Meetings are different in China. As leader of the delegation, I sit in an armchair side by side with my Chinese opposite number, making long interventions. So we don’t look at each other, we don’t spark off each other’s ideas, we don’t interact much. But the formality means that each meeting has a shape and much meaning is indirect. In Chongqing I had such a meeting with the Mayor (a bit like meeting Boris Johnson - Mayor of London - except Chongqing is bigger!). The best thing was taking British companies with me and getting them high-level access.
We had a banquet with the Mayor. I love the food (one dish was called ‘Buddha jumping over the wall’) but wish the dishes didn’t come so quickly. Ten or fifteen dishes in a few minutes means most of the food goes to waste. Snails, sea slugs, lots of fungus, hot spices in Sichuan. The etiquette in helping yourself is interesting. You just go for it. But no need to eat anything. You can just leave a plate untouched and it gets taken away.
Chinese food in China varies enormously by region. But it is not at all the British version of Chinese food. That set me thinking about how we use Chinese themes, motifs, decorations, styles and images which would not be recognisable to the Chinese. 'Chinoiserie' is our interpretation of China for British tastes. And it works the other way round. I visited ‘Oxford Street’, a real estate development based on English themes. ‘Oxford’ refers to the University though, not the shopping street. The symbols were a bit mixed up (a Scottish saltire flag with a unicorn!). The wood panelling and the classical columns were more Cecil B. DeMille than an Oxford college. Britishness sells, but it's a Chinese version, not ours. So the new Opera Home in Chongqing is opening with its first production of ‘Cats’. A British export, of a sort.
Chongqing markets itself as a hub, as we market the UK. But an inland hub. Ocean-going vessels can get over 1500 kilometres up the Yangtze River to Chongqing. It sees itself as the gateway to the Indian Ocean to the West. It was the capital of China for a while in the 1940s, and it has self-confidence.
After a Sunday afternoon and evening of engagements, it was a full day on Monday with speeches, government meetings, company visits and so forth. Then it was up at 5:30am (9:30 UK time, arrgh) to get a plane to Shandong. This province has huge economic weight and commercial potential. I am joining a financial services and advanced engineering mission in Jinan, before flying on in the evening to Guangzhou in the far south of China. Shandong is where Eric Liddell, the Scottish runner in Chariots of Fire, died. Now it has a particular link to Scotland with MOUs and many exchanges.
Flying over a snow-covered China to get there, I was struck by how densely populated it is. It feels like flying over the USA. Indeed, one feeling of globalisation for me is how the two leading economies, the USA and China, are getting more and more alike. A theme for another day.