Day two in China and all is going well. We got through the first day of formal meetings, and the mood is getting more fun. The formality is moving to familiarity, and with it, frank honesty.
Earlier we had gone on a city tour, which included a stop in the tea district. A few in our group were shopping; I was not. I was along for the ride. We traveled at as a group to some of the stores. Or more like a mob. I hung back, usually outside the store. One of our local Chinese sales reps, Louis, said to me "hummm, many faces bad for prices". And he was right. Too many people crowding the store would make the shop owner not as eager to bargain. Otherwise, everyone else might want the same deal, too. Lewis is an interesting guy. He doesn't speak much English, but you can tell he is a good sales rep. Our crowd thinned out and one of the shoppers was able to get the deal he wanted. As we went back to the bus, I tried to start up a conversation with Lewis. I mentioned he was right about the number of faces hurting the bargaining process."Yeah, yeah - many faces bad for bargain", he said, and then looking at me (the only American in the group), "especially yours." Honesty at it's finest.
We went to dinner last night with the China team at a very nice restaurant. It was in a building which appeared to be quite old, which is in stark contrast to the rest of Shanghai. I found out from our hosts that this used to be the home of a general. "That is, he was a general up until 1949 (when the commies took over driving the nationalist out)" he explained "now this place is a beautiful restaurant". It was interesting honesty: It wasn't a bad thing, or a good thing. It was just a thing. No more needed to be said.
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