Reflection: Day 11 Today marked our first visit to a potential solar manufacturer’s factory, so I suppose you could say it was ironic that it was also the day of the hardest rainstorm. Then again, the two rainstorms we’ve experienced have both come on the days I’ve written reflections. Maybe I’ve found my superpower, or maybe I’m just the poster boy for Travis’ hit single “Why Does it Always Rain on Me?” Either way Mark Donohue, “Bringer of Rain” has a nice ring to it… One of my favorite Shenzhen discoveries so far has been the Metro. Clean (you could eat of the floor kind of clean; no joke!), easy to navigate (we’re Columbus-ing around on a 3 word vocabulary) and ridiculously cheap (less than $1 to get from one end of the city to the other. Yes Septa, you heard that right, less than a buck-a-roony!). Although the taxi fair would have still been reasonable by US standards, we decided to opt for the 45 minute Metro ride to Shuanglong where we greeted by Daniel and driven another 30 minutes to his factory. Having opened his own factory 6 years ago, Daniel runs a tight operation with huge production capabilities; something we considered essential to building a relationship for future runs. It became immediately apparent that he appreciated us taking the time to make our way to China from the US and this reflected in the meeting. During the meeting, Daniel showed us a couple of solar panels with LED receptors that adjust their brightness depending on how much solar energy the panels are exposed to. We’d been turned on to these cool little devices via our CTO, Adrian, but this was the first time we had the opportunity to play around with them ourselves. Unfortunately the minimum voltage requirement to use these weak light LED’s is 5V so they won’t be able to be incorporated into the first iteration of Spor, but stay tuned for future product releases! Once we finished up with Daniel, he drove us back to the Metro where we headed into the city to meet Lynn, one of Dave’s friends from Drexel, for dinner. During the metro ride, it was funny to see the change in response from locals sharing the metro with three westerners from the more rural town of Shuanglong to the heart of downtown, Futian. Unfortunately, by the time we had arrived in city the “Celebrity Factor” had worn off for me, although it would carry through dinner for Dave… Although we had technically already tried a hot pot style meal, we hadn’t yet enjoyed anything as fantastically magnificent as the Hai Di Lao dining experience. We were assigned a waiter for the night, who despite the language barrier, immediately hit it off with Dave. It wasn’t long before news of Dave’s celebrity spread throughout the staff, incurring private shows from noodlers (who spin your noodles right in front of you in a Cirque du Soleil worthy performance), complimentary deserts and parting gifts. The hospitality of the Chinese hasn’t ceased to amaze us, and this was no exception! Full on good food and good laughs, we made our way back to the hotel to wind down for the day and prepare for another day of factory tours tomorrow. Just another incredible day in Shenzhen. Until next time, - Mark
Posted on: Wed, 20 Aug 2014 00:03:20 +0000
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