At the last minute in early October, I was asked by Sinopec (the Chinese National Petrochemical company) to come over and help get a unit started at one of their refineries. So for the last three weeks, I have been working in and around Beijing. This is my first trip to China.



I have been working on a variety of projects for most of my 30 year career, but this is the first project that I have worked on that made the first section (or any section, for that matter) of the newspaper. If you can blowup the picture, you will see that the government has promised the world community that 100% of the gasoline sold in Beijing will meet the Euro 4 standard (< 50 ppm sulfur) by January 1, 2008, so that the air will be cleaner by the Olympics in August. The only gasoline that meets that standard is the gasoline that passes through the unit I am working on.

So, I have been working pretty much every day about 16 to 18 hours a day. I'm not getting any site seeing or shopping done, but thought I would pass along my thoughts on working in China anyway.

First and foremost - the food here is terrific. I was really wary that I might not find anything good to eat, but almost every meal has been really good, with the exception of a Chinese fast food place a few nights ago. After having lived in the SF Bay Area for 20 years, I thought I knew Chinese food, but it is very different here (e.g., not every meal comes with rice).

Driving in China - I'm not driving, we have a car that takes us back and forth from the hotel to the plant, but it is utter chaos. Cars, bikes, trucks, motor scooters flying in from all directions. Most of the diesel trucks here make their own smoke screens, and the air here in the afternoon has a distinct flavor of unburned hydrocarbons. There is no lane discipline here - just push someone out of the way and take their spot.

There are these tricycle trucks (small) that must run on a single cylinder diesel because they are horribly slow and smoky. I am seeing some new brands of cars here like the Chery, and a few other China only brands. And Buicks are driven by young cool dudes wearing shades - not the old couple down the street.

One of the hotels I stayed at was across the street from a shopping mall, and I needed to get a jacket. One of my coworkers from China said that I could just walk across the street and find a jacket. I told him I didn't think I was brave enough to cross the street.

My screensaver on my computer is me on the road course at Phoenix Int'l Raceway in my S2000. Honda does not make the S2000 here in China, so they have never seen one. So when they first saw my computer, a whole group of guys (and a girl or two) gathered around. They may not understand English, but a sports car is a sports car in any language. And they all understood 240 horsepower.

One thing about the drivers here is that there must be a government decree that they cannot let the engines rev past 2000 rpm. I swear every driver has the standard transmission in fifth gear by the time they are doing 30 miles an hour. The engine is lugging so badly the car is bucking, but they just keep upshifting.

One interesting thing that I was told was that it takes almost two years salary to buy a car in China. There was quite a bit of discussion about how much people make in the US vs China. The young engineers here make about 40,000 RMB per year (~ $5,000) and the welders at the plant make about 5,000 RMB per year (~ $625).

Well it is about 2:30 AM here and I have to get up in 5 hours to go to the refinery, so time for bed. I come back in a couple of days, but contrary to the dread I was feeling when I was asked to come over, I hope they ask me back, but give me some siteseeing time next time.

 

Neat read, Silvershadow. Sounds like an interesting experience. Have you run into the Vintage VSA, Jerry/pas2k? He's over in China right now too. I think he's looking at buildings.

 

Very , John. It's a shame you spent all your time working, though.

 

Thanks for the dialogue. It is a very interesting read. for the lack of sightseeing time. China has many places of great beauty and its a shame you didn't get to visit any of them.

 

Funny you say cross the street. My parents just came back from a visit in China. They are in their early 70s, the tour guide made every effort to stop traffic so the people in the tour can cross. They still don't stop. My mother claim that a truck came as close as 2 feet as she was getting across. I think traffic is just that way in many parts of the world (old cities) where they were not designed for cars. It sound like its worst then Milan or Thiland.

When I was there in a Taxi 5 years ago, this guy started from a dead stop in 2nd gear. Talk about killing your motor.

 

Don't eat any lead paint! Cool report. If you don't see a lot of Brillance cars maybe I should sell my stock. No matter, something is keeping it up.

 

Great food there. But some look at me sideways after I've come back to tell them that I've had fried duck tongue, black chicken (it's black thru and thru), alligator soup, or any number of other delicacies that we don't get here...

 

A lot of the time - I don't ask what I am eating, I just eat

 

If the truck was 2 feet away, he was giving her a wide berth. People walk out in front of cars all the time here.

They drive with one hand on the horn too:

Beep - get out of my way

Beep - I'm here

Beep - coming through

Beep - I'm irritated at you

Beep - I just felt like beeping

 

Good read. Keep it coming. Thanks