More photos: Life in Shanghai Links

Here are a few more photos from around our compound. This afternoon we have a special visitor arriving, and I hope that she will explore the area just outside our compound with me so that you can see the contrasts!

The free shuttle that takes us into town. 

The Shanghai American School (on right) from the main road.

The community playground. There are also playgrounds at the school.

The smaller community pool. It is open until the end of October,
but it is already too cold to swim.

The compound store.It is small, but offers enough variety that I
 really have no excuse not to cook dinner each night.

Just beyond the fence are the high school sports fields.
Baseball, soccer and track.

The Shanghai Links Clubhouse. It has 2 restaurants and hotel
rooms. But like many things in China, it always feels eerily
empty. The golf course looks to do pretty good business, however.

The community club house. Work-out facilities, meeting room,
play area for kids. Foosball table, tennis courts.

The larger community outdoor pool, this one is favored by
aka The Works and The Paying Customer.

Cannot really tell from the photo, but the ocean is just
beyond this fence.

A typical street in the compound. Lots of wide open spaces.

A walk in the (dog) park

View of houses and school from dog trail. Sometimes smoke
stacks on passing ships are visible on the horizon to the right.

This looks like it was a nice garden when it was planted. Now
it is mostly left wild. 

Biscuit and I have a morning routine of taking a walk together when the boys leave for school. We like to take a service road that cuts through the golf course to an abandoned garden area that is commonly used by dog walkers.

The access road into our compounds is narrow, and all of the school buses (about 30) are made to wait after dropping off the children so that the bus traffic is moving only in one direction at a time. They park on the service road and wait for the all clear signal. Biscuit has a few Chinese friends that always try to call to her and pet her. She is much larger than a typical Chinese dog, and I've been asked if she is pregnant!

More photos of the neighborhood should be forthcoming.

Golf course view.

Cypress. Fun to look at and to smell. Many are
permanently bent from the wind.

Guard booths on many corners. Manned 24/7.

The American School. Each week the last 3 flags are changed
to reflect the nationalities of the students and staff.
 I am learning new flags every week! 

Our street just after the morning rush. Our house is at the curve
on the right. The school is on the left.

Biscuit's new bling.

We haven't missed you, Mr. Smog!

Yesterday we planned to explore a nearby island that has several wetlands and a forest. We packed a picnic lunch, and set off into the haze. As we drove toward our destination, the skies continued to darken, and we realized that it wasn't a cloudy/foggy day, but a return of the smog. In fact, this was the worst-looking smog we have seen in Shanghai, maybe even worse than the winter days we spent in Beijing. We have been blessed with so many clear days since our summer vacation and move to Pudong, that we forgot just how polluted the city can get! I remembered that the United States Consulate, located 36 km away, monitors the air quality at their location and tweets the reports on a regular basis. I tried to access the numbers from the car, but of course the Chinese Fire Wall thwarted my attempts. Later I was able to confirm our suspicions that the air in Shanghai had reached 'unhealthy levels' on the Air Quality Index and within hours it moved into the 'very unhealthy' range.

View of the 10 km bridge to the island

Soot from the windshield

The Little Dumplings (haha!) reported that the new school does not allow outside activities when the pollution levels reach the "very unhealthy" level, and we decided this was a sound policy. We'll return to Chongming Island on a clearer day!

Where am I?

We have been back in Shanghai for 7 weeks now, and I am still amazed that I am in the same city. We are 20 or 30 miles from our old house, but it feels like we are a world away. When we moved to Shanghai, I never would have considered living here. Why would anyone choose to come all the way to China only to live in an American-style community? But there are so many things that I am enjoying about our new location:

The sky is blue.

The almost constant breeze.

There is no soot accumulating on the outdoor furniture, but the management washes the windows once a month anyway.

The internet connection is so fast!

The house has almost all the comforts of home. How I missed wood floors!

The car gives us more freedom than I imagined.

Papa is more relaxed.

The new school is challenging in the best possible ways. So far, the school is exceeding my expectations, and I expected quite a bit.

We have a small fenced yard for the dog!

We can see ships passing by on the sea from the bedroom windows.

The compound's convenience store has a great selection of groceries that Americans want, without any additional price gouging.

We have traded the constant honking of cars for air traffic. I prefer the airplanes,which are louder than the cars, but the noise is so much less jarring. Oh, and sometimes we hear ships sounding their horns.

We are surprised at the people who can and will speak English here. I suspect there are more foreigners on this side of the river.

We are socializing more with Papa's coworkers and their families.

Taxis? Horrible traffic jams? Not so much!

The shuttle runs all day long, so except for the distances involved, grocery shopping is more convenient .

Of course, there are also a few downsides to life in Pudong:

Everything is more expensive, and we have a few new expenses (the car, the school supplies, oh my!)

We miss seeing our Puxi friends every day.

Although Papa's commute takes about the same amount of time as before our move, now he is driving, so he doesn't get to use that time to relax.

We had better amenities in our old place (indoor pool, hot tub, beautiful landscaping, more television stations). High class problem, I know.

The old shuttle ran to a wider variety of places.

The access roads outside the new compound are twisty and narrow and sometimes harrowing to travel down.

We have to work harder to have a "Chinese Experience." I'm not sure that The Paying Customer and aka The Works would agree that belongs in the downsides column. But I feel that we have so much to be thankful for, and I hope some day they will feel the same way about this experience. If we have to be away from our home this year, this isn't such a bad place to be.

The octopus vs the cloverleaf

In china they appear to be utterly opposed to highway intersections that use the cloverleaf or the diamond model. My daily commute is 50km (30 miles) to/from work every day and spend most of it on highways/tollways.

Each time I approach an intersection you need to pay attention to the signs (at least those with some english on them) and adjust for the wide range of driving experience found on the chinese roads. The octopus style intersection makes this challenging because its new/different and there are no straight lines or right angles:

The line in green is the route I follow every day. I pass above the north/south road, then under the east-west road, finally merging with traffic from both directions. For comparison if I was doing the same thing in grand rapids it would look like this:

As you can see the octopus provides a shorter overall route and allows you to maintain a higher speed while passing through the intersection. It also takes up less space, which I suspect was a big concern when building the interchange. To accomplish this it does have many more bridges as the roads weave through each other. Visibility isn't as good and it was a bit disorienting the first time I went through it. You also have no way of making a U turn which can be a big problem if you miss a sign since you won't be able to make  U turn at the next intersection either!

Overall the highways in china are very well built, smooth and in good condition. The surface streets are another story for another time. I want to take some pictures of the route to show some more of the oddities of my route. Especially the "ghost road" I ride on every day :-)

The new school

Tonight I had the pleasure of attending the Middle School Open House at our new school.  Most of the evening was spent in the usual classroom visits where we learn a little bit about the teachers and the curriculum. But the evening started out a little bit differently, and I think it is a good sign for the year ahead. The Principal welcomed us in the school auditorium, taught us some school chants and gave us an observation test. We were then treated to a few presentations by the staff. My favorites? The creative arts department dressing in shipping cartons and danced on stage to "Mah-Na-Mah-Na" was definitely my top pick. But another noteworthy performance came from the PE staff.  One PE teacher played "Let it Be" on the piano while the other 4 teachers sang new lyrics, the chorus being  "I love PE, I love PE, I love PE, I love PE, Physical Education, I love PE" and did a choreographed dance number that included passing colorful balls back and forth. The school obviously has a very energetic and creative staff that understands what makes a middle school mind tick!

Driving in Shanghai

So over the last 2-3 months I've been working on getting my drivers license, arranging a car lease, moving, parking, etc..etc... Pretty much settled into a routine now and thought it was time to post something to the blog.

First of all the precious license:

This is good for 6 years and allows me to drive anywhere in China. Ironically they recently (in the last year?) updated the rules to allow visitors to get a temporary license without taking a test. But those of us with a long-term visa aren't allowed to obtain a temporary license, we have to take the test and get a proper 6-year license.

A lot of people asked me "how", to simplify the answer I created a page you can peruse here. It takes some time since you have to make 3 separate trips, fill out a ton of forms and wait in more lines than you can imagine. The real obstacle is the test. They wrote 1500 questions, translated em to English and ask you to answer 100 randomly selected by a computer. You have to get a 90. The first time I took a practice test I got an 80, after reading all the questions, taking a ton of notes and practicing multiple times I brought my score consistently into the mid 90s. If you are good at trivia you'll do fine :-)

The car:

I contacted a number of places including Avis & Hertz (which gives a GE discount) and several local places. I went with a local place and got a used Santana. I got a larger car by going with something a bit older, I'm not as worried about damaging it and Santana's are far and away the most popular car on the road. Volkswagen apparently cut a deal ensuring all the taxi's in Shanghai are Santana's. We've named it Pidgy in honor of the Flying Pidgeon that dominated China's roads for 30 years.

Driving:

Where to begin? Its taken me awhile to get comfortable learning the special offensive/defensive techniques common to the shanghai roads. The biggest issue is that turning left at an intersection has the right of way. The first time I stopped at a light, turned on my left signal & waited for green was quite a surprise. I  pulled halfway in, so did the guy across from me. He then got upset and began honking because I was supposed to cut in front of him and finish my turn! This has taken some getting used to & I'll need to be retrained when I return to the states.

The next biggest issue is all the bicycles, scooters & pedestrians. They follow the rules when it suites them, but otherwise they do what they want, when they want. Simply go slow, give em room and assume that if they can do something...they will.

Finally what has really sunk-in is that privately owned vehicles are a new concept in China, only becoming significant over the last 5-10 years. The majority of the drivers are the first in their family to get a license and drive a car. They didn't grow up in the back seat. They didn't grow up with very many cars on the road. Its effectively a nation of teenagers. Luckily most of those teenagers saved their own money bought their own car and realize just how much it costs to replace. This group drives very very...very slow and cautious. Its maddening, but I forgive them. The other group is pure adrenaline, in-experienced and still learning. The best group to keep an eye is actually the taxi drivers. They have the most experience and it shows. Visitors find this shocking, but that is because they sit in the backseat and watch the taxi's take advantage of all the newbies.....and the taxi drivers can be brutal.

I was paranoid about parking, luckily it turns out that since there are very few private vehicles  that it leads to a plentiful number of parking spots. I can drive downtown and park in the street in front of most buildings. No meters, no fees. In the really crowded areas you can find a garage fairly easily and the fees are reasonable, I haven't paid more than 10rmb ($1.50) Occasionally you'll find that some spaces in front of a building are being managed by someone, again they ask for money, you give it and all is good.

The final piece of the puzzle is the electronic ticketing. They have cameras everywhere and will issue a ticket for running a red light, speeding or driving on a road without the correct license plate. Each province has a unique license plate and Shanghai reserves specific roads for Shanghai plates from 7:30-9:30am and 4:30-6:30pm. I learned after a week that the signs indicating the roads are written in Chinese, I can spot them now but I was a bit worried. Part of driving a cheaper rental is you don't get Shanghai plates. An upside to this is that they don't send the tickets to your home province. They conduct a border-check and make you pay them as you leave Shanghai....no leave...no pay! A co-worker helped me find the online website where I could punch in my plate and look up my record. So far I'm clean.

FYI, Shanghai license plates are sold in auction with a limited number offered to the public every month. The latest price for a license plate has pushed over $10,000 (USD). You can get plates from another province for a few hundred bucks, but you have to live with the  driving restrictions. Once you purchase a plate you are allowed to re-sell it if you no longer want it. Creates a bit of an investment market, but at least you can get your money back when your done with the plates.

Bits about buying a car. You can buy car in China fairly easily. The base cost is comparable to the US but the taxes push em 15-20% higher. There are some chinese brands emerging, with the quality you expect from a brand-new chinese brand. Car insurance is fairly cheap, mine comes with the car, but you can get you your own for ~200/year. Keep in mind its got to be cheap enough for the taxi drivers to afford it.

A year ago gas was cheaper in china than in the US. The prices are regulated and everyone charges the same price. Over the last year there have been 2-3 increases that have pushed prices higher than most of the US. I'm just starting to log gas & mileage and will have better data in a few weeks. Since gas is regulated and sold by state owned enterprises the stations are hard to find. They are reasonably placed, but there isn't one on every street corner. Took me awhile to find all 4 stations within a 4 mile radius of my house.

Drive throughs don't exist, not for banks or for food. There simply isn't enough interest.

So, that's all for now. As a driver I'm seeing an entirely different side to Shanghai and loving it! Freedom has been restored, I live 3x as far from work as last year, but spend about the same amount of time getting to/from work. I come/go as I please.

Ghost Town

Yesterday I had lunch with one of my coworkers from Michigan. On a whim we went to the town of Anting at the end of line 11. That part of shanghai is home of the Chinese auto industry. The train passed by "Shanghai Automobile city" and one of the subway stops was located in the infield of Shanghai's formula one racetrack.

The town of Anting is a true ghost town. We saw many residences complete & ready to move. All empty. The sales office was open and had a map of the town. While construction was complete for a huge section of it, they were also still building many parts. Perhaps nobody wants to move in until is done???

I wanted to find the statues of the German poets. But the village was simply to big, to empty and the rain was to persistent.







This was all done as part of a government 5 year plan to establish "one city, nine villages". Searching around I'm not sure how much progress they made. The British "city" is near (3km?) the end of line #9. It is supposed to be very picturesque, a popular place for wedding photos. But I cannot determine if they built all 9 of the villages or not.

One City
Songjiang, British
Nine Towns
Anting, Jiading District, German
Luodian, Baoshan District, Scandinavian
Zhujiajiao, Qingpu District, Traditional Chinese
Fengjing, Jinshan District, Canadian
Pujiang, Minhang District, Italian
Gaoqiao, Pudong District, Dutch
Zhoupu, Nanhui District, USA
Fengcheng, Fengxian District, Spanish
Chengqiao, Chongming District, Traditional Chinese

Some searching shows that the British one is showing signs of life, check out the story here:

http://downtownsongjiang.com/2011/10/03/thames-town/

Some good pics of it here:
http://thebusinessofrealestate.wordpress.com/2011/07/06/more-chinese-ghost-towns/

The British city would actually be fairly close to where I work...hmmmm....

The other half

On our first visit to Shanghai, we stayed on the East side of the river, in an area called Pudong. This is the newer side of Shanghai, and we found the city blocks long, the streets wide and the entire area uncrowded. It wasn't particularly charming or exciting. In fact, it felt a little bit cold and sterile. Papa works on the West side of the river, so it was easy for us to chose to live  in Puxi, which is older, more charming and quite lively. We have been happy with that choice. But now we are switching to a new school, which is not only in Pudong, but it is on the China Sea.  Although we do occasionally visit Pudong, today we decided to spend the afternoon exploring one Pudong neighborhood more closely. We are all glad that we did! We were able to locate the Pudong branches of many of our favorite shops and restaurants. We saw a few potential housing compounds, and even found the church. We were surprised how easily we were able to cross the street. We noticed car honks with decreasing frequency and fellow Americans with increasing frequency. This time Pudong didn't strike us as cold and sterile, but quiet and comfortable. I guess a year living in the bustle can do that.  Next year we will have an entirely NEW China experience!

Local Laowai

Found a nice series of youtube videos about traveling or visiting to China. I think the guy who made them is a college student or recent graduate living in Beijing. Covers topics like visas, health-checks, drivers-licenses, car-rentals/purchases, office behavior and a bunch of other useful cultural tips.

http://bon.tv/locallaowai (website)
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL368A45B29D69F8BB&feature=plcp (youtube)
https://www.facebook.com/Locallaowai (facebook)

A very good week

This week was a very good one indeed. We learned that both of our boys have been accepted at the Shanghai American School (SAS). It may not sound like that big of a deal, American kids being accepted at the American school.  But there are many schools in Shanghai that offer an American curriculum and admission to SAS is highly competitive with a very high demand from students the world over many other seeking a quality American education. It is considered one of the best schools in Shanghai while also being widely recognized as one of the best international schools in the world. We are very proud of our boys and excited by this opportunity. Now all we have to do is find a new place to live and move across town :-)

This week we also celebrated Engineering Recognition Day. Once a year GE celebrates engineering accomplishments, takes everyone out for lunch, brings in a speaker or two and gives out awards. I was surprised to learn that I received an award for Innovation and Imagination. Quite an honor given there are hundreds of very bright/capable engineers working on a wide variety of innovative projects. There were other categories like "customer hero" and "success in the face adversity"...but I must say as an engineer it feels good to be recognized by my peers for being innovative.

The craziest part is that I was standing on stage in front of all the engineers in Shanghai when the phone rang. We'd learned that morning that SAS wanted to speak with us and we expected to learn if we were in or out. I couldn't take the call or even glance at my phone until the presentation was complete. It was very difficult to stand there wondering what I would learn when I could finally look at my phone...happily it was very good news indeed.

So this week The Paying Customer, The Works and Papa-Dumpling were all recognized for their capability and potential. Time to move on to the next adventure!

The ERD award is the sparkly one in the middle, to the left is a model of the C919 and t o the right is an award I received from Boeing for work done on the 787.

A Dog's IQ

Yesterday Mom and I tested Biscuit's IQ with five simple tests. We got the idea from a TV show about a dog who can do math. If you would like to test your dog you are going to need the following items: a pillow, a cup, two chairs that can be put on their side, some string, and a bag of dog treats.

The first test is the spacial awareness test. To do this test you will need to put a pillow on a low-lying piece of furniture then you must drop the treat on top of the pillow and see if the dog looks up to the pillow or under the furniture. If the dog looks up at the pillow the dog passed. If they look down the dog failed. Biscuit failed this one.

For the next test place a treat under an (opaque) cup. This tests to see if the dog cannot see the treat if it with think it's not there. If the dog thinks the treat is there it will try to get it. If the dog starts to wander away it means that the dog failed. Biscuit passed this one.

The next test is the chair maze. To do this test you take two chairs and line them up on the ground so that the backs of the chairs are facing each other. Then take the dog to one side and put a treat on the other. If the dog tries to take the shortest route the dog failed. If the dog goes around chairs the dog passed. Biscuit passed this.

Probably the trickiest of the tests is the string test. To do this test you need to tie a treat to a string and a knot in the string. In this test we will see if a dog can figure out how to use the string to pull the treat out from under the low-lying piece of furniture. For this test you may show the dog how to get the treat. Even after seeing the solution the dog still might have a problem with this test. Biscuit did this after she found out that we were not going to do it for her.

The final test is the memory test. For this test you're going to need at least four treats. To do this test bring the dog into a room and show the dog where a treat is hidden and let the dog eat it. After the dog eats it take the dog out of the room and hide one treat in the same location and a few others in different locations to throw the dog off. Now bring the dog back into the room and see if the dog goes straight for the treat in the location you showed it earlier. Biscuit found one of the treats that was meant to throw her off.

In the end Biscuit did pretty well. If you want to test your dog you will have to remember to give the dog treats if successful on a test. Well that is the end of this essay.

I told you that this essay is over! Do you understand???

Healthy Apostrophes!

We have chinese cell phones with chinese calling plans. Overall I like their model a lot better. You buy the phone up front then purchase a service plan to go with the phone. The total cost is much lower than the bundled phones you get in the US (about 30 RMB/month or $5/month) after spending $2-300 on a phone.

The odd part is we get text messages from the phone company, written in chinese. Recently I got this one:

有一天"我"字头上丢了重要的一撇,就变成了"找"字,为了找回那非常重要的一撇,问了很多人，那一撇代表什么?商人说是金钱,……最后长寿的人们告诉我:那一撇是健康和快乐,否则什么都是浮云！亲爱的朋友，工作再忙，压力再大，也别忘了照顾自己！

Which Google translates to:

"I" head lost an important one to write, it becomes a "find" in order to recover a very important one to write, ask a lot of people, the apostrophe mean? Businessman said the money . last longevity of people tell me: the apostrophe is healthy and happy, otherwise, what are the clouds! Dear friends, no matter how busy work, the pressure is big, do not forget to take care of themselves!

Yes, this message was sent by the phone company! I need to ask a co-worker to explain it to me, I suspect in Chinese it is a clever play on words using some ancient chinese proverbs mixed with modern slang. Either that or somebody's kid got their hands on the keyboard & hit <send>

So, take care of yourselves and watch your apostrophes!!

Home schooling

Oh, sometimes it is hard to tell which way is up! I started home schooling The Paying Customer in February because he was miserable at school. I was concerned by the apparent ease of the school before news of its troubles reached my ears, so it wasn't hard to pull him out once he started to show signs of anxiety. He is a good student and he is easy to be around, so we are having fun together. Hopefully we are covering enough material to keep him on track with his schooled peers. Aka the Works is still at Rego for the time being. So long as he is still learning and enjoying his quirky classroom teacher, he can finish out the year there. Chinese officials have advised us to find a new school for next year, despite the owner's assurance that they will still be in operation. Sorry, that is not a bet we are willing to take! Still trying to figure out what we are doing next year. One day at a time, and thankfully, that means it is time for Spring Break! 

Travel Tips

Actually the previous post wasn't the first time I created a "page" on the blog....its just the first time I posted it. I've had another one sitting in draft form for months, figure I'll push it live and edit as necessary. Let me know what you think.

It is heavily based on people coming to Shanghai to stay for awhile, but I have a number of coworkers who read this blog and I figure it gives a glimpse of daily life to everyone else.

http://mommadumpling.blogspot.com/p/shanghai-travel-tips.html

--papadumpling

Visitors!

Despite all of the "interest", and all the people that said "we'll come", all of  those that were so excited to visit a foreign country and have someone show them the sites....no visitors.

Until now!  My parents will be visiting next week so I  thought it was finally time to put together a post describing some of the things to do in Shanghai. I also figured out how to add a "page" to this site, so keep an eye on that page because I'll update it from time to time with more tips and information.

Without further ado, please check it out:
http://mommadumpling.blogspot.com/p/what-to-do.html

I don't like China

why I don't like China:

I can't understand the language

some food is disgusting

crossing the street is dangerous

the Internet stinks

pollution

a lot of cigars

we don't have a car

must walk Biscuit

few plants

to many phone calls

i miss my friends

i miss home

to be continued

Da Ride

Poppadumpling here. I finally found the motivation to ride my bike to work. The roads outside the city-center are all 'class A' bike lanes, making this quite easy. The biggest problem was that I still live 12 miles from work and am not in very good shape.

I think I'm going to shoot for doing it once or twice a week, possibly going one-way on different days. The underground parking garage has a large area devoted to bicycle parking and storage. I did manage to complete the ride in 62 minutes on the way to work and 78 minutes on the way home. There was a headwind and it started to rain before I got all the way home.

http://g.co/maps/8348f 

I definitely need to take some pictures along the route. The rapid growth in Shanghai is amazing. You see a tremendous number of abandoned buildings, many of which are being torn down to build new ones. Its like seeing 200 years of history compressed into a single ride.

Citizenship in the Nation!

Ok, a couple weeks ago the boy scouts worked on the "Citizenship in the  Nation" merit badge. An interesting requirement for this badge is that you have to visit a US Federal Facility. Tough to do in Shanghai? NO! Quite easy in fact. All you have to do is visit your local Consulate or embassy. It also doesn't hurt to have a scoutmaster that is a member of the diplomatic corps.

We weren't allowed to take pictures, but I managed to find a few on the internet with the help of google images.

 This is the main gate. If you look closely you can see that the exterior guards are kindly supplied by the Chinese Government.

The compound itself is 3-4 acres of prime, downtown Shanghai real estate. We quickly learned that despite urban legend that the land is not legally US soil. The US does have permission to police itself on the grounds and maintains its own security inside the walls (Marines!). Everyone must have a valid ID, no cell phones and you do pass through a metal detector on the way in.

When the compound was restablished about 20 years ago the head of the consulate lived in the building pictured here. The activities at the consulate have grown so that the upper levels are now used as office space, but the main level is reserved for special events and meetings.

Another interesting fact is that any Federal agency that needs to have office-space in Shanghai works with the consulate. I found it interesting that the FAA has space in this building! Perhaps I can find an excuse to head there on a business trip???

This is one of the few places in Shanghai where you will find the US flag flying on a regular basis. The Marines take their responsibility very seriously and keep things ship shape at all times. An interesting fact as to why Marines are used to guard all Embassys & Consulates dates back to the 1700's. When the US first sent ambassadors abroad the sailed everywhere and the Marines were responsible for accompanying the Ambassador ashore and protecting him. 

Finally to complete the badge they also had to watch the news for a week, which were able to stream on the internet, and send a letter to a senator/congressman using email!

We also received a small gift. A pin that looks like a yin-yang symbol made of the American and Chinese flags spun together. Very cool!

Zai Jian!

Doing business in china..

The most recent issue of "That's Shanghai" published a collection of stories that are well worth the read for anyone that is interested in doing business in China.

10 tips
http://www.thatsmags.com/shanghai/article/1610/10-tips-for-doing-business-in-china

A 30 million dollar hoax involving a company listed on the NASDAQ. The lesson here is that you simply cannot be cautious enough when entering into a deal.
http://www.thatsmags.com/shanghai/article/1607/daniel-smith-investment-manager

A guy from Hong Kong has to learn new ways of conducting business when in Shanghai
http://www.thatsmags.com/shanghai/article/1608/georgie-yam-massage-mogul

Shanghai Sherpas (http://www.sherpa.com.cn/) is wonderful for western visitors. Go to the website, pick the restaurant, pick the food, pay $1 delivery fee + regular menu prices and 20 minutes later...dinner! But the founder has had difficulty getting traditional Chinese restaurants to work with him.
http://www.thatsmags.com/shanghai/article/1606/mark-secchia-delivery-doyen

High profile restaurant on The Bund. Winning awards for 7 consecutive years, and then....gone. No warning, no real details shared (see rule #10)
http://www.thatsmags.com/shanghai/article/1604/david-laris-chef-restaurateur

There were 3-4 more stories in the January issue, but these were the ones I found the most interesting.

Overall Shanghai is an incredibly competitive place, creating many unique challenges, opportunities and surprises. It is a tremendous place for those of entrepreneurial spirit, or who enjoy a more....fluid...set of business rules. The landscape changes quickly as new sky scrapers emerge (usually in groups of 3, 6 or 8 identical buildings) and new waves of migrant workers come from the countryside looking for a better life.

Sometimes business can move too quickly....

http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2009/06/nearly-complete-13-story-building-falls-in-shanghai-one-worker-dead/

More photos: http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=shanghai+building+falls+over&hl=en&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=kWMtT8WIIKfk0QHbyomRBA&ved=0CEEQsAQ&biw=1087&bih=511

Chinese New Year

Lighting firecrackers to ward off evil spirits.

Our front door, decorated in the Chinese fashion.

The morning after . . . one of dozens of piles in the compound from spent firecrackers/fireworks.

Silk flowers on display in outdoor shopping plaza

Monday was Chinese New Year. The Year of the Rabbit has passed and now we are in the Year of the Dragon. My Chinese teacher explained that not every birthday is celebrated in China, but the 12th birthday is. The zodiac is a circle and when a year is celebrated, that sign is at the top of the circle. When you are at the top, it is easy to fall down, so you need to be careful when your year comes around. One way to have good luck in your year is to wear red everyday. Some Chinese mothers make this easy by buying red underwear for their 12 year old children. Lucky for my Rabbit child I didn't learn about this until the Year of the Dragon, right? But I still have time to prepare for the Year of the Snake next year! (JUST KIDDING!!!!!)

Anyway, Chinese New Year is a feast for the senses. Lots of noise, decorations and foods are associated with the holiday. I hope these photos I took to give you a better idea.

Some of the dozens of varieties of lanterns at Yu Yuan Gardens.

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One of the many dragons on display at Yu Yuan Gardens.

You know you are safe when....

You know you live in a safe neighborhood when your neighbour leaves his car parked on the street.... overnight !

That's negotiable

Papa Dumpling and aka The Works were measured for custom-made pants last week, and yesterday I returned to the Fabric Market with with a friend to pick them up. We didn't have any tailor recommendations, so we decided to try 2 different tailors to compare the results. I think they both turned out pretty well, but time will tell. Since the Fabric Market  is quite a distance from home, I decided to make a few additional purchases while I was there.  The Paying Customer has taken my bathrobe hostage, and I was bent on securing another robe so that we could each have one to wear. After locating a booth with suitable robes, it was time to begin the negotiations. The shop keeper opened with an offer of 120 rmb, which is about $19, a fine price for a nice plush bathrobe in the U.S. But we are in China and in small shops and markets the FIRST price isn't the REAL price. And actually, there is more than one real price depending on if you are a foreigner or Chinese. So, I make an offer, and the salesman counters that he is already offering me his best price. I start to walk away, and suddenly he is willing to come down in price. Sometimes this doesn't work, but no matter, since the thing you are trying to buy is likely available at another shop very nearby. It took about 4 more exchanges, but eventually it was agreed that I could have the robe for 85 rmb, or $13.50. Quite a lot of work to save $5.50 but in the end I think we were both happy. (At least until I got home and aka The Works declared he would like a robe, now, too! Of course he does, why didn't I know that?) I also bought a Chinese style jacket for myself, and I am sure I paid too much for it but I was so excited to find something that fit off the rack that I just went with it.  My best deal was a sturdy (counterfeit) Swiss Gear backpack that I bought to replace Paying Customer's worn out one, which I got for half of the initial asking price. I've heard that most items can be gotten for 1/3 the initial asking price, but I'm just not that good at negotiating prices. But I am getting better.

A study in contrasts

On the Great Wall, near Beijing

Imperial Palace Gardens - Tokyo

Our Christmas vacation is coming to an end. During our break, we had the good fortune to visit Tokyo, Beijing and also spend some time here in Shanghai. Here is a short summary:

Tokyo is very big, very clean, very orderly and quite quiet. We all loved it! Perhaps we wouldn't have enjoyed the city quite as much if we hadn't been coming from Shanghai, which is very big, very dirty, very chaotic and quite noisy. We expected it to be very expensive but found it comparable to visiting a big city in the United States. We stayed in two small hotel rooms in an old neighborhood in Tokyo located near several temples. We never rode in a taxi our entire visit, walking and relying on the subway systems to get us where we wanted to go. We were surprised that the level of English the average Japanese person could speak compared to the Chinese. We did quite a bit of shopping in Tokyo, as Japan is the home of Nintendo, and also spent a few days enjoying Tokyo Disney. People watching was great fun and we enjoyed lots of decent American-style food. We were very comfortable in Tokyo, and we would go back to Japan given the chance.

After Christmas, we took the train to Beijing to see some sites. First off, I will say that I expected the pollution to improve as we left the city for the countryside, and was surprised that it just got worse as we headed north. The skies in the countryside were worse than a typical day in Shanghai. Beijing was worse than any day I have experienced in Shanghai, and there were several times that I felt like I could actually taste the pollution. But it was a small price to pay to see some fantastic historical sites. We did not stay long enough in Beijing to even scratch the surface of all that this city has to offer. Maybe we can return in the Spring when the weather is fair? We stayed in a nice Chinese Hotel in a great location near the Forbidden City and Tian'anmen Square. The highlight of the trip for me was seeing the Great Wall. We rode a cable car up to a high point on the wall, and then climbed down. It was spectacular and I consider myself quite lucky to have had the opportunity to see this wonderful piece of history. We also visited to Forbidden City and were overwhelmed by the scale of the place. Like many things I've seen in China, I think it was designed to intimidate. We also wandered around Tian'anmen Square, but all but Papa opted to skip the viewing of Chairman Mao's tomb. We tried to visit the National Musuem, but they were doing some renovations and the fumes in the building were overwhelming, so we didn't spend enough time there to see much.We spent an afternoon wandering around the Olympic Park area, without actually taking advantage of the winter sports or the indoor waterpark that are available there.

Papa has been back to work for a while now, and the boys go back to school tomorrow. We have just 2 weeks of school before we have another 2 weeks off to celebrate the Chinese New Year. We will be in China for the New Year festivities. I've heard that nothing can prepare you for the noise level, short of a combat tour. Needless to say, I am shopping for ear plugs for each member of the family. We will be taking a cruise the second week of our vacation, starting in Singapore and visiting Malaysia and Thailand. We are very excited and feeling very blessed to be able to see so many new places!

Our gingerbread houses -- Shanghai

Inside the Forbidden City - Beijing

Tokyo Disney

A bento box displayed at the Pokemon Center, Tokyo