Xiangtan!

After a very successful customer audit in Chengdu, where I believe we will finally get approval to allow us to ship production parts and volumes (as opposed to only experimental parts), I began packing the final items from my apartment in preparation for traveling to Xiangtan. My plans sort of changed last minute as they wanted me to stop in to assist in interviewing a candidate for the Quality Manager position. If any TSA agent was to search my suitcase, they probably would have thought some crazy guy was traveling. I had the very minimal clothes I brought but then added all of the various items that I had been leaving there but now needed to take home – some gifts to others, a few gifts given to me, my iPod travel alarm clock, some other odds and ends and even an old briefcase that I want to keep. I did not want to have to carry my small back pack on the plane (along with my new briefcase) so I tried to pack it all inside the suitcase. Each traveler is allowed 25 Kg/bag and if you go over, it’s a pretty hefty fee, so a good idea not to exceed the limit and I was afraid I would be approaching the limit so I packed some things inside the backpack and then packed that inside the suitcase. The plan was that if I was over, I could quickly open the suitcase and pull out the backpack and just hand carry it and not bog down the check in line. Of course, it would still be same amount of weight on the plane, but I guess they don’t want baggage handlers lifting that extra weight. As it turned out, I was only 21 Kg, so no issue. But you can imagine the contents looked peculiar.
Anyway, I headed out Thursday morning for the airport and chuckled as the taxi driver grunted to pick up the bag and put in the car.
The flight to Changsha was 1.5 hour and I arrived with no delays and was picked up by the Timken driver and we headed for the plant in Xiangtan 45 minutes away.
The temporary office we are using is inside the office building of our customer (who is also our JV partner in this little endeavor) so they are significantly better than the temporary offices we used in Chengdu. Their manufacturing plant is awesome. It’s huge, as might be expected, but this location only manufactures the wind mill housing. These housings are amazingly monstrous. They are built to allow someone to be inside (maintenance purposes, I suppose). Sorry, no pictures allowed (but you can learn more at http://www.xemc-wind.com/en/2_jxtz-1.html) and here are 2 web photos.

The city of Xiangtan had been described to me as “the armpit of China” so I wasn’t sure what to expect (well, with a description like that, I was expecting something, but hoped it wasn't going to be bad) , but on 1st impressions I think that I was told wrong. There is a river (forgot the name – should have written it down) that divides the city. The “industrial side” is pretty sparsely populated and we saw relatively few cars and people out and about (odd for China) but the other side was teeming with people and had all the city trappings I have come to expect. Since I was only there one night, I didn’t really get to see too much, but our driver did stop at a small vendor stand selling the locally popular “Beetle Nuts.” This is some species of nut that is picked, dried, and boiled or pickled for eating. The liquid used is flavored (the variety we sampled had a peppermint additive) and you eat them. I would have to say this would be analogous to a southern USA boiled peanut? Regardless of what you might say from this description, they were pretty tasty.
After working all day Friday, we drove back to Changsha for the night in preparation of going home Saturday. We walked along the river in that city and saw what we could – Chinese Architecture, old boats cruising the river, and the area seems to be enjoyable enough – so looking forward to spending more time here.
Dinner proved that the food in Hunan Province is just as spicy as in Sichuan so we enjoyed a very good dinner Friday night. I introduced Drew (Project Manager) to pigeon which he thoroughly enjoyed! We also discovered Russian Beer! This was really good.
So despite being referred to as “the Armpit of China”, I found my initial experience to be a good one and am looking forward to my next visit which will most likely be in March…but I’ll let you know if that changes.