——————————————————————————————————————Day 4, Friday the 28th, began with a visit to the vinyl glove factory. Here, long chains of ceramic hand molds, thousands of them, move along a track, slowly dipping into a pool of liquid vinyl resin, then slowing extracting. They travel through a dryer before the gloves get stripped from the hand molds by hand. The rest of the work of conditioning in tumble dryers, assembling counts into packages, shrink wrapping or boxing, building pallets of product for shipment, is piecework done by hand. We had time in the car to hear Bob discuss various manufacturing process elements of vinyl glove production with a focus on some key practices that affect glove quality. There are various product standards available from various regulatory bodies, be it ISO, the FDA, perhaps a standard adopted by the Chinese government, perhaps ANSI, that can be used to measure product quality. It would seem prudent to incorporate reference to an appropriate set of standards in any production agreement, and probably also make some paper or electronic reporting structures for ongoing monitoring of product performance to the agreed-upon standards. This would be a good web application.
The weather was perfect today, probably in the low 70’s. Melanie had lost her glasses and was able to get a new pair including the eye exam in about an hour at a local shopping mall. Mrs. Huang facilitated, the boys drank tea during the exam, then we cruised the mall while the glasses were set up. Melanie and Mrs. Huang did some shopping, Mrs. Huang did the bargaining, Henry took it all in. Bob and I put some work into solving the worlds problems. I really enjoyed our talk about geopolitical events and various technologies. We stopped at a mall music kiosk, cheap instruments, and checked out an Er Hu – a two-stringed bowed instrument used extensively in Chinese music. After hearing and seeing it, you realize that you’ve been hearing it for years. The strings are steel and the sound comes out of a resonator box that rests in the lap. The musician who ran the store was sure I’d make a good Er Hu player. Maybe some day.
Bob and Mrs. Huang then took us to dinner at the Little Sheep, a restaurant chain here that would be a great franchise in America. They called it the Little Fat Sheep. You sit around a table with a hot plate built into the center. A large steel soup bowl with a divider that makes a Ying Yang shape through the center is placed on the plate. It has a soup base with some key spice vegetables, garlic, ginger, hot peppers, already added. One side is hot spice, the other not. There are enough strainers so that everyone at the table can use one at the same time. The strainers are supposed to remain on either the hot side or the cold side, but being slightly dyslexic, I screwed this up multiple times. Anyway, beautiful plates of thin sliced lamb rolls come in and you put pieces into the boiling soup, then use the strainer to transfer them to your eating bowl after cooking for probably less than a minute. The mutton is tender and exquisite. We also threw dumplings into the pot, fresh leafy greens, fresh kelp strips, Chinese cabbage, parsnips, and then we could use a little cilantro in our bowls to finish things off. Good beer, sweet tea for the non drinkers. We ate in a private room and the hot pot was on fast boil the whole time. I was dripping from sweat, totally anointed in the experience. What a meal.
We sat for a few tunes back at our hotel lobby from a jazz combo playing the basic American standards and had a drink before retiring. They sounded like students and the swing was fairly mechanical, but they were definitely working. Everyone here has been over-the-top gracious. It’s hard to imagine a nicer people. And Xiamen is a really happening city.
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