Formal Meeting with Vice Mayor Li

After lunch at the Biology Park, we returned to the hotel and prepared for a formal meeting led by the Vice Mayor of Dezhou, Mr. XiXin Li. The room was set with two parallel tables, equipped with microphones in front of the chairs where the principal speakers would sit. As usual, there was a bottle of water and tea cup in front of each place at the table. Our delegation sat on one side, facing the Vice Mayor and local government officials from Dezhou and the surrounding area. There was red banner hung on the wall at one end of the room to commemorate the signing of a strategic cooperative agreement between the city of Dezhou and Farmingdale State University. Just in front of the banner, there was a small table that would be used during the signing ceremony.

The meeting followed a protocol that we experienced in every formal meeting. The Vice Mayor began the meeting by introducing everyone at his table. When he was done, Jinshui introduced everyone at our table. Once the introductions were out of the way, Vice Mayor Li provided an overview of the economic and social development of Dezhou City. Our host interpreter, Lin, did the translating duties for the Vice Mayor and the gentlemen on that side of the table. A few of the gentlemen from the Dezhou area spoke about their area of interest. Jinshui interpreted what we said into Mandarin. I went first, talking about the SBDC and the purpose of our trip. Jinshui said his piece about the International Business Development program, then Lucille talked about Farmingdale regional center, and John followed up with some words about Evergreen Timber and his desire to trade with Chinese companies.

Then Lucillle, on behalf of the Farmingdale SBDC, signed an agreement for future cooperation with the city of Dezhou. The picture at the beginning of the post shows the table set up for the signing ceremony.

After the hubub of the signing died down, John and Mark distributed their brochure, price list and business cards. John brought out his photo albums and shared pictures of his log yard and different types of wood wtih the assembled businessmen. There seemed to be a lot of interest in the hardwoods Evergreen Timber harvests - hard & soft maple, beech, birch, white & red oak, etc.

We ate dinner with the Vice Mayor at one of the dining rooms in the hotel, then our hosts treated us to an after-dark tour of Dezhou. The Vice Mayor declined to join us. On our drive around the city, we stopped at the lake at the center of town, and then took a short boat ride on a canal decorated with neon. Actually, we saw a lot of neon around the new downtown area.