Shenzhen 2012

Couple of weeks back, it was finally the time for me to put my lousy mandarin to good use. I was being shipped off to Shenzhen, the home of Huawei. We flew into Hong Kong and from there we made our way to Shenzhen. We initially wanted to take the ferry but we had to wait close to 3 hours for it. The guy at the ferry ticketing counter actually advised us to take a bus or a taxi. 

We ended up taking a taxi and when I mean taxi I mean they packed as many people as they could into a Toyota Alphard. I would think that it would be a comfortable ride but it was anything but comfortable. The journey took just under 2 hours to reach.

Now being a Huawei employee in Shenzhen has it benefits. Basically if you go anywhere and eat anything, you just have to show your Huawei employee tag and you would get some discounts. Huawei is so big in Shenzhen that it even has it own exit on the freeway.

The first stop on the "tour" was the enterprise department exhibition hall. It is where all Huawei's Enterprise solutions are placed for demonstration. I was pretty impressed.

The display in the picture above is the product that we are trying to sell and implement here in the region. Walking about the Huawei campus and with the slightly cooling weather, you would not think you were in China. All the buildings are modern and it kinda looks like a campus in the US or something.

No expenses are spared and even the toilet is dem nice looking....

After the Enterprise Exhibition centre, we were brought for lunch and when I say lunch I mean like a really good lunch. First things first check out the Huawei Grand Restaurant...

They have hired some of the best chef's from all over the China to come and cook for Huawei's partners and customers. Not all Huawei's staff get to eat here. Only high ranking officials and if you are bringing partners and customers. I so happen to be on this trip with some Indonesian partners.

We (my colleagues and I) arrived earlier at the restaurant then the Indonesia partners. So my China counterpart (actually he is from Hong Kong) asked us to sit down and have some chinese tea. It was being served by a super hot chick.

We started chatting with her and we found out that the tea we were being served cost like USD1000 per pound. It almost fell off my stool when I heard that with my lousy understanding of Mandarin. The chick serving us tea was not any ordinary lady. She is an expert in tea and have been doing this for 3 years. She told us a Japanese customer who came to Huawei HQ many times always came to drink tea with her and even offer her a job in Japan under his mum.

The food was 5 star restaurant quality I tell you. Better then any chinese restaurant I have been too. All the ladies that have been hired to work in the restaurant are from flight stewardess school. They are look super pretty and can speak english pretty ok.

Next up was the general exhibition hall which is where they display all the Huawei's products.

That is just the entrance to the exhibition hall and in the exhibition hall, they have a nice place for customers and partners to have coffee...

Last but not least is the Huawei University. They have an entire building for training and re-training purposes.

Each seat comes with its own power supply and also Ethernet point for you to plug in your laptop. Oh talking about laptops, Huawei is so secure that even for me, a Huawei employee, I can bring my laptop in but I need special permission to bring it out. Crazy huh?

There were a heck a lot of other pictures that I didn't take because well I was with partners and have to look all professional and all. There was the admin building that looked like castles and even has a man made lake. That is how rich Huawei is. Hehe.