Snow in Spring

As I miss the winter snow last December 2006 due to my home trip, thank god and fortunate to see snow in Spring. It is surprising ! Snow started in the late night of 2nd Mar. By the next morning every where and every thing exposed outside was coverd by snow. I intentionally took a slow walk out door, just to experience snow. Also open my mouth to taste snow. It was exhilarating !

Ancient Cave House

Arrived in BJ again on the 22nd Feb, after spending one week CNY holiday in Singapore. Since we have a long week end here before new work week, me and my Spore colleague and his family went to visit Ice Sculpture, ancient "cave" house and the great wall "Juyongguan" station.

Breakfast in Beijing

The meal I enjoy the most in Singapore is Breakfast. That is especially so during weekends. Normally wake up early around 7:30am and go for a slow jog around the mental institution which is surrounded by tall trees with lots of green. Air quality is fresh and traffic is less. The kuanyin statue at one of the hospital entrance also adds on some serenity and tranquility. Best moment comes after the jog i.e. Breakfast Time !! There are variety of breakfast items at the market near my house such as carrot cake, "wanton mee", "chee-cheongfun", roti-platta or even macdonalds and longjohn silver. Here in Beijing my daily breakfast is merely "Bimbo" brand bread and butter and coffee/tea "3-in-1" type. Nothing more !!

Dinner at home

I normally reach home at about 7pm on weekdays after work. It takes about 45 minutes road journey without jam. But clear road with no jam is a “dream” in Beijing. Even we set off at 5pm from office, I will still reach home after 6:30pm. With much exhaustion, I will normally skip dinner outside and replace it with fruits, salad, bread or just honey drink at home. If I really really need something to munch, the next best alternative will be the instant noodles. These noodles are with curry chicken, laksa or mee goreng flavor which I brought from Singapore. None of this flavor is available in Beijing. Most popular brand here is "Kang Shifu" or "康师傅" in Chinese. Mostly came with beef flavor which I do not like though some said that it tastes equally good.

春运

The hot topic now in town is about "Spring Transfer". There are millions and millions of people will start the "spring transfer" from this week onwards. 春运 refers to the movement back to the home town to celebrate the Lunar New Year with families. In order to manage this huge human movement all around main land, China government has given concession and encourage students to move first. Since the CNY is only less than 2 weeks from now, it is better for citizen to move early in order to avoid the crowd and to risk ticket "sold-out" situation. There are many transport company also starts to mark-up price discreetly even government guarantees that the price will not changed. "黄牛票" will be common and will be popular for the "last minutes" commuters.

Father-to-be

Remember the previous post about the cross-culture wedding between Binu, the only Indian colleague here and his Chinese wife ? He sms me this week (on Monday 29th Jan) with much joy amidst little nervousness from his message. His wife is one month pregnant ! He is rather good and sharp in shooting. I told him that his life-style and living patterns will be changed totally on the arrival of his first child. Focus point will be solely on the baby, even to the extend of starving himself and depriving all of his freedom, money and energy. Congratulations!

Company Re-Structuring

New CEO came on-board on the 1st Dec 2006. Having worked in EMS industry and vast experience in manufacturing and sales, he seems to be a tough guy. His MBO is to slash cost by 100million euro and reduce head count by 4,000 in order to turn the company around to better position. Scary targets and fierce management. His action has caused major "strike" in our Europe factories as he plans to downsize HQ operation as part of the 4,000 cut. In APAC, our SCM department has seen 3 silent "head-cut" so far and we are not sure how many more to come. This is worse than "fear-factor" as we have no hints about when our turn will come. It was a sad moment for our department this week. Anyway looking at the positive side, we will only be able to stay on our job for long if the company survives. It is a cruel world.

Beijing NTUC fairprice equivalent

We have NTUC fairprice in Singapore almost in every corner possible. I found one of similar kind here and it is called "JinKeLong" or "京客隆". Like NTUC, they brand some grocery items like sugar, vermicelli, cooking oil etc under "京客隆" label. The prices are generally lower than other manufacturers. It reminds me of NTUC. Generally it becomes my weekly shopping place for household groceries and food stuff like fruits since it is located conveniently within walking distance. However if import stuff like can food are needed, I will go for CRC or Carrefour.

Trip to Sentosa

An outing to Sentosa on the 30th Dec 2006 with 3 boys during my home trip. Every home trip seeing them with little changes. Second boy is now same height with his elder brother. All of them are now more "tan" due to the swimming lesson. The eldest is also now more mature than before from his speech and thinking. He asks why daddy must work in China when there is job in Singapore? I was speechless with sore heart.

One P One Family

My first involvement in the company function in Perlos on the 19th Jan 2007. Instead of the usual D&D in Singapore context, we have kind of "cultural show" perfomance in the afteroon from 2PM to 4PM at the in-door auditorium nearby BDA.

There were about >4000 company employees attended on that day. There were free gift (a bottle of shampoo !) and hamburger "take-away" for every one plus lucky draw. First price was video camera, Second price was digital camera and MP3 for Third. Of course with 4,000 strong crowd, I did not have any luck for that (though I am deemed to have luck for those draw in my previous experience). Just to recap, I have won return air ticket to Thailand, a 10 inch portable DVD player in the first price during last Samsung D&D. Also won Samsung mobile phone Twice.

It was a new experience for me indeed to be felt in the P family.

Beijing Snow

I am staying in BeiJing on Christmas Day waiting to see and experience snowing, but failed. What a disappointment for the long wait in year 2006 and still not able to see snow up to 26th Dec. Decided to go home from 27thDec06 till 3rdJan07, ushering new year in Singapore with my family. Then, you know what? Received SMS from China colleague that there was heavy snow in BJ on the 30th and 31st Dec, last 2 days of Y2006. Their descriptions of the gracious snow fall made me boiled down to my heart. I have been waiting for the whole year for almost 360 days, and no snow. It started snow when I am away!! I can only imagine and appreciate the snowy scene by looking at the dirty, stain "left-over" snow on the floor across the whole BJ city.

Street Vendors

Street vendors are common scene on busy streets in Beijing city. Most of vendors are from other provinces such as Tibet or Northern area. They flock to city during weekends in tourist shopping areas or the subways (during rough weather) along with beggers or the self-made singers. Out of the estimated 13 million population in Beijing capital, 4 million are said to be outsiders, not Beijing born residence.

Christmas

Felt a little "cheated" as I thought I could enjoy a White Christmas in Beijing since the average temperature now is zero C. There is no sign of snow and not a single feel of Xmas mood around here, other then some scattered Xmas lightings at the big shopping plaza. Worse of all, it is Not a Public Holiday on Christmas day itself !!!! Regret to stay here for Xmas. I should be back in Singapore at least for the "fake" snow and feel the holiday mood........sign..... Anyhow, merry christmas to me, hoping to go home and reunite with my family next week. Cheers !!

Human Problems

I was assigned an additional role recently to take charge of subcontracting transactions in Beijing. We have engaged company Nola utilizing 4 of their 2K injection machines to help easing our in house capacity shortage. Since Nola is also having similar set up as ours, or partially our competitors in that sense, we have hard time working together as partners. There are many instances where their machine has problem where they claim is our mold problem that causes their problem. In reciprocal our engineers always claim that our mold problem is a result of Nola's machine problem. So this controversy continues everyday, every moment and drags into my weekends as well, receiving SMS about complaints with one another. Sometimes I wonder who is telling me the right story and who should I listen ? Suddenly I became the judge to mediate the disputes and pass down final verdict. In the moment of reflection of these events, I thought that these kind of disputes is totally unnecessary and extremely trifle. It could be avoided totally if the person-in-charge is more careful. Put in heart and passion in their work, all matters can be resolved with ease. Why waste so much enerygy in fault finding? Actually machine and tool has no problem, they are all "dead" stuff. My final verdict is "Human Problem" !

First snow arrives in Beijing

First snow arrives in Beijing early this morning at 2am. Temperature is below zero at -1C for the first time this year. From now on, whenever there is rain forecasted in coming days, it will be accompanied by snow flakes. It was said that snow arrives 2 weeks later than previous year due to global warming. Nevertheless it will be my first winter experience and I look forward to a white christmas which for me is an impossible dream in my entire life !

PBJ Beijing 2nd Plant

It was a Friday on the 11th Nov 2006 in Beijing. This is the day of inauguration of PBJ Beijing 2nd Plant (Beijing 1st plant in operation since 2003). Our CEO, vice Chairman of the board of directors, VP of Nokia Beijing, major customers as well as the governors of Beijing BDA (Beijing Technological Economic Develpment Area) attended this auspicious event at the beginning of winter season.

This is the 3rd plant in China for Perlos (1st plant is locatecd in Guangzhou 7 years ago). 4th plant will be ready in Guangzhou from Q1, 2007. This heavy focus in Asia operation is in line with HQ strategy to generate 70% of business in APAC region.

Beijing Food

Staying in Beijing for 8 month now, its right time to write about BJ special food. First thing first is the “HuLuTang” 葫芦糖. Don’t really understand why it is so attractive to the local people as it is very sweet and unhygienic (sometimes). Second food that I can think of is the Beijing Roast Duck. I tried the so-call “best” roast duck in Beijing and its taste was good. The restaurant name is "大董烤鸭店" which was featured in Spore Channel U 5 years back. There are 3 different ways of eating and the hostess will demonstrate that to you. It was fun.

Happy Valley Park

Together with KuanChee and Peters' family, we went to the amusement park called Happy Valley located at Fourth Ring Road. Weather was only 3C~12C. In order to enjoy the outdoor rides, we only set off at 12PM when we can see sunshine and the temperature was at its peak. However the sky became dark as early as 5PM. We adjourned to WangFuJin for dinner and little shopping in the cold cool chilly night !!

Winter Season

Weather is extremely strange early this morning. Whole sky and street is covered with fog or smog (?). Visibility on the road is only 2 cars in front. We could not see the third front car while traveling to office today. The high way leading to office is closed for traffic, same as other major high ways. It took us 2 hours to reach office, which 1 hour is enough under normal circumstances. My other colleague traveling to Guangzhou from Beijing, was stranded in Beijing airport from 9AM to 6PM. What a Monday to start off ! This is also said to be the symtom for the arrival of winter. News reported that the foggy sky was due to sudden drop in temperature after several days of sunshine, which was not normal in winter. When the high/low humidity converges in one place, with the integration of air particles, resulted in the formation of fog. In other words, it is advisable to put on face mask when going outdoor as this fog could be contaminated with dust and air pollutant.

Weekend Visit to Jilin

It is a rare occasion to have a chance to attend a cross cultural Chinese/Indian wedding late October 2006. My Indian colleague is marrying a local Chinese girl from Jilin province. We took a night train from Beijing station departing at 2240 hour on the 27th Oct, and arrived next morning 0700 hour at Changchun (capital of Jilin). Thereafter we were transferred to Shangri La Hotel located at the heart of Changchun. We had good buffet breakfast at the coffee garden before our city tour around the capital. We visited the famous “Puyi” (the last emperor) palace. Puyi was named to be the “puppet government” as he has lost all political power to the Japanese and Westerners at that time. The palace was only the harbor place for Puyi and he was secretly under strict vigilance by the foreign power, unknowingly.