July 1, 2001: Heaven & Simple Vs. Real

Hi,

In my last email, I started to tell you about the Bund area in Shanghai.
Here's the URL for the pictures.

http://community.webshots.com/album/16267363UOSxuSRkuf

I started to post the pictures of the Yu Yuan area, but the upload time is
quite long, and I didn't finish. Here is the URL, but the photo album may
not be complete until later in the week.

http://community.webshots.com/album/16615083cTTWXOicBr

In Shanghai, another interesting place that I visited was the Shanghai
Museum. It is near the People's Park, and across the street there is a new
museum that is about the city of Shanghai. My friend told me that in this
museum, there is a model of the buildings in Shanghai. The Shanghai Museum
itself is shaped like a Chinese jade zong tube, which is an ancient burial
art object. It has circular and rectangular layers mixed together. I
really enjoyed all the Chinese painting, art objects, and costumes of the
minority groups in China. Among the paintings are those by many master
painters. Again, I'll try to post the pictures by next week.

While I lived in Shanghai, during the day, I had training in Kunshan, which
is about 1 hour away by highway, half way between Shanghai and Suzhou.
Avery Dennison has a fairly large and new plant there, and we make all
kinds of adhesive materials there. On the plant grounds, there is a new
building dedicated to training people regarding printing on adhesive
materials. We had about 15 participants in the training, 6 of us were
Avery employees, and the rest were our top customers in Asean.

In the evenings, we took our customers out for dinner, sightseeing, and
entertainment. One night we went to a nightclub for karaoke and dancing,
which I really enjoyed. We divided into two groups. I led the group
containing our customers that were married, and our female colleagues,
while a co-worker led all the single guys in the other group. In the other
group, they had female "hostesses" join them in their room for karaoke and
drinks. I think in Asia, it is quite common to entertain your male clients
at these kinds of KTV clubs with hostesses. I think it's quite sad, but I
guess it's part of doing business. I did hear from my co-worker that even
in the other room, it was quite "clean" and above board.

After our training ended, I took a train to Suzhou for some sightseeing. I
really enjoyed Suzhou, and I'll describe my trip there in detail in the
next email.

I'll be going to Hong Kong this coming Friday, 7/6 to Monday, 7/9. Then
I'll be going to Bangkok for a week and a half. Let me know if you will be
around in Hong Kong this coming weekend, and I would love to try to meet up
with you. After this trip, I'll be going to Jakarta, Manila and Kuala
Lumpur, for about a week each. I just hope that it will be safe by the
time I travel to these places. In Asean, only Singapore is very safe.

This week's thought provoking question is: "If you had to choose the
single most valuable thing you ever learned, what would it be?"

The humor and inspirational pieces below were forwarded by Anna Man and
Valerie Cheung (repeated from before), respectively.

Enjoy!

-Josh.
_________________________________________

Heaven

An eye doctor, a heart surgeon and an HMO executive die and are in heaven.
God asks the eye doctor why he should be let into heaven. The doctor
explains to God that he helped people save or regain their sight. God says,
"Welcome to heaven, my son."

God then asks the heart surgeon what he had done in life that should allow
him into heaven. "I saved people from death from heart attacks and heart
disease," the doctor replies. "Welcome to heaven, my son," God says.

God then turns to the HMO executive. God asked him what he was, and the man
replied that he worked for an HMO. "Welcome to heaven, my son," says God,
''but you have to leave in two days."
_________________________________________

SIMPLE VS REAL

A simple friend has never seen you cry
A real friend has shoulders soggy from your tears.

A simple friend doesn't know your parents' first names.
A real friend has their phone numbers in his address book.

A simple friend brings a bottle of wine to your party.
A real friend comes early to help you cook and stays late to help you clean.

A simple friend hates it when you call after he has gone to bed.
A real friend asks you why you took so long to call.

A simple friend seeks to talk with you about your problems.
A real friend seeks to help you with your problems.

A simple friend wonders about your romantic history.
A real friend could blackmail you with it.

A simple friend, when visiting, acts like a guest.
A real friend opens your refrigerator and helps himself.

A simple friend thinks the friendship is over when you have an argument.
A real friend knows that it's not a friendship until after you've had a
fight.

A simple friend expects you to always be there for them.
A real friend expects to always be there for you!

Pass this on to anyone you care about...
if you get it back you have found your true friends.

A ball is a circle, No beginning, No end.
It keeps us together, like our circle of friends, but the treasure inside
for you to see is the treasure of friendship you've granted to me.