Today I was invited to go with David and Mr. And Mrs. Li for a sightseeing day to Shauhaiguan (the Great Wall). I had previously visited these sites, but it was nice to go back with some locals...plus I was still looking for my Great, Great Wall picture (haha).
We started out in the morning with a brief stop at Qinhuangdao Central Park and square. It sounds like all the cities in China have a town square (i.e. smaller versions of Tiananmen Square in Beijing)....and then made the 1 hour drive to Shauhaiguan.The first thing we did in Shauhaiguan was to tour a bank branch. Mr. Li is a long time banker like myself, and so while this might not be on many people’s top 10 lists of things to do and see in China...it was great for me. We went to the Shaunhaiguan main branch and met the Branch Manager, who toured us around the branch and then gave us tea (which is a very common business practice during the day in China). A Chinese bank branches basically looks a lot like ours. The branch operations also sound similar as well – namely they take in deposits, and then lend out money. This particular branch was probably about the same size as the BMO Medicine Hat Main Branch.
The bank we visited is called ICBC, and is the largest bank in China. Further, they have about 5000 branches across the globe – and therefore also rank as one of the largest banks in the world. Mr. Li (of the college) was in charge of H.R. for ICBC in this area of the country before moving over to head up E&A College’s HR department a couple of years ago (always nice to know people in H.R!!!!). After the tour and tea, Mr. Li of the bank....no kidding, same name, no relation (unless of course Li means Mr. or some other “common term” and every time I went to the bathroom, they laughed at the crazy Canadian who thinks everyone is called Mr. Li) took all of us to lunch at a fairly famous seafood restaurant in the City. I stayed away from the starfish and other strange dishes, but the “normal seafood” part of the meal was just excellent. The two Mr. Li’s and I also split a bottle of Bijou...and it is nice to know it is perfectly acceptable to pound alcohol at mid-day, and not just during the night-time meal! Mr. Li (branch manager) had to go back to work...but the rest of us continued on for a quick tour of the town (including looking at a massive shipyard – which Mr. Li indicated was by far the branches largest client) and on to Old Dragon’s Head and then the “First pass under heaven” portion of the wall.
Even though I had already seen these sites, it is still very easy to be completely overwhelmed by the fact that you are standing on the great wall. I also took a bunch more photo’s (below). It was an awesome day, and again my hosts were terrific. They also got me back to the college in time to go for supper with the other foreign teachers. This worked well as it was technically the last supper (well not THE LAST SUPPER)...but the last supper for this group because people like Morgan, Greg, Chris etc. were all going home for good over the next few days. We went to Mama’s Kitchen, which was very appropriate for me as this is where Miranda and Joan took me for my first meal in China! After the meal, we went to the Tree house for a few drinks, but it had been a long day and so I did not “hang in” for the duration. However, it was nice to see everyone and be able to say my goodbyes.
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