xhu

Champagne, Marinated and Ice Cream<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o:p></o:p>

<o:p></o:p>

The race track is the hottest spot in the summer. Racers are all engaged to start. Audiences are getting pop corns, ice creams and hot dogs. Young boys and girls are having popcycles. It is hot and sweaty. T-shirts sales people are going here and there to sell race car T-shirts. Personels of the F-1 race are working with their fullest potential.<o:p></o:p>

<o:p></o:p>

Summer is the best season of this place. Sunshine, trees, flowers, camp grounds, and swimming pools are people's most love. Sweet smiles on girls' faces and steady please and thank you from guys' mouth in every shop you visit make sure you are still in heaven. Grilled chicken, marinated, fries and salad, dish everyone wants to order in all seasons comes into everyone's home, a gas powered BBQ oven in one's back yard is definately an asset. When time past 5pm, lines of traffic on the high way facing the coming down sun in the slightly reddish and golden shiny sky move slowly and quietly. TVs just finishs American soap opera and gets ready to let everyone know what happened in the world and the city today. When the sky turns dark, local restaurants, bars, dance clubs and downtown streets are full with people's laughs, jokes and humors. Restless city! The next morning, an alarm wakes you up. After coffee, toast and a TV news break and a couple of phones calls to the bank and the insurance company and the stock brokers, you are on your way to work with your new Pontiac Grand AM. At the lunch break. grilled chicken, marinated with fries come across your mind, one more thing, salad and coffee.<o:p></o:p>

<o:p></o:p>

Seasonal alternation comes fast, moments of glory on maples and oaks with some aged dark brownish gray barks slipped away from my mind. Yearly sea brushed natural stones on the shore standing tall and round from coast to coast are all over in this place. The prime time on news cast always fast paced at clock speed. Slowly, the first crystal shiny snow flick drops to this northern land. By the time Christmas comes, exhausted year and passionate people in the city and the country are all celebrating in their home beside their fireplace or at dinner parties.<o:p></o:p>

<o:p></o:p>

On the other side of the earth, in the early morning northern China, traditional hot soy milk with a deep fried historical bread stick takes everyone's dinner table. At about the same time, Tiananmen Square and parks scattered throughout the city are filled with people of all ages practicing Qi Kong and Chinese martial arts. After 8am, streets are full of bicycles and motor vehicles. The city gets busy. Beijing has lots of government departments, agencies, universities and research institutes and companies from local and all over the world, as the capital city of China. Shopping centers, supermarkets and stores in the city open their door at nine. They are the best places for visitors, housewives and some others. Sports centers and gyms in the morning are not very busy, but personnel are all looking at engaging for the afternoon. One quarter past ten, an old retired factory worker brings his tea cup, joining two others carrying their tea cups and Chinese chess set at the corner, heading to the park two blocks north. When the lunch time comes, Chinese fried chicken competing with Kenturkey fried chicken beside McDonalds does not attract a lot of customers, rather in beef noodles restaurants, a line is formed. Well, McDonald then, impatient young men and well dressed office women are arguing. Their older aged male manager say, let's have Korean BBQ beef. Of course, the check will be billed on corporate credit card. Time after three, busy phone lines still make receptionist headache transfering callers to managers, associates, agents and others. By 5pm, one associate still has't figured out how he will finish his own work, the manager requested him to work it out for the remaining of the day. He will get a good pay for his overtime, and if he did a good job, he would be better rated for the once a year yearly bonus. And his good work will be directly reported confidentially to the company headquarter in Hongkong. That means the next time his manager goes to a different department, his record will be shown on company president's name list. Well, 7% GDP growth in China every year does not come from nothing, and it does not go for nothing.<o:p></o:p>

<o:p></o:p>

Continued...