) in Soho. Soho is a Hong Kong neighborhood that you can get to using the mid-level escalators. You can google it. After dinner, I went to Lan Kwai Fong. Lan Kwai Fong is an area of bars and restaurants where you can just walk from bar to bar and socialize. On the weekends I think they close the street and it's just a big block party. I went to find one of my old bosses who lives in Hong Kong but works in our Shenzhen office. I know his favorite bar and found him there. It was nice to catch up and drink a couple beers. Nice way to end a trip. I took the subway back to the hotel and got a few hours of sleep.

I hope that you enjoy the photos from Dongguan and Hong Kong. If you have any questions about my adventures, feel free to e-mail me at michael.pierce@fuse.net, or find me on Facebook.

Papa John's
My favorite hangout!

Wal-mart is everywhere.

Tastes just like home!

Public suqare area in Dongguan.

Dongcheng International Hotel, my home away from home.

Star Ferry, the best way to cross Victoria Harbor in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong skyline on a hazy morning

Lan Kwai Fong neighborhood in Hong Kong

Night in Hong Kong

Mid-level escalators to Soho neighborhood in Hong Kong.