There’s an apparent requirement for companies in China to have a big off-site meeting at least once a year. Employees expect this to happen and the event is usually pretty jam-packed. Microsoft China is no exception to this cultural event and so begins my first big company meeting, in Wuhan!
Wuhan (武汉市) is the capital of Hubei Province in Central China. The city is known as the Chicago of China as it is a major transportation hub for not only roads but also rails. And by rail is how I got here.
Taking the high-speed rail in China is pretty easy and economical. Sites like ctrip.com cater to the English speaking crowd but charge a lovely premium for their services. As a foreigner, if you purchase a train ticket online, you still need to go to the train station to pick up your train ticket allowing someone to validate your passport/ID. It’s kind of annoying but there’s no way around it. Fortunately for this trip work provided the ticket so I was able to skip that part.
About three hours into the five hour, 1000km journey it was lunch time. A lady came around taking orders, but I have no idea what I was getting as one of my coworkers ordered for me. Part of me wishes I knew what the options were as this is what was served:
Needless to say I’ll never complain about airline food again! And lesson learned: Plan ahead for long train rides and bring some food with you.
I’m now enjoying a bit of relaxing Sunday as it’s beer o’clock. Next up: dinner, poker game, and bed as tomorrow is a long day of meetings.
