Qingdao revisited

Last week, I had three days of meetings in Qingdao, a large port in Shandong Province. It was an opportunity to stay at the Shangri-La Hotel, always a pleasure. The temperature was cool the night I walked around the hotel, on large modern avenues, and the thick fog chilled me to the bone.


A strangely shaped red building (looking a bit like a top) stood in the night near the waterfront.


I mentioned how much I had liked a foot massage on my last trip to Qingdao. Our local office hosted a visit to a place reputed to be the best in town. No large room was available, so our group had to split. A colleague from Singapore and I found ourselves sitting in deep cushioned armchairs and these two young women worked on us for a good hour.



They were in their early twenties and really skilled at what they were doing, but the most extraordinary thing was their genuine mirth as they were joking with us (fortunately my colleague could speak Chinese, so we could have a rudimentary conversation). They were happy, giggling at us and merry. I found it extraordinary that they could display so much enthusiasm at doing this lowly task, that they could still love what they were doing after massaging so many feet. I had noticed the same thing when I had my first foot massage experience two and a half years ago in Qingdao. After such a satisfying experience, I wanted to tip the girl, but was told by our local people that no tips were allowed and that none would be accepted.

This is the great strength of the Chinese people: their spirit, their sincerity, their hard work. I could see it displayed also, but in a different way, in the high ranking officials of the Port Group with whom we had meetings earlier. They had the same conviction, dedication and energy. But, in them, it was a bit upsetting, for it betrayed a desire for supremacy, and a highly political motivation.

They showed us a movie about their port, which has grown enormously over the last few years. The English voice-over sounded like propaganda: over images of workers marching in military formation, it said that the port was working very hard to build socialism. Then the chairman gave us a harangue, comparing the inefficiency of US ports compared to Chinese ports, in particular Qingdao, quoting numbers of employees compared to throughputs at the ports.

This was a reminder that government-owned enterprises in China (always led by high ranking Communist Party members) have a political purpose as much as a commercial one. This, coupled with the remarkable drive of the company leaders and the discipline and eagerness of the workers (exemplified by the two young women at the foot massage place) makes a very powerful and scary combination.