Coco Park, Shenzhen China

With this post, I'll add some images I took yesterday as I toodled around ... this is the Civic Center in the Coco Park area in Shenzhen. It's hard to describe the size of the center ... The whole complex is probably five or six city blocks long - this central image makes it look a little like a pagoda-inspired design. The undulating roof is reminiscent of gentle waves in the ocean. I'm shooting this back from a public square in which is looks like the city recently had a festival. The Smiley guy is one of many images and it looks as though there are a number of these running throughout the city ... I think there was a torch relay in preparation for the Asian Games that will be held here in about two weeks.

So yesterday was my first trek onto the subway (very clean, inexpensive and safe) and actual walking about the city. Today I'm headed over to the She Kou area of the city ... this is where my service apartment is located and I'm hoping to move in there later this week. Thus far I've been staying at the Marriott, which is close to the office and convenient, but you don't really get out to explore the city. The She Kou area also has SeaWorld Shenzhen, a large mall called City Garden Mall, and the ubiquitous Wal-Mart. It has a large expat community, so I'll be able to find places to get my haircut, check out movies, etc. This man, at least, does not live by bread, or work, alone.

In the Coco Park area, which I walked around in for several hours, there is also a Mall. I've determined, at least based on one China mall experience, that there is a certain "mall pace" that exists around the world. While the citizens in general walk pretty quickly, like what I experienced in Japan, at the Mall, everyone becomes glacial in their pace. The only Western stores I saw were related to food (McD's, Starbucks, KFC), but all of the stores had a distinctly Western style to them (images, mannequins, etc). The most amazing thing was that, in a city of roughly 12 million people, I bumped into someone from the Human Resource team I'll be working with who was visiting the mall with her family. It was great to meet them all and to have a chance to visit for a bit before I continued my journey.

I'm going to wrap this one up as I'm off to explore some more!

Lost In Translation

Had my first "Lost in Translation" moment yesterday while taking the medical exam in Shenzhen, as a part of the requirement for applying for my residence permit. This is a moment that feels familiar (taking a medical exam) but is just enough off-kilter to feel a little surreal. I was met at my hotel by a wonderful associate from Fragomen (the company helping me with the visa process) and she caught a taxi for us. Off we went to the clinic. We entered a part of Shenzhen without any English markers and headed to get my photo taken (my sixteenth passport photo, for anyone keeping track). If anyone does this in the future" my recommendation is to go to your local Walgreens/CVS and buy the bulk pack. I had to take the photo with my glasses off as they had steamed up due to the humidity when I left the air-conditioned cab.

Once the photos were produced, we headed across the street to a pink-tiled building that was a mass exam/quick treatment clinic, I think. My assistant started picking up forms, pointing out where to sign, talking with the various nurses and clerks and then shepherding me from room to room. The exam choreography was familiar (height, weight, ekg, blood pressure, bloodwork, chest x-ray, ultrasound), but going through each stage without understanding anything being said to me was tricky. I think the purpose of the Ultrasound was to verify internal organs ... I took the examiner for a bit of a loop when he kept trying to find a left kidney, which I haven't had since 1976. I tried to explain, but it seemed like eventually he just gave up and stamped my form.

Thinking back, it was probably a little surreal for the other folks in the clinic as I was clearly the whitest, tallest guy there, toting my work briefcase and standing in slacks with my shirt untucked. I was probably the vision of an US businessman, fresh back from a bacterial-infused cruise to Bangcock.

After just forty minutes, thanks to Ms. Zhu, I was out and on my way to work, looking for a breakfast stand along the way to break my fast. In just four short days, I'll have my results back and will trek with Ms. Zhu to meet with a government official for my interview for the residency permit. So far a fun and interesting experience.

Thunderstorms in the Midwest means ...

Travel delayed until tomorrow. The flight to Chi-town was delayed by an hour, which meant I'd miss the connection to the Hong Kong flight. Many minutes and phone calls later (looking for connections through San Fran, LA, Vancouver, Toronto, Newark, JFK, LaGuardia), I realized that the earliest I could get there was a day later anyway. So, tomorrow I'll start out at 3:30 and take the flight to San Fran, then the direct over to Hong Kong. On the plus side, rented a vehicle from Budget and rode back to Topeka in class in a new Jeep Grand Cherokee. The nice man at the counter, after hearing our plight, even lowered the rate. Now I have time to take in a movie with the fam ... Might see Captain America, since that one won't be opening in China anytime soon.

Departing for the East

With much packing still to go, I'm excited about this assignment. Have secured all of the necessary paperwork to enter into China and work for the 4 months ... and learned a lot about how to take a great passport photo. To secure the paperwork, I had to provide twelve photos that then were hand-delivered with the forms to the government buildings in Hong Kong. Thankfully, our consulting company(Fragoman) had the required expertise and made it all happen.
Once I'm in Shenzhen, I'll need to reside there for three weeks, have a physical exam (cough, cough), and secure a residence permit before I am allowed to go to other areas within China (like Hong Kong, Beijing, etc). Let the adventure begin!