Chinaconomics

Hi all!

Back again to tell you more about my adventures in China. No. This post is not about the economic growth of China or about doing business here, but rather about the ordeal I and other students went through to get money out at a bank and exchanged at the hotel. Let's just say that Chinese banks don't like the American debit cards and that some banks only provide "non-cash" related services like balance inquiries and transfers. Let's also say that unless your money never committed one of the seven deadly sins, you can't exchange it in China. Those bills better be crisp, clean and pristine.

Outside the fact that there is a bank between every 10 stores, it's actually very hard to find one that will give you cash out of the ATM. We went to 3 different banks after we got to the hotel trying to find one that would give us money, because like the good 'ole Americans we are, we figured getting money out wouldn't be too challenging and that if we couldn't get money right away that we could always use our cards until we could stop and get some. Not so, my friends, not so. The first bank we tried only made balance inquiries. So we went ahead to the store, thinking that we could just buy the water we needed with our cards. Nope. So we went back to the hotel to ask where another one was, were pointed in the right direction and finally found a bank that would dispense money. On that note, typing in 200 to take out was really unnerving. The funny thing is: I only ended up taking out around $30.... Needless to say, I need to get more money. Real quick. The craziest thing about this was we could buy water for around $.40 a bottle. Let's hope everything else is that cheap...

Now, changing money is a whole other story. You may have thought I was just kidding when I said your money better not have committed a deadly sin, but I was being completely serious. One of our girls had to give Conrad her American money to trade for his because her's had a pen mark on it. Which is kind of funny since Conrad didn't have any problem at all (neither did I when I changed some of mine, which was really folded and wrinkled.)

Moral of the story: getting money around here is rough....

Phrase of the day: 银行在什么地方？ （yinghan zai shenme difang）
.... Where's the bank?

Whitney


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Surviving TSA

So! The big day is finally here! Thanks for all the well wishes from everyone. :) I'm sure that we'll get there as fast and as in-one-piece as we can....

I mean, we got off to a pretty easy start. There wasn't much traffic in the Memphis airport and we got through the safety check without a hitch. The new full body scanner is interesting, but not as invasive as everyone makes it out to be. I think it's the pat downs that has everyone in a tizzy...which I guess is understandable if you have something to hide. They did a pat down on one of the girls we're flying with, but she wasn't too concerned with it. They just smoothed down her upper body because she had a hoodie on. In fact, I'd like to think that Officer Cole (the officer that did my scan) and I got started on a really good note. After she made me spread my legs and put my hands on my head, she kindly requested that I keep an eye on my belongings. To which I quickly replied (with a grin), "No prob, Officer Cole. :) I plan to." See?? A good start!

The the flight to Detroit wasn't bad. Conrad and I ate breakfast...and lunch...and dinner...and a snack...and dinner again together! Let's just say that we haven't spent too much time apart. :) As in he's sitting next to me while I write this. We lucked out in the way of seating for our international flight. Conrad doesn't like sitting next to windows, so we went to change it and see if we could find seats next to each other and found out that all three of us (Conrad, Christian, and I) could sit together. Then when we got on the plane, there were rows and rows that were completely empty. To the point that we all moved up to the front of the plane to have more leg room.

Let me please clarify. Leg room on a Boeing 777 means a lot when all you can do for 14 hours is sleep, eat, watch movies and bug your neighbor. Even then it still felt like I was in a box. Let me also clarify the feeling of utter horror when you realize that even after you've slept for an hour, ate dinner and watched at least 2 movies you still have 8-9 more hours of fly time to go. Worst feeling ever. Almost as bad as having a really mean flight attendant--which we also had. We named her the wicked witch of the east, partially because she was so rude...and partially because she was Asian. Either way, she was terrible.

Another thing that helped me with flying this time around was having someone familiar on the plane with me. Usually I fly alone, but this time I had a friend with me. A crazy friend, who when he knows you're feeling uncomfortable will make you laugh so that you're not as scared. Let's use take-off as an example. We flew the plane. From our seats, yes, and it may sound silly (two 22 year-olds "flying" a plane from their seats), but I wasn't nearly as worried about crashing when I was sitting next to Conrad. Another plus to sitting with someone you know: they will order for you if they know your likes and dislikes. No chicken or orange juice on the flight for THIS girl...cause she's got a friend to fly with. :)

Well! We're 30 minutes outside Shanghai right now, so I guess I better get off here. And by now I mean 5:47am. Why yes, I have been traveling for almost 24 hours now. Thanks for noticing. :)

As they say in Chinese,
再见！ (^-^)

Whitney


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Houston, it's almost time for take-off...

Hi all!

Soooooo. China! I’m heading there in two days. Why you may ask? What’s in China that’s so worth seeing? Well, how about it being the land of the world’s longest standing living and documented population? How about a land producing The Great Wall of China, the Terracotta Army, The Forbidden City, the Three Gorges Dam and a country that recently hosted the olympic games? Or if you wanted to get even more recent with it, a country with exceptionally optimistic economic growth in a time of serious world-wide recessions? Either way you put it, China is a formidable beast of a country on the rise as a world power.

The point of the trip is to immerse myself in this expanding giant so that I can study its culture and look at the differences between brand name perceptions in China (oh, and whatever else I decide to explore while I’m there.) The main focus is to look at the country and its culture and then find how that plays into the perception of hotel brand names. Will a Holiday Inn in China have the same brand perception that it does here? Are there  more independent hotels, rather than chains? Is the concept of a luxury hotel the same here as it is there, and, if so, are there any dissimilarities between amenities offered? And, if I have time, what are the Chinese willing to spend on their concept of luxury?
I’m really excited about exploring the country and look at what the hotels there have to offer. Who knows, I might just find something I really like…. I’ll be adding background information about the work environment and current hotel developments over the next few days while we’re beginning our trip over. It’ll give me something to do to pass the time.

See you on the other side of the Pacific!
Whitney