One Who Moved Out to Get Rich

It is now time for breakfast. I will have to take "

yan wo

", an expensive traditional Chinese medicine. It is translated in "swallow nest". The drug is a product of dried mucus of birds. Before taking it, you must mix it with hot water. Uuuuhhh!! I can guess that you are thinking what I am thinking, but as the saying goes, "good medicine does not always taste good". It is not cheap to buy either.

Taobao, the most prominent Chinese online auction shop sells five grams for just under one hundred and ninety RMB. That is around twenty-five euros according to the current exchange. What I am not sure about is its curative capability.

From the neighbourhood, I can hear the roar of loud music. In this neighbourhood, everybody knows everybody, where most of the residents are pensioners living amicably and peacefully together. As a child Hong lived here for many years. She is known to everybody here. At breakfast table, we discuss many things. Our conversation is mainly about the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO), at Microsoft. He is an Indian. Chinese believe that Indians have conquered Silicon Valley. The way things are unfolding, it is one thing after another. The purchase of nine robot companies by Google, robots and the speed at which they are taking over human resources, and many others. Hong said that soon we are going to see robots cooking, or even taking care of children, we already know that they can do cleaning work. When it came to discussing robots "looking after children", I reserved my words, for fear of being misunderstood by in-laws. They consider grandchildren as unique gifts from God, and therefore their care should not be equated to anything other than the unconditional love of their grandparents.

I was not surprised about how precious, and unique grandparents take their grandchildren to be, because Hong, as a child, was deeply loved by her grandparents. Li Gengnan was in the military according to reliable sources. It was on a one-month leave, when he got married to Wu Meilan who conceived, later giving birth to Hong.

Hong owes her life to the then Chinese party leader Mao Zedong, who stopped the invasion to Taiwan. He called for the end of the war, apparently saving Hong's grandfather from fighting and so he could take care raising Hongś mother.

Li Gengnan had to go to Russian border to prepare for fighting, but this war was stopped as well, shortly before his marriage to Wu Meilan. He was on the border with Russia. They were on the verge of war. To their surprise and relief, the conflict was settled through negotiations, and so the fighting did not take place. The one-child policy in China that prevented Hong from having siblings, is now being swept under the carpet because it is relaxed a little bit. The fact that girls are not necessarily on the procreation wish list is deeply rooted in Chinese culture and tradition. In Germany whereas a woman's name can be assumed as a surname, in China, only men that can use surnames. Traditionally girls have no inheritance rights.

It is boys who get the assets, but the tradition is slowly fading out.

With all this knowledge, I am grateful to my in-laws, for embracing modern efforts to fight for gender equality

On the last day of our holiday, we drove back to Taicang. We stopped at a local bank in Suzhou, to open a fixed-rate deposit account, to transfer my salary from ICBC Bank aiming at earning a reasonable interest rate. Because of the bureaucracy of the Chinese banks, there are several forms I must sign in Chinese language to confirm that I have taken note of the final print. Cash withdrawals from other Chinese banks with foreign names, cannot easily be made from that bank. The machines were designed differenty. It was better to withdrawal cash from the bank next door which were compatible with various features, and then deposit cash in this one.

Oh God! I said to myself, this is too complicated, I remember doing this twenty years ago.

“At that time, online banking was not yet operational. Hasn't the world changed here?”

Hong said that withdrawing cash from one bank and deposit it into another was possible, if it could help you save on transfer cost and avoid bureaucracy. By the time we did all that, it was three o'clock in the afternoon, no bank was open, so I did not have a chance. I thought of using a cash machine, but with ATM, the maximum amount you could withdraw is RMB 20,000, the equivalent of 2,750 Euros, on the exchange rate of the day. So, I rightly abandoned the idea. I then opted to use online money transfer.

The problem is that in China, all online transactions go through the Bank of China in Beijing. Hong looked at me and wondered why I wanted to transfer the money in a hurry.

"Tomorrow is the first official working day after the New Year, what is it that cannot wait till tomorrow?" she asked, shaking her head in disbelief.

It was still cold outside. We had nothing to eat except for the hard Chinese kiwis that were given to us by Hong's parents. We decided to go to a Chinese barbeque restaurant. Such restaurants are often crowded, making it hard to get a place where to seat. We had to wait. I needed to use a toilet, when I went there, I met a man who told me that he had come from Australia, specifically for this Chinese New Year celebrations.

I grabbed a raw fish to put it on the grill plate. As soon as I did that, Hong hurriedly pulled the fish out of my hand; she believes that women were the masters at this work.

"You don't know anything. What men can do is to eat, sleep, and snore, no more," she grumbles provocatively. I look at her thinking of what she had just said about men not being masters at cooking when she knows full-well that at home, her father is always in the kitchen. I murmured without finishing the sentence.

"A fish in the morning dispels sorrow and worries, but a fish in the evening..."

Oh goodness me, I did not know that Hong had heard what I said.

She retorts inaudibly, grabs a small piece of paper, writes something and passes the note over to me, it read.

"Yaaa right… when the time comes, sleep well."

I read the note and wondered why she should have written that, but she looks less bothered, for her, it was business as usual. It was now time to pay. I pulled out my bank card, entered a PIN, protecting my details with a palm of my hand.

"Let them see the PIN, why are you hiding it?", she rebuked.

"Well, I am sure you know that banks always advise us to protect our details to deter probable fraud, forgery and the like. When the waitress gets hold of my PIN, for example, the next thing you know is my account being emptied", I replied.

It at all it happened, by the way, it would be a big problem for me. Since I do not have an online account yet, it would take me time to sort it out. In Germany it is different because the option of changing bank details online is always available.

“Anyway, it is time to let go of the talk of banks and online accounts, let us enjoy our food”, I said to Hong.

After eating, we continued our journey home.

When we arrive home, the apartment is dead quiet. Before we left, Hong had turned off the air conditioning system. I wondered whether that was a smart move. I thought it would have been a sensible thing to keep the heating on before we left since it was a cold season. As if she knew what I was thinking about, she replied that it would have been much expensive to leave the heating on.

Hong reasons that it is better to succumb to the first few minutes of the cold while the heat was gaining momentum, than paying vast amounts of money in gas bills.

“You can still learn a lot about savings from us the Chinese”, she retorted.

“In China, everybody is a saver; even hot sewage sells for recycling. It can be ordered directly from factories such as steel mills.

They use them as water coolers for their machines”, she explained to me that even hot water could sell to the public, for bathing, washing, and many other benefits.

It could be true though because I observed that this scheme is cheaper, affordable and profitable too, for the end-user. However, what I am sceptical and doubtful about is the health and safety of this brackish water, which I have used many times in China. I wonder whether it is not radioactive. As I am still thinking about savings, Hong proposes that if I wanted to save money, I would turn off the heating, and put on warm clothes instead.

I spared myself the burden of arguing about saving money.

Women would always have the last say anyway, especially in China.

The mentalities between East and West are too different. Yes, I would love to save money, also, but not at the expense of our health.

The first night on returning home from the New Year's celebrations, we could not sleep because of the heartburn. Was it because we overate food or too much glutamate?

On the second day it rained cats and dogs. Unfortunately, on my side, I had no choice but to dare the torrential rain to go to transfer the money, as my wife had advised me. Hong picked up the driver, he sat on the steering wheel, and we set off to town. We arrived at the bank just in time. It was still early in the morning; we did not have to join long queues in the bank. We picked up two large bundles of banknotes and went to deposit them in the other bank.

Were the counting machines on holiday too! They were not working correctly. The bank employee in the counter had to count the notes manually. It was followed by many papers that I had to fill and sign before depositing the money, here China is the same as Germany.

When it comes to interest rates for new customers, today's rates are a little bit higher than in recent days.

After coming from the bank, Hong quickly prepared herself to go to the Thai Embassy in Shanghai, to apply for a visa for our joint holiday. I do not need a permit. As a German citizen, I can go in and out of Thailand, as many times as I want, if I have a valid return ticket on entry. The visa offices are closing at half-past twelve; we have less time left, so Hong must hurry up before they close. I go to office and driver and Hong go on.

I arrive at the office at half-past eleven in the morning. It is on the twenty-second floor; it is cold. I am told by my colleagues in the office, that the central heating system in the entire building was still switched off, and that the canteen on the fifth floor down, is also still closed. It could not make sense to me. What is the point of paying rent then? Are our landlords only interested in collecting rent to save operational costs, instead of providing better services to their tenants!

Most employees here are not going back to work, until the following week on Monday, others maybe a little bit later than that.

My American boss is also present in the office. We are discussing the budget and other cutting-costs measures. At noon we go to the restaurant next door with my American boss, he pays for our meals, typical of him. I like his way of doing things. That evening around six o’clock, I have to attend a meeting with my employee Dr. Zhang, to discuss company issues in order to fullfill orders from our headquarters in Germany.

After the meeting with Dr. Zhang, I head home. I inform Hong about the lunch we had at the restaurant with my business friends. I say to her how my friends laughed at me because I usually use Skye and emails to communicate. They accused me of being “out-dated and backward”, in a modern world where people use WeChat or WhatsApp. Hong has both on her phone, the Chinese WeChat, and the Western WhatsApp.

“The problem with you is that you are always too busy to take care of yourself, do you know that many companies now cannot do business without WhatsApp?”, she asks.

Without dragging the topic farther, I promise, I will change into a modern man.

Hong tells the driver about the small accident where she crashed into a dog, that escaped with no injuries, and how the car got a small dent. The driver advises her to contact our insurance company, to cater for that minor damage because the leasing company would not pay after all. We have to wait until the end of the week and initiate a accident which will be reported to the police.

In the West, according to our calendar, the week starts on Sunday.

In China, it is different, because to them the days of the week are counted from Monday to Saturday. So, Monday is day 1, Tuesday is day 2, and so on. In China, Sunday has two names, Sunny Day, and Sky Day. Travelling is learning. Whenever and wherever you travel, will undoubtedly learn about many new things.

Today is a working day because it automatically compensates for the additional holidays that we took during the New Year. Even though this is the case, many people are not yet fully back to work, which is common during such periods. I have to work hard to get the backlog out of the way because today I want to go home earlier than usual.

When I arrive home, Hong is in the shower braving the cold water; I become frustrated when I think about the meaning of saving, that makes a person have a cold bath, in this weather! I feel pity for Hong. While we are having dinner, Hong told me that she did not have lunch, because there was plenty of work to do.

I look at her, thinking about the proverbial saying, "all work and no play, made Jack a dull boy".

"Bytheway there is no drinking water left", she adds, while gulping a glass of water. I nod signalling that I got it. After dinner, I quickly ran to the supermarket to buy a few bottles of water.

After coming back from the supermarket, I sat down on the sofa and watched the movie "Bourne Identity". I am a fun of films because they take the stress off me, after a busy day at work. When watching the movie, I realise what the American secret service has been doing all the time; the Chinese had done it much earlier if not longer. I remember that twenty years ago when I first came to China, all cars and hotel room would be bugged, and telephone conversations intercepted. All accommodation employees, all drivers to mention a few, were "undercover agents". That time the Chinese were more suspicious of Western foreigners than today.

Have they completely abandoned their secretive spying missions, given up, or are doing it even more than before? I have no answer for that.

It was getting cold. I decide to pour the rest of my Chinese rice wine in a saucepan and warm it a little bit. Since this wine is yellow, it is also called "Yellow Wine" in China. You can also get rice wine in Japan. It is called Sake, and in Korea, they call it Magoli, but the difference is that amongst other countries, the wine is colourless, not yellow as it is the case in China.

After warming the wine, I grabbed a glass, poured it in and headed for my private office on the third floor of our house. Before I could even warm my seat, Hong came running in the office shouting.

"The whole house is smelling of yellow wine, have you vomited?" she asked, blowing her nose with her right palm.

Still holding the glass in m hand, I answered. "No, I just warmed it because it was too cold".

"Ya right, you just warmed it because it was too cold, do you then have to suck the whole bottle?" she interjected before I even finished the sentence.

"Calm down Hong, it is not a bottle; it is only a glass" I answered, trying to calm her moods down.

"Do you know what is going to happen now?" she asked.

"No, I don't" I answered back.

"Your sperm is now going to get drunk; then it will start swimming aimlessly drunk without hitting the target, this is why children are born drunk from drunkard fathers like you," she said dejectedly.

Hong is a woman who always has something to say about everything. When it comes to having or not having children, Hong is a very fickle minded person. What does she want? Children or not? Is it because of the alcohol in the rice wine, or is it whatever she said was smelling in the house, what makes her so upset? I cannot tell. Whatever the reason could be for her mood swings, I think there is more alcohol in Brandy that than in a rice wine.

While still thinking about Hong’s behaviour, she calls me to go to her office, one floor down. My heart pumps rapidly, thinking about what she was going to complain about next. I am wrong; it is entirely about a different topic. It is about a property for sale in Taicang, very close to our neighbourhood. Like in Germany, assets whose owner become insolvent, are advertised and sold by the banks to recover part of their money, or the whole of it sometimes charging interest on them. I browse through the advert and tell her that the property is too expensive. The court and the bank want to make more money, on top of what they are supposed to. Hong is quick to add before I could even finish the sentence that from her experience, the price in the advert is negotiable. I agree and propose to go and visit the property.

I am astounded to learn that the down payment as the deposit was a whooping 300,000 RMB, the equivalent of 40,500 euros of the then exchange rate. I was, however, not too much in agreement with such craftily designed adverts only meant to lure people into spending. I showed Hong part of the advert reading as follows in small print, “getting your money back later”. I warn that paying the money is one thing and getting it back as quickly as the writing seems to suggest was another thing. If those banks and other financial institutions got the money, they would twist languages using all technical words to protect their side. Hong agreed.

“You are right; it is like giving a piece of meat to a dog and expect it to return to you easily”, she says.

It is a snowy Sunday morning; Hong is still sleeping. So, I have to go jogging alone. I call my driver to go to the nearest police station, to record a statement about the accident that Hong was involved in with a dog. That way, she could go to the insurance company to fill a claim form. The driver does exactly that. I later give him a gift to thank him. That gift had been given to me by my bank two days ago, thanking me for being a loyal customer.

Everything is running smoothly. I clean up my office, sort out the paperwork and shred the ones that I did not need. Hong is busy on her laptop sitting opposite me. She always reminds me of thoroughly checking every piece of paper before I shred them. I wondered! One time she is complaining about savings, another time about stuffing the house with smelly wines, and now I should be careful with what I do and do not shred. Is this not going too far, is she not one of those typical control freaks? I asked myself.

After dinner, I grab a phone and call Daniel in Germany, and Hong calls her mother. We go to bed early. My water bottle is already full to comfort me in bed since it is cold.

On Wednesday, Hong had to travel to Suzhou to attend a monthly DUSA meeting, to meet acquaintances and her work colleagues, and to exchange news and ideas. DUSA is European Business Association, founded twelve years ago by many Germany companies to facilitate the initiation of business in China through information, workshops, and training courses for small and medium-sized German companies.

In addition to her work at the university, Hong is a freelance lawyer in her law firm in Suzhou. One of the benefits is her membership card that allows her free parking, of which she takes advantage. Later, that day, I take a flight from Shanghai Hongqiao Inland Airport, to visit a supplier in Qingdao, in Shandong province about five hundred kilometres away. The business trip is supposed to last for two days. I promise Hong that I would be right back, after the tour.

As usual, when going on such trips, my colleague, a Chinese buyer and I, are picked up from the airport in a limousine, to be taken to the supplier’s factory outside the city. Being a Hi-Tech field, we had to do everything thing in its precise measurement and standard.

I am, however, dismayed to find out that the plate we commissioned, is much thicker than that of the competition. I also complain about the drawing, not being suitable for turning parts.

My colleagues point out that it is due to the standardisation efforts of the company. I however believe that losing material cost-share is much higher than any savings on standardisation. I also note that the rotary part produces long chips, and with the new material, a worker would be removing the waste every too often. Otherwise, they would wrap around the chisels, which would later be dangerous.

My buyer also tells me that their measurements for specifications come from the headquarters that Chinese designers have no permission to anything to change the specifications. I turned a blind eye on this type of “copy and paste” procedure. I wondered why the buyer would have an interest in protecting the supplier other than myself! I realise that he did not want to tarnish his name and the relationship of a company. He have which he had built it years, and that he wants to have a pleasant working life, without any stress.

After the business meeting, we are invited to dinner by the supplier. We sit at a round table in the pre-ordered and preheated adjoining room of a traditional restaurant. I order warm yellow rice with less alcoholic content than red wine or brandy. It keeps the mind flowing and has no hangover side effect. Its warmth is pleasant in a cold season. I call the waiter, give her a camera to take a memorable group photo of all of us at the dinner table. I return to my hotel room after dinner, still with heartburn until the morning after. I later realised that the previous night's dinner had contained a lot of artificial flavours and enhancers, which are always the cause of my heartburn. When I am having breakfast with my colleagues in the morning, I tell them about my heartburn. One of them replys confidently. "Glutamate is a Chinese tradition; it does not cause problems to us, our bodies have had it for centuries, yours is not yet".

The weather is cold. Chinese drivers keep their car engines running to warm up interior space, for the guests and for them not

to freeze. I am opposed to that though because in my view, it only adds to high levels of pollution. No wonder the levels are too high in the country. Everyone thinks about him or herself, but not the environment. They just talk about finding solutions, no one seems to care. It is business as usual.

After breakfast, we go to a sub-supplier where I record data from the plate's manufacturing process and discuss cost-cutting ideas. On the way back, we talk a lot about the cultural differences between the East and the West. None of us seem to understand the other.

"I know of many German companies that are not bothered about negotiating, that is why they make losses in China", remarked my buyer.

"That is true by the way, probably, because they lack the necessary know-how, about the way business, is done in China". I answered.

I returned to my hotel room still with heartburn problems. I later realised that the previous night's dinner had contained a lot of artificial flavours and enhancers.

When taking breakfast with my colleagues in the morning, I told them about my heartburn. "Glutamate is a Chinese tradition; it does not cause problems to us; our bodies are used to it for centuries; yours is not yet". One of them said confidently.

The weather was cold. Chinese drivers keep engines of their cars warming, for the guests and indeed for them not to freeze. I am opposed to this because in my view it only adds to high levels of pollution n the country. No wonder there are high levels of pollution in the country. Everyone seems to be thinking only about themselves, but not the environment. They say a lot about finding solutions; no

one seems to care; it is like business as usual. After breakfast, we went to a sub-supplier where I record down data from the plate's manufacturing process and discuss cost-cutting ideas. That afternoon while going back to the airport, we talked a lot about the cultural differences between the East and the West, about which none of us seemed to understand the other.