Halal restaurants in Zhongshan & Guangzhou

Hi, I just got back from China, went there on 18/12/11 and came back on 24/12/11.

Went there on business trip. I was in Zhongshan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhongshan to visit ThyssenKrupp elevator factory and I was in Guangzhou to visit Otis escalator & travellator factory.

18/12/11 (Sunday)

We landed at Guangzhou Airport on 18/12/11 and it was warm (colder than KL but hotter than Genting) and we were puzzled why locals wrapped up with thick coat, shawl, hat, boothttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifs.

ThyssenKrupp rep waited for us at the airport and took us to Zhongshan (2 hours drive away). We checked in at King Century Hotel

We reached the hotel at about 4.30pm, after checked in we went for coffee at Starbucks outlet nearby. The hotel? The room is big and breakfast spread..hmm not much choice for muslim just bread, cereals and grilled fish!

Bernard the ThyssenKrupp rep took us to dinner at Xin Yue Muslim Restaurant everyone enjoyed the xinjiang food dinner and looked forward to tomorrow's lunch at the same restaurant! After dinner, Bernard took to us to walk around/window shop at Zhongshan pedestrian street shops. Bernard took us back to the hotel and the group was split into 3 groups! one group continued shopping at the pedestrian street, the next group prefer to go experience Zhongshan clubbing scene while me and another guy preferred to go for full body massage. Not bad, 1 hour/person was only 40 Yuan (RM20).

19/12/11 Monday
Full day at the factory. Bernard did a splendid job, everything is ready and he had arranged for right persons to answer all our queries. All the tests passed with flying colours. Client wanted to cramp all the tests today, so we shorten our lunch and the factory had arranged for KFC lunch delivery for us (prawn burger n chips). After the visit, Bernard took us for massage (I opted for foot reflexology), according to Bernard it was about 70 yuan (RM35), the rest opted for body massage. After massage we went to Xin Yue Muslim Restaurant again and met up with 3 guys from ThyssenKrupp escalator/travellator/PBB factory. Again, very tasty dinner. Lots of grilled meat (beef, lamb, chickens). I did not snap any pictures, ha ha to shy to do that but you can view similar food here the ThyssenKrupp guys told us, Xin Yue is not the only muslim restaurant in town! well...maybe next time.

After dinner, the group decided to go for shopping n clubbing again but I opted to go back to hotel.

20/12/11 Tuesday
We checked out from King Century Hotel and took 2 hours drive to Guangzhou. Checked in into Westin Hotel nice hotel. After checking in, Bernard took us for lunch at Xin Jiang Building Glass House. More xinjiang food and can't imagine more xinjiang food until 23/12/11! After lunch off we went to Shangxia Jiu Lu to shop.

I didn't buy anything though I found few interesting sweaters n clothes for my nieces/nephews as I still have 3 more days in Guangzhou.

After shopping, went back to hotel to freshen up. We decided to go for light dinner at Subway (I had tuna sandwich), after dinner, again others decided to go clubbing while I went back to hotel to enjoy warm cozy bed n tv.

21/12/11 Wednesday
Breakfast spread at Westin is huge, more choices for me. After breakfast, client group packed and ready to depart for airport. While waiting for 2nd group to arrive, 3 of us decided to venture to Beijing Road (Beijing Lu) by using Guangzhou Metro

We had sushi for lunch (very expensive) and then the 2nd group arrived n we had to rush to hotel to meet them. Dinner was at Guang Zhou Xin Yue Muslim Restaurant (same building as Glass House Restaurant where we had our lunch earlier). Thankfully my project team member who was with us in earlier group went to the restaurant first with the rest of the new group and he ordered different kind of food (more cantonese rather than xinjiang food).

Otis guy was not prepared and very inexperienced. He didn't bring enough yuan and he was on tight budget! The restaurant did not accept his card and he had to borrow money to pay for dinner! After dinner he disappeared! OMG! Your host disappeared...tsk tsk tsk I had to call him n reminded him that he's with clients and he should not behaved the way he did. He came back half and hour later and we had advised him on proper way to conduct the Factory Acceptance Test (FAT). He listened but decided to do his way..sigh..

22/12/11 Thursday
Factory not ready for FAT and the day was filled up with shopping activities at Beijing Road. Since Otis guy has no cash, he looked around for a place that can accept his card and decided to bring us to Ritz Carlton Hotel for lunch! Fancy place but he decided to place lunch order himself without asking group members if the food is acceptable to all! He ordered bread, salad and fried rice....sigh..

He seemed to forget client pay for everything and he's not spending Otis's money but he's spending client's money!

After lunch, we returned back to hotel and later that night we went to Ottoman Restaurant (again in front of everyone Otis guy asked the restaurant if they'll accept his card and again to control his budget, Otis guy ordered for everyone). We went back to hotel and later some of the group members ventured out to check out Guangzhou night life.

23/12/11 Friday
After breakfast, we went to Otis factory. After controversial briefing (Otis rep was not prepared), Otis guy sent us to the nearby reflexology centre as he needed to prepare inspection form! Clients were furious but tolerated but when we made to wait at the centre and nobody attended to us, they can't no longer repressed their anger and decided to walk back to otis factory and demanded to continue with the FAT! after few minutes we noticed they were not ready and some of the components were not even available at the factory! The clients can no longer tolerated and they exploded!
The FAT didn't end well. The Otis guy failed in PR (dealing with people) and he was disorganized from day 1. Very disappointing!

We went for dinner at Abdullah Qinghai Moslem Restaurant everyone tried to forget what happened earlier at the factory but with not much success.

After dinner, we were taken for massage (again I opted for foot reflexology), a bit too late for Otis to pamper their guests n develop good PR but I guess it was their way of apologizing for their screw up.

24/12/11 Saturday
Thank God, the ordeal was over n time to go home...