China Day Six - Huangyan

(The hazy view from our room at the Yao Da Internatinoal Hotel)





Our second day in Huangyan started early, even though our first meeting wasn't until 10am. Missy and I got up early and took some photos of our hotel room. Funny story: OK. The Yao Da Hotel was one of the weirder hotels that we got to stay at. When we first arrived in our room, Missy rushed for the bathroom because she had to pee real bad. As she was sitting on the toilet, she looked in front of her at what she thought was a mirror...that is, until she saw me walk into view! She gave out a scream, and as I looked up, I could see into the bathroom! Turns out that there was a screen door "window" in the wall separating the bathroom and the rest of the room, and, much to our chagrin, the screen was left wide open. The bathroom had an actual door, so it wasn't the only way to get in and out of it. It's was just some added feature that was totally unecessary...maybe the idea was that you could sit in the tub and watch tv at the same time? Here, Missy demonstrates how a someone could soak in the tub and then crawl directly into bed, if they wanted to (the bathroom also had a glass-walled shower...):









The view of the toilet through the hole in the wall:



Another feature of the hotel room was this "point of purchase" display that sat on one of the end tables:



The display had useful items that a weary traveller could purchase if they were in a pinch - things like toothbrushes, socks, razors and medicine...but then they also had funny items like this STRETCHY BRIEF that apparently stretches where it counts most:



Also available was this "VIBRATED & CONDOM"...WTF? Try explaining THAT ONE on a company expense report:



We headed down to the posh lobby of the hotel to wait for the vendors to pick us up. Missy and I sat across from this BUDDHIST MONK who was sound asleep on one of the sofas:





In between factory visits, the vendors took us to KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN to get a quick bite. We saw these tricycle taxis pedal by as we were parking:



Missy spotted the Colonel at the end of this row of scooters and bicycles:



The vendors tried their best to order "vegetarian" meals for us:



For your viewing pleasure, a Chinese KFC television commercial:



In China, the rival fast food chicken franchise is called DO & ME (I kid you not!) At one of the factories we visited earlier in the week, the owners treated us to food that they had bought from Do & Me (I can honestly say that their egg tarts are really good!):



After our factory visits, we headed straight to the airport to catch a flight back to SHANGHAI. The plan was to fly back to Shanghai, and then catch another plane to XIAMEN:





When we got to the airport, we found out that our flight was delayed...and then canceled...





It was decided that we would return to the Yao Da Hotel. Our interpreter, Jeff, arranged for a van to come pick us up early in the morning and drive us to Xiamen. What we thought was going to be a 6-hour drive ended up being a 10+ hour ordeal...