Chinese business culture

Hey, hey!

During the last couple of months we have traveled to a few places around China. In December we went together with Sam's family to Harbin where they organize an annual ice festival. In April my dear parents and brother joined us to Xi'an to see the Terracotta warriors. And then we have done some more sightseeing around Beijing (incl. the Great Wall a couple of times) and to Shanghai with my friend Magnus. All this has been for leisure.

Earlier this week I went for my first business trip outside the big modern cities. We went to a rural area called Luzhou in Sichuan province. As usual, everything was much bigger than one would first imagine. This "small town" had a city centre with almost half a million people, far bigger than many of the "big" Swedish cities. All in all, including the surrounding villages, 5 million people lived in this area. We visited some of the more rural areas.

What was new to me, at least to this extent, was the Chinese business culture and relationship building. We met with local government authorities, including the mayor. They all showed big hospitality. Hospitality here meant that they took us around and treated us for meals. An important part of these meals, whether it was lunch or dinner, was the never-ending toasting with the locally produced Luzhou lao jiao - a spirits brand famous nationwide.

For one of the dinners, they took us to a supposedly very good Sichuan (= super spicy) fish restaurant along the river. They ordered fish dishes of all kinds. The fish was from the river. I usually have no problem in trying new kinds of food. However, I knew that the river was extremely polluted. I did not eat too much more than vegetables, and I only took a sip of the drink when they emptied the glass. Every other minute they had a reason to toast. In addition, the conversation was all in Chinese. Not an easy situation...

Luckily my colleague managed it all very well. And I had a chance to speak a bit of Chinese. All in all a good experience, even though I would not like to go back too soon again, hehee. Hopefully we set the foundation for a successful project.

Bye, bye!