- 15,854
- QLD, Australia
- Small_Fryz
Well, as some of you may know I recently went to Bejing China for business. I sell IBM Tivoli software for a business partner (Computer Merchants) and IBM was hosting a "Top Gun" sales training course on the products from the 18th to the 22nd and I organized it with my company and IBM to attend. So considering all my flights and accommodation was to be taken care of I decided to push the trip out a few days before hand to also go sight seeing. 13 Australian IBM'ers were also going and most decided to fly out earlier and do the same. So after 4 movies, 3 plane flights and quite a few rum and cokes I arrived in China at 12am Saturday morning!.
I purposely didn't sleep on the plane so I could then go straight to the hotel and sleep properly and get up at a reasonable hour.
Saturday morning I went to the Forbidden City on my own (some IBM guys were flying in that afternoon).
The place was huge and I took quite a few pictures, which can be found in that China Album.
After walking around for a few hours I found myself out the other side and managed to negotiate a tour through the old China slums? These places were 600 - 700 years old and filled with narrow streets.
Once that was complete I returned to the hotel (Hilton Bejing) to meet up with my fellow IBM'ers whom had just flown over night.
We ended up going to the silk markets for shopping and spent a good 3-4 hours haggling and exploring 6 levels of crazy Chinese markets.
Eventually we got out and found out that a few other guys where at "hooters", so we promptly began our journey of "attempting" to find this place.
After an hour of walking and a few 10mins phone calls, we jumped on a bus and traveled further down the street, Its not so simple as jumping in a Taxi as one, the taxi drivers never speak English and I dont know how to say hooters in Chinese and two, taxi drives never stop for us westerners anyway, even if nobody is in and they have their light on.
Finally!! our mission was complete and we could now enjoy Chinese Hooters (Tweeters IMHO)
After plenty of shots and even a few from something local that tasted like Rocket fuel we were ready to explore further.
We ended up stumbling into a German Beer bar in China... and one of our group members (who is 6'4) decided to grab the mic and turn it into karaoke. He belted out hits ranging from ACDC - Highway to hell, You shook me all night long to Robbie Williams - Angel. However once Men at Work - Land down under came on, we all promptly joined in! Look out China, the Aussies are in town
At some stage that night we decided it was time to head back as we had booked a tour of the Great Wall and Ming Tombs the next day...
After some negotiating upfront we were (hopefully) on our way back to the hotel. As it turns out our mini bus only had enough seats for 4 of us, yet we were a group of 5... No problem, our lead singer volunteers for the back section. I must add in at this point it took us 40mins and the driver stopped no less than 4 times to get out the car and have a random conversation with other Chinese people about how to get to the Hilton. Finally one of us recognized a local landmark and we directed our distressed chap to the hotel. He promptly tried to squeeze more money out of us since we took the scenic route home, but we pointed out that it was his fault and only the original money exchanged hands (well after sign language and some commotion)
The next day arrived far to quickly and we were being hurtled into a minibus ready to conquer the great wall and Ming Tombs. In total I think we had about 10 - 11 of us. Our fearless tour guide "Jackie" was a crazy Chinese dude who just never shut up, was full of heaps of laughs and information. His broken English really added to it and made the whole trip a blast. Not to mention when ever we were separated he would stop and start clapping and yelling his name out the top of his lungs for us all to group back up and join him. This method served extremely useful throughout the trip as on other days out exploring (our group mostly stuck together) one of us would start the Jackie chant for everyone else to group up
Tour also included a stop over at a Jade Factory and also a Pottery Factory with lessons on how it was made as well.
Now it was Great Wall Time!!
After climbing a zillion steps I was totally 🤬
I had started all the way down in that car park..
Last stop was a Tea tasting factory
That concluded our Tour and the rest of the trip we just went out after our training for dinner. I ended up scoring in the top 10% and got the "Top Gun" award, of which my boss and IBM were very happy with. So not only was the trip fun from a social and sight seeing side but also very succesful from a business side too.
Many times we went out I was not even sure what I was eating, but the company and adventure made it all worth while. I will include a few more random pictures of our various nights out.
We did see a Shaolin Theatre Story thingo which was nice as well
Went to some market
Final night out after we had completed our course. After dinner we returned to the hotel bar and I kicked on till 3am...
And my final drink in China Airport as I awaited my plane out.. had enough money on me to get 2 shots of Vodka and a Rum and Coke
Anyway, was a brilliant time and had a lot of fun rubbing shoulders with IBM bigwigs and seeing some amazing sights and experiences.
Followed it up with 3 days in Melbourne at another IBM software event (this time customer related) and was out till 2am Tuesday and Wednesday night at the Melbourne Crown Casino with work colleagues, customers and IBM.
Awesome last 2 weeks
Full China Album can be found here
I purposely didn't sleep on the plane so I could then go straight to the hotel and sleep properly and get up at a reasonable hour.
Saturday morning I went to the Forbidden City on my own (some IBM guys were flying in that afternoon).
The place was huge and I took quite a few pictures, which can be found in that China Album.
After walking around for a few hours I found myself out the other side and managed to negotiate a tour through the old China slums? These places were 600 - 700 years old and filled with narrow streets.
Once that was complete I returned to the hotel (Hilton Bejing) to meet up with my fellow IBM'ers whom had just flown over night.
We ended up going to the silk markets for shopping and spent a good 3-4 hours haggling and exploring 6 levels of crazy Chinese markets.
Eventually we got out and found out that a few other guys where at "hooters", so we promptly began our journey of "attempting" to find this place.
After an hour of walking and a few 10mins phone calls, we jumped on a bus and traveled further down the street, Its not so simple as jumping in a Taxi as one, the taxi drivers never speak English and I dont know how to say hooters in Chinese and two, taxi drives never stop for us westerners anyway, even if nobody is in and they have their light on.
Finally!! our mission was complete and we could now enjoy Chinese Hooters (Tweeters IMHO)
After plenty of shots and even a few from something local that tasted like Rocket fuel we were ready to explore further.
We ended up stumbling into a German Beer bar in China... and one of our group members (who is 6'4) decided to grab the mic and turn it into karaoke. He belted out hits ranging from ACDC - Highway to hell, You shook me all night long to Robbie Williams - Angel. However once Men at Work - Land down under came on, we all promptly joined in! Look out China, the Aussies are in town
At some stage that night we decided it was time to head back as we had booked a tour of the Great Wall and Ming Tombs the next day...
After some negotiating upfront we were (hopefully) on our way back to the hotel. As it turns out our mini bus only had enough seats for 4 of us, yet we were a group of 5... No problem, our lead singer volunteers for the back section. I must add in at this point it took us 40mins and the driver stopped no less than 4 times to get out the car and have a random conversation with other Chinese people about how to get to the Hilton. Finally one of us recognized a local landmark and we directed our distressed chap to the hotel. He promptly tried to squeeze more money out of us since we took the scenic route home, but we pointed out that it was his fault and only the original money exchanged hands (well after sign language and some commotion)
The next day arrived far to quickly and we were being hurtled into a minibus ready to conquer the great wall and Ming Tombs. In total I think we had about 10 - 11 of us. Our fearless tour guide "Jackie" was a crazy Chinese dude who just never shut up, was full of heaps of laughs and information. His broken English really added to it and made the whole trip a blast. Not to mention when ever we were separated he would stop and start clapping and yelling his name out the top of his lungs for us all to group back up and join him. This method served extremely useful throughout the trip as on other days out exploring (our group mostly stuck together) one of us would start the Jackie chant for everyone else to group up
Tour also included a stop over at a Jade Factory and also a Pottery Factory with lessons on how it was made as well.
Now it was Great Wall Time!!
After climbing a zillion steps I was totally 🤬
I had started all the way down in that car park..
Last stop was a Tea tasting factory
That concluded our Tour and the rest of the trip we just went out after our training for dinner. I ended up scoring in the top 10% and got the "Top Gun" award, of which my boss and IBM were very happy with. So not only was the trip fun from a social and sight seeing side but also very succesful from a business side too.
Many times we went out I was not even sure what I was eating
, but the company and adventure made it all worth while. I will include a few more random pictures of our various nights out. 
We did see a Shaolin Theatre Story thingo which was nice as well
Went to some market
Final night out after we had completed our course. After dinner we returned to the hotel bar and I kicked on till 3am...
And my final drink in China Airport as I awaited my plane out.. had enough money on me to get 2 shots of Vodka and a Rum and Coke
Anyway, was a brilliant time and had a lot of fun rubbing shoulders with IBM bigwigs and seeing some amazing sights and experiences.
Followed it up with 3 days in Melbourne at another IBM software event (this time customer related) and was out till 2am Tuesday and Wednesday night at the Melbourne Crown Casino with work colleagues, customers and IBM.
Awesome last 2 weeks
Full China Album can be found here
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