Two Months in China, A Modern Businessman's Journey

Another pleasant surprise is the invitation I received and mentioned above to a Chinese Lantern Festival Celebration hosted by the local Huaqiao Government honoring foreign businesses who do business here in Huaqiao. It was at the beautiful downtown Hilton/Doubletree hotel (see interior lobby pic with the traditional Chinese Lantern Festival Tree). The affair was catered by the hotel chefs (pictured) and our host was Bettye (the lovely lady with the microphone mentioned elsewhere in this blog) and she put together quite the fantastic celebration. I was shocked to learn that it was also privately billed as a going away party for me. I was really quite embarrassed but I also felt honored.

     When I first arrived, Sam grabbed my camera and said, “Watch this…they’re going to put you on TV.” I said, “NO….surely not!?” But, sho nuff, forward came the TV news reporters and they interviewed me for about 10 minutes asking about our business and how we were enjoying the festival celebration.

     Then, after all the other festivities and we took a group picture (see below), Bettye asked me to come forward. You can see pictures of the PR guy presenting me with a gift. In China the tradition is to give something old and something new and the gift was a handsomely boxed “lucky” stone (the old) and an engraved bronze thumb drive (the new). The box was beautifully engraved with the words, “One bridge-One City” in Chinese. It was a wonderful night, a great celebration and a great going away gesture for me.