Running with the bulls…

Think big, think big crowds, and think “I have no idea what I’m doing or where I’m going but I’m following the crowd,” and you’ll start to get a feel for what the Canton Fair is like. I’m staying in the Paco Hotel, which is only a couple of miles from the Canton Fair, but it took a good two hours from the time I left the hotel this morning until I was actually inside seeing new motorcycles.  For starters, there’s the Guangzhou traffic. It’s normally heavy, but as we got closer to the fair (after crossing the Pearl River, which bisects Guangzhou), things really got thick.

Then there was the press to get into the fair once I was off the bus. It involved hoofing it in a heavy crowd of like-minded attendees for a good mile, but you just don’t walk into the fair. Getting in is a process, and the process starts with guessing which crowd to follow.  I got lucky.  I guessed right.   You have to buy a pass, and for me, I opted to get the 100 RMB buyer’s badge. 100 RMB is about $16, and that will get me in to the Canton Fair all week (as opposed to paying 30 RMB for a spectator’s pass every day).

But you can’t just buy the badge. The crowds are heavy and the security is, too. Lines, lines, and more lines.  And for every one of them, I had to guess at which one I had to follow.  I had to go through a metal detector after standing in a long line. Then I had to stand in another long line to fill out an admission application form. Then it was another long line for a photo. Then it was another line to take the photos to the folks to make my badge. Then it was another line to pay for the badge. Then it was another line to get the badge. And while all this was going on, the crowds were deep and pushy. But they were friendly.

I didn’t bump into anybody from the United States today, but I did meet several interesting people from fairly exotic parts of the planet. One guy asked me where I was from, and when I told him, he told me he was from Iran. Wow. He asked me what I thought about what Mr. Trump did in Syria this weekend. Hmmmm. This could get interesting, I thought.

“You know, Mr. Trump doesn’t call me as often as he used to,” I told my new friend, “and even if he had called this weekend, I had a 15-hour flight to get here, so I would have  missed the call.”  He stared at me for a couple of seconds and then he started laughing.  We both had a good laugh and he took a selfie of the two of us.  Yep, that’s me. Working for world peace, one selfie at a time.

Things were moving right along. I had my photo, I had my badge, and now I was in the last line this morning…the line to get inside and actually start seeing motorcycles.  And then it started raining. On us.  Standing in line.  Outside.  Hey, if this was easy, everybody would be doing it…

I finally made it to the Promised Land, and there it was…the Canton Fair’s motorcycle exhibit area!

The Zongshen booth was the first one I saw. It was one of many, and interestingly, even though the good the folks from Zongshen had a lot of bikes on display, they did not have the RX4, the RX3, or the RX1 in their booth. Zongshen did have an RX3S and the Café Racer, though (along with many other motorcycles), and it looks like they’ve taken our lead and they are now offering the Café Racer with the 250cc engine.

I had lunch with my good Zongshen buddy Robbie (that’s Robbie in the photo above) and another guy from Zongshen I met for the first time today.  His name is Jason. Jason handles RX3 sales in Pakistan. Wow. Pakistan. I asked Jason if his duties required visiting Pakistan and the answer was yes. I asked what that was like and he said it was not bad at all. Like most places in the world, I guess, the stories about things being dangerous are greatly overblown. But still…Pakistan. Wow. I imagine it would cool to have a decal on your bike for an RX3 tour in Pakistan.

The Canton Fair has a restaurant row that must have 100 restaurants, ranging from exotic Middle Eastern foods all the way to Papa John’s pizza. I had Chinese food (and I’ll probably have Chinese food again tonight). It was beef dumpling soup for a whopping 25 RMB (that’s $3.96 in US dollars), and it was delicious.

My buyer’s badge has given me status and made me a target. There are motorcycle parts suppliers at the Canton Fair, and when they see a buyer’s badge, they are on the case. They all wanted my business card and they all wanted me to have theirs. There are a lot of battery suppliers in China, I guess, and they all hire attractive young women (like the one in the photo below) who want to me to buy their motorcycle batteries.

More to follow, folks.  The Canton Fair!  This sure is fun!