Suzhou International Auto Show 2009

Saturday, Sept. 5th, we decided to make a trip to the Suzhou International Expo Center for the Suzhou International Automobile Exposition. We read about the show in a small magazine called “What’s on in Suzhou”. This is a free magazine that comes out every month that contains a ton of advertisements mixed in amongst some small blurbs about the happenings around town. It doesn’t contain everything but it is a good start about what can be seen around town for the Westerner that cannot understand the local news and can’t read the local paper (if there is one, I can’t tell since I can’t read Chinese as I just mentioned so please try and keep up). You can see what the magazine contains at http://www.whatsoninsuzhou.com.cn, if you are interested. We’d never been to see an Auto Show back in the States so we decided to see what this was all about. Now adding to the appeal was the fact that the blurb about the auto show contained one of my favorite phrases (can you guess it?). Yep, that’s right…..No admission fee. Wo-hoo, FREE!!!!

So we get a cab from the Chateau and I indicate to the driver where to go according to the blurb from the magazine. He understands and then begins to talk to me, asking me questions. Oh-oh! This is usually trouble but I actually understand what he is asking me. [Editors note: We started Chinese classes 3 weeks ago and so far we’ve learned a lot and know we have a long road ahead to understand how this language works but it has helped us a little. The kids have been taking Chinese at school so we’re all trying to learn something about how to communicate with the locals.] The classes are paying off as I understand he is asking where we are from and trying to understand where in the US we are from. I’m not sure he understood Georgia but he at least understood we are Americans and he was probably one of the nicer taxi drivers we have had since he was very talkative even though we didn’t understand a lot he tried to make himself understood (of course he could have been calling me all kinds of nasty names in a very polite fashion…it helps me more to believe that they are all saying nice things).

Anyhow, we arrive and take stock of the situation and figure out where we are going and head in to see the show. We get past everything and then when we get to the doorway we find out we are missing something. The young lady says “Please follow me” and takes us over to a desk where they have the tickets. Tickets……hey, what happened to no admission fee?!?! Crap!!! Too good to be true so I part with my 80 RMB for the 4 tickets and we head back to the entrance. Oh yeah, you know I’ve got to send a note to the What’s On In Suzhou people to let them know they screwed this one up.

Anyhow, the music is blaring as we head in the entrance and follow the red carpet around the area. See the photos from Tammy’s links to see what we saw not only from an auto standpoint but also the “eye candy” women that we standing next to the cars. It looked like a bizarre version of the ladies from The Price is Right showing the cars with the pasted smiles and the sweeping hand gestures. They would look at every camera while the pictures were being taken without every really even changing expression. The ladies were much taller than the normal Chinese and some weren’t Chinese at all but Pilipino (and unfortunately for the Chinese “models”, they were clearly outclassed by the other models present in my opinion. It may be a matter of taste but the Chinese girls looked a little too emaciated and had basically the same figure that I do and that’s saying something. I’m not saying I would wear their dresses but I think I would’ve filled them out a little more….not to mention how good my legs look in those heels LOL!). It was very strange, as you walked around you would all of a sudden see the lights dim and the music come up for one area. The attention of the locals would be drawn to the area and some girls would come out in little dolls outfits (or something that looked like it was from the Tom Petty music video “Don’t come around here no more”) and start to dance. After they did their little routine, the big guns would come out with their “model walk” and stand by the different cars while all of the amateur photographers would snap a ton of photos.

As far as cars go, there are a ton of Chinese auto manufacturers (I’ve heard the number is somewhere around 90 different manufacturers in China) and so we tried to get all of the names but we couldn’t read half of them. One was BYD (Build Your Dreams) and another was Great Wall motors. Mixed in were the standards, Honda, Nissan, Mazda, Ford, Audi, Lexus, BMW and so on. We also saw a Bentley, a Rolls Royce, a Ferrari and some other of the luxury type vehicles. The cars ranged in price from what appeared to be around 8,800 RMB to one that was over 970,000 RMB; so a little something for everybody (as long as you’re Bill Gates).

Tammy played the role of “the tease” as she walked around and looked closely at cars, staring at the features, opening the doors and even sitting in the cars. The salespeople were all excited to come over and talk to the Westerners to try and sell us a car. I’d have to give them the wave off and let them know that we can’t drive in China (and based on what I have witnessed in my time here it would seem that neither can anyone else but that’s another story). One guy even talked to Jacob after we left his “showroom”. We wondered if he was trying to sell Jacob a car but he simply wanted to know where he was from (and why his mom was a tease).

Also of note; the multiple Chinese “Billy Mays” type that were peddling their wares near the exit area for the show. They were selling mops, folding picnic-style tables and a few other strange items considering this was an auto show (radio controlled helicopters; what the …???). Some had a table of sunglasses since you can’t look cool (looking at the cars since I would imagine that most could not afford a car) without the proper shades. They were even selling bicycles at the auto show, not the e-bikes but the standard bikes. They had BMW models for those that need a cushier bicycle seat or whatever “German engineering” that would be needed to make your bicycle better than the standard model. I mean really, a BMW bicycle, you’ve got to be kidding? For the spoiled child that needs to rub his money in the faces of his friends. We all know that there are “two Americas” but things here are much, much different. The gap between the “haves” and the “have-nots” here is larger than the gap between a politician and a logical thought (now that’s funny, I don’t care who you are). Don’t worry folks, I’ll be here all week; don’t forget to tips your waitress. So that’s our adventure to the auto show. We’ve got more updates to send out but it seems we never have the time to get the blog updated. We’ll do better, keep checking in and have a great week.