For those of you that are new I live in northern Iowa among the corn and soybean fields, little town of about 500 counting dogs, cats, chickens and other livestock so I'm a small town type guy.
Xisico USA asked me to come visit their factory in Hangzhou, China and look at what they have and give some input in the new CO2 rifle on the development table. If the gas gun sees the light of day it will really be nice, they want it to be a repeater and will be an almost all metal gun with a minimum of plastic. It's still in the very beginnings of the development but the basic idea is good, wish I could say more about it but I am supposed to keep it under wraps.
I left home about 2 am on the 3rd and drove to Des Moines for my flight to Chicago, tha flight left on time at around 6am and the only problems I had were with going through the security at the airport, see my sight for pictures of me and you will understand why I always have trouble.....got into Chicago O'Hare and made the transfer and was underway to China for about 13 hours, thats a long time to be closed up in a flying tube, kind of like a pellet waiting to be shot out the barrel. The AH1N1 thing was just starting and we had to sit on the tarmac for an hour until the health crew came out in space suits with laser's and took our temps to make sure we were healthy, then spent another hour or more going through customs and immigration. They don't air con the terminal like we do here in the states so everyone was pretty much stinky and wet by the time we were through. Not alot of hassle on that end, just so many people going through it took forever.
Ye Sun was waiting for me at the end of all this and wee got into his Audi and took off for Hangzhou, it's about a 2 hour drive and was in town for most of the way, he said we were out in the country some of the time but it looked like the city to me as there were apartment type buildings all the way. We got to the hotel and was checked in and then went to the factory to meet the folks there and then out for dinner. Every meal I had was great, 6,8,9,10 or more dishes to eat, they have a round eating table with a big lazy susan in the middle that they keep piling food on, spin it around until what you want is in front of you and then you just reach in with the chop sticks and grab as much as you want. All the dishes were meat or veggies and you had to ask for rice, to drink there was always the green tea thats native to that area, they gave me two big boxes of it to take home so if you come to visit guess what you will get. The meals always had beer, it a 2% beer that has good taste but little or no buzz unless you gulp it, look out for the white wine however. The white wine is a distilled product that runs 30% alky and tastes kind of like raw alky, always toasting all through the meal with the beer or wine. After the meal then home to the hotel and bed.
The next morning I was up at around 5 or 6 and ready to go, went and sat in front of the hotel and watched the people and traffic go by, I was watched by the local folks as much as I was watching them, long hair and a full beard are not common so I was kind of an oditity for them. If you like to watch girls it's like going to heaven. At about 8 Ye Sun picked me up and then off to the factory for a bit of a tour and then to work, I did about two original parts tunes a day, just to show them what tightening the specs up and smoothing parts would do for each model, worked on the B-25 (Ruger Air Hawk), B-28, B-16, B-12 and some others.
The factory also makes the new B3-3 underlever rifle, an up grade of the B3-1/2, the S-2 break barrel pistol and some other stuff that goes to the UK and Europe. The factory itself is a complex of around 8 or 10 buildings, all 2 stories with narrow roads between and lined with trees and flower beds. Each building is set up for different processes, one for welding etc., another for machineing, assembly, packing testing, storeage etc. The buildings are not new but are well maintained and as clean as they possibly can make them, full production makes a mess no matter how much you clean. The equipment is good, once again not brand new but very well maintiained and was more exacting than I thought they would be. I had one of the machineists making top hats for springs and while he didn't speak english and I have no chinese after showing him a drawing of what I wanted he took to it like a duck to water and could whip then out in nothing flat. At noon everybody laid down tools and went for lunch, I was taken to a nice reserant everyday and fed until I couldn't eat anymore and then back to work for the afternoon until around 5 then once again out to eat more than was needed with drinks. The factory managers son took me out and wee hit the town for an hour or everynight then back to the hotel and to bed. The night life is fun, spent time walking the streets and looking at all the shops and people, played pool and managed to lose as much as I could. One evening I went out on my own and hit a night club next to the hotel, it was a kareoke type place and had a heck of a time getting in but a fellow came out and invited me in. The place has small room with couches all around a central table covered with beer bottles that never seemed to get empty but at 2% you can put alot away and not be bothered, loud music that we each sang to, my singing is not the greatest but there was one young lady that had a great voice that was joy to listen to even if I didn't understand the words. On Friday YE Sun took me to Shanghai and put me up in a hotel there, on saturday I took a tour of Shanghai. The first place we went was to the river front, you could see the tallest building in China and lots of the tall buiding in the area, then to an old garden with the old style building with all the ornaments etc., it was build and owned by one family for many years but is now a park owned by the government. Huge complex of small building with gardens and walkways between, just beautiful. Then on to What is called the Stone Gate area, it was a housing complex buildt in the 1920's and restored a few years ago and turned into a commerial area with lots of high end stores, didn't buy anything as the prices were sky high. Then on to the state owned pearl store, learned the difference between fresh water pearls and salt water pearls. Fresh water prearls can have up to 20 pearls in each oyster while salt water ones will only have one or two. Spent some money on my wife there. Then on to the state owned silk store, saw how silk cloth is made and silk quilts, very nice but hard on the wallet. On to a Buddist temple (Temple of the Jade Buddha) check it out on line. It was a holy day and lots of worshipers there, felt kind of funny wandering through the temples while they were praying but it didn't seem to bother them. On Sunday everything caught up with me and I spent the day sleeping and just laying around. Them back to the airport and another 13 hours of flying back to Chicago and then to Des Moines, got home at one in the morning.
One heck of a trip to go on, the cities are crowded and with 20 million plus in Shanghai it's not my place to live, the pollution is there but from what I understand is getting better. Just a matter of rapid expansion and not a lot of regulations yet. If I missed something let me know your questions and I will answer. This trip was made possible by your buying my rifles so it was your trip also. Thanks for all the support........
