No, no … Don’t worry, I didn’t get in trouble or anything even close to that concept, but I did get caught in the rain today. The PM team at work wanted to get together for lunch and invited me to join them. We want to a restaurant for a Hunan style lunch of soup broth, toppings, and rice noodles. Gosh it was delicious! So delicious in fact, I forgot to take a picture.
During the middle of lunch the skies opened up and it poured for a good 30 minutes. Neither me nor my future coworkers had umbrellas so we tried waiting it out. Unfortunately a couple of people had 2pm meetings so we had to brave the rain. It did let up a bit, but it was still heavier than a drizzle.
About four blocks from home and two blocks away from the restaurant, it started to pour again. Fortunately I was near a subway entrance and hopped inside there full well knowing I could walk underground for a couple blocks and not get completely soaked. By the time I got to the exit and up to ground level, the rain stopped and the remainder of the walk home was relatively dry.
While annoying for not having an umbrella with me in such a downpour, the rain did clear the pollutants out of the air and dropped the humidity levels a bit.
Lunch, besides delicious, introduced a new concept. I’ve seen QR codes on tables here before but did not know why they were there. It turns out if you scan the QR code it will open a web page. On that web page you place — and pay for — your order! There is either a QR code for every seat at each table or one for the entire table.
Not only does this type of food ordering work great, it removes two potential bottlenecks and issues for restaurants: the waiter and the cashier. You don’t wait for anyone to take your food order nor do you need to flag someone down for the bill or use cash for payment! If your phone has WeChat Wallet or AliPay installed, you’re able to pay through those apps. Perfect! You just need to read enough Chinese to understand what you’re ordering 🙂
Now I need to go get a Chinese phone and number so I can utilize this new found knowledge. It’s a good thing the phones are manufactured in this country as the phones come cheap and off-contract!