Not a Mercedes

I borrowed my friend’s car this vacation.  I think I will buy it

.  It is kind of like the Mercedes “Smart Car”, a very small car.  It isn’t like a normal car, that you get into.  This is the kind of car you “put on”.  It is 10 feet long and less than five feet wide.  I took a 300 km trip with it this vacation and it is very cool.

I went to Rhongjiang and talked to a traffic control guy.  He asked me what kind of car it is.  It is the same size as the Mercedes Benz “Smart Car”.  I said I didn’t know, and he said, “It’s not a Benz.”.

Finding Waldo, The USA exhibits were hard to find, but were there.

The USA exhibits at the China-Guizhou International Alcoholic Beverages Exposition were hard to find, but the wine tasted good.

Wine Fest Snapshots – The Flavor of the Festival

Alco-Tourism. These are some of my favorite shots from the wine festival.  They capture the flavor of the event.

Alco-Tourism, Many Countries at the Guizhou Wine Fest

I visited the Wine Festival from the 9th to the 12th.  Most of the action takes place on September 10 and 11, with a lot of public there and wineries in full competition.  The 9th saw the festival open only to exhibitors, with opening to public toward the end of the day. Many countries were represented. The Guizhou government subsidized travel expenses, paid for shipping of wine, and provided free kiosks to the exhibitors. In a “Where’s Waldo” moment, I had trouble finding the USA exhibitions. They were kind of tucked away, and not well presented. Not many USA wineries were represented, by comparison to France, Italy, Eastern Europe, and South America. Another Where’s Waldo moment was when my Argentine friend looked for his home country. Although Argentina wine is all over Guiyang, Argentina wasn’t represented at the Expo. Maybe that was a mistake . . .

 

260 Members join new Alcoholic Drinks Resource Association

A World Alcoholic Drinks the Alliance (WADA) was formed to share resources and promote group competitiveness. Wine industry associations have organized and formed this association, with the first meeting held at  The China-Guizhou International Alcoholic Beverages Expo. The first session of this new organization was held on the morning of September 9. Alcoholic drinks associations were represented from five continents.Logo

Alco-Tourism

The The China-Guizhou International Alcoholic Beverages Expo will be ready for the opening ceremony Tuesday morning. Preparations are underway. Alco-Tourism is not a joke.  Guizhou is taking every chance to promote tourism, along with the international wine industry . . .

Guizhou is a beautiful province and the wine expo is promoting Guizhou.

The caption says: “Intoxicated with the Beauty of Guizhou”. On September 7 the preparations are well underway and approximately 1400 vendors are setting up:

 

 

 

Alco-Tourism

The China-Guizhou International Alcoholic Beverages Expo opens September 9 and brings winery people, wine lovers and tourists together in Guiyang, the Capital of Guizhou Province. China is a big producer and consumer of alcohol and Guizhou is the home of Moutai, the national liquor of China. Guizhou is also one of the most beautiful provinces of China, with abundant water, mountains, forests, and minority peoples, with their traditional customs, costumes, and rituals. It is a world class tourist destination, that remains remarkably unspoiled. This conference brings people from wineries all over the world, including: South America, Europe, the USA, Mexico, Australia, and, of course, Asia. According to China Daily, as of August 31, 2014, (http://guizhou.chinadaily.com.cn/2014-09/01/content_18526032.htm ) more than 1,400 exhibitors from China and abroad have confirmed their attendance at the fourth China-Guizhou International Alcoholic Beverages Expo. This year’s Expo has attracted over 900 overseas exhibitors accounting for 64 percent of the total number of exhibitors, according to the organizing committee office. There are also 500 domestic exhibitors like Moutai, Wuninagye Liquor, Luzhou Laojiao, Yanjing Beer and Qingdao Beer. Meanwhile, 10 provinces, including Sichuan, Inner Mongolia, Zhejiang, Gansu, Anhui, Heilongjiang, Shanxi, Qinghai, Jiangxi and Ningxia, have established pavilions to show their image to the public.

Wine Festival is Tuesday the Ninth

The Guizhou International Wine Festival is starting on Tuesday the Ninth. It will be an easy festival to remember in the future.  Nine means “Jiu” in Chinese. The ninth month is “Jiu Yue” (yue = month)  and the ninth day of the month is “Jiu Hao”. On that day, we begin celebrating alcohol “Jiu” (alcohol = “jiu” also).  So it is very clever . . . We celebrate jiu on the jiu day of the jiu month.

Contact Information for Dennis

Contact Information for Dennis

My friend Dennis is in the tour business, and can help you if you still want to come to the festival.  The town is filling up because alcohol is big business in Guizhou.  This has been a very successful event in past years.

Dennis

Dennis

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lisa is the CEO of a company called: 贵州晟雅轩葡萄酒文化传播有限公司

This loosely translates to: “Guizhou Province Wine Culture Communication Company”

Lisa is a veteran festival organizer.

Lisa is a veteran festival organizer.

Lisa has spent a lot of time organizing this event and throughout the year she has been conducting wine tasting events, building the local market for grape wine. Since Guizhou is the home of Moutai, the most popular liquor in China, the term “wine” or “jiu” in Chinese usually refers to the liquor. Wine from green and red grapes must carry the prefix “grape” wine.

Lisa can be reached at local phone numbers: 13984899400 and 0851-6502533 Lisa’s email is a QQ number: 136759116@qq.com

 

Back

I am back in Guiyang and ready for another year of teaching at Guizhou Normal University.  It was a wonderful summer vacation.  I spent the whole time in Northern Michigan, in Traverse City, my home town.

I was a farmer for a little while, harvesting cherries on a friend’s farm.  I was up at 5am and in the fields by 7am.  Cherries aren’t picked anymore.  We mechanically shake the trees and collect the cherries on a big mechanical tarp, called a “catching frame”.  It then feeds into a mechanical conveyor belt and delivers the cherries into large 42 inch cubed boxes.  The boxes, when full, must weight about a ton.  I drove a tractor and delivered full boxes to the storage area and returned to the field with a new box. It was a great time.

The rest of the time I spent doing BBQs, golfing, and playing racketball.  I also hung around the health club, even lifting weights from time to time. I came back through Shanghai and saw some old friends there.Altogether, it was a wonderful seven weeks.

Flying back to Guiyang was a pain.  The bags were overweight and I had to mail some items back to Guiyang to minimize the expense.  My limited Chinese was taxed heavily, dealing with the post office.  Well, I got the package today, and all is well.