China Day 2

Shanghai
Wu Bo Shi Dan – I don’t understand.

Finger was considerably less stiff this morning. The exercises seem to be doing some good.

Wandering around downtown Shanghai was impressive. Such a vast, modern cityscape was unexpected. From the hotel it seems not unlike New York or the like. Once atop the Pearl Tower’s viewing deck you could see most of the city.

I say “most of” because the city sprawls like nothing I’ve ever seen. As far as you can see from the 306 meter tall building, there are high rises in every direction. The world’s 3rd tallest building resides in Shanghai, but the further you got from downtown the smaller the buildings. On the edge of visibility buildings looked like they might only be 12 or 15 stories.

After a little sight seeing we were picked up again by Adrian and taken to lunch. My first experience driving seemed crazy, but turned out to be the norm. The reputation that Asian drivers have in the US must surely come from their skills in the motherland. I’m not sure which is the most important to Chinese drivers:

• The horn – used at least once / 5 minutes
• Immunity to motion sickness from sudden acceleration / deceleration
• Perfect knowledge of how close you can come to a pedestrian without killing him
• The knee-jerk reaction time of a US Congressman to something insignificant yet somehow newsworthy. Or a twitchy 13 yr old xbox player hopped up on a 2 liter of mtn dew.

I was told we were going to the premier dumpling restaurant in the entirety of the world. It might have been. We winded our way through the touristy market area (beautiful older style buildings) and finally came to the line. A line like I have never seen for a restaurant. This literally went around several buildings and literally must have had 1000 people in it. Literally.

We didn’t wait in I might add. The more you pay to get in, the shorter the line. Pricing was tiered by how long you wanted to wait. If you paid $1 to get something at the window, you aid $2 for the first floor, $4 for the second floor, and $7 for the third floor. (not be exact pricing). I was told stories of restaraunts in which you literally had to wait behind someone with your hand on his chair to claim to be on deck for that seat.

I don’t know this firsthand because we went to the top and waited an excruciating ten minutes, but the food was fantastic and worth the wait. I must try to make dumplings at home one of these days. Maybe not worth hours, but lots of people would apparently disagree. I don’t usually get the royal treatment. I felt a twinge of guilt walking out as I passed the same people who had scarcely move since I went in.

After this we had a factory visit and jumped back on a plane. This time destined for Beijing. I’m breezing over the work aspects of the trip as that is the one thing I never blog about.

Not much happened after the flight. Our guy in China resides in Beijing. He picked us up and we went to the hotel. My firs impression of the city was disappointment. After such a vibrant Shanghai experience, Beijing looked drab. Lots of squarish grey buildings, with far fewer awe inspiring ones. I’d be shown a different side later.

Catching my eye at the base of the elevator was the spa. More importantly the detail which said “massage”. Let me tell you, after 2 flights and a surgery, $158 RMB (~$28) for a full body massage was worth every last Yuan. It wasn’t by a hot asian chick, but it was still worth it all the same. It was good to be limber and relaxed again.

Sleepy time was good once again.