10 September, 2010
It was a hectic day, no doubt. It started off in a frenzy since I woke up at 8:55 when the time for the pick up for consumer fieldwork from the hotel was at 9:00. I have not brushed my teeth and taken a shower faster ever in my life I think! At 9:08 I was downstairs, all ready to go! But after that the day began to look up.
The consumer work was very fascinating. Beijing looks all shiny and nice from the outside but the housing apartments are like dust galore and a real mess. They were all walk-up apartments that we visited today and what was really fascinating was that all the stairways had like about a 100 numbers printed on each wall for various services such as locksmith, sewage cleaners, other rental apartments etc. etc. etc. And these are not on little posters that you usually see, which you can rip off if you don't like them, but are actually painted on the walls for posterity! It was amazing! What was even more fascinating was that every apartment building had at least one antique bicycle completely covered in dust, resting in one corner of the stairway. So truly China!
On the way back from the consumer work, I witnessed my first ever Chinese Hairdresser Army Drill. Yeah, there is indeed such a thing. Since the Chinese love ordering and receiving orders in a military fashion, apparently they have this drill even among employees of hair salons and restaurants. They line up outside the shop, have the manager shout out some orders and they repeat (or respond) to them. I was Super amused!
I was also very much amused by the fact that the signage of the brand "Crocodile" in China says "Cliocoddle" according to how they pronounce it. How cute is that!
Post the consumer work and long debrief, we decided we deserve some good time now. So three of us did a bit of shopping, had an awesome dinner at a Spanish restaurant and went around in a cab to take a look at the Bird's Nest (Chinese Olympics Stadium) and the adjoining Water Cube structure. They were really nice. But what really caught my eye was the most curvaceous building I have ever seen in my life! It was a hotel that included a cluster of buildings and the tallest one had something that's supposed to look like a dragon I believe. Now the funniest part was that the majestic building had the cutest name ever - "Pangu 7 Star Hotel"!
Ah, I Love Beijing!
705 more to go.
P.S. After I wrote this post and was almost going to hit the bed, I remembered what my Australian female Gaelic-football-playing-fitness-freak colleague said today - "One week of no excercise takes off one month of fitness from you." So then I realized that I simply had to go hit the gym. And I did that. This would be my latest night work-out (well past midnight) ever! Now I feel truly awesome!
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