{"id":6,"date":"2020-01-03T10:13:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-03T10:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/?p=6"},"modified":"2020-02-12T10:52:38","modified_gmt":"2020-02-12T10:52:38","slug":"the-new-years-eve-event-of-c-trip-yunnan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/?p=6","title":{"rendered":"The New Year’s Eve event of C-Trip Yunnan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

pieterneele | 13 January, 2020 14:34<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I ended up at the New Year\u2019s Eve event of C-Trip Yunnan, held in a convention center in provincial capital Kunming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

C-Trip is a colossal travel company. Flights, train tickets, tours, \nhotels \u2013 they do it all. Total revenue over 2018 4.5 billion US$, total \nnumber of employees 45.000 . The Yunnan province  branch is much \nsmaller, but there were still about a thousand people at the party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It wasn\u2019t my usual environment. Introductions came with the question \nwhether you\u2019re buyer or seller, talk was of sales figures. To me a \n\u2018market\u2019 is a place where ethnic minorities gather in traditional dress.\n But it was fun to attend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were speeches and kitschy music and a light show. Bonuses and \ntrophies were handed out to C-Trippers who performed well. Recent \nacquisition Qunar (literally \u2018Go where\u2019) was welcomed to the C-Trip \nfamily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a peptalk by the CEO, with plans and intentions for 2020 \nthat could simply be summarized as: More! I couldn\u2019t follow it in all \nits detail, but was the Chinese Dream mentioned in his speech? And did I\n hear someone at my table joke that the Chinese Dream was quite tiring?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Things went on and on. People mostly busied themselves with their \nphones, had a chat. A sudden rise in interest for the lottery. You could\n win trips. Two weeks to Japan or the USA, or a cruise. If less lucky \nyou only got to Halong  Bay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dinner was served. Duck and beef and pork. And stomach of unclear \norigin. Slices of raw fish in Japanese sauce, and a braised fish. \nVegetables and flower cakes. All in fixed amounts per table though, \nthere were no second servings. Same for the drinks. Two bottles of \nChilean wine per table, no more. I was lucky, at my table most prefered \nCoke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The event dragged on into the evening. Out on stage it was more of \nthe same. Awards, talks, a bit of song and dance. By now it took too \nlong. It got cold, it is a Kunming winter after all, without heating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few left. But could you really? We were still waiting for the main lottery prize, a high end smartphone it was rumoured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wasn\u2019t in the draw. To join you had to scan a QR code in the main \nlobby. To win a smart phone you had to have one. I didn\u2019t, mine recently\n crashed and I didn\u2019t yet replace it. Life ain\u2019t fair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At last the draw for second prize, Huawei\u2019s top model phone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
I was there on the ticket of my associates at C-Trip daughter Baishitong<\/em> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And then for first prize, an iPhone 11. The draw was computerized, on a screen all the entrants flashed by in super quick succession. Anticipation built. It was won by \u2026. the manager who had presented the whole event. Confusion, laughter. I guess it was prearranged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The draw was redone. This time it made the day of someone in the audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon after the hall was empty, everyone made their way home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a pleasure to see many old friends. It was a good day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

pieterneele | 13 January, 2020 14:34 I ended up at the New Year\u2019s Eve event of C-Trip Yunnan, held in a convention center in provincial capital Kunming. C-Trip is a colossal travel company. Flights, train tickets, tours, hotels \u2013 they do it all. Total revenue over 2018 4.5 billion US$, total number of employees 45.000 … Continue reading “The New Year’s Eve event of C-Trip Yunnan”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chin-eng","category-gen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":376,"href":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6\/revisions\/376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}