Friday

What better place to start the day but  Austrade.  Not that I was pining for an Australian accent.  Jane Wang runs the office in Xi'An and after an interesting meeting and some sweet coffee and a CD that I need to look at later we were whisked away to the first of our 'meet the businesses' meetings.  Escorted by the Vice Director of the Software Park our first visit was with the jovial General Manager of Cenozolc, Mr Guo Ping Bo.  He provided some insight into an ISV providing software to the petrochemical industry.  We were given a tour of the business and with some light hearted conversation whisked off to meet with the General Manager of Grapecity, Mr Zhu Yuzhang.    This was a great meeting and Yuzhang provided us with some real insight into a BPO business that has been providing services to its Japanese head Office for 19 years!  Obviously the Japanese were onto this  long before we were.   Back to another huge lunch with Dr Chen and more conversations about the intricacies of doing business in China.  I was starting to understand.  More meetings back at his office and then being a Friday and the end of the week Chen suggested his favourite thing - a 'very professional' foot massage prior to dinner.  For those wondering 'Very professional' does not mean any hanky panky - the people providing the service are known as technicians so there can be no confusion between the trades.  You may be surprised just how involved a foot massage can get - if you are interested ask me sometime how my ears feel now.    Dinner went until near on midnight and I crashed pretty exhausted.

I reckon we should have foot massage places in Australia. 

Saturday

The day started off with a little shopping then a massive  lunch then meetings then the museum then a massive dinner - After dinner we went to the Royal Water Gardens.  

At the museum  I was treated to seeing relics from the Qin, Han and Ming dynasty's and a couple of dynasty's that I can't remember.  It was fascinating to see the progress in pottery and armoury BUT my favourite was a scull of Homo Erectus somewhere between 700,000 and 1,000,000 years old.  Lantian man - found of course in the Lantian area of China.  At the Royal Gardens I sat on the steps of the main building to watch a very high tech film cast on the canvas frame of a mass of water fountain on the edge of a big lake.  Confused ?  The water was sprayed up in the air and hi tech video and audio combined with the odd 6-7 lasers provided a great movie.  Not that I could understand the language but the story was pretty simple to follow even without knowing the words.  (no subtitles I'm afraid).  The images in the movie were very 3D  and the sound system very impressive.    Another late night. 

Sunday

Today was split into two.  The morning out at the 8th wonder of the world. The Terracotta Warriors. The afternoon at a Tea House with Dr Chen finalising discussions and trying to nail down all the take-aways from the trip.   The warriors are at Emperor Qin's tomb about an hour outside Xi'An.  On the way out I saw three accidents.  Two trucks rolled over and one nose to tail.  To give you an idea on how mad the road rules are - we approached an onramp to a freeway and about half way up it looked like the freeway was clagged.  The car in front just turned around and drove straight back though the traffic weaving its way until it got back to a place it could join traffic going the right way.  We were much safer - we BACKED up through the oncoming traffic - that was heaps of fun!  Felt like I was in a James bond movie :)

I reckon backing into the oncoming traffic could be a new ride a Sea World

Monday

Heading home day today.  With items finalised yesterday at the Tea house, and a visit to the IBM Software Park Innovation Centre (met the Managing Director - Rong Zhen) the only agenda items we decided to make a quick visit to the Art Gallery before one last huge lunch and a drive out to the airport.  We had said our goodbyes already to Dr Chen - What a great host he has been - particularly when you consider the number of things he has on his plate.  In addition to running Netec his portal business, Owning the Innovation Centre he is also has government responsibilities:

• Member of the Xi'An municipal people congress executive committee (provincial status)
• Member of the special committee on ethnic groups, religions, returned chinese and foreign affairs of the peoples congress
• Vice Chairman of the peoples political consultative conference of Yantadistrict (the biggest conference including the Hi Tech development zone)    

We said our good byes to our driver  Mr Liu - thanks for keeping us safe and getting us from one meeting to another (love to see him try and drive in Australia) and thanks to 'Cindy' our interpreter - what would have done without her. 

 I reckon writing the report and recommendations for the Readify Board can wait until I return.