If it's Monday, it must be Dezhou

Our hosts in Dezhou were every bit as hospitable as our hosts in Huzhou. A delegation of four greeted us at the Jinan Yaoqiang International airport, relieved us of our luggage, and showed us out to a minibus in the parking lot. Once every bag and every person was on the bus, our hosts handed out bottles of water. Dave Zhang, the Vice Director of the Bureau of Foreign Trade & Economic Cooperation for Dezhou and Lin Feng, our interpreter from the Foreign Affairs Office, cordially welcomed us to Dezhou and gave us an introduction to the city we would be visiting.

Traffic was heavier on the highway than it had been between Shanghai and Huzhou, especially truck traffic. We weaved around truck after truck along the four lane highway as we tried to travel at a good speed. After an hour of this, our hosts began to grow anxious about our relatively slow progress. They were worried that we would be late for our meeting with Mayor Cuiyin Wu. Evidently we were not only late for dinner, but also the press - there was a press conference scheduled for shortly after our arrival. The picture to the left of the text is Madame Mayor Cuiyin Wu, a very charming woman that we were delighted to meet.

At the outskirts of Dezhou, we picked up a police escort. Then, as we drove farther into the city, we noticed that there were policemen at every intersection. We weren't sure if the escort and other policemen were stationed along the route for us, but our hosts assured us that indeed they were. It was a novel experience for all of us (except Jinshui). While we had a police escort throughout our travels in and around Dezhou, that was the only time there was such a police presence at the intersections.


As the minibus stopped under the porte-cochere of the elegant Meilihua hotel, we were hurriedly escorted to the elevators and to our rooms. We weren't too rushed to appreciate the big red banner of welcome in the lobby. We had about 20 minutes to change into formal clothes, collect our thoughts, and go to meet the Mayor. A note to anyone planning to join a future mission with the SBDC - this was not an unusual occurrence. Be sure to pack formal clothes that can be worn right out of the suitcase without ironing, and be aware that you might have a formal meeting in the presence of the press on short notice.

Jinshui told us later that we all looked good on TV.