Chapter 5

Despite the fact Petra was up early, she came out to find a continental breakfast waiting for her and Quin sitting at a table working at her laptop. To Petra's surprise, the screen was in Chinese characters.

She sipped at her coffee as she watched over Quin's shoulder. "Do you see yourself as Chinese or European in your heritage?"

"I'm neither. In terms of business, it's a great advantage to be fluent in other languages and knowledgeable about other cultures. On a personal level, it's very isolating. Although I was raised in a Chinese household, I'll never be accepted by the Chinese community. In the traditional Chinese culture, there's no word for foreigner. The word they use literally translates as barbarian. Nor do I fit into the European elements of Canadian society. I might be of European stock, but my cultural reality is Chinese."

"I understand. I'm a German Canadian. Within our community, my father and I still practise some of the traditions of his homeland, but in the larger community, I live as a typical Canadian. Sometimes, I run into old prejudice from the war years, but generally people accept the various ethnic backgrounds in Canadian society as being a unique and rich part of our culture. It's never been a problem for me," Petra said as she munched on a croissant.

"That's because you're of German heritage and accepted into your ethnic community. I can never be Chinese no matter how well I speak the language or understand the culture. I'm welcomed and allowed to be part of the community, but I'll never be one of them." Quin shut down her laptop.

"Does that bother you?"

"No." Quin snapped the laptop shut and stood. Usually, Petra had a way of interrogating a person without them really knowing it was happening, but Quin was easily put on the defensive. "Is my heritage a concern to Vossler Engineering? What, do you think that I'm working for the communists?"

Petra laughed, defusing Quin's rising temper. "No, silly. 1 was just interested. I can't help myself; I'm a born sociologist."

"Well, I'm certainly an unusual study. Your field of research is international communication, isn't it?"

"International business relations. Business people take my courses to be better prepared to deal with international trade and expansion into other countries," Petra said.

Quin took a new track. "I'm going to take you to Badaling today to see the Great Wall of China. It's some drive outside of the city, so I'll break the trip up with a number of small stops." She tidied up her notes and locked the material in the room safe. Quin continued. "I'm going to take you to some government-run factories. It's politically wise to do so. They're good places to buy souvenirs if you want, but mostly it's so I can sign the guest book that Vossler Engineering brought people through. We want to be seen as promoting Chinese trade, otherwise it will be harder for us to do business here."

"Okay," Petra said. She knew that business was all about image. She had decided that engineering and the business world were not where her talents could be best used; however, she was well-informed enough to understand that to stay in business, you had to play by the rules. She sat on the board of directors of Vossler Engineering because the company was her father's, and some day the company would be hers.

Quin rented a car to drive them about. Their first stop was a pearl factory where cultured pearls were being raised. A small speck of white marble was placed inside each shell, and the oyster covered the irritant with layers of mucus. Over the years, a pearl was created.

After signing the guest book, Quin declined the offer of a guided tour and took Petra around herself. She showed her how even after five years the pearl was still a small bead. It was only after twenty or thirty years that the rare and large pearls were formed.

"It's the mineral content of the water that creates the varying colour in the pearl," Quin said. "Black pearls are found in water with a high copper content, pink from iron, and so on."

After the tour of the sorting rooms, they entered a huge showroom, and Quin left Petra to shop.

She stood at the side drinking tea with the manager, but Petra noticed that Quin kept her eye on her while she examined the display of pearl jewellery. When she stopped to look at a piece, Quin was at her side immediately. "If you rub two of the pearls together, they should feel rough. If you don't feel that roughness, the pearl is an imitation," Quin said.

Petra took the pearls from Quin's hands and started when Quin's finger's brushed her own. If Quin felt anything, she didn't react. Having helped Petra to evaluate what was a good price, she returned to lean against the wall.

Petra bought a necklace for herself and a brooch for her father to give to Olive. A single black pearl on a gold chain caught her eye. It was a good-sized pearl, and the black seemed to flash with luminescent colour. The salesgirl showed Petra the price on her calculator. Petra swallowed her misgivings and bought the pendant anyway. Her purchases complete, they continued on their trip.

The road was a superhighway, and the countryside not very interesting. Petra used the drive to pose some questions. "You've landed some pretty large contracts for Vossler. What do you feel is the significant factor in your success?"

"I get what I want. A little bribery, some extortion if necessary, a murder or two, although I do try to keep the number down."

"What?" Petra looked at Quin's profile.

"That's what you were expecting to hear, wasn't it?"

"Of course not," Petra protested, feeling betrayed by her own biases. "I was trying to get a better handle on your business methods."

"Bullshit. The West thinks the East is far more corrupt and cruel. It's not true. Business is just conducted differently here. Salaries are low. In many cases, it's expected that you'll supplement your income through tips. In North America, we call that bribery. Here, it's a goods and services tax by the individual."

"Come on, Quin, that's a semantics game, and you know it," Petra said.

"On whose part? What would you call business incentives if not bribery? Call shit anything you want, it's still going to smell."

"Then you admit to getting deals using questionable practices."

"No, I admit to nothing but common sense and good business techniques. I have never broken a law of a country I've done business in. Never. But the laws here are different from the laws in North America. I'm not so arrogant as to assume that the rest of the world should play by my rules. If I want to get equipment through Shanghai or Hong Kong undamaged and on time, then I pay the right people to see that happens."

"I understand that," Petra said, "but, we have a responsibility to promote an international business climate that's fair and regulated."

"It's easy to be noble when the so-called developed nations, European nations, control eighty percent of the world's wealth, even though they're only twenty percent of the world's population. Business is business. We either stay on top, or we don't survive. In developing nations, the rules are different, and I've learned to use them to my advantage."

Quin pulled into another factory parking lot and turned to face Petra. "I just snapped at the fly and got reeled in, didn't I?"

"It's my job to find out what makes you successful."

"And, of course, being an expert on the international business community, you know everything I just spouted off about," Quin added.

"Pretty much," Petra replied as she got out of the car, "but what I need to know about is you."

Quin followed.

A factory in China, Petra observed, was usually a labour-intensive, hands-on activity performed mostly by women. This factory was a mixture of both men and women cutting sheets of jade, then carving and polishing them.

"Here, Petra, is an example of jade and marble. Feel. The jade is much heavier. Jade can be either hard or soft, but generally the hardness factor is between six and eight, while diamond is ten, and glass is only five. Glass can be marked by jade, but good jade shouldn't be marked by glass. You have to be careful because there are a lot of imitations on the market. Jade comes in all sorts of colours. Generally, though, the darker and truer the colour, the better the quality. Do you see this jade?" Quin asked, leading Petra over to another table. "It's called Blood Jade."

Petra picked up a piece of cream-coloured jade with smears of red through it while Quin talked rapidly to the woman behind the counter. Money changed hands and a smiling Quin handed Petra a thin, round bracelet of Blood Jade. "We believe that if you wear a band of Blood Jade, it will help to keep your yin-yang forces balanced. This is for your father, to keep him healthy."

Petra looked to see if Quin had some inkling of her father's condition, but her face revealed nothing but good will. "Thank you, Quin. I'm sure he'll wear this faithfully. That was really nice of you."

"As the founder goes, so goes the company" she joked.

Petra looked around the showroom with interest, trying to find a piece of jade that would appeal to her father. There were amazing pieces: carved balls inside carved balls sometimes three or four deep, huge traditional landscapes weighing hundreds of pounds, and delicate pieces of intricately-carved jewellery. Quin found the perfect piece.

"Petra, do you see this sheet of grey marble mounted on a carved jade stand? Look at the grains in the marble. Can you see they form a miniature landscape? It's like a window into another world. This, I think, is a particularly fine piece. The base is a very dark green and cut into lotus flower patterns, nine in all, very lucky. The Chinese believe that evil spirits will be drawn to the stone landscape and be trapped inside. Most traditional homes have such a piece."

"It's just the thing. He'll love it. He likes things that have cultural meaning." Petra bought the piece on the spot. It was quite heavy, and Quin carried the base in one bag while Petra carried the marble sheet. Quin promised to ship it to Canada for her.

On the drive up into the mountains, Petra played with the Blood Jade bracelet. "I don't think I can accept that a particular colour of jade can bring health, but I'm interested in the traditional medicines of the East. Would it be possible to learn more in the short time I'm here?"

"That won't be a problem. I can arrange it easily." For the rest of the trip, Petra sat quietly, looking out the window and soaking in the beauty of the mountain terrain and small picturesque villages. Then, silhouetted against the sky, the spiny ridge of the Great Wall of China appeared.

"Oh, look!" Petra stared, slack-jawed.

Quin did look, both at the wall and at the excited woman beside her.