We had a road trip this week to visit two suppliers in Tiantai, a small city about four hours drive from Suzhou. This was an interesting experience for several reasons. This area of China in Zhejiang province is very scenic. There are many steep hills and terraced hillsides with some classic scenes you might see in National Geographic. Unfortunately, I did not get any pictures because it was raining and I couldn't shoot through the car windows.
We stayed at a very nice hotel that consisted of eight interconnected villas that wound through a hillside garden. Supposedly there is a very famous 1500 year old temple adjacent to the hotel, but I also did not get a chance to see this.
I was traveling with six Caterpillar collegues and we were treated like royal guests by the owners of these two companies. One is the company that supplies Caterpillar with cooling system components, and the other is the seat manufacturer for our motor grader, bulldozer, and paving machines. We enjoyed to a wine-soaked dinner the first night with lots of the traditional gambei (toasting and chugging). After dinner, the seat company owner hosted us for cognac, cuban cigars, and a foot massage. Lunch the next day was much the same - more wine gambei, tons of good local food, and warm greetings all around.
In the picture above you can see a view of the hotel grounds and couple shots of Tony at work giving a motor grader presentation and touring the cooling system component factory. The final picture shows me and Frank, one of our motor grader engineers, standing with the new China-sourced MG cooling system. This cooling system project was one that we started over a year ago. It is going very well and has the potential to save Caterpillar several million dollars per year.
We stayed at a very nice hotel that consisted of eight interconnected villas that wound through a hillside garden. Supposedly there is a very famous 1500 year old temple adjacent to the hotel, but I also did not get a chance to see this.
I was traveling with six Caterpillar collegues and we were treated like royal guests by the owners of these two companies. One is the company that supplies Caterpillar with cooling system components, and the other is the seat manufacturer for our motor grader, bulldozer, and paving machines. We enjoyed to a wine-soaked dinner the first night with lots of the traditional gambei (toasting and chugging). After dinner, the seat company owner hosted us for cognac, cuban cigars, and a foot massage. Lunch the next day was much the same - more wine gambei, tons of good local food, and warm greetings all around.
In the picture above you can see a view of the hotel grounds and couple shots of Tony at work giving a motor grader presentation and touring the cooling system component factory. The final picture shows me and Frank, one of our motor grader engineers, standing with the new China-sourced MG cooling system. This cooling system project was one that we started over a year ago. It is going very well and has the potential to save Caterpillar several million dollars per year.
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