Showing posts with label China. Show all posts
Showing posts with label China. Show all posts

Sunday, January 20, 2013

The Butter War



This is a blog post that I wrote when in China but was unable to publish it due to the internet restrictions: So, a little throw back to China!
So as Ashley and I walked around China I had one goal in mind. To find one object that said “Made in the U.S.A.” written on it.  Everything in the U.S. has “Made in China” printed on it, so I had hoped to find something that was made in the U.S. and sold in China as living proof that we still export something! Well….. That was easer said than done. After three weeks of looking I had found nothing. I started to think that we didn’t export anything in China with our name on it.
But all hope was not lost. One day, as Ashley and I were walking around in a grocery store trying desperately to find food we could identify, we stumbled upon one little gem. In a world where everything is made in China and almost nothing is imported into their country, we did find that one company is trying to break into the market. Not only are they spearheading the charge into this country with their product but they are also boldly printing “Made in the U.S.A.” right on the front! This was a shock because as I did find many American products sold in China, none of them would say “Made in the U.S.A.” Just take a look at the Coca Cola bottle with the Chinese Red star stamped into the bottle cap.


So what was this company that we found representing the U.S. in China? Well it is not electronics, not farming gear, not military gear, not even anything to do with cars, but instead………. Butter. Yes, that’s right; the only product that I found in all of China that would clearly print “Made in the USA” on their products was butter.  Though I have never heard of this butter company I tip my hat to them. Now, one thing to point out is that there was a very small butter section in this store and the only other butter was the very expensive French type you find in the deli section of American stores.  However, in the good old American fashion, we had our butter one dollar cheaper than the French butter.
So there you have it ladies and gentlemen.  All across the country of China you have a battle waging.  Not in the air, land, or sea, but in the butter isle.  France vs. America.  Mano y Mano. The stakes might be higher than anyone might think, for this just might be the chip in the armor for China.  If France and the US can have open, free capitalism in the butter isle of China, then what about the rest of the world? One day everything in China might say “Made in the U.S.A.”!............ That is at least, until China starts making their own butter and selling it one dollar cheaper than us!  We can dream though, we can dream.

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Back in Business

 Hello all!  Since we couldn't give you a lot of info about our China segment (other than the Great Wall and Hong Kong pics), here's what we've been up to since the last post.  In Hong Kong, we took the Peak Tram to the highest point in the city....a hill used as a vantage point during WWII....also ingeniously named "The Peak."  It was foggy, but the view was pretty incredible and really shows the size of this massive city!  From there, we took a train to Guangzhou and decided to stay for 2 days before heading to Guilin.  We were amazed to find out it's almost as large as Beijing..20 million people live here!  We found ourselves at the top of the Four Season Hotel (located at the top of the second tallest building in the city) on the 70th floor and had another amazing view.  Unfortunately, we managed to forget all of our 4 picture taking devices! We stayed in a hostel located in a family home and were invited to eat dinner with them.  Rice, thin potatoes, stewed duck (spicy!) and cabbage was on the menu and it was wonderful.  Ashley also got her first haircut on the trip!  Only $5 and it came with a lovely scalp/shoulder massage!  Next came the overnight train to Guilin (another first for Ash) and that was an experience.  Apparently it is socially "OK" to smoke and spit (not just on the train-everywhere).  We arrived in Guilin and first impressions were not so great.  But, after walking around and finding the scenic area, the town started to grow on us.  We rented an apartment- ignore the mess in the pictures, we were packing to leave!  It was a small studio with a lofted bed and once we figured out how the heat, hot water, washing machine and hot plate worked, it grew on us too!  Most exciting was the hot water...which worked through a battery powered gas heater. Yeah, weird.  You turned the gas tank on, then turned on the water faucet.  I guess the water flow ignites the flame in the water heater and it goes BOOM!  Seriously, a small explosion occurred every time we needed hot water.  One time it even rattled a window upstairs off of its hinges!  The city of Guilin is in a beautiful part of the country, but we suggest not going in winter.  The fog and rain made it difficult to see the gorgeous mountains and rivers that you see on the post cards.  Nevertheless, we saw Elephant Trunk Hill, the Prince's Palace, and Solitary Beauty Peak which were great!  There was also a fabulous food street/alley where we found a great Indian Restaurant! On Tuesday we took a 6 hour train to Nanning to catch the 10 hr train to Hanoi, Vietnam.  We sprang for the soft sleeper this time!  Our sleep was a little interrupted because of customs/border checks at midnight and 1am, but we made it to Hanoi at 4:30am!  We checked into our hotel and explored the city, but those adventures will come later!  Enjoy the pictures from our China Adventure!


Who would've guessed this was at the top of The Peak in Hong Kong?!

                                                                                                                      Pagodas in Guilin

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Not Quite China, but Close: Hong Kong

Hong Kong is crazy... Crazy cool, crazy fun and definitely crazy expensive. But, we are still managing to have some fun! Today we saw both The Hobbit AND Les Miserables... For those of you who haven't seen them, go! We strolled around the largest mall (on that side of the bay) and I (Ashley) bought a new shirt from H&M! We found a great (and cheap) breakfast place that serves a soup made from onion broth, macaroni noodles, egg and ham.  Sounds weird, but it's good.  Even McDonald's serves it!  We saw the sun setting over the bay last night...almost blinding when it reflects off the thousands of skyscrapers lining the horizon.  One of the most humbling moments hit us the other day in Beijing:  The population of the city of Beijing is over 22 million people. The population of the entire state of SC is 4.6 million.  Pretty wild.  Welcome to China, the land where everything is over the top and larger than life!







Sunday, December 30, 2012

"Nihao"

                                            Frozen river/moat around the Forbidden City!

Hello or nihao from China!  Boy is it freezing here....wind chill is around 10 degrees!! We were finally able to access our blog from over here and wanted to update everyone about our Chinese adventures!  We landed on Friday around 5 am (we managed to skip Thursday due to the time change..yay for our budget haha!) After settling at the hostel, we ventured out and had some dumplings and soup for breakfast.  Then we saw Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden City, which was amazing.  It's so big!  We mistakenly came back to our room to 'rest.'  I closed my eyes for one minute and the next thing I knew it was dark outside...Whoops!  Yesterday we woke up and went to the Great Wall with our two roommates.  The roads were a bit icy so the public buses weren't running. We took a cab and fortunately, there were hardly any tourists at the wall so we got some fabulous pictures!!  We then toured the Olympic area, went to a night market that sells normal food (starfish, seahorses, scorpions and snake to name a few!), walked around a huge mall and finally called it a night with a big glass of beer!  We stayed up till 10pm last night, woohoo!  Today is New Years Eve and we'll see what we can find to do....the worldwide new year is not nearly as celebrated as the Chinese New Year, which is Feb. 10 this year so there are no major fireworks or parties, but I'm sure we can find something! Enjoy these few pictures...more will come in the next few days. Off to Hong Kong on Wednesday!!

                                                  Forbidden City

                                                                Beautiful details!!
                                                    Check out the height of some of the steps!
                                                    A view of the mountains from the Great Wall
                                       If you're not careful.....steepest stairs we've ever seen!

                                                                         We made it!!