AlbertaTime
in China, China visit #3, Post #1 - covering June 26th to 29th/2014... The social side of the Shenzhen China Watch and Clock Fair
The social
side of the 25th Annual Clock and Watch Show in Shenzhen was
mostly...high-end Chinese food heaven with a terrific group of people.
Some I've
mentioned in previous threads (Rick Li from Tianjin Edwin, Mr. Ha from
Watchlead, btgalen from Watchlead and now WatchuSeek ;-), Mr. Kong Lingjun
of Koncise, Watchmaker and Designer Mi Changhong of Longio and his wife
Holly, and there will be a couple of people whose names I unfortunately
didn't catch.
And this
post is going to be in three sections:
1) A short
section on the evening dinners while in Shenzen at the show, and then 2)
the morning after dinner #2 of this post, with me headed back to Beijing,
and 3) just a small collection of random outtakes from the trip so far.
My
understanding of Mandarin is poor, so in social situations in China I
generally miss most of what's going on except when someone like btgalen is
there, or someone speaks English. That's not 100% true--some decent
communication is possible now with phone translator apps but it's not that
fluid--but still, it can be...confusing sometimes :-).
Luckily me
for me, I had terrific English speaking company both evenings, btgalen
evening one, and a woman introduced to me as Amy Chen evening #2.
Evening one
was at one of Shenzen's local specialty eateries including one food that I
can' t recall except to say I enjoyed it and that I was told is only
available one or two weeks a year :-)
Evening two
was more of the same with a spectacular view overlooking most of Shenzhen,
then coffee. I have no idea what floor we were on for dinner on night #2,
or even what building, but we were waaaaay up there (and you can tell by
the photos). Looking at how everybody else had their cameras out, it
wasn't just me that was impressed.
First photo,
of course, fun times at the CWCF with LiWei of the China Horologe
Association who I thank hugely for including me in so much activity during
the CWCF. He's an energetic, knowledgeble, friendly, intelligent and
generous man, and I'm proud to call him a friend. I'm grateful beyond
words.
Evening
number 1, with LiWei (not shown) btgalen (back of head), two of Mr. Ha's
associates/drivers (gray t-shirt: Lin Sheng/yellow shirt: not known).
Then, I don't know the name of the nxt gentleman in the white shirt, but
btgalen described him, if I understood corrctly, to me as a collector as
well as a master watch repair artist in Shenzhen. I do know he was
recognized warmly and with respect everywhere we went. Then Mr. Ha (in
brown/stripes), and next: Mr. Lin Yong Hua, watchmaker, of Shenzhen's Bora
Watch shop (repairs, sales since 1989) is in the darker gray t-shirt with
lettering.
Oh yeah,
incredible food. Can't say enough about Chinese beer; it's wonderful.
We stopped
by mr. Lin's "Bora Watch" shop immediately after dinner since it was
across a small street from the restaurant.
The evening
meal on day 2 afforded some spectacular views of Shenzen...
Galen and I
shoot each other:
Amy Chen is
seated to my right.
I was hardly
the only person impressed enoughwith the view to take photos. Everyone
was shooting :-) ...
One of the
evening's numerous "ganbei"...
...and a
photo of "the boys"...
...followed
by an hour or so just chatting at the Kafeluku Coffee bar...
The next
morning, btgalen took me to the impressive building that houses Mi
ChangHong's Shenzen offices for a final friendly goodbye and look over the
watches...
...then I
had to head quickly back to the hotel and get my things for the taxi ride
to the Shenzhen airport for my flight back to Beijing for my last few days
in China.
Saw this
along the way to the airport:
The Shenzen
airport building is spacious, bright, impecaably clean, and very
organized.
Ending this
post is just a bunch of outtakes, shots that I like but that weren't used
in previous posts. Why here, now? Because, as I just noted, heading back
to Beijing meant that my days in China were coming to a close for this
trip. So while I was writing this post, I was feeling homesick a bit, and
looked back over my photos. I remembered how I felt at the airport knowing
how little lime I had left, looking back on where I'd been over the
previous three very busy weeks, and...I miss China.
....Wait...all that and no watch content?!?!?!?
Well...there's this :-) ... a one-shot piece I was shown at one of the
Shenzhen dinners along with two more watches I can't show as the pieces
have not yet been patented. This is just one example of what independent
makers are doing in China. In this example, the back shows constellations
and the front hour hand expands and recedes, then retrograde, according to
the hour, with a small minute hand. handmade abalone dial.
And ending
this post wirth my brother Ma Rong saying hi to everyone (mind you, he's still in Sijiazhuang) :-)
