According to a translator, "Ni zenme yang?" is Chinese for "how are you doing?"

A group of local business leaders, civic group members and city employees will ask that question in person during a 10-day trip to the Orient beginning Sunday.

"We just think that this is a tremendous interest for our community to do this," said David Coleman, president of the Orangeburg Chamber of Commerce.

The chamber has partnered with the Community of Character program to sponsor the trip aimed at opening doors for potential business opportunities.

"We're doing it also as a cultural awareness, knowing that a day will come when we might be doing business with China," Coleman said. "There are several businessmen who have shown interest in establishing contacts there."

Each of the 73 city employees and business owners has paid his or her own way to participate in the business and cultural tour.

"This is not a government-subsidized program," Coleman said, adding that each traveler paid the $1,900 fare and is also required to pay his or her own way to New York's JFK airport, where the flight to China will depart.

In spite of a recession, officials say they hope the program creates long-term business opportunities.

Once in Beijing, the American group will be offered tours of the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square and the "Bird's Nest," the Beijing National Stadium used for the 2008 summer Olympics.

The Orangeburg group will also tour a pearl farm, a jade factory, a silk plant and an antique furniture fair.

"Dr. Anne Crook's going and she said she better be on a fun bus," joked Don Tribble, executive director of the Orangeburg Community of Character.

Tribble said a small percentage of each fare will go to support the Community of Character program.

From Beijing, the travelers will move to Shanghai, where they'll take tour buses to nearby cities of Suzhou and Hangzhou.

Meals are included in the package and are expected to be traditional Chinese fare, such as Peking Duck, Moo Goo Gai Pan, fried wanton and egg rolls, each prepared in traditional Chinese ways.

"I'm not really fond of Chinese food," Debbie Bernard admits, recalling her one previous trip out of the country where the food could be described as interesting. "But I try, I taste. I found some meat balls that we found out later were camel meat. It's part of the local food and we we're going to eat the local food."

But just in case, the travel brochure promises a Big Mac or bucket of KFC is pretty much around the corner in the larger cities.

But Bernard, secretary to Chief Wendell Davis, said she's going for the sightseeing as opposed to the food.

"Probably just seeing something different, getting into a new culture," she said. "All of the little things that you see on TV and they talk about."

Coleman said that for the business-minded travelers who signed on, there are opportunities to make contacts with their Chinese counterparts. Several optional business conferences are scheduled during the week.

The chamber president said he's spoken with the Charleston Chamber of Commerce, which returned from the same tour just more than a week ago.

"Great trip; they said it was life-changing," Coleman says. "I said, 'Good or bad?' They said good."

n

T&D Staff Writer Richard Walker can be reached by e-mail at rwalker@timesanddemocrat.com or by telephone at 803-533-5516. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.

You must be logged in to comment.