With Bernie and Sacha we traveled to Rosko and other places where the Textile Industry is at home. Rosko started to renovate their old mill by adding a modern annex and tried to make the best out of the existing old building which was protected and could not be altered. Another very old mill was in Shagovets but their where no loans for major modernization.

On the occasion of ITME in Shanghai 2006, the management of Xinjiang Shihezi Galaxy Textile Co Ltd, a big spinning plant in the Xinjiang Province, invited us for dinner. We know the customer well and Michael and me had already a solid reputation in the field of competitive drinking! Therefore I had my concern about this invitation and also Michael looked a bit worried. Never mind, we accepted the challenge and the Maotai (53% alc.) drinking procedure started by the begin of lunch or dinner! Goal: testing the stamina of the guest(s)!

... "Never trust a man who does not drink!"
is the common believe and business goes much smoother when you succeed in this art! Two bottles Maotai where empty and the customer seemed to be satisfied, Daniel Stüber (a former Head of Rieter China) however offered another bottle!? We could not believe this! So the drinking continued and with the level of Alcohol, the level of stupidity grow! In a relative short time all got completely pissed. Of course Michael and myself had a lot of training and survived half way conscious. Others had to be carried out of the venue and started a vomiting contest. Also the taxi driver who had to take us was upset about the mess created.- It ended as it had to in China. This was only one of many such punishing events. An alarming sign, I started to like Maotai!

Before going to India, I attended the aforementioned exhibition. Tashkent is a quite and pleasant town. The climate was ideal. We made a very interesting excursion to the mountains. The city has also an lively and interesting night live. This was the most exciting experience!

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