Lunch with Madame Ma

Our last meal with our hosts from Dezhou was at a restaurant on Deyue Lake, which is actually a reservoir. We had lunch with Madame Ma, the executive of the area. In the picture on the left, she is making a toast to John Barber, Evergreen Timber. All the fish we ate at lunch came from the Lake, and was very fresh. The vegetables served also were fresh from fields in the area surrounding the lake. The fish were cooked whole, with various spices, and were served bones and all. Each one was more favorful than the last. One of the platters contained dozens of tiny shrimp cooked until crispy with little seasoning beyond salt and pepper. The meal concluded with a fruit platter featuring fresh watermelon.

On our way to the restaurant, we drove out into Deyue Lake on a long causeway to a picturesque spot with a small pavilion circled with rose bushes. We stopped for a few minutes to take in the scenery and to take some pictures with our Dezhou hosts. On a clear day, it would have been a beautiful place to visit. As you can see from the pictures, there was a lot of low fog over the lake. We then drove along the lakeside for a considerable distance.

Madame Ma was a charming hostess and we all wished we had more time to spend with her. She was delighted to receive an I Love NY button and a US-China flag pin. She graciously invited us to make a return visit to see her again.

Dedicated to a Local Scholar

The small cultural museum in Lingxian was dedicated to a local scholar (wise man). The grounds, which contained statues, character-etched stones and exhibits, included dozens of rose bushes in full bloom.

One 8 foot tall tablet, with characters etched all over both sides, is housed in the building in the picture on the left. The tablet is more than 600 years old. Our guide informed us it took 30 years to transcribe the characters on the ancient tablet and etch them into a new tablet displayed in a similar pavilion across the courtyard.

The picture on the right shows the statue of the scholar to whom the museum is dedicated. In the picture below the scholar, our host interpreter, Lin Fen and I are taking a close look at the tablet. Other pictures show some of the roses, the main courtyard in the museum, and Lucille posing in front of the pavilion that houses the newer version of the tablet.

Lingxian County with 12 rural communities is a major agricultural county, producing wheat, corn, cotton, soybeans, vegetables and fruits, that also has textile, chemical, machinery, light industry facilities. We saw many roadside stands selling watermelon and other farm products during our ride around the County.

Breakfast with the Mayor

On June 12th, we had the great honor of dining at breakfast with Mayor Wu at the Meililua Hotel. We ate in the impressive dining room at the hotel, the one with the elaborate turntable. After greeting us warmly, she told us that she would have to say farewell after breakfast. She originally planned to spend the morning with us touring a cultural museum, but had a big project that needed her attention.

Over breakfast, Mayor Wu asked for our impressions of Dezhou, the economic development area and everything we'd seen. We told her that we enjoyed the chance to visit her city and were favorably impressed with the development zones and everything we'd be told about the new city initiatives. We invited the Mayor to visit us in New York so we could reciprocate the wonderful hospitality she and her staff had shown us. She told us that a delegation from Dezhou was preparing for a visit to New York in the fall. In the picture on the left, Jinshui is presenting a message sent by a SUNY campus president to Mayor Wu.

After we finished breakfast, we posed for an official picture with the mayor, along with some informal pictures with some of our new friends. In the picture below, I am posing with Ms Song and Ms Lin from the Foreign Affairs Office of Dezhou Municipal People's Government (Shandong Province).

Respect is Important

Before we left Albany, on the flight to China, and prior to most meetings in China, our international expert, Mr. Jinshui Zhang, spent some time preparing us for our meetings with our Chinese hosts and the business and economic development experts we would encounter. His instruction had one central theme: respect and courtesy. Some of what we learned was common sense, and echoed lessons from childhood. Other things were new.

One of the first things we discussed was something I learned from my parents. There are many ways in which we show respect for people - especially the people that make time to meet with us. One is the way in which we dress. Jinshui told us that we should expect to wear formal business attire: suits and ties or dresses with good shoes for every occasion except when we were on our own time. For all intents and purposes, we would be "dressed up" for all meals, meetings, and most tours. In the picture at the right, you can see that we are appropriately dressed for a meeting with the Chairman of TEDA - the Tianjian Economic-Technological Development Area.

I had learned the Chinese way of exchanging business cards as a result of meeting the many delegations that had visited our office in Albany. Jinshui reminded all of us to present our business cards using both hands, rather than casually passing them to people or flinging them across the table. He made sure our business cards were printed on both sides, one side in English, the other in Chinese, so the people we met could readily understand our title (our place in our organization), and other pertinent information. When exchanging the cards, we were told to be sure the Chinese side of the card was facing the person receiving it. When receiving a business card, we were instructed to examine the card carefully for a few moments and then place it carefully into a card case or on the table, if we were seated at one. Jinshui said that we should never stuff a business card into our pocket, especially a back pocket, without reading it. That would be considered extremely rude.

We learned there was a protocol for entering a room -our group should enter the meeting room in hierarchical order. Our Chinese hosts would assume that the first of us to enter the room would be the head of our delegation. Jinshui told us that if we had occasion to walk with our hosts on a tour or from one meeting room to another, the head of our delegation should walk next to the number one host. We would show our respect of their practices by acting according to their protocol.

In meetings, we were advised to be attentive, courteous and follow the protocol dictating the the flow of the meeting. When it was our turn to provide information or answer questions, we should speak in short, simple sentences free of jargon and slang. We should pause frequently to let the interpreter - ours or theirs - keep up with our remarks and to enable everyone to understand what you say. Much of this is simple courtesy, but I appreciated the reminder.

To prepare for the trip, I had read about Chinese culture and learned a few words of conversational Chinese. I knew that respecting traditional customs and practices would be important. The background reading helped a lot in understanding the context of our meeings and conversations. My upbringing had trained me to be prepared and patient with people from all parts of the community. This served me well in our travels around China.

Lingxian County - Another Furniture Town

On the way to Lingxian County (a county in close proximity to Dezhou), we once again saw farmers drying their wheat by the sides of the road. We decided not to eat any wheat products during our trip. The local officials met us at the County Line, and they rode with us on the bus as we entered the county. We were pleased and surprised that there was a personal greeting for us on the local radio. We also were curious about the timing of the remarks that followed. For example, just as we drove past the sign for the economic development area, the broadcaster said, "welcome to the Lingxian economic development zone." Later we realized that the escort car directly in front of us carried the equipment used for the broadcast.

We visited a furniture company that had several people working - a treat, since many of our previous factory visits had occurred during the dragon festival, when all the workers were home spending time with family. We saw people carving, sanding and doing other detail work on headboards, benches, chairs, coffee tables, and other pieces of furniture. We especially liked some chairs with slatted backs. We saw rows and rows of chairs ready for packing crates, and stacks of boxes packed and ready for shipment to many parts of the US and other countries.

After the factory tours and meetings, our next stop was a small museum dedicated to a local scholar.

On the Road Again - Ningjin

After lunch at the acrobatics school, we boarded the minibus for a trip to the Ningjin economic development area to visit some wood companies. On the ride to Ningjin County, we saw farmers drying wheat and hay along the sides of the main road, in parking lots, on country lanes - wherever the sun touched the ground. Along the way, we saw people raking the wheat into shallow piles for drying, and on our way back to Dezhou later in the day, we saw them raking it up and bagging it for transport. There are three pictures showing wheat along the sides of the road - in one you can see a farmer raking the wheat to spread it out, and in another you can see several bags of wheat ready to be picked up.

In Ningjin County, we saw many contrasting scenes: wide new streets and modern buildings in the industrial zone, acres of farm land with a few farmers and farm animals visible, and narrow streets in the towns crowded with people walking, bicycling, riding motorcycles and driving small trucks. On one street in what was evidently a poorer neighborhood, our hosts told us that the people were cleaning up after a festival. The streets in the towns were lined with many roadside vendors selling watermelon, local vegetables, food prepared over small grills, and every other household and farming implement you can imagine.

That afternoon we visited several furniture and wood processing companies in the Ningjin Industrial Zone. In one small town we stopped at a wood yard. Two men were unloading a good sized truck of pieces of wood, by hand. All around we could see wood stacked for drying.

Later that afternoon, we met with local politicians and economic development officials for discussions similar to those we'd had in previous meetings. The room set-up was familiar: two long table facing each other, with interested individuals (many business owners)seated around the sides. Once again, there was a lot of interest in seeing the pictures from Evergreen Timber, and many business cards were exchanged. In preparation for the meeting, our hosts, ever considerate, arranged for a few minutes rest at a local hotel and provided some fresh bottles of water. We certainly appreciated the water and the rest.

After the meeting we enjoyed dinner at the Ningjin Hotel with local officials, including the Communist Party Chairman of the area. He was quite a jovial man, and encouraged us to try his favorite, dried donkey meat. I was surprised to find it was actually pretty good - though not as good as the donkey I'd tried at lunch earlier in the day. Most of the entrees were familiar and we enjoyed the dinner amid numerous toasts.

Home of Chinese Acrobatics - Wuqiao

On our way to visit several wood processing companies in Ningjin, our hosts had a special treat - a short visit to the home of Chinese acrobatics, Wuqiao. Acrobatics is a pearl in the treasure house of the traditional Chinese performing arts. The acrobatic art has been developing in China for more than two thousand years. We learned there are a lot of acrobatics villages in China, but in terms of the history, the influence among people, and the influence, both domestic and abroad, Wuqiao is the most famous one. The gate in the picture on the left is the entrance to the acrobatic school we visited in Wuqiao.

We were led on a tour of the school, from one courtyard to the next, and enjoyed several performances. We saw a series of traditional skills demonstrated - card tricks, sleight of hand, tumbling, magic, balancing, plate spinning, aerialists, and cycling in a round cage, to name a few. The performers were varied in age, some as young as 6 or 7, and the eldest appeared to be in their 40s or 50s. The picture on the right shows a young acrobat rolling a huge ceramic vase with her feet. It took the four men in the picture to lift it into position. Later, they would take it down, help a large man from the audience climb inside, and hoist it onto the acrobat's feet once again.


In one of the courtyards, John from our group was selected from the audience to participate in a sleight of hand trick by Mr. Ghost Hands. His name comes from the fact that his hands move so fast you're not sure that you see them move. In the picture on the left, John is looking at the performer in amazement after realizing that somehow Mr. Ghost Hands transferred the balls from his own hands into one of John's fists.

There were several different venues at the school, each designed to showcase the performers - courtyards, small rooms in buildings, a tent, and so on. The tumblers were in two places, in a big red tent, and in a building that had a mural depicting acrobats from earlier times. In some of the performances, we saw an experienced performer and a novice working together.

A simple lunch was served in a plain dining room on the grounds of the school. We were served a speciality of the area - donkey meat, along with fresh cucumbers and greens, and local fish. During lunch, a couple of performers displayed their sleight of hand skills. In the picture below, the woman in the white tunic is giving our group a close-up view of her trick with rubber bands. The visit to the school was another lesson in Chinese culture. We learned that ancient acrobatics was handed down from generation to generation. Today, acrobatics has developed into a kind of performance art. In the past forty years, many Chinese acrobatic troupes have toured more than 100 countries and regions of the world and promoted friendship and cultural exchanges. You may be able to see a performance in your area at a county or regional fair.