Hey Guys,
First post, nice forum, good info
I just returned from a business trip to China, I am a product developer and get most my products made there and this was my first visit to the factories where I outsource production. We have a fulltime Chinese employee who deals with the day to day stuff.
I tried to read up as much about Chinese culture as possible before going and for the most part I think things went well, my only advice on the business part would be that the Chinese do not wear suits! It's so damned hot and humid (well, for a Brit at least!) and I was severely overdressed and drenched with sweat! Next time I go it will be polo shirts and slack trousers.
Well anyway, enough about business! I live about 4 hours from the London airports, and the flight to Hong Kong takes about 12 hours, so by the time I got there my timezone was completely screwed, and I had to get from HK to Shenzhen which should have been simple but turned out not to be. By the time I got to the hotel it was about 11pm and I thought the only sensible thing to do was to grab some beers!
I only walked a block away from the hotel I was staying in to try and minimise getting lost on the way back, found a nice Irish bar which had some good beers on tap. Got chatting to some very friendly American guys at the bar and before I knew it the bar was closing it and it about 4am. I stumbled out of the bar and walked in the general direction of my hotel, so I thought, I was walking for ages and stuff looked the same, I was sure I'd gone past some of the stuff already, I saw a couple of girls walking a dog and I asked them if they spoke English, which they did, and so I asked if they knew which way my hotel was, very friendly they were, offered to walk me home.
I don't really remember the journey but I do remember them walking me into some dark alley, they opened a door into a small bar where all the lights had been off, the one with the dog jumped behind the bar and switched everything on and offered me a drink. Well, why not thought, I didn't know where I was or how to get to where I wanted to be, beer seemed like a logical solution.
Quite suddenly 6 women appeared from somewhere! I turned to the barmaid and tried to explain that I was just a nieve businessman, and it had not been my intention to visit any house of ill repute, but their hands were everywhere. I asked the barmaid and asked her to make them stop, said lets have a drink instead. Anyway they all drank with me, I probably had 4 beers the whole time I was there, I was already past my normal limit, but those girls were knocking back the Gin 'n' Tonics!
Anyway I did eventually convince the barmaid to take me to the hotel (I must have, because I woke up there in my bed and I have no idea how I got there) the last thing I remember was the barmaid taking me to the cashpoint to pay the drinks bill, somehow I'd spent $400! It would have been cheaper to take them up on the services they'd clearly had in mind, but I have my own morals about that sort of thing so it wasn't going to happen.
Chalk it up to experience I guess! They next night when I went out for a beer it was so obvious, there was a street of these places on my way into the town, and there was the place I'd been - "Happy Bar". Damn, I felt dumb right then.
But nothing bad happened at least, and I've had more expensive nights out with 1 women so I guess I shouldn't worry too much
I actually really enjoyed it, can't wait to go back, now I'm a little wiser
