The Kunshan Mission

Had been in Kunshan, China (an hour away from Shanghai) the past week preparing for the take-over of Traders Hotel. The hotel's new ownership by Kingdom Holdings led to Swissotel being appointed the management company of the hotel. The re-brand is scheduled for 1 July but if you ask those of us who were there the past week, this seems almost like Mission Impossible. The detailed legalities hasn't seem to have been concluded and more importantly, staff are jittery about the new management. The Exco team there weren't very cooperative. Almost the entire team had resigned. So Monday till Wednesday was almost a sit-there-and-wait situation. We tried to make the most of it, doing what we can. My checklist of 399 logo(ed) items & collateral kept me on my toes - meeting China printers and suppliers who claim they do ANYTHING. Even if they didn't do it, they often had friends who could produce it. I have yet to meet any supplier who said they were unable to produce something!

The Hong Kong / Macau Room was made our office. Everyone slammed away at their laptops relentlessly. Of course, I had to take pictures to document the take-over and this includes the sunset view from our make-shift "office"...

My shipment from Singapore arrived - much to my relief.

We tried to make the most of the evenings by going out for dinner and then returning to the "office". Suneet, Noel and I ventured into town (yes, there is a shopping area in Kunshan) and had dinner at this interesting restaurant. They put us in a little room which reeked of the smells of food mixed with sweat. Suneet didn't trust the cleanliness of the place and decided to bathe our chopsticks in the hot tea that was served in a thermos flask. The food was ok, except for the pork and fish fins I ordered. The pork was covered with dried chilli while the fins tasted "fishy" Ewww!

And the one fabulous dish we have almost every other day is the fish head soup. It takes about an hour and a half to cook and the soup is simply spectacular. We had dinner at Kunshan Hotel (the entire hotel smelt like the little room at the restaurant) and Annie ordered this giant. Noel insisted that putting his chopsticks in my picture would give a more accurate indication of the size (of both pot and fish head). China is known for its amazing literal translations of the English language. I spotted a huge SPA area on the way to the hotel with a "huge" name as well. Welcome to "Hai Kuo Tian Kong Take A Bath The Center" :-PAnd this scene of a burning van, spotted along the highway was also quite amazing.

It was a terribly tiring week in Kunshan and we have to be back there on Wednesday again. I really need a break after this... hopefully with Gideon and Terence to the long-awaited Gold Coast.