Xi'an

There are news again of Chinese vessels intruding the Philippine territory.  As if their taking over of one of the islands in the Spratly's is not enough. These news scares me.  So when I was told that I was to do a review of our office in China, I was scared. I wanted to see China, but not at that time when our dispute over the islands was on all time high. 

I was anxious all throughout my flight to Xi'an.  I have heard about the propaganda the Chinese government has spread against the Philippines, Vietnam, and other Southeast Asian countries whose islands, they have interest on.  I was prepared to be harassed at the immigration, and be treated badly as what some Filipinos have experienced in Beijing.

To my surprise, I did not experience any of that in Xi'an.  I guess they are far from Beijing so they are not that aware of the issues between our countries.  The immigration officer looked so young, and he was very nice and even welcomed me to China.

And I was doubly surprised that many people thought I was Chinese! (How come?). And I did experience a lot of kindness. The people in our office (both in Xian and Jiaxian) were very nice (and many looked fashionable :). They were very open in sharing their processes and procedures, important information I needed to be able to do my review and be able to provide with feedback later.  

Also, our partners from the government , were very cooperative during the interview.  Not to mention that they prepared delicious Chinese dishes for me.  

I totally did not expect it- those were pleasant surprises.  

But  there was one unpleasant surprise: when I tried to open Facebook, I was not able to. And I just found that their government has banned Facebook in China.  Same thing as Google and YouTube.  What??

View of the mall from my room in Xian...

The fancy hotel next door....