Hello, Macau, We Have Arrived!

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

The morning is hectic with organizing luggage and two more stops in Zhongshan before we head off to Macau.  We have a stop at the Cultural Arts Research Center – I guess that’s why William was asking if any of the contestants knew Chinese calligraphy earlier in the week.  The Center is celebrating cultural heritage with a Chinese calligraphy exhibit.  I’m amazed with the old and middle Chinese calligraphy.  I have learned basic traditional Chinese calligraphy, and now, I am intrigued to learn early and middle Chinese calligraphy now as well.  Some of the girls can read traditional Chinese, but they don’t necessarily understand what each of the poems or sayings mean.  Sometimes they have specific meanings, and sometimes it can be up for interpretation.  The ceremony is a bit long winded, and the girls are getting a bit fatigued sitting up straight with their ankles crossed.  They finally get called up for pictures and are, unsurprisingly, the center of attention.

As we leave the space, our drivers have lined up the cars for a quick picture to advertise the cars.  They have the girls match up with their numbered cars and drivers.  Having beautiful girls posing with hot imports is a long standing tradition in the automobile advertising world.  Today is no exception.  As we head off to the last stop in Zhongshan, the traffic gets worse, and it is hard to maneuver the caravan.  We weave in and out of the heavy morning traffic trying to keep up with the rest, but the drivers in China will take any centimeter’s worth of space to wedge into traffic.  It is a bit frustrating as an onlooker to see how inconsiderate drivers are in China, more so than most countries I’ve visited.  That same mentality seems to spill over into general society as well.  For a culture based on saving face, familial honor, and so many rules of comportment, women are still considered either property or second class citizens, and men seem to be allowed to say and do whatever they want with little to no repercussion.

As we roll up to the elementary school, specially chosen children are lined up waiting for the entourage.  The children are all in their uniforms and are holding red plastic flowers.  As the girls file in, the children start welcoming them with a unified voice.  The principal has a few opening remarks, and then, we are led into the school for a little tour.  We see a wall of colorful hand prints which the children make their first year at the school.  Then, the hand prints are framed and hung on the walls until the children graduate after 6^th grade when the hand prints are planned to be presented to the children as gifts and souvenirs of the school.  There are approximately 1,300 children who attend this specific Zhongshan City public school.  That is nearly three times my high school’s graduating class.  Another wall has a photo mural of every child who has attended the school, and it seems like there is plenty of room to add photos.  We get to the gym, and a large group of children greet the girls with cheers and clapping.  The children have prepared a game where you transfer hearts over straws held only by mouth, no hands, ma’!  The more hearts, the more chances the girls will have to get puzzle pieces which turn out to be the map of China.  It is riotous fun, and everyone is having a ball.  Once the hearts are passed and the map is put together, the contestants happily take pictures with the children and their families and hand out gift bags to the children.  The bags were so cute, I was tempted to snatch one, but there was just enough for every child to have just one.

We have one last meal the Zhongshan International Hotel.  At lunch, there is a big round of applause and gratitude to Ken, our host and part owner of the hotel.  We rush through the meal to get everything on the bus to Macau.  The bus ride is short, and we arrive at the China Customs and Immigration stop.  Everyone and everything off the bus while we hand in our departure cards and have our pictures taken.  Back on the bus with the luggage, and after a very short five minute ride on a bridge, we get to Macau Customs and Immigration and have to take everyone and everything off the bus again to have it go through immigration again.  I have the stamps on my passport to prove it. 

We get to the Galaxy – it’s not just a hotel, but an entire complex with several hotels.  We pull up to Hotel Okura, and the girls are rushed off to rehearsal since we arrived late.  Dinner will be poolside at the rooftop deck pool, and the girls have a bathing suit and evening gown strut on the catwalk.

The evening is nothing but rush, rush, rush with hair, makeup, and costume changes. 

At one point, the girls are asked to pick the most charming gentlemen out of the crowd and bring them on stage.  When asked why they picked the gentlemen (and one lady), Ivy Hu replies that he reminds her of her father, so that’s why she chose him.  The MC heard her wrong and asked if he were her father, and such a loud outcry of laughter came from the crowd.  When Danni Wang replied, she said because he was the closest cute guy near her.  Stacy Wang managed to pick the the cousin of George H. W. Bush out of the crowd.  What a surprise!  When Ke Ke replied, she mentioned that she really loved his hairstyle – I guess sexy, bald men really do have a following in Asia.  The evening was over as quickly as it had started.  Now, off to sleep in my five star, US$622.81 (5000 Macau patacas) a night hotel room.  Oh, and is it luxurious!  Tomorrow, photos all over the island and the hotel and a farewell party.  Me?  I’m going to roam around this complex.

Thanks, Zhongshan’s Corporate Sponsors!

Sunday, July 10, 2011

The Zhongshan International Hotel happens to be housing the atheletes and their families of the World Youth Badminton Championship.  Breakfast was a zoo.  People hovered over seats and pounced as quickly as possible to take your seat even if the table hadn’t been cleared, yet.  I welcomed the American hashbrowns which I hardly eat when I’m back in the States, but the added variety is nice.  The girls were expected at an outdoor event at Sun Yat Sen Memorial Park.  Angela Gao (Contestant #8) was well enough to join in the events today; however, Melody Wu (#12) and Allison Ye (#10) will not be able to make it.  When we gathered in the lobby, we noticed there wasn’t a bus.  What waited for the girls was a caravan of luxury import cars to take them to the park.  After being bounced around from car to car, a couple of us press staff end up in the very last car.

After driving around for more than half an hour, the driver is a bit turned around.  We had driven by the park, and he hadn’t realized it.  We ended up taking a very roundabout way to catch the girls walking up the steps to the Sun Yat Sen statue.  In the half an hour spent outside in Zhongshan today, everyone had already sweat through their clothes.  I overheard that most people had sweat so much that the sweat had reached down to their underthings.  It was nice waiting in the hotel lobby for everyone to arrive because I had cooled off and almost dried out by then.  Everyone gets to rest a bit and then it’s lunch in the hotel.  I am starting to like this not having to travel to eat luxury.

Like last night, we are having lunch on the third floor of the hotel in the International Room.  The Cantonese dishes come at a leisurely pace and the service is wonderful.  Overall, the majority of the pageant contestants and staffers have well-preferred the cuisine of the Guangdong (formerly known as Canton) region to all of the others combined.  Today’s lunch, however, is exclusively Zhongshan delicacies.  Melody and Allison joined us for lunch, and both seem to be recovering.  It’s been a grueling pace of early morning makeups and styling, intense heat and humidity, and frequent changes in temperature, climate, and food.  Only the very resilient are dodging sore throats, allergies, and stomach ailments.  The girls meet the sponsors and owners of the hotel and restaurants where we are staying and eating.  My first impression was, “My!  What young dudes are running this hotel!”

The girls at my table did a great job clearing the table of dishes.  The girls must rush and unpack evening gowns for the dinner.  The girls will have the use of the luxury import cars again, but they are expected to stop at at least five of the corporate sponsors this afternoon before dinner.  One of the sponsors is one of the largest LED manufacturers in all of China and probably globally.  Melody and Allison are still not quite recovered, so I choose to stay behind in case they need a chaperone.  It gives me a chance to relax a bit and do more laundry before the crazy schedule that I won’t be able to opt out for our last few days in China are upon us.  I am thankful that we are across the street from a mall with a supermarket.  Melody and I end up going to get supplies and treats for some of the staffers.  I pick up a tiny room air freshener, some liquid detergent, and a few other things to take back home like mosquito repellent happy face stickers, fancy flavors of potato chips, and cheap packs of super cute tissues – things I always like to pick up from Asia that we can’t really get in America easily.

A grand gala style dinner is scheduled at the event hall next to the hotel – evening gowns, jewelry, and probably a lot of photos with sponsors will be required.  There is a rumor that some of us will be going out for some karaoke tonight.  This Taiwanese-American girl can’t escape the need to sing to a mismatched video and a midi beat!