03/28/2010

Shanghai, China

So today I spent 14 hours in a plane from Chicago, IL to Shanghai, China. They were long, rather tedious hours… Perhaps I should say odiferous.

The plane, you see, was packed. Never have I known of an international flight with seats so close together! We were literally packed in together shoulder to shoulder with my knees touching the seat ahead… MY knees! Can you imagine someone taller? Not having secured an aisle seat, I felt terribly claustrophobic. It wasn’t pleasant. Worse, the person next to me had some terrible stomach ailment that resulted in his constant release of noxious odors while asleep… his head inching closer to my shoulder with every passing moment.

I was not a happy camper.

Still, the alcohol was free, and since sleep was apparently not going to be an option, I decided to stay pleasantly buzzed (not schnokered, mind you, my boss was in the seat ahead of me after all =) and attempt to block out the unpleasantness. After awhile, I snuck back to the back galley where a fabulous stewardess entertained me and several other businessmen with funny stories (and by fixing us awesome white Russians! Woot!). So the last hour or two ended up not being so bad, actually.

Oh, I also managed to see the glaciers as we passed over them in what I can only guess must have been the far upper reaches of either Alaska or Canada. It was pristine, beautiful, white, and amazing. As we followed the sun all the way to China, I had an excellent opportunity to look outside here and there and see some amazing sights.

So anyway… China!

Shanghai is interesting. The hotel shuttle drove us across town to our hotel and we passed untold hundreds of enormous residential towers reaching high to the heavens and far out and wide… all with laundry hanging out of the windows in varying state of being dried on the beautiful Sunday afternoon on which we had arrived. It was odd to see such tall residential structures (some rather beautiful) so overwhelmed with laundry… yet all of them seemed to be so. The thought that struck you after awhile… once you passed a few hundred of these residential towers… is simply: where do all these people work? We drove past one business park that I saw in all that time, along with a couple of smaller industrial looking areas and some retail areas… none of which could possibly support the enormous amounts of residential real estate we had passed getting here.

Hmmmm… perhaps it was just the part of town we came in on?

Either way, we checked in and then went shopping. Things are cheaper here than elsewhere, and I did pick up some things. If nothing else, walking around was fascinating. A few tidbits on culture:

 The idea that pedestrians have right of way may or may not be true here… certainly the motorists have mixed feelings about it. You may have a little green man at the intersection begging you to come across, but best look both ways, baby! The motorists here aren’t $%&*ing around. They’ll run you down soon as look at you. Found that out when I had to quite literally hop out of the way of a speeding car a time or two… eep!

 People here are MAD for bikes and mopeds! They are everywhere! And watch out, because they are silent and deadly! They’ll come up behind you and run you down. What’s so interesting is how people will load their bikes up with the most bizarre stuff! You’ll see people going down the street with all sorts of stuff hanging off their bikes. It doesn’t look utilitarian… and I just can’t believe it’s fashionable… so I can’t quite understand the purpose… attention, maybe? If so, it succeeded with me…

 People here LOVE their horns! They blow their horns all the time… for anything! I would think at some point horn blowing would simply loose all meaning, yet there they go, blowing away in all directions, as if there were some purpose or audience for which the horn blew. I can’t seem to fathom one, but hey! Whom am I to judge…

So, we ate a decent meal (which has since rather upset my stomach) and headed back to the hotel early to try and catch up on our sleep. Given what I just mentioned about the upset stomach, I’m rather glad we called it an early night, as I’ve had to interrupt this several times to make a rather quick dash to the facilities… ack! Hope that doesn’t become a pattern…


So now… off to bed! I’m exhausted! Tomorrow… work, and then off to explore Shanghai some more! Woot!