Hong Kong Phooey

One of the greatest perks about my job is the travel. Two weeks ago I went to Tokyo; last week Hong Kong; and on Monday, I'm going back down to Hong Kong. Being able to travel all over Asia is really showing me how diverse this continent truly is...and I've only been to three major cities so far. I can't wait to see the rest!

Let me tell you a little bit about Hong Kong and it's lovely inhabitants. Whenever you picture a Chinese landscape or Chinese city, chances are the image that you're drawing in your mind's eye is one that is exactly like Southern China and HK. There are rolling mountains, which were gorgeous from the Airplane, and then tucked into the side of the mountain by the water is a little place I like to call Hong Kong (Everyone else likes to call it that too).

I taveled to Hong Kong to meet with our largest distributer there. I stayed at a 5-star hotel on a mount ainside overlooking the entire city. While I was there, I was able to tour the world's largest wine and cigar cellar. I saw many amazing things: a couple wine bottles that were recovered from the Titanic, five full bottles of wine with labels signed by Thomas Jefferson, three of Lance Armstrong's Tour de France championship bikes, original Monet and Van Gogh paintings. The experience was amazing. Check out my pictures using the link in the sidebar.

Hong Kong to me really seems like more of a western city. Which makes sense because of it's affiliation with the British. You can definitely tell there is still some British influence. One example is that all the buses are double deckers. HK is a lot more like New York City then it is a Chinese city. Only for the fact that everything is much less spread out when compared to Shanghai and Beijing that have to occupy a huge area of land to encompass the 20 million people who live there.

I'll talk more about it when I get back on Tuesday from HK again.

Things Ezra has learned...

1. Chilean people have odd work schedules. They don't show up till about 10:00, go to lunch at around 3 or 4, and work till 8 or 9. It's really messing with my internal clock and metabolism.
2. They speak Cantonese in Hong Kong. Cantonese is an extremely goofy sounding language and it sounds like they're falling off a cliff whenever the end sentences.
3. I leave February 24th to spend 4 weeks in Santiago Chile. I'm going to be the tour guide for my Japanese Distributors from Mitsubishi when they visit for a week. And the other three weeks I'm getting trained on the company's history, how to make wine, how to run a vinyard...etc. etc. etc. You know, the usual stuff. :-)
4. Where to buy the best fireworks in 2 weeks for Chinese new year.......I'm gonna lose a finger, I just knowit. Just kidding mom.......... ....no I'm not. ;-)
5. Our office is relocating to Singapore as soon as I get back from Chile. More on that A-Bomb later.

Love,
Ezra

Tok-YO WHAT'S UP?

So as I said in my last post, I'm going to be doing a lot of traveling, and my first trip was that I spent the last two days in Tokyo.

But let's Back to the Future it and I'll take you back to Monday (Which I wish would be cut outa my life forever.)

I am currently in the process of getting my work Visa, which is a pretty extensive process because China has a lot of i's to be dotted and t's to be crossed. But on Monday, one of the t's that needed to be crossed was my health examination; and lets just say some personal boundry lines were crossed as well. I have to give it to the Chinese Health Examination office, they are extremely efficient in what they do. There was a long hallway with about 20 rooms on both sides. I had to change into a robe in the first room where I was given a sheet of paper with my credentials. Then I was shuffled from room to room straight down the hallway. And each room specialized in one aspect of the health examination. One room took my blood, another urine, one was a chest xray, and so on. They also gave me an eye exam, EKG test (where they strap all these electrodes to you), mouth swab exam, sonogram ( I asked the woman if it was a boy or a girl, then she yelled at me and told me it was my liver). But room 113...that will haunt me for a while. I'm not gonna tell you what they did in there, but let's just say that I wish he would have taken me out to dinner and movie first...or at least had scented candles in the room or something. Well, China knows me "inside and out" now and I hope they appreciate my wine.

On Tuesday I went to Tokyo on business and it was AWESOME! I stayed at the Royal Park Hotel which was amazing. My boss and I then met with some of the Mercian (our distributors in Tokyo) and Mitsubishi business men and had a meeting. It was basically just a meet and greet, but we also talked about our objectives for 2010 which will be to increase sales to 1 million cases this year. Japanese business men are extremely polite and humble and they do the typical bowing all the time. There is also a very formal specific business card ritual that I took place in. They then took us out to lunch after the meeting to an authentic Japanese restaurant. Most authentic Japanese meals are served in a box that has compartments that separate the specific types of sushi, vegetables, and meats. We also had to take off our shoes before entering the room and rather then the table being raised and the chairs slide under... the table is lowered and the chairs are the ones that are stable. The Mercian people gave me an ornamental sake bowl before I left which was extremely nice.

I left later that afternoon back to Shanghai, but not before wandering around a little bit and getting a feel for the city...which is amazing. It's all very clean, everyone is extremely polite, and everybody takes their jobs very seriously. You can tell how business oriented everyone is because nearly everyone I saw was in some sort of black suit. And if they weren't, they were wearing some sort of other black professional outfit. I'm going to Hong Kong next Monday.

Things Ezra has learned....

1. Skip room 113 at the health department.
2. All toilets in Tokyo, even the public ones, have bidet...that caught me off guard the first time.
3. Always hand your business card to someone with two hands, then take about 30 seconds to read it over.
4. Slot machines in Tokyo are all digital, and they dispense marbles instead of coins.
5. Unfortunately, people in Japan are just better looking then the Shanghai people. But I guess that's because there are less of them, and they all dress in Prada
6. I actually held a conversation with a cab driver coming home from the airport and it all made sense...after I told him to stop talking so fast.
7. People should check out my flickr account to see more pictures. The link is on the side.

Love,
Ezra

China: Round 2

It was amazing to be home for those two weeks and to see my friends and family. It was also great to tell some of my more .... interesting stories to people. And while I'm thinking about it...

I'd like to give a shout out to the Chinese Classes at Cumberland Valley High School and the 2nd grade class at Mt. Calvery Christian Acadamy. Hope you guys are enjoying the snow!

Now, back to the reason I started this blog...me! It's been a pretty busy week since I have gotten back. I started my new job for Vina Concha Y Toro. Here is my desk. It was really quite at the office because all of my co-workers are still on holiday back in Chile. Let me give you the spark notes synopsis of this job. The company is Called Concha Y Toro and is the 6 largest wine company in the world. It is the largest in South America by far. We are also the largest supplier of wine from South America to Asia. My official title it Commercial Executive for Asia. Now I know what you might be thinking "Commercial Executive?!?!? Sounds important!!! What the heck does a commercial executive do?!?!?" Well kids, basically, I'm a brand manager. Asia is sooo big and the channels of distribution are so segmented, that it would be nearly impossible for Concha Y Toro to distribute the wine ourselves. So we get other companies to do it for us. That's where I come in. I'm in charge of 11 countries around Asia for about 10 different brands of wine. I have to meet with current distributors from these countries, sign new distributors, create public relation events and advertising campaigns for these distributors to execute in their market, and handle all the paperwork to ensure they are supplied with the proper amount of wine from Chile at the proper times. I also gotta make sure that we get our dough!

There's a lot of work involved, but CYT pays for a lot of the expenses, I'm moving to a nicer apartment in two months, plus I get to travel a lot. So you know what that means...more fun stories for all you readers.

I'm going to Tokyo tomorrow for a couple days to meet with a client and then flying down to Hong Kong next week! I'll make sure to take lots of pictures.

Things Ezra has learned....

1. If someone tells you they're a lady boy....RUN! Don't stick around to ask them what that means. I'll let you google it for yourselves...but make sure you don't google image it...
2. Health examinations for your work visa suck! I'll tell you about that little adventure next post.
3. It doesn't snow in China, just really really cold rain. And I still get wacked in the face by a million umbrellas every time it does. Oh happy day.
4. Spanish Blackberries are confusing...
5. My TV Dating show air on Valentines day and I'm getting a copy... :-)
6. I hate the show Lost. I basically spent the entire weekend watching it and I'm confused, addicted, and depressed. It like the gateway drug of TV shows.
7. Toothpaste is racist. This used to be called "Darkie"

Talk to you soon!

Love,
Ezra