Larry has just finished some long contract negotiations in Nanjing with a new customer. He has been there for two days now and I have been on my own. I was a little worried about doing this without his help, but there was no reason to be. Things are going very well here in Taishan. Larry had hoped to return to Guangdong tonight, but the customer invited him to dinner and he couldn't get out of it. I told him not to even try since we were doing well and these business dinners are incredibly important in Asia. This is especially true since this is a new client and this is their first order with us. I am glad Larry is staying to make sure we have a good relationship with them.

I have met some incredibly interesting people at this hotel. China is a very easy place to make new friends since there are many outgoing and curious people. This morning, I met an English speaking gentleman from Hong Kong who is an independent contractor working at this hotel. My hotel is currently undergoing renovations and this fellow is a Feng Shui expert. You may have heard of Feng Shui in the United States where most people think of it as a style of "interior decorating". It is a little more than this. Feng Shui is a very old system for ensuring that new buildings will provide luck and success. Some of it is based on superstition and some is based on common sense principles. Obviously, the owners of the hotel felt it was important enough to follow that they had this fellow drive here from two hours away. He told me that this mountain was a fine place for the new section of the hotel. I'll have to take his word for it. Feng Shui can get very complicated.

I caused a bit of a stir tonight at dinner. Apparently, I was correct about being a novelty at this hotel. The waitresses finally got up enough courage to come and attempt a chat with me. They were mostly curious about how I could "write" to them in Chinese, but couldn't speak it. When I told them I knew Japanese and could read and write a little, they decided to strike up a conversation. I've included a photo of it since I often get asked how I "communicate" over here.
In China, it is not uncommon to ask very personal questions from strangers. (How old are you? What is your salary? etc?) Since that is what a lot of this scribbling is about, I won't bother to translate. Suffice it to say that my handwriting is just as bad in Chinese as it is in English, so you can tell that my answers are the ugly looking characters. You'll have to find someone to translate this by yourself if you're interested. Still, it was rather fun to finally "talk" to my waitresses who have been so patient with me the last few days.