Where is Chang Ping ?

Chang Ping town, Dongguan City, GuangDong province, SW China.
Google Earth it: 22 56' 18.60" N 113 59' 35.80" E.
"Little Hong Kong" first major train station stop after leaving Kowloon station.
A lot of Hong Kong'ers come here for a weekend getaway and Golf.
Good central location to most of the towns in the Dongguan city area.
Shenzhen and Dongguan city centers are about an 1hr drive.


Local night markets, no tourists here.

Local fast food:

SCUBA in Hawaii 水肺 夏威夷

Robin and Heather are having a great time in Hawaii.
Staying in Poipu on Kauai's south shore.
水肺 Shui(3) Fei(4) Water Lungs. 夏威夷 Xia(4) Wei(1) yi(2)
Last night they had some "weather" go through, so that made for big surf and lots of chop. Despite the ruff seas, Robin headed out on a small dive boat and manged to enjoyed her dive. Heather passed on the boat trip as snorkeling was out of the question, the seas were just to high to enjoy it.

Tea & Cigarettes 茶 和 抽菸

Smoking cigarettes 抽煙 (Chou Yan) is just part of life here in China.
No special considerations to non smokers. As many socialize around the tea tables, smoking is no big deal.
It is nice to enjoy tea without sucking up the after burn, and to be fair, if you object, most will oblige and blow their smoke in the other direction.

Typical set up in a local tea and wine shop, one of 11, in back of the Hua Hua, not counting the one on the ground floor, all within a 5min walk.
Note the two ashtrays and cigarette pack on the table.

Getting up to date Tables - Sim and Friends

Tuesday morning: 星期二 朝.
Replacement Laptop arrived.. all is well (Thx Anna)
Got back online and ground through 3 days of e-mails.
This with the help of a few pots of High mountain Oolong and Pu-erh.
Quantity and Quality, hard combination to top.
The new DCDC input cable.. got the first shots off the tool and send back to states.
About 1 week to get mechanical assemblies for packaging samples.

Matt is a little under the weather .. there is a bug going around. Probably the "Western Flu"
Or PSS, Post Saki Syndrome ?? (see Monday pictures, you be the judge)

One of my friends asked about getting a carved Chinese tea table .. this is just a small sampling at one tea shop in Shenzhen .. (pictures from previous trip)
Just a small sampling:
Woods of all types, colours, sizes and designs:

Nice one, Dragon and Phoenix .. Male-Female twins, Andrew and Heather. My personal taste is more towards the minimalistic, but I could live with this one (as a back-up)
And just how do they get them on the lorry ?.. this is China ...
Next trick is to get off the lorry, up the stairs to your 3rd. floor office.

Monday, 星期一 March 12th.  Dongguan city all day. Met with Sim at his factory.

Final mould fitting before first shots:

Later we went into the city for dinner at his friends Japanese restaurant. As you can see we had enough food to feed a small army.

Sim and his long time friend:
Three Hong Kong boys having fun:
Matt and Sim as they reach the point of no return:
Stopped by to see Mrs. Yang at the tea shop, she is a real treasure, I got a set of beautiful wooden bowls from her friend at wholesale cost.

Yu Xin, Tea plantation in Fujian with tea shops in Dongguan
On the 2nd Floor of the Wal-Mart center in Dongguan City: (now moved)

Plenty of competition .. 3 more tea companies, 5 shops, all next to one and other.

It's almost scary the number of tea shops in Guandong .. each city-town has, literally, hundreds.


Sunday, 星期天 , March 11th.Movie review day; lazy day, overcast and in need of some down time.
Pierrepoint: Very good movie, well worth watching.
Interesting subject for a movie .. the cast of Characters, some of whom I can relate to, was right on the money .
Albert Pierrepoint (Timothy Spall, good actor, totally believable) was the third hangman in his family, following in the footsteps of his father and uncle, both of whom had been official British executioners. Movie provides interesting insight to a Great Britain struggling with changing social values after the WW2 into the 50’s.

Actually watched this on the LAX to Hong Kong flight....

Curse of the Golden Flower: Mediocre. Worth a miss.
An over the top Chinese costume drama, set in the 10th century during the Tang Dynasty.
Good actors, Chow Yun Fat and Gong Li, had no chance to save this movie. In fact it made them look bad. The History Boys: watch it, no harm no foul.
Based on an Alan Bennett play by the same name. Set in a Yorkshire, middle-class private boys' school in the early 1980s.
Disappointing, the cast of Characters; too politically correct and poor dialogue spoiled a potentially entertaining show. Just like an English Sunday afternoon cricket match, ideal to have a nap while watching.

Renovation ideas

Talked with Robbie this morning, Heather and Andrew went to a Midnight showing of the new movie "300".. both enjoyed it .. Trevor met up with them at the theater ..his birthday is on Saturday. Robin met Claudia, Ben and Ashley for lunch. Good to get caught up on things on the home front...
Renovation ideas.. I've started to collect ideas for one of the home projects.
Thinking of having a distinctive tea room, combining ideas from Chinese and Japanese designs, fitted into a California home. Don't panic .. no plans for the tree .. but I like the raised platform with simple but defined entry way.

Local sights

A happy new Mom visits a local Temple and shrine. (Chang Ping town)
The statue of Guan Yin looks over the temple grounds.
Driving in China, only for locals or the very very brave .. Mr Wong at the wheel.

Visit to Shi Wan

Robbie, Mr Huang says hi to you and Heather, asking when you will come back to China. I told him you were off to Hawaii for a week .. hard work but someone has to do it .. His wife will be here at the end of the month, so I'll get more pictures.
Mr. Huang and Matt at our favorite Japanese restaurant.
Fuan Ge factory support team working through the issues.

Henry ARRIVES

Henry arrived, now the crew is at full strength.

Hunan food at "Er Lou"

I would not be a party without Black Label, 黑色 標籤
Yes the food is as hot/spicy as it looks .. and is first rate !!

Sales Team at work

#1 Sales Team ..
World Famous in Chang Ping:
Rita Peng:

Ivy Zhou: Inness Xiang:
Zhao Erlin:

Sue Liu:

Angel Yen:

Apple Li:

Wang Ya:

Tea and Tea Stuff Close Up

Tuesday, March 6th.
Since I donated my other tea brewing kit to friend (inside joke) I visited Mrs. Yang and re-loaded for brewing on location as it were.
I decided to go with Gaiwan’s this time and wait a few weeks and look for some good hand made Yixing pots.
Simple and pleasing:

Two of a kind:As you can see I picked a really nice set; with TWO Gaiwans, 6 cups and serving jug. The real treasure is that they work so well. The Gaiwans are well designed and fit my ergonomic requirements to a tee, so to speak.
I picked out a single Gaiwan that has fantastic aspect ratios. The diameter, height and capacity are a true pleasure to use. I’ll save this for my favorite TieGuanYin and Oolongs First Brew:

TieGuanYin:
Top rated Taiwan Kao Shan:

I could not resist adding an other Caddie for Pu-erh. Aesthetically pleasing and extremely practical.
The induction hot plate and Glass kettle are a true find. I need to find more and bring them home. The Kettle has great balance and pouring action.
NB, read all caution labels: It's not about spelling it's about getting the message across.