Hey everybody!

Right now, I am posting from Shenzhen, China, where I have been for a little over a week now.

I had meant to make a habit of posting a kind of daily (or near-daily) diary of my experiences, but didn’t count on the Great Firewall, China’s notorious internet restrictions. Upon arriving, I found out I couldn’t upload photos to the forums, I couldn’t get to Youtube, I couldn’t even log on here, on my own Blog!! And, to make matters worse, when I looked for a proxy server or VPN (even ones recommended to me by others) I found I couldn’t even download the software to get past the blocks, because, of course, all THOSE sites were blocked.

But I finally found enough time to figure out a work-around. And Here I am!

So, I still need to put together some of the pics I’ve taken, and write up a full account of my first weeks adventures, but here’s the short version:

I landed Thursday night and went right to work Friday morning. Our primary manufacturer put me up in a hotel the first couple of nights, and found me an apartment I moved into Saturday. Friday and Saturday I toured the factory, and began to do quality control testing on the cartridges being made. Sunday I mostly shopped to get all the household goods I needed for the new place.

Monday it was back to the factory; and I got my hands on some new battery samples. We are trying to improve airflow, and I think we’re making steps in the right direction. They also had samples for me of the new Xtra-Long cases, which have double inserts to hold twice as many carts and batts. Both items needed some tweaks, so I sent them back to have another sample made with those changes. Tuesday, I met with a translator, and Wednesday the translator and I toured our liquid manufacturer’s factory.

During this time, ever since I landed, I was taken out for just about every meal to local Chinese restaurants. As most people know, most of the Chinese food we eat in America isn’t really Chinese. Chow Mein, Chop Suey, Sweet & Sour Pork, Beef Broccoli, etc, are NOT authentic Chinese cuisine. They were all invented here in America by Chinese immigrants trying to please American customers. So I have had little to no idea of what I was eating, except for whether it was beef, chicken, or pork. But that’s fine by me, I love trying new foods, especially if it’s something I can’t get at home.

And I LOVE to eat strange and bizarre foods! So far, I’ve had two dishes that I really consider exotic; some fried insect larvae, big grubs about an inch to inch and a half long; and (if the girls I was with weren’t just pulling my leg) a large guinea-pig about the size of a fat house cat.

Unfortunately, that MIGHT (or might not) have been my downfall, because starting Tuesday afternoon, I came down sick. It started with diarrhea, and a little nausea, so I figured it was just a little Montezuma’s Revenge (or maybe I should say Mao’s Revenge). I had a small supply of antibiotics my doctor had given me before leaving the states, so I took that and hoped for the best. But by Thursday it was bad enough I didn’t dare leave the vicinity of my toilet (remind me to explain about public toilets in China later), and Friday I started vomiting in earnest.

I googled a bit, but couldn’t find any info on Travel Doctors, or any private practices for foreigners, so I let the girls at the factory talk me into going to the communist government run National Hospital, which was ALMOST as bad as I had feared. Everything was dirty, there was no equipment in the exam room, the toilets were filthy squat toilets (again, I’ll post more on that later), and there wasn’t even any soap!

(Not the actual hospital toilet, but it was ALMOST that bad.)

One blood sample, urine sample, and stool sample later, and the doctor pronounced it the flu. He gave me some unidentified small white tablets, some more antibiotics, an anti-diarrheal, and a Traditional Chinese Medicine powder made out of flatworms or something. I threw out the TCM crap (those who know me know I have ZERO tolerance or patience with pseudo-scientific crap like TCM) , and took the rest. Almost immediately, my stomach and bowels were feeling a bit better, but I felt more dizzy and lightheaded, and a bit more queasy, than before taking it. So, it was kind of two steps forward and one step back. Adrenalynn
from the ECF forum, an extremely knowledgeable and well rounded woman (I meant her experience, get your mind out of the gutter!) informs me that the dizziness is a known adverse reaction to the antibiotics I was given, so that explains that.

Anyway, I’ve been resting at home and communicating with the factory via Skype for the past few days, taking my medicine, drinking plenty of fluids, and eating chicken soup like a good patient. I am feeling a bit better, and haven’t thrown up since yesterday morning. The diarrhea is still with me, but I’m hopeful that tomorrow I’ll be well enough to go back to the factory. Because without me there, they fell behind on our order, and I can’t let that go on!!

And if I am not, then (again thanks to Adrenalynn) at least I now know who to call. She informed me that the US Embassies and Consulates maintain lists of recommended local doctors and hospitals for US citizens traveling abroad. For anyone else who may find themselves in a similar situation, go to http://www.usembassy.gov/, click on the embassy or consulate for your region, select the US Citizen Services tab, and find the Medical Services section. In my case, it’s at http://guangzhou.usembassy-china.org.cn/medical_providers_in_south_china.html.

SO that was my first week. The first half was great, the second, not so great. But that’s the fun of travel. You never know what will come your way, for good or for ill.

Now if you’ll all excuse me, the rumble in my gut is back, so its time for me to practice using a squat toilet, because if I do go back to work tomorrow, that’s all I’ll have access to at the factory:

The guest bathroom in my Shenzhen Apartment

EDITED: Andrenalynn and some other more experienced asian hands have given me more info on squat toilets over at the E-Cigarette Forum, and it’s even worse than I could have imagined! See the thread here for some gross laughs: Update From the Front Lines 12-11.