Yantai was great, it's a port city on the Yellow Sea and is an economic development zone and drove past a very large GM plant, Hisense, LG screens and LG appliance factories and the IPhone plant which all look fairly new and modern. Our first stop in Yantai was the China Winery which supplies 3 out of every 4 bottles of wine sold in China. The tour was good and I'll attach some photo's. This part of China is the fruit center and we drove past kilometers and kilometers of apple, grape and nectarine fields.
After the winery we checked into the Seacoast State Hotel which is very new and in an area that is just now being developed and there was only 2 building/hotels with a mile of each other. We were right on the beach but the water was all stirred up due to the Typhoon passing through yesterday. After we checked in it was lunch time and did we ever EAT. The chef is definitely 5 star quality and was definitely and improvement over the buffet at the Prince in Tsingtao.
Lunch was hosted by the Chairman of Shandong Aviation and the former party chairman for Shandong province. He is 68 yrs. old going strong telling us about his current and future plans for Shandong Aviation and the Yantai area.
The Chairman spent the remainder of the day with us as we toured winery and the beach area he is developing for tourism. The beaches are great but we all noticed only men were wearing swimsuits and going in the water with all the women standing on the beach watching. I asked our translator WeiWei and she said it was just modest Chinese thing.
After the beach it was back to the hotel and we were asked to stay on the bus while the Chairman got off first to meet the local party chairman and left for a private meeting.
I have to mention dinner as even though the chairman wasn't present he sponsored our meal and it was absolutely fantastic along with an incredible amount of food, we stopped counting at 9 courses with Peking duck as the 3rd to last item. It was hilarious as we had a very large lunch and then dinner started and food just kept being served and being served and being served. After passing 9 courses it was just funny and the party vice chairwoman from Shandong Province was even laughing with us as we were in awe of the amount of food coming out and wondering where we would put it. I have to say our Canadian escort and really put it away. We kept encouraging the cades to try everything and some things such as the duck, dumplings and noodles were considered insults if you didn't eat it. One UK cadet who can't be 135lbs soaking wet was moaning and telling us how he couldn't eat anymore and noticed he would put food in his mouth and pushing it down with his chopsticks LOLOL.
Left Yantai this morning for an hour ride to Penglou and visit the 1000 year old port and Buddhist temple. It's Sunday and day off for most all Chinese so EVERYONE was there. Check out the pictures as there's never a pic with just our group in it.
After the temple it was over to the only winery in China that is designed Chinese style and not European. We met the local Party chairman/Mayor who hosted us in the international pavilion which is used for state dinners and formal receptions.
All the cadets now understand the importance of cultural exchange as the meal and event was in state dinner format with formal toasts, introductions and following protocol. They all mentioned how great it was. See the pics for the dinner and formal center it was held at.
Back on the bus and on to Bingou (bin joe). A 4 hr. ride with a stop in the middle in Winghai which is the home to Chinese kite making. I'll mention our bus driver and driving in China in another post but let me just say it is hilarious, scary, interesting and Chinese have the horn button permanently attached to their hands when driving.
We arrived at Bingou education center with 20 minutes to spare and the local aviation high school cadets formally met the bus and saluted as we exited the golden dragon. We each have a Chinese aviation cadet assigned to us as a shadow and asked that the escort shadows be cancelled so they could spend time with our cadets.
After a quick change it was back at another formal dinner. They refer to us as the IACE delegation and after introductions of each party and education minister it was our turn to introduce each and every one of us and always starting with us, the American Delegation. Tonight's dinner was only 8 courses but we had breaks all the way through as we had the Chinese make the rounds doing toasts and then it was our turn to do the same. It is custom and considered rude if you don't go to the head sponsor and toast them and then each and every other person in the room and all done in seniority or importance order. Don't get the order wrong or you could cause and issue.
After dinner it was time for a walk with 3 other escorts as the Hong Kong escort usually goes with the cadets. Bingou is famous for many thing but one is the 100% scale model of the USS Enterprise aircraft carrier made out of concrete, yes concrete. We walked over there and of course it's lit up with incredible LED lights.
Finished the walk and now that we are basically half way through the trip it was time to do laundry. . .in our hotel room sinks and right now we have socks and shirts hanging everywhere in our room. I should mention I am now rooming with the UK escort as we rotated roommates for this stop. It is hot and steamy out so clothes get smelly rapidly and we were informed on day one that there would be no laundry available to us so in the hotel sink it goes.
Time to call it a day.
Major Deeds
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