Welcome to the page showing some pictures from my time working in
China. AkzoNobel is currently building a large new production site in
Ningbo, China. This new site encompasses 5 projects: EO, EA, Chelates,
HCN and multisite. I am working as a process engineer for the EO
project, both for construction and Commisioning & Start Up. I will
try to update my site regularly, to try and keep everyone at home
informed of what I am doing and seeing here in China. I also have a Chinese Twitterfeed and a
normal Twitterfeed.
The construction site
I cannot show too much of the plant itself, as you may have expected.
Below is a picture taken from a distance showing a general view of the
site.
The larger structure on the left is the EA plant.
Several of my T&E colleagues are working on this plant The four
columns in the centre of the picture are part of the EO site, which is
where I work. Part of daily life on the plant is having lunch. The
lunch was served from see-through plastic boxes when I first arrived on
such. In my experience it is not very pleasant to eat your lunch while
staring at a dead fish head. Chinese people (and some Dutch people)
seem to have fewer problems. To be honest I was very happy when the
canteen opened. Lunch now look very similar to picture below. Fishheads
are still available for the enthusiast, but I have managed to avoid
them completely.
Travelling to and from
the plant
Most of the people working on the EO and EA project stay in the same
hotel in Ningbo. The hotel has kindly arranged transportatoin for us to
get us to the site in the morning and back to the hotel in the evening.
The transportation is by a bus, also known as the "Marriot Bus" or the
"Monkey Bus". The roads in in China are generally quite bad, at least
from what I have seen in this region. Unless you are on the motorway
you have to be prepared for big bumps in the road. This would be less
of a problem if the bus had decent suspension. Unfortunately it does
not, which means that sometimes you get a nasty surprise, but at least
it keeps you awake so you can see some of the sights along the way...
Pig transport, Chinese Style.
The Marriott hotel in
Ningbo
Most AkzoNobel people working on the site stay in the Marriott. I must
honestly say it is a wonderfull hotel. The rooms are comfortable, the
staff is friendly and you can more or less get anything you would like.
The hotel is located in the centre of Ningbo, which is ideal for people
who do not have their own transport. It is not advisavable to drive a
car in China as a foreigner, because Chinese drivers are nuts. Shops
and restaurants are within walking distance.
The hotel at night.
The hotel during the daytime (nice and sunny!). In the foreground you
can see the Ningbo
"Paulaner Munchner Biergarten", where you can enjoy typical german
cuisine, apparently...
The rooms are all in the top 10 floors of the building. Here you see a
quick overview of my room. (This is essentially my view when I am
writing this.)
As you can imagine the view from up high is pretty good. Unfortunately
it rains quite a lot here, but this is a relatively clear day.
This the view of Ningbo at night, taken from the hotel.
This picture was taken by Gerrit Ten Dolle, a colleague at Akzo (thanks
Gerrit!).
Food and drink
Most of the time the AkzoNobel people stay in the "Executive Lounge" of
the hotel. Lunch is generally quite big so in the evening there is
really no need to go out for a meal. Usually a snack in the lounge is
enough. There are however a number of restaurants around the hotel,
which serve decent food. As Ningbo is a larger city there are quite a
few non-Chines restaurants. The following are available: Chinese (from
various regions), Indian, Thai, Mexican, Argentine, German, English
(I'm counting pub food here), Italian, Japanese and Brasilian. I have
probably missed out on a few, but I am sure you get the general idea.
There are two areas in the centre of Ningbo where there is a quite
dense selection of restaurants. The first is around the Sheraton hotel
and the second is in Lao Wai Tan.
The picture above is Lao Wai Tan. As you can see it is very close to
the river and it could have some nice views. Since it is so close to
the river it smells and the Chinese have managed to make the picture
below part of the view. Chinese people really like like bright flashing
lights.
There are also some nice bars where we can sit outside and have a nice
drink. Thankfully the weather is nice therefore this is very common.
Below is a picture of the shopping district that is next to the hotel,
which is call He Yi Avenue. As you can see teh shops are quite
exclusive. I would not spend my money there, as it is very expensive.
So if anybody tells you that China is poor, don't believe them. There
are just a lot of poor people in China, which is not the same thing.
Trip to Osaka, Japan
I went on a trip to Osaka, which is closeby. There are some big
similarities between China and Japan, but there are also some big
differences. The big differences are that Japan is a lot quieter, a lot
more polite and a lot cleaner. I got on the subway after arriving at
the airport. Which nicely demonstrates the points I mention above:
There is a big castle in Osaka, which
played a pretty big part in the history of Japan. I spent most of the
day walking around the castle grounds and inside the castle. The first
picture is the outer moat.
The inner moat (which as you can see is empty)
The front of the castle.
From the top of the castle, with one of the fish ornaments.
Close-up of the front of the castle
Picture of the outer moat on the other side.
Just to prove that I was actually there...
After the castle I walked to the center of town throught the streets.
I saw some temples while I was walking. Kind of contrasting with the
rest of the city...
I then went for dinner which was interesting. If anyone ever offers you
to have some "Horsemeat Fukhoe style", I would advise to skip it. It
consists of raw horsemeat with onions and horseradish with a raw egg
yolk on top. It is the dish on the top right on the picture. I did not
like it... The screen in the middle of the picture is used to order the
food, which was actually very convenient.
Washtower
I went up the washtower recently and took a few pictures while I was up
there.
Not everything in the neighbourhood goes according to plan (don't worry
this did not happen at the AkzoNobel plant.
Trip to Hong Kong
I went to Hong Kong for a short trip to renew my visa. I will begin
with proof that I was actually there...
I spent the morning of my first day applying for my visa and gettting
measured for a suit. You can see a picture of the suit further down. I
was wearing it for the grand opening. The rest of the day I walked
around Kowloon. There are lots of shops in Kowloon (as there are in the
rest of Hong Kong). Fortunately there is also a park.
In the evening I went to the avenue of stars. This is where the Chinese
film industry has their walk of fame. There are stars on the floor and
the stars leave their handprints there. It is also an excellent spot to
take pictures of the Hong Kong Island side of the bay.
As you can see there are a lot of bright lights. Every nigth there is
also a ligthshow, with lasers.
The next day I took the star ferry across the bay and took some
pictures. This is the Kowloon side...
and this is the Hong Kong Island side.
Later the same day I went up to the peak. Where I took some nice shots
of the Hong Kong skyline.
And of course as always in Hong Kong there is a mall. My conclusion is
that Hong Kong is full of people selling stuff.
Grand opening of the Ningbo Multisite
The main opening of the site was on 8 November 2010. You can read some
more here.
We took a picture of the EO CSU team (left to right: Roderik, Richard,
Hans and Jeremy).
And also a picture of the most of the EO team (left to right: Toby,
Ben, Theo, Sven-olof, Roderik, Richard, Hans, Jeremy and two operators)
And also a picture of the PT people present at the opening (left to
right: Hendrik, Richard, Gerjan, Bram, Roderik and Hao).
Part of the opening ceremony was a lion dance. We got together with the
lions before the show, see below.
There was also a big sign for all the guests to sign. Here you can see
the official signing by some of the more important people present.
After all this fun beforehand it was time for the official ceremony to
start. The first act was a local group of girl drummers.
After that there were the obigatory speaches. Below a picture of the
one by Hans Wijers (CEO AkzoNobel).
Followed by a lion dance.
and finally the actual opening thingy.
Last updated on 11 November 2010