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July 10, 2004
How the Other 4/5 Live | Guested Around
I didn't have to drop the H[arvard]-bomb in Dongying. Luckily, my uncle managed to do it for me. He mentioned to a few of the major financial players in the city that his nephew had come from The America, fresh out of Hahvahd University and that he felt it would be a good idea to expose me to China's business world. For me, this resulted in two fancy dinner invitations from two of China's newly minted millionaires, one of which I attended the 7th and one on the 8th.
The 7th was a lesson in contrast for me - it began with a visit to the luxury apartment building under construction that will be my uncle's future home. One interesting item of note - each entryway has 3 garages. Personal ownership of automobiles is on the rise, much to the consternation of environmentalists everywhere. While exploring the garage, we chanced upon the makeshift beds of the laborers who work on the buildings (all migrant workers from rural China). The work is dangerous and the pay is little - but in a country with something like a 20% real unemployment rate and little social welfare, it is better than destitution. My dad was somewhat appalled, having been through similar hardship in his youth: "Unfathomable as this is to you, I've lived like this before." Still, it is 2004 and China is several orders of magnitude wealthier than it was then. I'll show you where all the money has gone in a little bit.
Newly built luxury apartments.
A shopping complex? under construction.
My uncle points out his building to my father, standing on the bridge that crosses the moat the surrounds the complex.
We check out the garage where we chance upon...
Makeshift beds on concrete.
Mosquito nets.
A dangerous and thankless job.
A worker fresh from a delivery of supplies.
By contrast, my uncle's office.
Oh, the toils of an underpaid public servant.
Work! Work! Work!
It was a fitting way to start a day that would conclude with a meeting and a dinner with someone who is incidentally from my dad's old rural middle school. He's the sole owner of a large holding company with hundreds of millions RMB worth of investments in factories and real estate throughout China. He met in his company's headquarters and then traveled in a set of luxury cars to a restaurant which, among other things, boasted floor-mounted replicas of the Terracotta soldiers in Xi'an.
Company headquarters, with the boss in the blue shirt.
The boss's henchmen.
The corporate brand.
Women, wine and song (see the karoke equipment?).
Our host takes his formal seat.
Um...
One of the night's specialties.
Another local delicacy.
The next day, another local millionaire showed me around his office - a temporary structure from which he is directing the construction of an entire resort and corporate complex. He currently runs a software outsourcing operation that he plans to expand to 5,000 employees. He was very excited when my uncle mentioned my interest in technology, and he insisted he host us for dinner. For the record, both my uncle and I were very happy to oblige him in this request:
Just one of Dongying's many massive contruction projects.
Another part of the same field.
I love arriving early to see tables get set up in fancy restaurants. This is supposedly one of Dongying's finest.
Yes, that is a dragon carved out of some sort of cucumber.
The greasy haired youth straight from the Kremlin on the Charles. To my dad's right is the millionaire.
My brother enjoys being waited on hand and foot by the two very attractive young ladies assigned to us.
Fresh fruit!!! Not that fruit isn't fresh here, but I usually worry about their cleanliness.
Posted by rxu at July 10, 2004 12:37 AM