5-3-10
Woken up at 8am in the morning after the previous days' activities is not a pleasant experience. I had told the girls that we would eat breakfast with them because last I checked we were leaving at noon but apparently that was moved to 10am. It's at this point I realize I'm hyper sensitive to manners.
Where most people wouldn't really care that we suddenly changed our plans, I was actually quite distress. What do I do? Do I knock on their door to say a proper goodbye? What if I wake them up? Do I just not say anything and when they text I explain? That just kind of feels shitty.
Ended up just texting them and giving'em a hour window to come say goodbye before we left, and another text as we were walking out the door. Hopefully there were no hard feelings. Still… guess it would bum me out a little bit if someone did that to me.
It kind of surprised me how much I missed native English speakers. Even with having plenty of friends who can technically speak English, the majority of the time they speak their mother tongue (naturally). To finally be surrounded by people who spoke English 24/7, being able to hear every side conversation around me, and not having to change my vocab or natural "speech speed" was quite refreshing. Agnes, growing up in Chicago, was especially pleasant to speak with simply because I would make an American reference and she would actually get it. Stephen and the girls were kind of like giving a dieting fat guy a small chocolate bar, every moment was a small morsel of your previous life that should be savored for as long as possible.
But that was then and now it's time to move on. We boarded a bus to head back to Guangzhou and then another to Gaoming where we went and visited Charlie's old textile factory. The trip itself was one of mixed feelings. Though dirt and trash was everywhere and it honestly looked like it would suck to live there, at the same time though great progress is being made. Roads were being completely redone, construction in general was everywhere, people were working, and I noticed a much lower proportion of beggars then in America.
Anyways we found our hostel easily enough and checked into a three person room (Charlie would be staying with a friend). The room itself was actually pretty clean, and overall nice. I will say though that having to use a squat toilet is not a pleasant experience, on top of that a s traditional in China the shower is located right next to it, there is no doorway or enclosed area for the shower. Watch your step!
Off we went to Charlie's factory. Sadly we were not allowed to take pictures inside, but it was a rarity to even be allowed in, so no complaints. To be honest it was kind of unexpectantly clean. No child labor, no insanely dangerous working conditions, etc. There were problems of course that plague most of China, hellacious working hours (12 hours a day, 6 days a week), low pay, and I'm sure the dorms that 50% of the employees live in are not the ritz.
First we were escorted into the main office where we met the owner of the factory, who then left for some business elsewhere. We then had a nice talk with the factory manager as well as the Director of Quality Control, a personal friend of Charlie's. We also found out that Charlie himself had been the Director of Operations before he left.
Charlie then gave us a tour of their entire facility, we saw how they first began by using 20 or 30 spools to make white sheets (in this case nylon). They then take it to be cut, and then for large orders they feed it through a large conveyer belt like machine. As it goes along a stamp is lowered onto the cloth and then it is whipped with a think ink with a "squeegee" like machine. From there the stamp is raised in a tilted manner, and the cloth is moved down to the next stamp. After about 10-15 stamps later the full pattern has been created and the cloth is run through a heater at the end before being bundled up.
If the order is a small one the sheets of cloth are laid out on an extremely long table. Two workers use a stamp to go down the line, and the stamp each layer by hand. Another two workers are there to supervise and insure quality (this is an assumption, I was never told exactly why they were standing there watching). On average the factory produces 50km of cloth each day in one of these manners.
We then saw how the dye was made in large vats from powder, water, and some sort of bonding agent. The stamps were also produced at the factory, after being designed by their computer graphics dept. They also have a laboratory where they test the effects of dye on various types of cloth. Even the same type cloth can have various different manufacturing patterns.
The company is also adding on an additional part to the factory in order to increase production output. The construction was started in Feb. and will be done in June. That's 5 months from start to finish! That really is quite impressive, because the factory they were adding on was quite large.
By this time a general sadness had descended over Charlie. Though he was enjoying showing us around and meeting old friend, you could tell this place held a lot of memories for him. This was intensified when we met his ex-girlfriend. Supposedly they were almost married, but they wanted different lives and eventually I believe this is a large reason why Charlie left for Shanghai. Kind of remind me of Amy and I. =/
After we left the factory we walked to see Charlie's old condo which he was selling to one of his friends for $50,000. In China you don't actually pay any annual housing tax or land tax. I couldn't believe it, basically what Charlie said is that you can simply buy a home and hold it indefinitely. The investment implications of this are huge!
Once our tour was over Charlie announced that his friends were taking us out to dinner! So we walked outside and took two motorbike taxi's to a super nice hotel. The ride was really fun but I truly feared for my life.
The food itself was quite tasty, and we were in our own private room. It was also interesting to note that they had a tv in the room which played during the entire dinner as well as our own private bathroom and wash area. But the food was pretty expensive, which made me feel really bad because I know Charlie's friends, even in their positions, don't really make that much. :(
We then headed back to our hostel, rested, washed up a bit, and soon were back on the streets. Charlie then had a great idea, a massage! It may, at this point, beg the question that after two months in China why had I not indulged in this delight. The main reason would be sex. As much as I encourage myself to try the local… dishes, I can't bring myself to pay for this delicacy.
So too have Charlie actually know a local place that was lacking in certain services was great. We actually had a lot of fun. We had our own private room, and the women were very friendly. We talked with them a lot and there were plenty of laughs to go around. And it only cost 45RMB for an hour!!
Once we were all loosey goosey, Charlie took us out into the night were the local custom was to eat a late second dinner. It consisted of rice porridge that was boiled on an open fire on the table and then radish and raw beef was added to the mix. There was then a local sauce which added to the tastyness. My only regret was that we couldn't stay longer when the local nightlife really picked up. Sadly we had an early start the next morning and needed our beauty sleep.
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