My parents graced me with their presence for 2 weeks in March…although, it took their favorite son to move to Shanghai (along with me buying their airplane tickets) before they’d actually consider visiting China…but I digress…

During their time, I took them to see all of the tourist things about Shanghai that I hadn’t seen yet, including museums, gardens and temples. Needless-to-say, those aren’t the only spots that we found, my parents took a liking to the markets as well – it turns out that Mom and Dad are just like everyone else – despite saying that they don’t want to shop, they get to China and realize that you can pay for your trip if you buy a lot of ‘stuff’. I obviously accompanied them to the markets and did all of the negotiating – Mom would get worried every time I’d start going and Dad would just turn around. Negotiations can last for 20-30 minutes in some cases and they didn’t understand why I’d walk away, until they found the first salesman run after me saying “OK, OK!”

Luckily, they had unbelievable weather while here and we were able to keep our days filled out doors, although they found my apartment extremely comfortable and refused to even walk to Starbucks by themselves. Let me remind you that I live near to the most Western-influenced part of Shanghai, Xin Tian Di – this European-ish walking street is full of restaurants and designer shopping. Starbucks is at the end of it (and yes, everyone speaks English.)

Of course I had to take them to Beijing to see the Great Wall and the other sites. So we had an action-packed 3 days in Beijing, visiting many of the same places that I went to in October 2008 with my friends who visited. I’ll remind you that the Olympics ended in September (because of activities such as the Para-Olympics). Manufacturing plants were shut down during that time to successfully help the air quality. This run at Beijing uncovered the filth that we breathe in China. With little air movement and rain in Beijing, the ‘fog’ is a bit worse than what I live with in Shanghai. Yes, they call it ‘fog’ here.

The World Expo comes to Shanghai in 2010 and I’m curious as to whether the government will take the same measures to “clean up” Beijing as they did for the Olympics (I suspect that Shanghai’s face lift – er, exfoliation – is to be anticipated). I think I’ve made it clear that Shanghai isn’t necessarily a place to visit to experience China’s history, so I think we can expect that most of the World Expo travelers will make the inevitable trip up to Beijing. Regardless, I hope for China’s sake that they make the same efforts in 2010 as they did in 2008.

Literally, a day after my parents left, I had a business trip back up near to Beijing. Well, I say near after a 4 hour drive from the airport…I got off the plane and it was snowing…walking around chemical plants in the cold apparently got to me and I ended up getting sick. I’m just glad it didn’t happen while the ‘rents were here. Sounds like St. Louis/Nebraska weather huh? One thing I don’t get a chance to miss is the extreme weather changes from day-to-day.

On January 26, the Chinese New Year (CNY) was celebrated across China (and Asia), based on their Lunar calendar (note, different than the Indian Lunar calendar). During this week, business shuts down and you’re hard pressed to find a taxi, because everyone is spending their time with families in hometowns. The days leading to the first day of the festival are the busiest travel days in China. With the mass exodus, most of the restaurants and bars are closed, so I chose to travel to Thailand with a buddy. This was a last minute trip, as both of our plans changed a few days before CNY. Our only option was to leave that Sunday evening, which meant that we unfortunately had to miss the fireworks spectacle that I’d heard so much about. I’ll have other chances to see it though, I’m sure…

We spent our entire time in Phuket – if you remember the Tsunami in 2006, it wiped out the tourist island of Phuket. No worries, it was rebuilt and hopping as if nothing had ever happened. A lot happened during this trip, so I’m going to concentrate on a few highlights. Although, I can’t mention Phuket and not tell you about the gorgeous beaches…perhaps the most striking that I’ve ever seen. You can walk for hours and lose yourself in the scenery (and I did). Definitely put this on your list for you honeymooners.

Thai Boxing was on the list for both of us, so we made sure this happened. There are about 6 rows of seats (VIP) around the ring and then bleachers behind those. For the high rollers, you can get couches too – granted these cost only 500 baht more (or about 15 dollars) – we decided against the couch for obvious reasons (2 dudes on a couch…).

If you’re interested to get your son/daughter involved, they can begin competing in Thai Boxing at the age of 9 – the first match we saw were 2 little kids kicking each others’ butts. While paying money to watch this is disturbing in itself, consider the men walking around taking bets on these kids…I clearly hadn’t drank enough. A few matches later, a 6’2” Swedish girl comes out for her 2^nd fight in Thailand. We were sitting in her corner, so her best friend ended up coming to sit with us during the fight...if you can call that a fight. It turned out to be Ivan Drago against Apollo Creed in Rocky IV – the Swedish beast never let down and won by TKO in the first round because the referee wouldn’t allow it to continue (while several of us were yelling “Stop the fight!”). I’d like to set her up with some of my friends back home…

The final day was packed with some site seeing and we had decided to get scooters to do this. For $3 USD, we were able to rent scooters for the entire day…mind you, neither of us had ever driven one before. After a 30 second tutorial on gas and brakes, we got moving. Had there been oncoming traffic during the first 4 seconds, I would’ve undoubtedly hit it head on as my legs flailed and I swerved into the wrong lane, not expecting the scooter to actually “go”. Maybe a parking lot would’ve helped us get our bearings on these high-powered vehicles first. The day ended surprisingly without a crash, but several close calls. I was a bit more cautious, as my buddy had no problem cutting people off, getting yelled at and getting the Thai version of the “flip-off”.

January 09 - Acupuncture

My basketball games have become much more consistent now, with 2 games per week…which obviously provides me with ample opportunity for injuries as well, as I realize that I’m getting old!

A few weeks ago, I sprained my knee playing basketball…I went out that same night with a mix of Chinese, Westerners and ABCs (pretty much, my weekend group now). While limping across the bar, one of my Chinese friends notices and starts talking to me about his back problems and that he’s been doing acupuncture. Interesting, tell me more…“Why don’t you come with me tomorrow?” he asked…

He calls the next afternoon and we meet out at the Acupuncturist. It’s a 45-minute taxi ride to the place (which costs less than $8). We are still within Shanghai city limits, but this is what I refer to as Real China. Without my buddy there to meet me, I wouldn’t have even known which building to even walk into. We walk up the stairs (slowly, one stair at a time) and I met the Chinese Medicine ‘Doctor’. I don’t know what to expect at this point – Is acupuncture just on the back? How long does it take? Does he put needles in random other spots to cure the pain in my knee? Luckily my friend was there to translate and comfort me through the procedure.

The Doctor starts feeling my knee and isolating the pain. He then sits me on the table and pulls my pant leg up and sterilizes my knee. He inserts 8 small [new] 2-inch needles into my knee and places a heat lamp next to them. He says to relax and just lie there, while he goes to work on my friend…as I mentioned, my friend had a back problem, but there was a curtain between us, so I couldn’t see the entire thing. I hear my buddy uncomfortably grunting and I ask if he’s OK. He says that the Doctor has to prepare his back. “Oh, you haven’t even got a needle yet?” “No, not yet…” In the mean time, I’m still sitting there with 8 needles sticking out of my knee…and then I sneezed – that was a terrible mistake! I could feel this wave go down to my feet with an incredibly painful pulse at my knee – I thought it was going to blow the needles out of my knee. Needless-to-say, I held the rest of my sneezes in…

The Doctor comes back over to me 20 minutes later to take my needles out while my buddy’s sitting there with his in. There’s a little pain when removing, but it’s tolerable. He then puts some oil – er, Chinese Medicine – on my knee and starts massaging and stretching my leg for about 10 minutes. When I get up, it’s still sore, but I have better range almost immediately. It’s worked for thousands of years, there’s no reason why it wouldn’t work now, right? That night, I was able to walk without a noticeable limp.

Health Check

I’ve clearly come a long way from my initial experience with needles in China. It’s mandatory for all residents to get a health check before getting a permanent resident visa, so I had to do this immediately when I moved over here.

After waiting in a cramped lobby for 45 minutes, I got escorted back to the “Matrix” hallway, which has 20+ rooms and foreigners wandering around aimlessly. When I walk in, the nurse says “14,” which means that I’m supposed to start at room 14 (so I come to find out). Each room was 1 routine physical check and then you were passed on to the next room – blood pressure, vision, dental, etc. When I stepped into one room and they are going to take blood, I realized that I had no choice, but to allow the nurse to stick me. After taking the blood, she threw the used needle in the disposal bin, I remember speculating whether that was the “disposal” or “recycle” bin…I’m still not sure if that was the scariest part, or if it was the equipment used for the Chest X-ray – must’ve been vintage 1920…

All said, I guess I am becoming slowly desensitized to life here…

The decorations at my complex and in my apartment started to go up the day after Thanksgiving. Very punctual, huh? The decorations at my place are pretty much just the creative ornaments that I’ve received from Christmas parties back home placed around the living room. The decorations of the building include, a “Charlie Brown’s Christmas” Tree in the lobby (you really do feel sorry for this thing…), a wreathe on the front door and poinsettias on every floor. The clubhouse is more like a Winter Wonderland as a Chinaman-Santa Claus greets you at the door and you see a real Christmas tree piled up with ornaments and tensile, along with more ornaments hanging from the ceilings and free gift ‘packaging’ (not wrapping). The clubhouse also has Bing Crosby’s version of “It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas” on replay, just the song…I’ve wanted to make a CD of Christmas music to play instead of the single, but I don’t know who to give it to or what to do with it. While it seems like a nice gesture, it’s really selfish, because hearing that song 18 times in a row might drive me insane! With all of the mentioned, even though there aren’t any Christmas lights, the effort is certainly appreciated.

I thought it was because I lived in a ‘foreign’ apartment complex, but they’re even making an effort at my office as of last week. Walking in the front doors, you’ll see a huge display with 6-foot tall Scary Santa “Ho Ho Ho”-ing and singing “Santa Clause is Coming to Town”. Each elevator bank has another smaller display, mine is a couple of more Reindeer…thank god I can avoid the Stephen King Satan Clause by going through a different exit.

I continue to look, but I have yet to see a Nativity Scene, Cross or anything else that implicates the religious undertones of the holiday. Not finding one actually just supports my sentiment that Christmas – regardless of your religion – is an important Western cultural holiday and you’ll be able to find it in any city with a Western influence…and with that said, Happy Hindu-mas!

December 11, 08 - Hong Kong, Singapore's brother

 ...the guy came out with a bucket of turtles that were ready to be released, so we were able to actually release them and watch them make a bee-line for the ocean. I tested a few of them by trying to turn them around, but their instincts told them exactly where to go and they wouldn’t take more than 1 step in the wrong direction. No need to contact PETA, I wasn’t cruel…

November 9, 08 - Election Day (or week)

It was Election Day in the US and I guess being in a Communistic country that’s not 1st world, kind of set in. Perhaps it’s because I’ve gotten used to Shanghai, or maybe it’s because I haven’t traveled “Real China” for a few weeks. Well, I left Shanghai for a 2 hour flight only to land and get on a cramped bus for the next 2.5 hours while the guy next to me basically crawled on me while sleeping. (Maybe it was cuddling…still not cute!) Oh, and I don’t even know what my destination is at this point - I just met a Chinese guy at the airport who is coming with me to another city…rural Shandong Province. While driving, I realize that this is probably what people think when they are trying to go somewhere in Nebraska…fly into Omaha only to drive hours to a city that you’ve never heard of – albeit, they’re always great places in Nebraska! (I can’t say the same in China…) At this point I’m thinking about a sequel to “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” with Donger from Sixteen Candles saying “Oh-to-mo-beel?”

Like I said, I have no idea where I'm going at this point, but I just hoped to be home really really soon (either Shanghai or STL!). I had just found out the results of the election and the real kicker is that I was reading “Democracy in America,” on this Election Day. Nice easy ready while the China-man was drooling on me…

The buzz the next morning at breakfast was all about the new leader of the free world. Even when I got into a taxi to take me to my conference, the driver had a strange glow (which the flies seemed to be drawn to). He asked if I voted and I wondered how he knew an Indian guy in a coat and tie is American, but apparently it’s a strange 6th sense. Even in India they know…

After the conference, we had a few impromptu sales meetings, so we missed our scheduled ride back to the hotel. After walking 0.5 miles to the highway, we tried to hail a taxi. That’s not easy to do on a highway and it kind of felt like my first hitch-hiking experience. After running across the street, dodging puddles of mud in the median and yelling for taxis on the other side, we were able to get one pretty simply. I realized that my Chinese guy was just testing me during this entire 2 days - Why didn't we have a car waiting for us at the airport? Why didn't we have a car waiting for us here?

Oh, I get it...yeah, I can do this...running across a highway is nothing...(granted, I told him very explicitly that we will always have drivers/cars in the future.)

I had a 3 meetings the last day of the trip (when I say “meetings” now, I hope you understand what I mean), which were each a 2 hour drive from the previous...yeah, it was a long day. The first and most important meeting was followed by a standard lunch – Lazy Susan with endless food coming and enough “Gan Bei’ing” (bottom’s up cheers) to put my friends in St. Louis under the table. This was the first time that I was actually the “guest,” which meant that the 8 people from the other company all wanted to cheers me. Quite an honor – especially when they serve a delicacy, which was a slimy purple worm-like thing that I had to eat…my first battle with the legendary ‘sea cucumber’.

As I attempted to stomach this, the host (sitting next to me) says that I remind him of Obama. That comment helped me forget what I was eating as I laughed and said “Now, is that a good thing or a bad thing?” After the past few days and realizing the buzz here, I knew that was a safe question. The sea cucumber quickly reminded me not to trust them...

Back in Shanghai, it was the same situation. I got in a cab on Saturday morning and, by the way, I now sit in the front with the driver, in order to try to work on my Mandarin. He was a friendly guy that asked me where I am from (Note: He listed several countries and started with India!). Once he heard the accent, he started asking about the election and gave me Obama thumbs up signs the entire while. While I'm chiming in as much as possible, I'm more concerened with my life...'Please keep 2 hands on the wheel...'

In short, “Change” has resonated in China and I hope that Obama can meet half of the expectations…

October 29, 08 - Personal Space (or lack there of)

This posting should probably have been the written much sooner in my time over here as the lack of personal space is clearly one of the radical differences anyone will notice on a trip over here.

By personal space, I also mean personal time…The “sounds of progress” generally last through the night, with sounds of hammering and sawing waking me up at odd hours and this continues through weekends and even during holidays. I woke up this morning at 4:40AM to a rogue jack hammer which must’ve been in my bedroom (also what prompted me to write this entry). I suppose the construction 24X7 helps explain how the Chinese can construct things so quickly.

As you’ve probably heard, personal space is just not recognized here. ‘Too close’ is not rude, but expected. This lends some credibility to the lack of queues, but not much. A new term was coined a few weeks ago after I was waiting in a mess-of-a-queue at the airport. A small Chinese guy was trying his damnedest to get around me, but another Westerner and myself blocked him out, in a double pick from junior-high basketball. After the receptionist opened up and I moved quickly to get her attention while the Chinese guy tried to jump in from the other side by speaking Chinese. I resorted to the arm sweep and head-nodding smile to tell him that I was next in line. From that moment, this guy will forever be known as the ‘squirrel’.

You come to realize that standing ground is important as it is not a sign of being tough, rather being part of the culture. I find this at the office as well, as people come into my office and stand awkwardly close while I’m sitting at my desk to ask simple questions they could’ve asked from the doorway.

I went to the F1 race here, which could’ve epitomized the lack of appreciation for personal space. The smell of burnt rubber was drowned by the body odor exuding from the crowd around us. In order to tolerate the crowds, we decided that we had no choice but to drink the warm beer. (On a side note, in general I can say I’ve been there and done that…I have no inclination to ever see an F1 race again, as the excitement of Lewis Hamilton’s car whizzing by us was offset by the general confusion around which car was his and the deafening scream every time a car passed. The highlight of the day was surprisingly not the chicken fat on a stick for lunch, but riding bikes about a half a mile to get to our gate. I tried to relive my freestyle biking days by “bunny-hopping” and “riding a wheelie,” but I realized I wasn’t good back then either.)

If it was not apparent before, it is painfully clear that my plight to help this culture accept Western behaviors is a difficult one. However, it is not insurmountable, as the gentleman in the elevator has proven to me.

October 20, 08 - China Tourism

A couple of weeks ago, I was able to finally see China as a tourist (immediately after Vietnam)…it only took me 6 months!

I first went to Xi’an to see the Terracotta Warriors. A brief history lesson – thousands of soldiers were constructed in order to defend Emperor Qin’s tomb. I think it’s a great idea – I also intend to have an army of stone soldiers constructed to protect me in my afterlife. Regardless of the objective, these are magnificent to see. How you can “lose” these for two millennia is well beyond me, but you can still meet the farmer that discovered the Warriors.

During our 2.5 days in Beijing, we saw Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden City, the Lama Temple, The Temple of Heaven, The Summer Palace, The Pearl Market and The Great Wall. The Great Wall was definitely the highlight, so I’ll let you look up the rest.

We started early, with a 2 hour drive to the non-touristy section of the Great Wall, Mutianyu. Along the way our tour guide stopped off to take us through the Jade Market. At least he was honest when he told us that he receives a bribe for bringing tourists. While we appreciated the honesty, surprisingly, none of us bought any jade.

There are several places where you can go up to see the wall and in every section, you have the option of a cable car or a hike. Like Vietnam, we split up while some took the cable car and some of us went for the hike. The walk was less than 30 minutes to the wall and then we spent the next few hours having beers, walking around and taking pictures from the wall.  

October 16, 08 - Vietnam

During the week of Sept 29, China was on holiday for Chinese National Day. It’s the same concept as Independence Day, but celebrated kind of like Thanksgiving (except it’s 3 days off here, rather than 2). China actually did something pretty interesting by making the Saturday and Sunday before the holiday work days, so employees could get 7 straight days off. Given that I haven’t actually had a holiday off (Chinese or American), I planned a trip to ensure that I’d get this one off.

Instead of dealing with all of the domestic tourists that go to see the sites in Beijing, a few friends joined me and we went down to Vietnam. We stayed north and were based out of Hanoi…an interesting place, to say the least. The heat, traffic and crowds rivals what I’ve experienced in India, except for the number of motor bikes. In a town of 6 million people, 4 million scooters zip around the city like flies. I tried to take pictures, but they don’t do justice to the actual experience. Going there actually made me miss the “civilization” of China.

The best part about Hanoi is that you’re able to sit on street corners and drink 25 cent beers. Street vendors walk around and sell everything from watches to donuts (yes, I ate the donuts and they were good too!). These convenience stores double as homes in most cases, so we were able to witness naps, dinners and hang-drying of cloths.

While in Vietnam, we made our way out to Halong Bay, which was made famous by a James Bond film. Limestone islets shoot up and numerous caves make the bay extremely picturesque.

We stayed on a Chinese Junk boat, and quickly realized that a group of 5 dudes is not the ideal group for this excursion. Mainly couples, but a couple of families were on the boat as well…we ended up befriending almost all of the others, but there were few (VERY few) passengers that didn’t appreciate the mentality of 5 guys on Spring Break…It was pretty funny that the crowd actually followed us after dinner and stayed with us until the wee hours.

When we got back to Hanoi, we took a day trip and went out to the Perfume Pagoda. This was yet another Buddhist Temple (we’d seen quite a few up until this point), but was much more difficult to get to. A 2-hour car ride followed by a 1.5 hour boat ride (think of Denzel Washington’s Vietnam boat experience in American Gangster). You’ll notice that in my pictures, I added a picture of the little girl that was rowing us. We offered help, but she turned it down until our tour guide got back there and rowed for a while. In any case, she needs to find a new day job…At the base of the hill, a cable car takes you up to the top and you’re basically there. As we were waiting at the top to come back down, our tour guide sees a hornet of some sort, points to it and says “That can paralyze an oxe.” “What? Why are we not running away from it?” “Oh, you’ll just itch a little, nothing severe.” Hmm…somehow, that just doesn’t add up, does it? We decided to head back down immediately…Two of us braved the insects (ticks, mosquitoes, hornets, bees and other colorful flying insects that we’ve never seen before) and climbed down, while the others took a load off on the cable car and enjoyed a beer at the bottom.

I’ve conceded that I perpetually sweat in Asia. Sure, the climate has something to do with it, but its mainly the fact that AC isn’t used as much or as effectively as it is in the US. I didn’t realize that I was becoming used to this nuisance until my friends constantly reminded me of how hot they were during the entire trip - China and Vietnam. That being said, Vietnam was a different story all together, it was blazing the entire time there.

September 27, 08 - Olympics Pride Continues

A while back, I went to my clubhouse to shoot baskets. While at the gym, there were 6 Chinese guys playing, so when I was done shooting, I asked if I can join them some time. Here’s the dialogue - 

"Excuse me, does anyone speak English?" 

"Yes" 

"Do you guys play a lot?" 

"Yes"

"Can I play some time?" 

"No" 

"If you don’t have enough players, can I play?" 

"No" 

"You can call me" 

"No"

Maybe it was because I was practicing my dunking on the other side of the court, but I doubt it...

Regardless, the post-Olympics pride continues. While I haven’t seen the half-naked guys flexing in the mirrors, the workers at my clubhouse gym seem to be spending a lot more time on the free weights and even asking if they can help out. "Um...no thank you..." (I'll talk about personal space another time...) One of the guys at the gym noticed that I had a basketball shirt on one day and asked me if I'll play with his group some time. Although it hasn’t happened yet, it will, and I’m sure it’ll be a story for here. (His games are at 1PM during the week, so it’s been a little tough to make this happen.) Regardless, I have found a few games. It’s generally a Chinese/Western mix playing, but definitely a great way to meet people and I’ve found some drinking buddies out of it as well.

Being as congested as Shanghai is, rentable courts aren’t abundant and they’re not in great shape...when you can get one, it’s expensive – like $100 USD, so about 10 bucks a piece. (Much the same as golf – green fees are well over $100 and you have to drive at least an hour to get to the course, and they're all private, so you have to be with a member. The one time I played, it was 90 minutes away and the outing took me 9 hours. That’s why I’ve only played once...that being said, getting on a golf course was a nice reprieve from living in the city.)

Anyway, the way I see it, more exercise in China means less smoking, which means less phlegm, which means less spitting on the street and coughing up of loogies in public.  Maybe it’s a stretch, but that’s my rationale. I suppose I don’t mind the guys being annoying in the gym, if the conclusion is assurance that I won’t ruin another pair of shoes when I walk outside.

I’ve also had the following dialogue more than once since the Olympics – "Rohit, what’s the population of India?" "Over 1 billion" "Like China. But China did so well in the Olympics..." "Yes, China did do well. But India is a very poor country and our government doesn't have money to give to athletes and families to allow them to focus on sports." "Oh, oh, oh..."

September 22, 08 - Money

I was in Belgium last week, so I didn’t think I'd have anything to add this week, but alas, it only took me a day of being back 'home' before something jumped out at me. It’s probably the fact that I was in a 'Western' society, so the cultural differences again became stark.

China is an extremely risk-averse society, thus Credit Cards aren't used nearly as frequently as they are in the States. Having said that, you have to walk around with enough cash that it makes your wallet bulge and won't fit in a money clip (there is a reason for a purse!). You'd think that we could just get a higher denomination of money, but the largest bill is a 100 Renminbi (RMB) note, or the equivalent of just under $15. This means people generally walk around with thousands of bucks on them - I now keep an extra rubber band just for my roll of Monopoly Money...yeah, pimping...

I'll preface the following story with the fact that I commonly do NOT sign my credit cards. If I put something on the signature strip, I write "See ID" or "Check ID"...

I was at a department store and trying to check out. Instead of going to the counter with the things you want to purchase, you have to take a receipt of the things that you want to purchase to another counter, where you pay and then bring that receipt back to the original counter to pick up your items. (Side note - I've found that China finds reasons to create jobs because of the growing amount of money being exchanged here...)

At the 'Payment' Counter, I tried to use a credit card which said "Check ID" on it. I signed my name and when the lady compared signatures, she furiously pointed at my signature on the card, versus the one that I signed. I smiled and showed her my passport, which obviously had my matching signature. This was unacceptable, so she canceled my transaction and I feel lucky that I still have my credit card.

I went to another 'Payment' counter and there was a Chinese customer standing there listening to my debacle with my passport in hand. He was bilingual, so he helped out and I was ultimately able to pay for my merchandise using a credit card. After we walked away, he asked why I write that on the back of my cards and I say because I want them to check for my passport. He says that credit cards are safe here and no one will steal them...that makes me feel safe, thanks. You have to remember that China is well behind the US in terms of using Credit Cards, so they have yet to experience identity theft. Try as I may to educate them, I understand the futility of my efforts.

If you're planning planning a trip to China, just know that you'll have to carry a lot of RMB with you. Especially if you go to smaller towns, where even the nicest hotels don't accept International Credit Cards (yes, this happened to me a few months back too...)

September 13, 08 - "Kill Them With Kindness"

Shanghai is a city of well over 22 million people. The rough estimates of registered Shanghai residents is 18-21 million + long-term residents is 3-4 million (long term resident is defined by those working for multi-national companies, foreign teachers, bar tenders, servers, people here just having fun, etc) + 4-6 million unregistered Chinese residents. (Note: many, if not most, of the "long-term residents" are from Asia, primarily, Taiwan and Hong Kong.) So, Shanghai is in the ballpark of 25-31 million people...

In a city of this size - or more collectively speaking, In China - reverting to the etiquette of an 8 year old is easy, if not natural. For example, spitting, burping, thinking loogies are cool...any of that sound familiar? If not, read past entries...

In my first 2 weeks over here, I emailed a friend with my new definition of "Rude" based on the lack of manners. (You can imagine my initial email "I can't believe they...") The prompt email response to my unreserved shock was one line - "Kill them with kindness."

When I'm in Shanghai, most of my work days are obviously spent at my office. This means I go up and down the same elevator with many of the same people day in, day out. I generally try to be courteous, holding the door while what seems like thousands of others scramble to get off. As I continue to press on, I wonder if I'm in for yet another fruitless endeavor. But yesterday, I was on the elevator packed in like sardines (as you would expect) and a gentleman actually pushed the door open button and exited the elevator last.

I almost cried.

September 5, 08 - Traffic

Traffic in China isn't like traffic in St. Louis, as you can probably guess. The lack of law enforcement actually makes it seem more fluid, but much slower. There are 3 main groups on the streets, the walkers, bikers (include scooters) and the cars. You'd think that the size of the vehicle would get the others to yield, but in fact, it's the number of vehicles that trumps all. That is, if there are 3 people walking and 2 cars waiting to cross the street, the walkers win, regardless of the Green for Go sign that the cars have. This obviously causes problems and I almost died today (not the first time). I was a single walker with 2 scooters coming. I know that I'm not supposed to cross, so I stood still on the sidewalk. What I didn't know, was that I'm actually supposed to take cover behind a lamp post for dear life. I yelled - "I'm just effing standing here!" but I'll let you guess whether the message was delivered. (Honestly, people usually abide by the courtesy rules, but there are a lot of jack@sses on the street, so be careful.)

It was raining yesterday when driving to work. Jerry (my driver's English name) was doing his thing and tried to cross the street after 147 bikes had crossed. In Jerry's defense, it was his right of way (yeah, that's my perception). Well, a scooter was about 2 seconds after these bikers and nearly T-boned my car, but instead, he fell and slid to within about 2 inches of the car. The guy wasn't mad, as he knew that it was his fault. He got up and kept going as his business.

My first week here, I was in a Taxi, waiting at a red light, and it actually got hit. My Taxi driver got out of his car, went and looked at the side of it, and waved the other guy on with a smile. I think it's a rite of passage, like a war injury. Scars are cool...right?

With all of the above said, I'm hoping that by next April, I'll have gotten behind the wheel, with Jerry sitting shotgun. I told Jerry that this was my plan and he just laughed.

September 4, 08 - Dining

A few of you are interested in my dining habits over here and usually, the business meals are OK. I have to eat everything, in hopes not to offend the host. I've tried some strange stuff, as you've read in some other entries, but let me tell you about a non-typical dinner.

I was on a business trip in rural China and we needed to prepare for a meeting the next day, so to the Chinese guy on the team - "Let's go somewhere nice, on the lake." (there was a big lake in the middle of the city.) Even though this was the Chinese team member's first time to the city, I asked him because, after all, he is Chinese. I expect the same treatment if I'm the only American in a group of foreigners and we are in America (or even any English-speaking country). He thought I should've figured out the place to dine for the evening...

So, instead of hearing "Something nice on the lake," he heard that I wanted something Authentic, since every province in China has different cuisine...that was also fine. The cabbie took us to a street, which was a strip of 10-15 restaurants in garages. I looked into those and started walking the OTHER way to a decent restaurant with a door that I saw across the street. The reaction I got from the Chinese guy - "Rohit, if you wanted a nice dinner, we should've eaten at the hotel. That's the nicest restaurant in town!" (OK, you don't get it. I'll concede, I'm not going to win this one...)

We walked into the first garage and I promptly walked out. The second one looked better, so we sat down. There is no menu at these places, just pots of food on a table...appetizing?

August 29, 08 -

I went through Nanjing and Jiujiang this week for business meetings. The trip to Nanjing was a pretty standard Chinese meeting – you know, conducted in Chinese while the other side of the table smoked during the meeting. No flies this time though...

Nanjing was a neat city though, it was once the 'Southern Capital,' so there is a lot of history there. (Nan = South and Jing = Capital. Now it doesn't take a genius to figure out what 'Bei' means, right?) We had dinner on China's version of San Antonio's River Walk - a bunch of Chinese tourists taking pictures on a small river surrounded by shops and restaurants. There was a Confucist temple in the heart of the area, which we couldn't get into, of course…Regardless, Nanjing is a cool city with obvious historical significance, so I hope to go back there as a tourist.

I had my first trip to a Chinese chemical plant this week after a flight to Jiujiang and then a 2 hour drive across rural China (that's another story...). When walking though a plant, standard issue for the West includes a hard hat and goggles. I got to the plant and they gave me only gloves…great, now I feel safe! They looked at me funny when I put my sunglasses on for protection, since it was raining outside (acid rain too). The plant was apparently only 3 years old, but it looked like it was 30 and I probably lost 10 years off my life just breathing the fumes. When walking around, it's tough not to notice shovels everywhere. This is how the Chinese move the hazardous materials...inefficient and unsafe, ya think? Remember, labor costs here.

So, how is China post-Olympics? Proud and arrogant. Through travels in China, I see a lot of hotels and a lot of hotel gyms. This week was a different experience though…when I got to the gym, there was a skinny shirtless Chinese guy flexing in the mirror and breathing deeply. I made comments out loud, like, 'Put your shirt back on hoosier' and 'Go back to Kansas,' but he looked at me like a lost puppy. I didn’t think much of it the first time, but the next day when a fat Chinese man was doing the same at a different hotel, I had to mention it here. I credit it to everyone making their run at the 2012 Olympics.

Speaking of the Olympics, I forgot to mention that in Beijing, I was proud to see that STL Cardinals hats beat out the Yankees, 6-1 (excluding those in my group). I also saw only 1 Cubs hat and 1 Red Sox hat that I can remember.

August 24, 08 - Olympics

I made my way up to Beijing last week and got to see a few events. As expected, the buildings were much more impressive in person - they put a LOT of money into the area. It was easy enough to scalp tickets, if you were willing to pay for them - I got to see the Gymnastics Individual Finals and Beach Volleyball. Gymnastics was eye-opening, as I saw favorable scores towards the host country in person.

I was hoping to go see the Redeem Team (cheesy name) play, but I wasn't willing to pay the $800 USD to see it. Instead, I went to an American bar, hoping to catch it on...Hooters. I just don't think the Hooter's concept is going to work here - not just for the obvious reasons, but also, the concept is based on gratuity. In China, you don't tip, so there's no incentive for servers to be exceptional. Additionally, there's no incentive for the attractive girls to work at a place that won't reward them for being objectified.

So, it took me 30 minutes to get my ice tea and another 45 minutes to get my sandwich...but I wasn't there for the food, I asked my server to turn on the basketball game, since they were showing reruns of the quarterfinals in Ping Pong (China was in it, of course). So, she changed the channel to the rerun of the China basketball game that took place earlier in the day. The table to my right was a bunch of Americans and one kid said that he's already asked and the game isn't even televised because - "Think about it, what do they care about the US playing Germany in basketball?" My response - "Are you kidding me? They love Kobe and Lebron here." So, I asked the server again to find the Mei Guo (America in Mandarin) game and this time it registered. I got the game on and more importantly, I proved the kid to be an idiot.

On a side note - I find it funny that you all thought it was necessary for me to go to the Olympics since it was in China, but few of you have gone to the Olympics when they've been in the US. BTW - China's a big country, if you didn't know...Shanghai to Beijing is like Chicago to Dallas...

August 16, 08 - Shopping

I went to the store yesterday - instead of Walmart, it's Carrefour. 6 levels of shopping and you can find anything you want there...it just takes 2 hours (maybe a little more for me, since I have no idea what anyone is saying to me). I dread shopping because of the mass chaos and the fact that carts are used as weapons, not tools. Unfortunately, the list was a bit too long for my driver to feel comfortable going by himself.

As I was buying my stuff, there was an offer of "Buy 1, Get 1 free". My initial thought was that I can avoid the store if I buy extra stuff now...so I put two in my cart. In any case, I was checking out and I didn't get the discount. I realize that it's tough to articulate the concept of "Buy 1, Get 1 free" when there's a language barrier...so basically, I think they've figured out that people will buy more if they see "Free," but they'll still charge for it.

No big deal, I still bought them both, but I had forgotten that the government imposed a law last month that means supermarkets can't provide plastic bags anymore...so, if you want to use them, you have to bring your own and obviously, I didn't have any with me. $100 worth of random stuff and I have no way to consolidate my carrying...so, I found another benefit of having a driver - 2 extra hands!

Last night was my first experience at KTV. KTV bars are private rooms with Karoake. You bring your own music and people sing in front of the rest of the 15 people. You sing only if you know Chinese songs...obviously, that meant I didn't participate. Instead, I played drinking games with dice - it's kind of like the game "Bullsh!t" with dice, but the rounds move pretty quickly. In any case, I learned my Mandarin numbers really well, because they were playing in Chinese. Afterwards, we went to a Chinese club, where my English didn't take me too far either. I figure, if I keep hanging out with these guys, I'll have to learn the language.

I told you in my July entry that I was out in Sichuan and I ate some exotic food that was swimming in a chili oil sauce and you have to use chopsticks to pick the meat out. Well, I was having a business dinner earlier this week and the guy wanted to go to a Sichuan restaurant. I found out that the sauce is actually boiled blood...I mentioned that it's a business dinnner, because I couldn't NOT eat the food because I didn't want to insult the other guy. The next day, I had pizza for lunch.

August 9, 08 - Directions!

I gave directions. A guy was walking around lost with a map and he spotted me so he walked over. I was pretty surprised that I looked like I’d know where to go…I’m pretty sure it’s because he saw me carrying an English book, so he knew I could speak English. Regardless, he asked where he was and how to get to Fuxing Park, a pretty popular place where elderly couples get together at night to dance and Tai Chi martial artists get together on Sunday mornings to practice. Anyway, I was able to find where we were on the map and point him in the right direction – granted, it was pretty easy to pick out these landmarks. Baby steps…

August 1, 08 - India Monsoon

Last time I was in India, there was a massive downpour for 2 hours which caused a temporary flood. We were dropping off a colleague at the airport and had about an hour to burn, so we decided to have a drink near the airport. The flood caused major traffic jams and the hotel was immediately on the other side of the highway, but in order to get there by car, it would’ve taken another 45 minutes…so, we walked, or hiked, or both, actually. Our side of the highway was a parking lot, so we found the median very easily. Getting to the other side of the highway took some skill, as we hiked up a dirt median in our dress shoes…remember, I said the rain caused this traffic jam, so try to imagine what the dirt mound of a median looked like…Crossing the other side of the highway was like playing Frogger, of course, except it wasn’t a video game. Of course we got honked at, but when you drive in India, you honk for any reason – turning left, you honk; turning right, you honk; speeding up, you honk; you get it. 

July 2008

It's been a while since I've written and a lot has happened, so expect a long email. I've been traveling a bit, so my time in Shanghai has been somewhat limited, and with that, my Mandarin has actually gotten worse. Regardless, my experiences continue to broaden - I've had food from a street vendor – they cook it there, yeah, that's REAL Chinese food...just like Eat Rite is real American food. I've also figured out that the benefits of having a driver are 1) Paying Bills and 2) Friday night and 3) Saturday night. Let's move on from Shanghai though...

I've been fortunate (not sure if that's the right word) to do a lot of traveling in China for work. Every meeting is conducted in Chinese, so it's imperative to have a translator. I'm fortunate to have a business-savvy, technical guy that accompanies me every time I go to a meeting in China . Let's walk through a business meeting with a customer...after driving 5 hours somewhere in Hunan province, we get to a small town (of at least 1 million - I suppose I should really call it a village). In this village, we get to our customer's plant and get to the non-air conditioned conference room. We're meeting with the decision makers and giving a technical presentation on the benefits of our products. While I was there to merely be a fly on the wall, I found out that I had competition...literally. Throughout our presentation, one of the gentlemen would get up and grab his fly swatter and walk around the room swatting at flies while asking questions. He'd clearly done that once or twice, because no fly took him more than 2 swings. (Yes, he killed one on the table as well, right in front of me, in fact.)

The other types of meetings are dinner meetings...I was out in Sichuan province, which is known for a few things, including; the May 12th earthquake, extreme heat in the summers and spicy/exotic food. Doesn't make much sense to me either, but when the temperature goes up, so does the spice level of the food. If you think about it, Indian food is spicy as is Mexican, right? So, I suppose they're not the only ones to figure something out about the affect of spicy food on the human anatomy in a hot climate. However, every region has a different definition of 'spicy'. In Sichuan , it means that the meal is served bathing in a red/green chili (and others). You fish around the soup trying to find the rabbit, frog, snake and lizard...Those 'meats' are normal cuisine, among others that I didn't have the opportunity to try since I only had a few meals out there. Don't worry, I ordered Sichuan Chicken in every meal for something normal (just imagine...).

I've been traveling a bit outside of China as well. I'm writing this email from India , actually, but we'll get to that in a second. We have an office in Singapore , so I was fortunate (very fortunate) to spend a few days in this island/city/country that's something like 15-20 miles wide. Throw 4-6 million people in there and you have a city similar to San Diego in it's make up, environment, mentality, cleanliness and beaches. The difference is, you look one way and you see Malaysia and look the other way and you have Indonesia off in the distance. Yeah, sounds pretty nice, huh? It is.

Speaking of Malaysia, I went to Kuala Lumpur  and had a free day there, so I tried to do a few touristy things - first went to their version of the Twin Towers (if you remember the movie Entrapment, you'll remember these buildings). Apparently, you have to go there early in the day to get a ticket to go up the structure, so I didn't get to...oh well, I've been up a tall building before, I'm not too crushed. Oh, and Shanghai has 1 or 2 tall buildings too…So, I took my time and walked to the National Mosque. After I got there, it took me 30 minutes to walk around it...just to find out it was closed. OK, strike 2. Instead of striking out, I decided just to taxi and walk around.

The rest of my time in Malaysia was on a beach city on the other side of the country and my hotel was on the ocean. Effin gorgeous and another place that's on my list to return. I spent the better part of my nights walking on paths/sidewalks and the beach - only to find out that the people of Malaysia certainly don't take the beach for granted either. Like Singapore , Malaysia is extremely clean and is much more tolerable for a Westerner. 

Around the corner from my hotel was a place where monkeys congregate between 5-7PM to get fed. What do they eat? I didn't know, but I figured out pretty quickly that it was anything that I like - nuts and fruit, for example. A lot of them are scared of humans (and likewise, the first time I did it I was scared of them!), so they come close to you, but you have to toss the food the rest of the way. But others will actually take the food from your palm. There was also the pr!ck of the group - the old/big one that would come over and would make all the others run away. (Yeah, I was really scared of this guy too...) He wasn't nearly as much fun...Regardless, it's a really cool experience to feed the monkeys, especially the younger ones.

Now, back to India . I'm proud of my heritage, you all know that...but wow, there is some work to do here. We all read about the infrastructure, but it's amazing to the progression of other Asian countries (like Singapore and Malaysia ) and compare to what is taking place in India . Decades behind...

Aside from that, walking around... Beijing is going through Manners 101 to get ready for the Olympics. That means, you get fined if you don't stand in queues for public transportation, you can't spit on the sidewalk and you can't p!ss on the side of a building, etc - you know, the stuff that you expect. Well apparently, India needs to be an Olympic venue...Don't get me wrong, for the most part, the rest of China needs to go through this training also. But the greatest thing about India is the fact that English is spoken everywhere. Makes it a little easier to do business. Oh, and a name of Rohit Wariyar helps break the ice as well.

OK, so back to China this week. The Olympics start this weekend and I would love to see the crowds and maybe an event or two. Many of you have asked and are going to be disappointed by my response…But, you can probably understand that I’m a little exhausted and just want to stay out of an airport for a while. With that said, I don’t know if I’ll be making my way up to Beijing (if work doesn’t call me up there). I know, that’s weak. I do realize that I’m pretty lucky to have a bunch of friends back in Shanghai , despite not having seen most of them for nearly 6 weeks. A few are trying to talk me into going up there…We’ll see. I know that I have the next 2 weeks in Shanghai and staying put sounds like a pretty good plan though...

First Impressions (April - May 2008)