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South Okanagan Photos

SO Chamber delegation back from China

bonny and hollyChina Visit – SO Chamber of Commerce –

President Holly Plante and Manager Bonnie Dancey

  • 15 hour time change

  • 13 hour flight to Shanghai…3hour stop over and flight to Beijing 2 hours

  • No Facebook

  • Capitalism at its finest with business but communism with its people

  • Every day at 7:30 all channels switch to the CCTV news

  • one child rule in major cities

  • citizen cards for health care and education for people born in major cities otherwise you pay

  • Interesting driving facts: to reduce emissions in major cities like Beijing and Shanghai there are odd and even days for driving, lottery pools for licence due to applications, one year probation driving an if accident your trainer is at fault. If accident stop and take a quick photo and go. $15000 to register a vehicle.

  • GM is only in business because automobile boom in china and the raise of the middle class affording cars.

  • Many people have a 2.5 hour commute each direction who work in bigger cities but can’t afford to live there.

  • Education is 9 years only in most areas and then pay people must pay or get a scholarship. Best education is in bigger cities.

  • Priorities used to be education, travel and housing and now this list has reversed reversed.

  • 25% of world economy is between Beijing and Shanghai

  • Government is working on getting 250 million younger farmers and rural citizens to migrate to cities by offering them 7 condos to compensate for space and income to rent them out..64 million vacant condos…

  • Government owns all land but you can buy property and have a 75 year lease

  • While driving from Suzhou to Hangzhou off the highway there would be one light on every kilometre when there was 1000 of condos and apartments new and old. There are 64 million vacant condos and apartments in China’s ghost cities

  • People buy lottery tickets and with some 50 percent goes to sports and then winner and others 50 percent goes to welfare and then 50 percent to the winner.

  • While in Beijing we experienced a 50 for air quality index which is considered fabulous for China but first week of October was national holiday in china and index was 140…many people wear masks all the time

  • People in China think North Americans are obese and often the men on our trip were referred to as “happy buddha’s” because of their bellies.

  • Lots of tension between China and Japan. Flights from China to Japan are empty except for the odd tourist and business person forced to go.

  • Main religions are Buddhist and Taoism with some Muslim and Catholics

chamber pixBeijing

  • Beijing is clean, lots of police, crazy drivers who zig zag.

  • The olympic building, birds nest etc are out of this world… not sure any city will ever invest to the level beijing did.

  • Beijing is business class, people wearing formal attire, cranes everywhere, 20 million people

  • Booming with business but rich with culture and monuments, temples, palaces, etc

  • Was eerie being at Tian An Men Square considering all the people who were massacred there. Fire extinguishers are set out on the pavement all over the grounds because back in the 80’s there were demonstrators who came and would set themselves on fire. Soldiers in formal attire but also many in normal/casual attire. Spoke to a local man who spoke English well whose brother was at the square during the massacre…he made it out but had friends who were never seen again. This man was very uneasy telling us about this and kept looking around to see if he was being watched at people are reprimanded for speaking about incident. The massacre is portrayed very differently in china.

  • One of the highlights was our Rickshaw tour into old Beijing of the Hutongs…we went to a small home 500 square feet for lunch passed down from families… the chef was an aircraft engineer who cooks as a hobby and wife owns the property which has been passed down for generations. To buy this property now and rebuild would cost a new buyer millions.

  • Bonnie and I enjoyed $35 massages for 90 mins 60 mins of massage and 30 reflexology… Older women are best and strong come right to your rooms

  • Kerry hotel in Beijing was amazing with the fanciest toilet I have seen in my life! Sensored heated seats, multiple functions, press a button and the lid closes.

  • We visited the Temple of heaven on a sunday to the park and there was 100’s of Chinese 60 years and older doing all types of fitness on outdoor workout equipment, monkey bars, splits, hacky sack with birdie, tai chi, badminton, singing…inspiring…in a province with an aging population and active people who move for BC lifestyle we should launch a “get active in park” program

Suzhou is very laid back…amazing gardens and a way slower pace but still a huge city. We did a canal ride and got to see all the old houses along the canal and visit through outdoor market with mounds of soy beans, fish, crab, fruit and veggies, live chickens, chicken hearts, livers…

Hangzou has experienced a major tech boom… In 10 years 9 million people have migrated to Hangzou. Said to be the place to retire and play with more trees, parks, etc.

Shanghai is the most populated city in China with 23 million… Years ago was just another fishing city/port now has 168 billionaires. Imagine the lights of Vegas times 1000 and the skyscrapers of New York City times 10,000 with endless sky lines. I wouldn’t have believed it looking at pictures but being there was out of the world. We toured the Bund via boat with all the lights…sky needle 4th largest building in the world with 121 stories and now new building under construction will have 141 stories next to an observatory building that look like a bottle opener. Skyscrapers in all shapes and sizes and architecture that would blow your mind. We also took the Mag-Lev (Magnetic Levitation Train) which reached a speed of 430 km/hour!!! Era show was $35 and similar to cirque to soliel…likely where cirque gets talent. 4 contortionist women stacked on top of one another and then a bike sphere where at one point there were 7 bikes circling.

Also had tours of factories such as jade, pearl, silk and embroidery in the 4 cities we visited.

Bus 2 – The best group of people ever!!!

Our group had 30 people ranging from 14 to 77. Everyone kept a fast pace and we had 12 hour days on average of site seeing. We became one big happy family who frequently joked around but looked out for each other. The bond we formed was incredible. Plans to have reunions pot lucks and also to plan future trips together.

Business and Connections

Business connection made with Business Manager from the Minister of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China…they are planning a trip in 2014 to Vancouver and they would consider a trip to Okanagan if we can supply information on transportation, itineraries, etc. Holly will prepare.

Also two tour guides we made connections with had access to middle and upper class wine clubs who want more information about our wine.

Not a fit to compete in large production and cheap wine…china learning more about wine and middle class open to paying $25 a bottle and upper class like exclusivity of our wine due to limited production and high quality.