Mr. Huang's Factory

One of our business visits in Anji was to Mr. Huang's leather factory. Unfortunately, because it was during the dragon holiday, we could not see any manufacturing in progress. We met in Mr. Huang's office, which was spacious, and enjoyed the wide open windows, which provided a spectactular view of mountains in the distance and the factory grounds just below and across the property. Mr. Huang is a serial entrepreneur, with several businesses, and he was interested in talking to John and Mark about their timber business. In the picture on the right, Weidong Ye, one of our escorts from Huzhou, and Mr. Huang listen to John as he describes the pictures they are seeing in the Evergreen Timber photo album. John assembled pictures from his yard, the forest, and of a special operation in which logs were lifted out of virtually inaccessible places by helicopter. The pictures feature the types of wood Evergreen Timber sells - maple, cherry, birch, oak, and so on. The photo album was an important feature during our meetings with business owners.

After the meeting and picture viewing session, Mr. Huang led us on a walking tour of his factory. The buildings were all pink, as you can see in the picture on the left. The factory complex was different from other places we visited in that it included an apartment building for the workers, a swimming pool and basketball court for their use, and an extensive garden with rock formations. Mr. Huang told us that he collects interesting rocks, as he showed us around his garden. The water you can see in the picture is not the swimming pool, but a large koi pond that is located in front of the main building. Mr. Huang's office overlooks the pond and gardens.

Before we left Mr. Huang's factory, we posed for a group picture in front of one of his rock formations. From l. to r., Jinshui, John, Lucille, Mr. Huang, Mrs. Huang, Mary, Mark. Our next stop is Hangzhou, a city that is considerably larger than Anji and Huzhou.