I just returned from a trip to Zhangzhou, a small Chinese town of 3.5 million people in a province about 500 miles south of here. This was a business trip to visit a potential supplier of a motor grader component.
Three colleagues and I flew to Xiamen in Fujian Province. Xiamen is a port city and also a seaside tourist destination with mild weather year-round and I think some beaches. Our arrival in Xiamen was delayed by three hours because of extremely heavy rains. I don't know if these rains made the international news, but apparently flooding near Xiamen caused one death and many injuries yesterday.
Our supplier is in Zhangzhou, about an hour drive from the Xiamen airport. We spent one day and one night in Zhangzhou and it was a long night on the hardest bed on which I have ever slept. The picture of me standing on the bed is an attempt to show the rigidity of the bed surface. Kids jumping on this bed would get more bounce and have more fun jumping on the floor.
I woke up early on Wednesday with bruises on my body and went out for a run around town. In a nearby park I stopped and joined a hundred locals in their morning group exercise routine.
We spent the day at our supplier and had a good discussion of their capabilities and their proposal to manufacture one of our worktool components. You can see them demonstrating their flame cutting machine followed by a photo of the meeting attendees lined up for the traditional China supplier photograph. It was interesting that all of the supplier employees wore shop uniforms including the general manager who is standing to my left.
Three colleagues and I flew to Xiamen in Fujian Province. Xiamen is a port city and also a seaside tourist destination with mild weather year-round and I think some beaches. Our arrival in Xiamen was delayed by three hours because of extremely heavy rains. I don't know if these rains made the international news, but apparently flooding near Xiamen caused one death and many injuries yesterday.
Our supplier is in Zhangzhou, about an hour drive from the Xiamen airport. We spent one day and one night in Zhangzhou and it was a long night on the hardest bed on which I have ever slept. The picture of me standing on the bed is an attempt to show the rigidity of the bed surface. Kids jumping on this bed would get more bounce and have more fun jumping on the floor.
I woke up early on Wednesday with bruises on my body and went out for a run around town. In a nearby park I stopped and joined a hundred locals in their morning group exercise routine.
We spent the day at our supplier and had a good discussion of their capabilities and their proposal to manufacture one of our worktool components. You can see them demonstrating their flame cutting machine followed by a photo of the meeting attendees lined up for the traditional China supplier photograph. It was interesting that all of the supplier employees wore shop uniforms including the general manager who is standing to my left.
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