We have our first free morning, but only a few hours. We go to a local market to do some shopping and have a quick lunch before reconvening at the hotel to head to Jin Mao tower. We meet a few junior high boys that help us to find the market we were looking for, and they were very cute with their giggling and trying to speak English. It was nice that people seemed to go out of their way to help us.
At the tower a group of kids come marching out of the building on some sort of tour, and they wave and yell “Hello” to us all. Beyond cute! We take the 30 second ride to the 88th floor of the tower and have 360 degree views of the city. It's pretty smoggy so hard to see but it's clearly a huge sprawling city full of high-rises. The tops of the residential areas are painted red and blue, but I don't get a clear answer why from Simon. We get a free pearl at the gift shop.
Next we are shuttled to the EF / English First offices as a substitute for our scheduled visit with an auto manufacturing firm. At this point, everyone is cranky and the joke of the day is that they are going to try to sell us another trip. Instead, they give us a presentation that ends with a slide that says “Buy a Franchise” and I think the entire room groaned. After this we are encouraged to speak with some of the students at the office, and I feel like we are simply there to offer free English practices to the students which is frustrating. After being scolded for being too loud, a couple of us escape and wander across the street to the mall. I feel guilty for not being more interested in the students, but I am thrilled to have a moment in the real city.
The mall is not anything like the markets, and is a huge commercial place completely packed with people. It's literally difficult to move around the giant mall through the throngs of people. Near the food court there is a bottle neck at a row of computer screens. We discovered that it's an automated ordering kiosk for the food court shops – the customers select their meals and snacks and pay there, then pick up their food at the counter. Very efficient.
We have a very short break after this trip for free time, which we use to get foot massages at a small parlor. The proprietors do not speak of lick of English so it’s comical to communicate. The woman asks us if we are French and when we tell her we are American she exclaims “Obama!” and then points to one of the guys and says “Chinese Obama.” On the way out she shakes my hand and says “Thank you very, very much.” Again, I am delighted by the warmth of the locals.
We meet with Alain's friend Tim who discusses life in Shanghai. He seems to genuinely love the country and the city of Shanghai and talks a little about the daily life, the political challenges and the challenges as a manager. I wish that we had more time for this visit and had not wasted time at EF – I felt like I actually learned something about the business culture in China. All the business visits were basic at best and offered little in the way of learning. Listening to Tim actually made me want to move to China!! It’s unfortunate that the most relevant learning experiences we had were on our own and not part of our tour.
Showing posts with label shanghai. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shanghai. Show all posts
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Day Eight Shanghai
An incredible thunderstorm moves through Shanghai and we are awoken by cracking thunder and pouring rain. We meet our new city guide, Sean, after breakfast and he gives us some city culture on the bus. I zone out for some of it, as we have been soooo overloaded and rushed from place to place for so long. I've realized at this point that guided tours are not the way I like to travel.
Sean tells us that more than 30% of the Shanghai roads are under construction in preparation for the 2010 World's Expo, and that major initiatives are underway to improve air quality and green initiatives for the city. He likens 1920's Shanghai to the Paris of the east, with the city divided into sections like Chinatown, Little England, Jewish Ghetto etc. The current population is between 21-23 million and the city is divided by the Yangtzee River.
The day is a very long, busy day. First we go to the Jade Buddha temple, which was very festive and decorated with lanterns, lions and red ribbons. The Buddha is the largest Jade carving and is quite stunning, but no photos are allowed and our trip to the temple is short. Next we head outside the city to one of the universities. We are greeted by a group of students who teach us to make dumplings and we spend a little bit of time socializing and touring the grounds. All the universities are being co-located and this particular campus houses several schools with over 70,000 students!
For lunch we have “minority” food, but I am unsure of the actual term. I believe it is a southern China cuisine, and we have dancers perform for us. The food is the most flavorful we've had yet and everyone at our table seems pleased. At the bar they have more of the snake liquor, as well as a liquor with ox penis and one made of ants. All are said to be beneficial to virility.
We head to the silk factory and are given an overview of how the silk is removed from the pods, and get to meet the worms. Our guide, Tracey, is very funny and I enjoy the history. But, again, we are shuffled into a gift shop where we spend at least an hour. At this point, I am fed up with the constant sales pitches and the fact that we seem to spend more time in gift shops than we do at major cultural sites like the Jade Buddha temple.
Our fifth stop of the day is the Imperial Garden, which is lovely but we are all a little cranky after such a long day and a long time at the gift shop so do not take as much time as we shoud to enjoy the splendor. Instead we rush through and head into the small surrounding shopping area moving from vendor to vendor and seeing their secret back rooms full of purses and watches.
We met with Reggie, the trade representative from Oregon for a Shanghai company. This was the first thing I found beneficial from a business perspective. We do not have a group dinner, but go together to the acrobatics show, which was stunning. The performers do things with their bodies that I didn't know was possible and there is great music and beautiful costumes. I particularly enjoyed the couple swinging from silk banners in a 1920's style musical number, very fun.
Sean tells us that more than 30% of the Shanghai roads are under construction in preparation for the 2010 World's Expo, and that major initiatives are underway to improve air quality and green initiatives for the city. He likens 1920's Shanghai to the Paris of the east, with the city divided into sections like Chinatown, Little England, Jewish Ghetto etc. The current population is between 21-23 million and the city is divided by the Yangtzee River.
The day is a very long, busy day. First we go to the Jade Buddha temple, which was very festive and decorated with lanterns, lions and red ribbons. The Buddha is the largest Jade carving and is quite stunning, but no photos are allowed and our trip to the temple is short. Next we head outside the city to one of the universities. We are greeted by a group of students who teach us to make dumplings and we spend a little bit of time socializing and touring the grounds. All the universities are being co-located and this particular campus houses several schools with over 70,000 students!
For lunch we have “minority” food, but I am unsure of the actual term. I believe it is a southern China cuisine, and we have dancers perform for us. The food is the most flavorful we've had yet and everyone at our table seems pleased. At the bar they have more of the snake liquor, as well as a liquor with ox penis and one made of ants. All are said to be beneficial to virility.
We head to the silk factory and are given an overview of how the silk is removed from the pods, and get to meet the worms. Our guide, Tracey, is very funny and I enjoy the history. But, again, we are shuffled into a gift shop where we spend at least an hour. At this point, I am fed up with the constant sales pitches and the fact that we seem to spend more time in gift shops than we do at major cultural sites like the Jade Buddha temple.
Our fifth stop of the day is the Imperial Garden, which is lovely but we are all a little cranky after such a long day and a long time at the gift shop so do not take as much time as we shoud to enjoy the splendor. Instead we rush through and head into the small surrounding shopping area moving from vendor to vendor and seeing their secret back rooms full of purses and watches.
We met with Reggie, the trade representative from Oregon for a Shanghai company. This was the first thing I found beneficial from a business perspective. We do not have a group dinner, but go together to the acrobatics show, which was stunning. The performers do things with their bodies that I didn't know was possible and there is great music and beautiful costumes. I particularly enjoyed the couple swinging from silk banners in a 1920's style musical number, very fun.
Day Seven
In the morning we went to the Reed Flute Caves, a large cave with lots of interesting rock formations. The rocks are back lit with neon, making a very unique experience. It felt pretty touristy but was a nice break from the heat and humidity. The group took a very long time going through the cave, and I went ahead with a few of the others rather than listening to the guide talk about every rock formation – I was just getting tired of the constant stopping and talking and needed some freedom. The tiny lake at the bottom was the most spectacular part about the cave.
From there we went directly to the airport and flew to Shanghai. The flight was horrifyingly bumpy and I thought I might use my “clean bag.” Because the weather is poor we postpone our trip to the Jin Mao tower and go directly to dinner. We have a small amount of free time in the evening and we walk to The Bund before heading to Nanjing road, a large shopping street close to the hotel. We end up having a glass of wine and a small pizza in the sit down Pizza Hut restaurant, which is very different than the ones at home with high-end service and décor. A stop at Family Mart for rice wine, pea snacks and bottled water completes the night. Jeg Lag seems to be cyclycle.
From there we went directly to the airport and flew to Shanghai. The flight was horrifyingly bumpy and I thought I might use my “clean bag.” Because the weather is poor we postpone our trip to the Jin Mao tower and go directly to dinner. We have a small amount of free time in the evening and we walk to The Bund before heading to Nanjing road, a large shopping street close to the hotel. We end up having a glass of wine and a small pizza in the sit down Pizza Hut restaurant, which is very different than the ones at home with high-end service and décor. A stop at Family Mart for rice wine, pea snacks and bottled water completes the night. Jeg Lag seems to be cyclycle.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)