I must be in Heaven

As for that short post yesterday, the excitement I had was overwhelming. I moved from a great place in TEDA to Tianjin where I will be staying in an amazing new place.

TEDA is a great section of Tianjin. It was comfortable, easy to navigate and had a good variety of things to do. It is a fresh new face that China presents to the world, all built in the last 10 - 20 years which is quite a feat of rapid development! It was a perfect environment for business as proven by the multiple foreign-owned companies that had set up shop there. There was also the large Tesco's right next to TEDA international hotel which I will surely miss for its convenience. What I miss most of all are the friends I made at the won-ton restaurant. I enjoyed being greeted by extra large smiles daily, choosing from the English menu they always had ready for me and talking to them in a mix of Chinese and English. Through this, I hope their English improved because my Chinese certainly did! I ate there nearly every day during the week.

I first became fond of this place on a bright and sunny Saturday a month ago. I was going to go out soon but wanted to grab some lunch quickly. I wanted an authentic Chinese experience so I wandered down an alley next to Tesco where I found the won top shop. The menu was all in Chinese but somehow, they had a translated English menu that was worn from many years of use but still legible (I don't know who would use it other than me though, I was the only Laowai I ever saw there!). I ordered two large bowls of won tons by mistake thinking they were dumplings. I ate them anyway and found them to be more than delicious. After my meal, an attendant who I had not seen on the way in came up and started talking to me in fairly good English. His name was Cooper and he welcomed me back again! I did return diligently and saw him three times after that. I think he's moved on since because I stopped seeing him after a while. However, I started seeing one of the Kitchen staff who's English was just as good as Cooper's. Another funny young man in the kitchen would always cry out "HellooOOoOH!" with a huge smile and an incredibly funny accent that would make everyone laugh, myself included!

I got off topic, sorry about that! So yesterday, my EHS Colleague Yolanda helped me load up all of my huge ( and very Canadian) Roots bags (go Canada!) into a taxi cab which we had taken from work to the hotel. We had enlisted a nice bellboy to help us. I made sure to tip him as I realized TEDA International Hotel was used to the western tipping customs. Yolanda and I rode the cab from TEDA to Tianjin. We arrived at our new building which was a bit confusing because it offered both hotel accomodations and service apartments. Yolanda went inside to check at the desk as to which entrance we have to drive to for unloading. After getting lost a few times and heading the wrong way, we eventually found it. We pulled up a baggage cart, loaded it up, paid the friendly taxi driver and headed into the service apartment lobby.

If TEDA hotel was five star, the place (Tianjin International Building) must have been a ten star. The lobby was gorgeously decorated, with marble, mirrors and vases. We talked to the attendants who took my passport and sorted out the room key which turned out to be a swipe card. One of the attendants then accompanied us up to the service apartment. When I reached my room up high on the 29th floor, I was absolutely floored. The apartment was as big as a house. There was a full kitchen, bike storage closet, a large connected dining and living room, a guest bathroom, an office, a bedroom and a walk in closet. It was a luxury suite! The floor was rich hardwood, the lobby was marble, a massive widescreen tv in the living room, the office desk was made of glass and the master bedroom had a toilet with a Japanese bidet (heated seat and all which I turned off to save electricity) and a shower and bath fully enclosed by glass. What really got me the most was the amazing views offered by the huge windows in the living room, office and the smaller ones in the bedroom. It was the nicest apartment I have ever seen in my life - hands down. Such is the business life in China, those doing business are treated like Kings. I was completely surprised by this, I was expecting a traditional Chinese apartment like the wonderful one I stayed in while I was in Beijing. I'm not sure if any foreigners my age are as lucky to have such an experience. I'm was thrilled again to wake up this morning in the same apartment and realizing that I was not dreaming.

Yolanda and I then went out for dinner, there was an amazing Korean restaurant right outside of the building. I helped her choose some very Chinese food (I have Chinese food tastes). We had liver and bone marrow which was cooked on a Korean barbeque (which used live, red hot charcoal) right in front of us. As side dishes, we had some spicy vegetable which looked like asparagus, some vegetables that were fried Korean style and a bowl of cold noodes each. It was one of the best meals in my life, which further added to the excitement of my new living quarters.

The excitement alone is not just for the apartment, it was also primarily for being part of the life of the big city Tianjin. As I arranged things before going to bed, I played Chinese music (traditional and revolutionary on some speakers that were for my use in the apartment). As I looked out my window before falling asleep, it was clear that this city had a different vibe than those back home. Though the third largest city in China (10 Million people I believe) there were less lights to be seen than Toronto. Power saving seems to be huge in China as all of the office towers were completely black, which is unheard of back home! There was significantly less light pollution as well and the sky was nice and black as it should be. The sky was not filled by high rises and office towers and things had a unique Chinese flavour to them as I looked out the window. I adore it here, and being a bit more part of the Chinese culture. TEDA was business culture but Tianjin is more real life culture. Before you leap on how western my living quarters are, I know and accept that they are not the true Chinese living experience. However, when I leave that apartment, the experience is genuine.

Today, I took the PPG coach bus with my fellow employees. It was a friendly, relaxed atmosphere and something that I'm sure not many foreigners get the chance to experience. The employees at PPG really are like a large family. They take the same bus (like a large family minivan), work together, eat together, play games together (PPG runs soccer tournaments between working groups and labs, and also rents out badminton courts on the weekends for employees) and share their all aspects of their lives with each other (Weddings, birthdays and etc). This Chinese family-work environment is a delight to be part of. I think that now I am in a more convenient location, I will be attending more after work experiences with my Chinese colleagues. From all of my experiences so far, it is the Chinese people, especially my colleagues who make me feel at home, and so welcomed to wonderful China. I definitely feel we share a lot in common which helps bridge and break down the language barier brick by brick. We share laughs, experiences and many many good times the Chinese way. These common ties draw me closer to China and are helping me too become one its very own. Day by day, moment by moment and joy after joy I am becoming more Chinese inside.