A Chinese Odyssey: A Brief Visit to Changzhou

Our whirlwind tour included a trip to the BYD electric car plant in a city that is famous for the China Dinosaur Park, Yangtze River Delta and the Taihu Lake.

It’s half past six in the morning in Shanghai and the excitement from the previous evening and late-night walk is still high. I know that this morning will be my only opportunity to see a bit of the city, before a long drive to Changzhou. I see large bungalows now serving a different purpose than for what they were built. This part of Shanghai has morning walkers and joggers, and of course, those taking their dogs for a walk. Where are the practitioners of Tai Chi and Qi Gong?

I walk around and enjoy the fresh and chilly autumn breeze before getting back to the hotel for a breakfast buffet. I taste two varieties of porridge, three of dim sum and spicy noodles and get my protein fix and fruits. My first breakfast in China was delicious!

We are told that we need to leave at half past nine sharp. The meticulously punctual Chinese hosts did not understand that this is a value that is not shared in earnest in their southern neighbour.

Five of the eight members of the delegation were virtual strangers to me at that point, so I didn’t know what to expect on day one. Happily enough, seven of us are done with breakfast in time to leave for Changzhou but one person was missing! The young man neither answers his phone, nor can be woken up by the reception since the ‘smart’ hotel room had a do not disturb function where neither the bell worked nor the intercom!

‘C’ finally wakes up, profusely apologising, with the excuse that he set his alarm for six in the evening by accident!

We wait for him to finish his breakfast and then head out of Shanghai on to the highway.

The young man in question would not be a repeat offender, but by day three, our Chinese hosts always kept Indian Stretchable Time in mind when announcing schedules.

For long I had dreamt of seeing the Chinese countryside and farms and villages, and I expected to do so on this drive if I could stay awake, but alas… This booming part of the country was no place to see any bit of agricultural China. What I saw instead was an almost endless urban agglomeration: well designed high-rise buildings and manufacturing establishments. This was a green stretch nonetheless.

BYD (Build Your Dreams) Auto is one of China’s biggest business success stories. Established in 2003 by Wang Chuanfu, a billionaire who was born into a family of poor farmers and orphaned at a young age and looked after by an elder brother. Laughed at by his peers when he shared his dreams, the company he founded now produces over three million vehicles a year and is a leader in electric and hybrid vehicles.

We are welcomed to the factory, where for obvious reasons, photography and filming were banned. The sheer degree of automation at the plant really impressed me. It wasn’t that long ago that China was considered was considered a manufacturing hub for low-quality products, and here we are now with the country being a hub of innovation and high technology.

BYD is looking for new markets and definitely has its eye on gaining a large share in the growing Indian market for electric vehicles.

The factory is pretty much self-contained and has buildings that house its workforce. I am told that the premises has a host of facilities for those who live there. Similar set ups are spreading in India’s Tamil Nadu.

The outskirts of Changzhou have several industrial units, and as we head to the city for lunch, we see motorcycle food carts that prepare lunch for workers. The meals provided by them are probably both cheap and delicious. For an untrained Indian eye, Chinese definitions of first-tier, second-tier and third-tier cities do not make much sense. The broad and well planned streets of Changzhou are lined with freshly-moved lawns, aesthetically appealing buildings and parks. It definitely feels like a city I could live in.

We are told that we need to finish our lunch in 20 minutes so that we can reach the Shanghai airport on time and make the flight to Lanzhou. It’s less than 24 hours since we have arrived in China and I already feel like it’s been a week. The lunch was as good as then dinner of the previous day, and has obvious local flavours and we are told that many of the vegetables were freshly picked from farms in the area. I started to wonder what farms our hosts were talking about until we began the return journey to Shanghai. Off the highway, I see mini-fields, resembling Russian dacha plots where food was being grown. The houses behind them are also quite charming.

Time has been made up and we are going to get to the Pudong airport for our Lanzhou flight with a few minutes to spare! This is the illusion until an accident ahead of us on the highway slows us down. Mr Shan tells us that we have been rebooked on a flight three hours later and can have a pit stop to stretch our legs.

One of our great fears is dispelled during this halt, as we go inside a supermarket that accepts both international bank cards and cash. Before coming to China we were worried that we wouldn’t be able to buy anything in the country without local apps that were banned in India. Among our purchases is Russian ice cream, made in Vladivostok and exported to China!

We then head to the Pudong airport for our three-hour flight to Lanzhou, in northwestern China. Sadly, bidding goodbye to Mr. Shan, we meet Manlin, a young diplomat who will accompany us for the rest of our journey! This is indeed the beginning of a wonderful friendship.

Off we go to Lanzhou in the heart of Central Asia!