Fresh Off The Plane - In China!

Days 1 and 2 in China have been quite interesting so far and have included tons and tons of food - so you'll find that this post will have a lot to do with... well, food! Here's day 1 just to get things started!

Anyhow, upon our arrival, one of the first places we went to was a bread shop that my dad visits often in town. It reminds me a typical Chinese bread shop in say Rowland Heights like Diamond Bakery, haha. The owner speaks great English since he actually came over from Hawaii and was talking about how things are just so different in China... agreed!

One of the funny things that I quickly discovered is how my Dad had given his employees English names to make things easier for himself. His secretary got the name Toni, his driver and tech guy got the name Andy, etc. I guess it makes it easier for him considering his Chinese certainly isn't that great.

We spent our first night eating out at what's supposed to be the most "popular" restaurant in Dalian, China. A lot of the restaurants are interesting because they look more like hotels and have "rooms" that you can reserve for your party. In this seafood restaurant, we were seated in room 408.

What was even more interesting was the way you order food - the menu looked like a 99 Ranch seafood section with the tanks of fish, ice patches with tons of fresh seafood sitting on top, etc. Basically, you walk around the "menu" as a host follows you and takes your order as you look, point, etc. Photos of all this are below:

Some seafood and clams - big clams might I add!

As you can see, there are a lot of options and they're all just in these baskets. Oh, and of course the tanks behind!

Different fish and... squid?

Almost a 2-pound lobster... anyone? =)

Of course, Chinese dishes are often incomplete without side-dishes and/or cold dishes!

Some more dishes, soups, and other options. I still found it interesting to order in this way!

This bowl of insect-looking things are what we call "Sea Cucumbers" - I still have no idea what they really are, but they're a bit slimy and soft when you eat them, haha.

As you can see, the menu was heavy on seafood, mainly because Dalian is a port city and simply has a lot of it. However, I've also been told that seafood is still quite expensive in the city nonetheless. After ordering, we took the elevator up to the fourth floor and to our private room where there was a server waiting to help us throughout the evening.

One of the big things I've also noticed in China is simply how many employees there are at some of these restaurants - so many in fact that not only does each rooms has a server that is there to serve your food as well as someone to bring the food to you, most also have individuals whose sole responsibility is to stand at the front door and greet people as they enter!

What this tells me is that while human labor is cheap in China, it doesn't mean they maximize profits - instead, there is some level of care to hire additional employees and focus more on service rather than on profits. I certainly think a lot of people could greatly appreciate the high level of attention they might get in a city like this. When you raise your hand for a server or even just call out "server", people would literally run to your table to help!

The meal that we had for the evening had a plethora of different seafood dishes as follows:

This massive scallop is something I've seen in restaurants in LA as well - extremely tender and lots of flavor!

We ordered abalone soup - it's supposed to be real abalone but I certainly can't tell from the small amount that we had.

Here is the slimy sea cucumber I had mentioned. Interesting, right?

This steamed fish came at a point late enough in the evening that we didn't have any room left to really enjoy it!

Check out the interesting desserts! (Left) Pumpkin shaped/colored sweet buns (Right) Some kind of crunchy dessert that looks more like a pineapple!

Our company for the evening (left to right) - Top: Me, Andy (our driver)'s wife, Selena (the accountant), Toni (the secretary), Andy, the company lawyer. Bottom: My Dad, My Mom, the lawyer's wife.

All in all, the meal was extremely interesting and completely different from what we might expect of Chinese food back in the states. Things are actually a lot more heavily flavored here (in many cases saltier) and there is a huge amount of variety to the kinds of Chinese food you could expect to have. The service is 10x better than what we're used to at Chinese restaurants, though you almost get the feeling there's a level of condescension in how servers are treated because of their roles. Of course, I've been told that people in Dalian are some of the nicest you'd find in all of Northern China, and certainly so far that has been true (except for on the road... which is another story).

A Different Standard of Living...

So, having arrived in China, one of the big things I've realized is that the standard of living and the cost of human labor are both quite lower than what we expect or are used to in the US. My dad moved here
basically in the last year or two for business purposes, and helps manage a small company focusing on the production of diesel fuel. In being the "boss", he has the luxury of several amenities that are scarily affordable here when you consider the conversion of money - things like a driver and a housekeeper/cook.

However, that isn't to say that things are "ultra cheap" in China - they aren't. Cars cost the same here, but are simply a much greater luxury to the people. The typical working individual thus typically takes public transportation. For example, people graduating out of college get paid like $300 US per month! So getting a car for them is extremely impractical. What it really seems to show is that there is a huge spectrum between the rich and "poor". Even that kind of salary actually provides quite a normal working life here - so now I can understand why coming from the US here could make you feel sort of wealthy or why others have exclaimed how cheap things are.

While some things therefore are "cheap", there are certainly still a huge number of items that are the same as we'd find in the US - like electronics, a trip to the movie theaters, etc. I imagine people simply
live life different here in order to maximize on their money. When you think about how much you save from luxuries that we typically have, I guess that does leave some more money to be spent on other things instead.

At the same time, I admit that some items do seem to cost very little here - especially in local markets where you can find things like a pair of gloves for $1, or ride a taxi across town for about $1.50. I guess it all depends on where you go and what you do.

Packing Light In Clothing, Heavier In Gear

First off though, I thought I'd share a little bit about what I've brought with me on my trip. Unlike all of my travels in the past where I brought mainly clothing, my ipod, and say my laptop - I feel like I've focused this trip more primarily on bringing my camera and equipment along with it. =D I carried two bags with me mainly - a North Face "Surge" backpack which carried some extra clothes, my macbook air, and tons of other random things - as well as my Crumpler 5 Million Dollar Home bag for my camera.

Recently, I've also really geared up camera wise. On this trip, I brought the Crumpler bag, Canon XTi with Targus battery grip, Canon 430EX II flash, 50mm f/1.8, and my new and amazing 24-70mm f/2.8L. As you can imagine, walking around with the camera in my hands results in a lot of strange looks from people, especially in China. I've actually been hesitant at many times to take photos in certain places because of the aura I get from people around - and twice have been asked not to take any photos at restaurants I was at (still did get a few though).


For those of you photographers out there, I highly recommend getting the Canon handstrap for your camera if you haven't. I only keep the neckstrap on there now for when I have others carry my camera for a picture - otherwise I rely heavily on the handstrap for one-handed holding. Especially with the heavy lens on it, the strap helps me carry the camera loosely yet safely wherever I go!


Anyhow, so that's what I've carried here for my trip...

Greetings from China!

Hello all,

It's now my third day in China and I'm finally both able to access my blog and have the time to write a little bit about my trip here so far. It feels like I've just gotten here even though it has already been a few days! Most of my trip so far has involved a lot of eating, even before I left Los Angeles. I have had quite a number of observations as well and I hope I can share them all in the next post or two.

Since I'm also on my Mac, I've chosen to not process any photos until I come back and have access to my PC and Lightroom again, so these are just photos as I've taken them to make things simpler. =)

 My mom and I left Wednesday night from our home in Orange County after a rush of last minute packing and reshuffling of bags. We were attempting to pack in a number of items to bring to my dad in China, including some chocolate he had bought at Costco and wanted to share with friends here, 18 cans of tennis balls (as many as I could pack in half of my duffel, lol), along with vitamins and boxes of airborne.

 The two of us ended bringing 2 full bags each - I had originally packed all of my stuff into a small suitcase whereas my mom had a massive suitcase and then half of another the same as mine with just clothes, shoes, and more.

For anyone ever in need of long-term parking for LAX, I highly recommend checking out www.airportparking.com! My mom got the site from someone, and after checking it out, I made a reservation to have our car valet parked indoors at the Westin Los Angeles hotel for only $8/day plus a $5 service fee! The $85 for our 10-day trip is far cheaper than hiring a shuttle or getting a taxi for a long trip. Plus, if you cancel your trip, you're usually only held responsible for one day's fee. We also got a shuttle from the hotel and assistance with our luggage and got to the terminal fairly quickly (15 minutes or so).

For this trip, we had booked tickets through my dad's travel agent in Orange County for fairly cheap ($745 round trip to China per person!) and we flew on Asiana Airlines. Dalian is a port-city in northern China near the Korean Peninsula, so we connected through Seoul for our flight.

The Tom Bradley International Terminal was surprisingly quiet since I thought there would quite a lot of red-eye flights going out. We ended up eating McDonalds since we had skipped dinner, which was totally a mistake since we were about to eat tons more on the flight...

Asiana Airlines actually impressed me a fair amount for the flight! The flight attendants were extremely attentive and nice, somehow it felt very different from a typical group of flight attendants in the US.  They served two great meals on the flight and had American and Korean options even! Dinner was steak or bibimbap and was served right after we got in the air. Then for breakfast we had an omelet or some kimchi thing (was out of my seat when it was served) right before we landed. Of course, complimentary wine also helps I'm sure. =D

The flight itself was fairly comfortable and there were a few amenities. They provided toothbrushes and toothpaste in the bathrooms - a nice touch for a long red-eye flight. Having a TV right in front of you with movies playing as well as music and other entertainment options really helps pass the time! They did provide us a set time to sleep between dinner and breakfast, and coupled with Nyquil to help my sore throat, I must've slept a good 8 hours on the flight. Ultimately, the 12.5 hour flight actually felt short and survivable and I really just hope my return flight will be just as great.

I also met Andrew on the flight (who was sitting in the window seat in our row) and learned that he was traveling to Korea for the first and staying there for a year to teach English. He graduated just this year from CSU Northridge and had just applied and gotten accepted about a month or two before the trip. To me it's quite a scary thing to pick up your whole life and move to another country for a full year - for those of you who've gone abroad and done it, props to you!

Arriving in Seoul, we were an hour early, but had a lot of time to really enjoy the airport. I must say that Incheon International Airport in Seoul is one of the NICEST airports I have ever seen. It had a great feel, tons of room to walk around, many shops to check out, clear and open signage, and then great areas for you to relax during your layover.

They even have a "shower" room where you can go in and take a shower, change, etc. all for free as long as you have your own towel.

We had a 7-hour wait, and spent the first 1.5 walking around checking out some of the shops. Yes, apparently Starbucks is EVERYWHERE.

We ultimately ended up in a lounge upstairs to relax for the rest of the morning. With our Asiana Airlines boarding pass, the lounge was about $20/person, but included all-you-can-eat meals, computer usage and internet access, as well as drinks and more.

I was surprised by the fact that they had liquor ready for you in case you wanted to make a cocktail (I skipped out, lol).

My mom and I ended up staying in the lounge long enough to have both breakfast and lunch! (Note the extremely tiny dumplings that served as well - we kept wondering who got stuck with the job of making those one by one! Ultimately, we should have skipped lunch as well. Boarding our flight from Seoul to Dalian, we figured that the short 1 hour flight could not possible include a meal. We were TOTALLY wrong, as the moment we got in the air, we were served a boxed bulgogi lunch that we barely had room to touch.

All in all, the travel between Los Angeles and Dalian, China went extremely smoothly for us, except for the fact that we ate basically 6 times on the way... at least we stepped into China fairly well rested and relaxed.

I'll post more soon about life, the people, the food, and more in China hopefully soon!

Kent

A Beginning

Hello all!

This is hopefully the first of many posts I intend to make as I start my own blog. My hope is that this blog will help to capture not only moments in my life and things around me, but also to help display them graphically through photos that I take.

In part, I am starting this blog since I am taking a trip to China for 10 days, and am hoping to document what I see and show photos that I take. For now, I am starting here in Seoul, Korea on a 6-hour layover.

Anyhow, since I'm running low on battery, I will have to update this later!

Kent