China Diaries 6 - Fujian Provence, Xiamen, Guangzhou and the Coors tour

---

Thursday, November 22, 2007


Xiamen, Fujian, Guangzhou....Coors tour

Hello from I have no idea where I'm at in China.....

The last I left off was me in bed at 5:45 am in Xiamen. Xiamen is an island inbetween mainland and Taiwan that is very clean. It reminds me of Miami because of the set up around the coast and the buildings. For those who have never visited China before, I can't describe to you the architect and design of some of the buildings. It seriously is magnificent how people come up with the design of the buildings and the cost to develop them I'm sure is dirt cheap as well.

Our hotel for the night was ok, it wasn't anything plush but it worked. What was bad about it though is at 6:45 am in the morning, the idiotic receptionist put us on the 9th floor where on the 10th floor they were doing contruction so we heard banging on the walls at every corner of the room so I didn't get much sleep. On top of that, the pillows are like sleeping on a piece of paper so I was not happy. We complained downstairs about it, but by this time we just said screw it and went to get some coffee at some imitation starbucks before packing up and heading to the first city on our tour.

We left around 1pm, drove about an hour and a half to a city on the mainland which was like driving through the wild west. It's like what you would see in movies, low class chinese trash everywhere and I swear people have no concept of lanes, I'm trying to figure out why they even have them painted on the streets because it's a free for all here, I kid you not no wonder asians are the worst drivers (sorry for those who are asian but I witnessed and confirm this being on the homeland of china, THE WORST drivers). Not to mention people have no value to life or traffic organization, like I said about Hangzhou you just go for it on the streets, in the middle of the road, infront of cars......you name it. I even got into my first accident here but that will come later.

We arrived into a city that was literally like the wild west. The only thing they were missing was gun shots firing and people on horse back. The main guy from Coors put us up in this crap hotel while he goes and puts himself in a 4 * hotel with a suite, I was pissed. First thing when booking hired talent, you don't put yourself in something 5 times better then what you put them, it's bad business and inconsiderate. Plus, we are the ones working, not him...douchebag. I told the DJ here it's not right, we should all be in the same hotel atleast. But the DJ is a push over so my bitch mode came on and I now laying down ground rules and voicing everything that isn't proper from that point, I don't like to be treated like a door mat I don't give a rats ass what country, you want business, you do good business.

The reps here took us to dinner that was a part fest for them, I sat there starring at all of them get piss drunk and that irritated me too at the fact that, we are over here as their talent to represent a brand, we aren't here to get drunk and make asses of ourselves and we're not here to be paraded around. We are here to work and thats it. The DJ lives here and China and he says that's how they do business, maybe in his theory but I'm not a lower class woman to be looked down upon like I don't have rights. I told him we are going back to the hotel and made sure it happened. My roomie and I got ready and around 11pm we all hopped into a cab to the club. They had posters of us that was really cool but the clubs here are as follows, really good or lame. This one was a bit lame and maybe because it was a Tuesday night, I don't know. Not to mention I have never visited a country where people smoke so much in my life. I kid you not, I cannot express to you the lingering cloud that ponders the open air of any room with the amount of smoking they do. China is by far the most pollution filled country in the world, I will stand by that.

We finished our set at the club, and as we were walking to the car the coors guys wanted us to stick around and drink......HELL NO! We told them we are gone. So we went back to the hotel and called it a night. The following day, I was so irritated with everything that when the DJ came into our room, I sat him down and said, "I don't want you to speak, say a word, or interrupt me. You need to listen to what I have to say" and I spoke my mind and told him he needs to get his shit together or I'm gone. After that, he has been alittle more intuitive and alittle more on point....emphasize the alittle.

Once we were done talking, we hopped into a cab to a super walmart in the wild west of China. It was huge and so we walked around to kill time and decided to eat some McDonald's across the street. I also stand by this when I say that anywher in the world I have seen a McDonalds and I don't eat McDonalds EVER back home, this is was the absolute cleanest McDonalds. It gleamed with sparkles on the counters, there wasn't a single piece of garbage on any and in any crevise, corner, floor, wall, it was the cleanest. You can safely eat a burger on the floor at that joint. But, stupid Desiree (in third person) happens to be the one who spills a Sprite on the floor in the world's most spotless McDonalds. Of all people, I do it, but they were on that mess like their life depended on it. I can't tell you the city we were in but it got a class act A in my books. Oh and yes I got into my first hit, the stupid person on a bike decides to ride it straight into our taxi in the middle of the road, "You couldn't wait 30 seconds until we pass?!?!" We just kept driving like it was a normal thing, while he or she whomever it was stood in the middle of the road.

Later that night we went to another club to perform that is like a candy shop. Girls are there with numbers on them and they have acts, sing, dance, etc......they all look absolutely miserable and if a customer likes them, they get a wreathe. You put two and two together, strip clubs are banned but I guess whore clubs are cool. I don't know if they were, but why do they have numbers on them? I don't know, we just danced our set and watched the shows when we were on break. We don't mingle here and drink, my partner and I keep our act low key on downtime and keep to ourselves. The vibe here is just different and anyone who thinks it's cool to go galavanting around that is not Chinese in a town like this more inclined to make an idiot of themselves then anything.

Once our set was done, we took some of the posters and went back to the hotel. We had to leave the next day to Guangzhou which is about two hours north by bus. We stick out like a sore thumb here because my roomie, Lacie is a midwestern blonde and I'm a brunette, the DJ is white lugging around 6 pieces of luggage. The coors rep bought one too many tickets for the bus so not only did we stick out, but we held the bus up when he went to sort it out. We got sick of waiting and just hopped on anyway because we were tired of waiting, screw it. The bus ride was ok, the driver was in love with his horn, every 30 seconds he's honking at someone infront, on the side, in the back, and a car 10 cars lengths away. You see, here, people don't move out of the way, they don't care, it's nuts. We drove thru some dodgy places, China at it's best I guess. It is great to experience this over all however because I do get to see this and it is something I'm never going to forget, to say the least.

Once we arrived at our bus stop, we gathered up our stuff and another rep for coors came to meet us and take us to the hotel. Once we arrived, he already checked us in and had our rooms available. Lacie and I took a nap for an hour or two then gathered up our things to take to the club which was 20 minutes away in another city. We had to be there for sound check which I don't know why and then the rep wanted us to eat with other coors guys, which I thought is alittle inconsiderate (again) because I don't know, but when talent, artists go to a city, you have to accommodate them, I know because I've done it, picked up shuttled, dinners, etc.. It's not up to them to take to you to some resturant, drink and eat stuff you don't particularly wanna eat, and expect you to sit there. Customs or not, you just don't do that. One of the main guys there was drunk and bailed out (that's another thing, Chinese drink like crazy. Not stereotyping either, it's true) and I got sick of waiting there so I asked the DJ if I can walk around and get something to really eat to settle in my stomach before we dance and he said to wait. Five minutes later, I grabbed my stuff and said peace out! I wasn't going to sit there and wait, sorry. I walked over to McD's again and ordered my chicken wraps (I'm detoxing like a mad woman when I get back home btw). Ten minutes later, Paul, Lacie and our Coors guy whos helping us came and chilled with me before we went to walk around. The city we were in was pretty cool with some neat shops, the club is more like a lounge I guess, no dancefloor, it had alot of couches and table set ups, it was a great set up.............for drinking and eating but not a disco.

After we were finished walking around, we went back to the club, had sometime to kill so we put on some makeup and I wanted to buy a set of sneakers I saw at a store so I told Paul we would be back in twenty minutes. Our stuff was in a kareoke room that is a huge living room where were waiting and when we got back, I see Paul and some of the guys arguing and then we were asked to go into another smoked filled room to wait. I said hell no to that and walked out, wondering where my stuff was. Apparently, two waiters came in and told Paul to leave so other people can have the room and took our stuff. Ok, I had enough of this shit...and I told the main coors guy who showed up again (the one that was drunk at dinner who left) I am not happy. He pulled me aside and said, "I'm very sorry, my boss needs things to be ok, must show face and I represent the company" and that's when I said in his face, "you are are disrepecting us, I don't give a fuck about showing face, you represent a company who has hired us to a do job. We need to be happy, you need to be happy, we cannot do our job if you keep disrespecting us" He kept looking at me trying to calm me down but I was livid. We go into the room where we had change from the last to wait, Paul's screaming at them in Chinese while the Coors guy is trying to fix things. I yelled at him infront of everyone telling him basically this is fucked and it's bad business and if they don't start respecting us then fuck you (and yes I did give him the finger). I looked him straight in the eye and said fuck you, and he was shitting bricks. Everyone was on their phone talking to someone, I was starring at them, apparently the manager fired the waiters that threw our stuff out and they were so embarrassed they brought us two huge fruit bowls which is like VIP treatment here. He tried to shake my hand and apologize again and I wasn't being his friend, the guy can kiss my ass. Every 10-15 minutes he was like, "I'm sorry, we need a good show" I was sacastic and cold to him everytime, don't respect me or my colleagues because you're too piss drunk and chicken to handle business.

When it was our time to dance, the turn tables were messed up for the DJ, we only danced two sets for everyone because the DJ was so frustrated with the set up he had enough, we all had enough and just called it a night. This was around 2 am in the morning and we were tired, so we took a couple posters, grabbed a cab and went back to the hotel in the next city over. The good thing about this was the DJ was pissed and he was calling everyone in charge so he had our backs, I wasn't gonna sit around and let them treat us like dirt. One thing I notice Chinese don't know how to do well is I guess in their culture it's ok to make people sit around while everyone chain smokes and drinks, but it's not and not speak up if you're not happy with the way stuff is ran. It's just disrespectful to not take other peoples interests into consideration. I also told the DJ when I had my words with him that I'm easy to work with but if you let shit happen and let them treat you like a door mat, they are going to keep doing it and you need to lay down the ground ruiles. You can't assume everything to be wishy washy and indecisive, he needs to tell them.

Overall, it was a long three days and it's been an experience. I'm here at an internet cafe now typing (reminds me of when I use to live in France and had no internet access in my apartment six years ago.....oh the glories of travelling overseas.) It's actually a nice day here so I'm going to get Lacie and walk around for a bit. Happy Thanksgiving to those back home....more to come later.

---

Photos

First night on the tour
This is a club in the wild west city. :-P

A city at night
This is a shot of the city we were at where I left to walk around.