Sense and Sensibility-ness-ing-ly

Shanghai

Woke to a pretty nice morning in Shanghai... In fact, probably the nicest morning yet. Who would live anywhere else? This was the first morning that I wasn't woken at some point by the car horns outside... even though the hotel complex is right on a pretty major road, it is a little protected by the massive garden area surrounding it.

Getting a taxi was easy - there they were, waiting at the hotel. It would be the last time today! Got to the office building OK, and then up to the 6th floor where I expected to spend the morining at ASSA ABLOY Shanghai (a sales office for the ASSA ABLOY brands). I found out soon enough that all the business units share the same premises on the 6th floor, so we were there all day. Met with Cerry Zhou (Executive Assistant to the Managing Director), and she helped us in explaining how everything kinda hangs together. Kinda is probably the word, as pretty much every PC is an setup for the individual and there is no common directory or server... but that's OK. A place like this will benefit most from the plans as far as what we can offer when we connect the China businesses all to the ASSA ABLOY Asia Pacific network.

After that meeting, I spent time catching up on things, and helping solve some issues back in Sherwood. Also took a couple of phone calls from the grads and a couple of VP's re: their living arrangements. It sounds like something will be sorted out for them so that they have somewhere a little more suitable that the hovels they are in now. Where they are might be OK by China standards, but they certainly aren't by Australian standards. Poor guys. They are most worried that they are causing trouble - but both I and the Residential VP have assured them they are not. Probably created an international incident (wouldn't be the first!), but I know if I was in their situation and was offered the place they put the grads to live for 6 months, they'd be finding me a hotel or I'd be on the next ferry/plane home, resignation already submitted.

Adam took me to a restaurant on the third floor of the building that the AA offices are in - Yuxin Sichuan Dish - a Sezchuan restaurant, very spicy.

By very spicy I mean that almost every orifice in my body started watering the minute I stepped inside the door of the restaurant, so thick was the chilli in the air. He ordered a little too much food for only two of us (pretty easy, considering we have been eating with a group of people almost consistently for the past 10 days), so we couldn't eat it all but we enjoyed what we did have. Lots of different tastes again, highlighting the regional variancess of chinese food. Poor Adam started sweating after his first bite - he says that spicy food always does that to him. I was OK until I had some of the steamed pork rib... it had some spices on it that when they touched my lips they turned them numb for about 5 minutes!!! Very weird feeling, and I am sure I will get it again... later... somewhere else... The food really was good, just a shame we couldn't do all of it.

Back upstairs to do more work - Adam was busy following through on preparations for the domain migration and getting prices and testing, I was on the phone with people (including my parents who had to ring and make sure I wasn't washed away in the latest round of floods in China) and sorting out stuff back in Australia. Kept us busy all afternoon. So busy in fact, that I didn't realise it had started raining about 2pm... so when it was time to go, it was doing a pretty good job of getting us wet while trying (and I do mean trying) to get a taxi back to the hotel. I think just about everyone else in Shanghai decided to get a taxi home tonight because it was raining... so it was tough to get one. Eventually we did (there are no taxi ranks, so you are basically jumping out in front of a vacant taxi as it drives along to convince it to stop), and came back and sorted ourselves out as far as drying off, etc.

So, downstairs at about 7:30pm and off we go - to try our luck going geek shopping on Hiua Hia Rd - apparently the best place to go looking for a bargain. Found one computer market that was closing at like 8pm, so had a bit of a look but nothing much. I am surprised it is as hard as it is to find 'after market' software and hardware when that seems to be all you hear about - probably a good thing. Sorry Morrison and Garth - no chance of finding what you wanted me to find, but I will keep your things in a list ready for when I return to China in August... the computer market in Xiaolan is going to cop a hiding from me when I go back!!

So - my turn to take Adam to dinner. Being the creative genius that I am, I decided that we would have to try chinese KFC to ensure its authenticity and as quality control. You can't have these multi-national food giants telling us that KFC in China tastes the same as KFC in Australia - someone has to keep them honest, and it may as well be me. It was surprisingly good... although I am not entirely sure that the chicken in my burger was chicken, but until I am otherwise convinced I will believe it to be the case. After that we walked along the road and really couldn't find anything else of interest, so we decided to get a taxi to go and look at the Bund - historical buildings lit up for the tourists (how very China). So we looked... and waited... and looked... and flagged some down that ignored us... and waited... and then I told Adam he must have a cigarette as in Australia that is the best way to get a taxi when you are looking for one - and it worked here too.

Off to the Bund - don't know a whole lot about it except that it is a bunch of historical buildings built by foreigners in China to reflect the culture they were from - European/British. That's one side of the Yangtze river - the other side is modern chinese architecture, lights and all. With all the rain it looked really beautiful with the tall buildings vanishing into the clouds, and this also provided a great canvas for the lights.

No Hong Kong light show on the harbour, but it is a pretty decent start. Grabbed a couple of shots like every other tourist there, and walked along without managing to kill myself. I've noticed that the grip on my shoes is all but gone... so wet tiles and no grip makes for some interesting walking! I was hoping to get some new shoes here when shopping, but finding western size 11 shoes might be like me finding pants that fit in China. Hmmm... oh well. We will see what I may find tomorrow.

Managed to find a taxi a lot quicker from here because Adam remembered and lit up sooner. Seriously. You can take that one to the Mythbusters bank - it really works. Quick trip back to the hotel (didn't realise how close it was to the river) and then some discussion about tomorrow. We checked with the Concierge - we can leave our bags with them once we have checked out so we aren't dragging them everywhere with us.

Adam has a 2:30pm flight back to Guangzhou, so we will probably do something touristy in the morning before he goes - what will depend on the weather. After that, I will go to Nanjing road again, independent of the weather, and do some shopping of my own (saving Adam the trauma of putting up with me looking at shops). I will do my best to be bothered by the fake Rolex salespeople again, and see if I can pick up a 50 RMB bargain - my only fear is that they only come out at night, and now I have missed my chance. My flight leaves Shanghai Pu Dong airport at 7:30pm, so I will need to be there by about 5pm to check in, etc. This will mean leaving Nanjing road no later than 4pm, as the airport is pretty close. Adam is planning to write down in Chinese some phrases for me so that I can cope with the non-english speaking taxi drivers when he has left me. I would be lost without him.

Blog up, photos up... time for bed. Cannot believe that my time for this trip is almost up already. Don't get me wrong - I am looking forward to seeing my gorgeous wife and beautiful boy again after 10 days, and am glad that this weekend it is a public holiday long weekend so I have that extra bit of time with them - but I think I was just starting to get my head around this incredible, wonderful place. All going well, I will be able to continue this journey in August when Chris and I return to actually perform the domain migration with Adam and his team. Cannot wait... because for then, I will be the seasoned traveller (at least as far as China goes!)...