An American in Provence

After a late bedtime and another early start, the three of us flew to Shenzhen, a two hour flight from Shanghai. This city is in the northeast of the country, near North Korea. When we got off the plane, we were immediately struck by how cold it was. There was snow on the ground. Our new hosts met us at the airport, and shuttled us into the city. I immediately felt like I had been transported to the Chinese version of Minnesota. Can I get a “yah sure you betcha” please? We checked into our hotel, another Four star place, with plenty of luxury shops in the lobby. I was hoping that being in China and with the exchange rate that I could maybe afford say a pair of Armani socks or something, but nope. Nothing doing. I really can’t understand why designer clothing is so expensive and why people actually buy it. Why do you need a scarf for 200$? Anyway, after another huge meal in which our hosts ordered way too many dishes for us and which we could have done with a good 3-4 dishes less, we went to visit their factory. We spent several hours at their factory, then went, again, to eat. This was at a place with individual dining rooms, a big round table, and a lazy-susan in the middle of the table to facilitate the passing of dishes. Some highlights included octopus soup, shish kebobs, raw salmon, tofu (firmer this time) and many many others that my memory is blocking out for self-preservation. We rolled back to the hotel and went to bed.