more about Linyi

Linen plant manager. For a privately owned US corporate. Turnover of more that 500M. an opportunity one should think twice about. We did. Linyi is a small city of around 10M citizens in Shandong province (somewhere in the middle between Beijing and Shanghai. The city is 200km straight line from Qingdao – the so called capital of the province. It seemed ridiculously remote to even consider but after several calls with the headquarters representative we found ourselves packing for an over night trip to Linyi – hey – not every day one gets to be flown along with ones wife to an interview J The city is so remote, that the airplanes from Beijing to Linyi take off from a secondary airport (nan yuan) about 15 km south of the forbidden city. 100tmb (rip off!!) and you are there. After an one more hour of flight – we landed in Linyi. A trip that starts ‘fishi’ just gets smellier … We were picked up at the AP straight to the plant. I have to say it is an impressive operation currently employing some 300 employees growing to 500. very sophisticated machinery and the most impressive air-conditioning system I have ever seem (I haven’t seen many…).Another meeting. Refreshing at the hotel. Massage. ‘ni de xin lei’ the guy tells me (your heart is tired. That is a long story for another post. Dinner. More small talk. Going to find what the night life scene in Linyi is all about. It is about dancing. The city square (large) is full with dancing couples. Like Karmiel in the good old days. Found zero bars. Ended up with a beer at the hotel. Morning. Touring the city. Reminds us of Gaza. Another market. Tehini (Chinese style). Hotel. Another shower. Driver to the plant. Last meeting. Delay. Flight back. Another rip-off taxi. We are home. Refreshing Thai dinner. The weather in Beijing is great. Sleeping. Morning. Office. Final decision – the Linyi will be the ‘road not taken’. Next tale: the ‘are you still available in Beijing?’ email. To be continued.