June 25, 2017
Summer has officially arrived in the western calendar, but it has been here awhile already according to the old farmers almanac (based on the Chinese lunar calendar). As a way of increasing the plant's management team to be more customer service oriented, we arranged to visit the Great Wall Car manufacturing plant in Baoding in the Hebei province. We are supplying this company some tires and we get audited by all of the car manufacturers so we arranged a trip to see one of them so that we could talk to them and understand face to face their needs and expectations. It also allowed the team to spend quite a bit of time together and get to know each other and increase trust between the team too...trust is always a good foundation!
We took the high speed train direct from Shenyang to Baoding on Thursday afternoon (5 hour train time), very nice ride and easy to navigate with all of the Chinese team once again managing the logistics details! On Friday, we went to visit the plant and R&D center (no pictures allowed, but very high tech!) and had some good discussions and observations, then we went on a test ride in a new vehicle with one of their test drivers. I have to say that this company is producing some really nice cars for the money. Below are some of the pics I was able to take of this part of the visit!
There is a link to the test ride below...the numbers on the video represent speed in km/hr. 240km/hr = 150 miles/hr. Very steady ride at this speed! It costs roughly 200,000 RMB (30,000 USD). Amazing value for the money! We also saw a video of their vision of the future connected car driving experience..pretty impressive as well. Gone are my old school images and ideas about Chinese technology...believe me when I say China is very high tech...maybe not 100% of the country and certainly the wealth varies widely across the country and between city and rural. China has progressed very rapidly in the past 30 years since opening up to the rest of the world.
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| Sarah getting ready to take a Test drive /ride in the Wei brand Great wall car |
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| The Michelin team along with the Production manager of Great Wall..inside the entrance to the R& D center |
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| Sarah in front of the Haval brand building of Great Wall car company 26 stories tall, (Think of Haval being the equivalent of Buick to General motors). Haval is named to mean "Have All" in English.. Great Wall ha 70000 employees and is privately owned. Pretty impressive! |
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| Sarah with the Quality Manager with a H2. This small SUV goes for about 15 000 USD |
After the visit in the plant, we took some time in Baoding and visited around Baoding. Baoding used to be the provincial capital of Hebei during the Qing Dynasty. The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty in China and it was established in 1636 and ruled China from 1644 to 1912. Greater Baoding is a city of about 10 million people about 100 km (60 miles) from Beijing and has the unfortunate distinction of being the most polluted city in China...and that is saying something. Good news for us is that when we were there, had sunshine and good air, so I can neither confirm nor deny the pollution! Being the head of this province I equate with being the Mayor of Washington DC. In this area, there are some old buildings still remaining.
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| A cart to haul the governor round |
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| The desk where decisions were made |
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| Living quarters for the provincial governor |
The best thing about the governor's area was the Lotus pond park...
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| The lotus pond in Baoding |
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| A wall with a view in Baoding |
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| The Lotus pond again...something about a moon bridge and pavillion! |
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| Sarah's got the whole world in her hand! |
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| Another bridge in Baoding Lotus park |
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| Sarah's play day in Baoding | |
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| The team enjoying a cup of tea in Baoding park |
The next day (Saturday), we organized a trip to the see a couple of tombs of the Qing dynasty Emperor's. In the Qing dynasty there were 12 emperors. The first 2 were based in Shenyang (where we live) and they have tombs here (each of these tomb areas is a park now, also nice). The other 10 were in Baoding and Chengde and are buried there.
Tombs in the Qing Dynasty are all designed roughly the same way..there is a long path (the one in this area was 2.5 km and is lined with many statues of horses, camels, elephants, soldiers etc to "protect" the emperor. On this path there are 3 main parts..the center is where the body is carried (so Chinese people avoid this path) the right is where normal people walk and not sure about the left side. The sites were all chosen for their good "feng shui" and typically they have the mountains to their back and water to their front. At the last part of the path, there is an official entrance to the core part of the tomb area. The core area has 3 main building areas..the official entrance, then a building that has all of the accomplishments of the emperor, then a reception hall building, then a higher building that connects to a path around the top of the tomb area. The layout of the area is very symmetrical and pleasing to the eye.
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| Playing around with the team..always fun! |
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| If the hat fits wear it...actually it didn't fit to well..kept falling off! |
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| The ladies on my team are all beautiful! |
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| Sarah at the overlook of the reception building towards the entrance area |
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| The building before the entrance to the tomb (still closed off) |
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| The overlook from the top of the reception building just before the tomb to the entrance building of the tomb area |
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| View from the inside of the building just before the tomb |
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| The actual entrance into the tomb (not opened) |
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| The view of the reception building from the tomb entrance area |
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| View from the reception building towards the entrance buillding |
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| The bridges entrances to the tomb area |
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| The view from part of the 2.5 km path into the tomb area in Baoding |
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| The final bridge on the 2.5km path into the entrance area of the tombs |
After seeing this tomb, we went to another one. The special thing about this 2nd one was that it was where last official emperor of feudal China (before Pu Yi, "The last emperor") is buried. Normally, the emperor starts building his tomb area before he dies so that they can control quality etc. This last emperor was poisoned so he died very early (48 years old) and had not started on his tomb yet. So, the last emperor's administration built the predecessor's tomb when the fall of the feudal China had already started...so the quality was not so good. Consequently, the security of the tomb was questionable and it was robbed in 1938. Because it had been robbed, they eventually built an official entrance into the tomb (no photos allowed). This was the first time, I had ever been inside a tomb and it was amazing to me. There is actually a palace space comprised of 3 areas (entrance, reception area and tomb area, very similar in concept to the tomb areas above ground). There are big thick doors protecting each area and evidently there is an elaborate security system in the doors (similar to Indiana Jones movie in my mind!) so that when the doors are closed, they do not open again, trapping any would-be robbers inside the tomb). The successful robbers tunneled very deep into the tomb building, going all the way under the foundation, and then calculating where to tunnel back up..and they bypassed all of the door security. Just in case you were wondering, the actual tombs and bodies are still there but all the jewels and treasures were stolen. For me, as the saying goes "Nothing good comes from bad money'...they can have the treasure and all the bad that comes from it. The trip to the tomb area was worth it...but I don't need to see another one. By the way Pu Yi, the actual last emperor of China is buried in Baoding, but not in a big tomb...he is buried in a public cemetary in Baoding.
After this, we stopped at a restaurant that is famous for the area...they specialize in donkey meat. I don't eat much meat these days, so I didn't partake...but the team really liked it..looked really greasy to me!
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| Donkey meat sandwiches of Baoding! |
Soon we boarded the train and headed back to Shenyang...a good combination of work and play and I especially liked seeing the team work and play well together...but glad to be home!
Until next time, we wish you good choices and Godspeed. I leave one last photo (so we don't end on donkey meat!)
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| The foyer /entrance of the main building of the Great Wall Haval car company...26 floors of glass and steel |
Sarah & Rod
