Shanghai - Part 1 - Finding a Hotel

I finally made it to Shanghai and let me tell you it was about time. I have been in Taixing for too long. Taixing is a boring city with very little to do aside from grocery shopping and sweating.

So I took the 3 hour bus ride into the city on a very crowded bus and before I got on a lady told me in Chinese that should have to buy two seats thinking that I wouldn't understand. I told her that I agreed and that they should make her wear a bag over her head. She didn't get the joke so explained it to her. She didn't like my joke, but I did. The bus was pretty crowded but a fairly smooth trip overall.

Before I left I had written down some ideas of where I wanted to go once I was in Shanghai and had tried to find a hotel on the web that would be good to stay at. I couldn't really commit to choosing a hotel on the net and decided that a better idea would be to randomly choose a subway station to get off at and walk around until I found the perfect hotel at the perfect price. Any of my serious traveling partners (Munny, Mira, or Thies) can attest to my lack of ability to commit to a particular plan of action in the hope of having a mini adventure and finding the best situation once we arrive. Just to let you know, in case you were wondering, Shanghai is not the city to do this in. Shanghai is huge! Like massively large and there are people everywhere. I kind of got swept up in the crowd and ran for the subway in the rain once we got off the bus. In hindsight, the smartest thing to do would have been to wait 10 minutes for it to settle down and then continue but no I ran like an idiot and got soaked. When I got to the subway, again it was crowded so I lined up without really thinking of a stop until I go to the ticket window and I said the only stop that I knew. People's Square. This is the centre of the universe. A massive corner with about five major streets meeting there and even more people walking around. I let the force guide me towards the perfect hotel and the force was not with me. I wandered through the haircutting utensil district where every shop specializes in selling ………………….too obvious. I wandered through the financial district and I hit the main tourist walkway where every one is trying to sell you a watch, shoes, and DeeBweeDees (DVDs). I walked for about two and half hours with my big back pack still on and found only a handful of hotels. Each costing much more than I knew was necessary or they didn't have internet which is a must for me these days. Not even because I use it, but just to know it is there you know in case I need to check out the meaning of a word or something. By this point I was still wet but what had started as rain water had been exchanged for sweat because it was hot and sticky in Shanghai and I had been walking for two and a half hours. I decided that I needed to regroup so I found a Starbucks and ordered a coffee. While I sat there I weighed my options and decided to call the HR guy from the company that I am working for here in Shanghai. He answered promptly and asked me where I was, I told him that I needed a hotel in the city centre that was near to a subway. He said no problem, that he could help me and told me that he would call me back when it was done. 10 minutes later he called and said that the hotel was a 10 minute taxi ride away. He sent me the address as an SMS so I could show the cab driver. I finished my coffee and went to track down a ride. I got in the taxi and the driver couldn't understand the text message so I called Mr. Lee to explain. When the driver hung up he told me that he knew the place but that it was far away. After an hour of being in the cab I asked the driver where the hell we were going. He told me that this is where my friend had told him to go. I called Mr. Lee and asked him where he was sending me. It turned out that he had booked me into a hotel that was a fifteen minute drive from the last subway stop on the line. SO when I said that I wanted something downtown near a subway stop he thought that I meant that I wanted something that was a 15 minute drive away from the last subway stop. Man my Chinese sucks! He freaked out and told me to wait where I was he was coming to help me. He asked to speak to the driver and told the driver to drop e off where I was. So now I am way out in the middle of somewhere waiting for this poor dude to show up to help me, meanwhile while searching through my wallet I found the card of a hotel that I stayed in when I first got to Shanghai. It was downtown and a reasonable price so I gave the card to Mr. Lee when he showed up. He then called the hotel and booked me a room which took 1 minute and then I hopped back in a cab for another hour into the city. I am an idiot and ended up using up about an hour of Mr. Lee's time when I had the card in my wallet the whole time. In all fairness to me though, I did tell him where I was in both Chinese and English about 4 times and he said he understood.

In the end I checked into the hotel at about 5:30 pm and it was a great room with a king size bed with four big pillows. This may not seem very special but after the wooden planks that I had been sleeping on it felt like a box of fluffy baby ducks. The cab rides only cost me a total of $11 CDN total so I basically paid $11 for a tour of Shanghai . I also got my adventure but may I suggest to anyone traveling to Shanghai to find a hotel before you show up…………………

Coming soon: Near Death in Shanghai…………………………..intrigued?

Fire, Safety, and Recovery

These are three random pictures that I have taken during my time here in Taixing. I just found them and although the y may not be directly related . I can see the connection and it is all a little bit scary. The first picture is entitled "The Roof, the roof, the roof is on fire!" Although the picture may not clearly show it this building has just caught fire and is going to burn down. I walked past it on my way home and couldn't believe that there was a huge gathering down below. The mood was actually quite jovial and it took the fire department about 40 minutes to show up. I have walked past the building since and it look s like it is still standing but the fire has gutted it.


This picture is entitled, "Locksmith? We don't need no stinking locksmith!"
You are looking at the outer doors that lead to the sliding doors which are the doors to my office. At the end of the day, I need to lock the doors when I leave to protect all of the company secrets. As you can see from the picture, the doors in the office don't actually have any locks built in so we need to improvise. The system that we are currently using is to take a bike lock adn weave it through the door handles. This is how every door in the building is locked. Even the front doors. The first week I was here I was locked in my office by one of the workers who thought that I had already gone home. That was fun and funny. It just goes to show, to every problem there is a simple solution. It really just depends on what your idea of ridiculous is. I tie this picture to the previous one by noting that a building catching on fire is dangerous enough but in China they like to up the ante by locking themselves in with bike locks.

This last picture is called, "Please God, don't let me get locked in a burning building in Taixing"
I took this picture at the Taixing hospital. This is the top-of-the-line room. We went to visit a worker who swallowed a gallon of gasoline by accident. The hospital scared the shit out of me. It was dark and dirty. The bed sheets on most of the beds were dirty, used, and stained. There were archaic looking hooks hanging from above the beds. I really hope that I don't get sick here. The doctors and nurses were nice and I am sure that they are competent but the facility was not very encouraging. Fortunately, they are currently building a new hospital which looks like it will be a big beautiful building. This new hospital is a positive example of how the recent, dramatic development is helping the people in Taixing. For the meantime though, I really don't want to get sick here.

There you have three snap shots from my life in Taixing. I hope that the next time you use your key to unlock the door to your house, you think of me trying to figure out how to unlock a bike lock from the inside of two glass doors.

The Area from Whence I Work

Here are some pictures of the area that I am working in. It has been designated as an area that is willing to have chemical production companies. As many areas are not interested in having chemicals production (due to the obvious health risks) the government officials are able to benefit greatly (financially) from allowing them to set up shop here. There is actually a Hummer being driven around by one of the officials which looks so ridiculous when it is surrounded by the city. It illustrates perfectly the massive wealth gap present here.


This first picture is of the front sign for the company. Right behind it is the office building and further behind is the warehouse and the production facility.

The second picture is taken from a 180 degree perspective from the last one. It shows how rural the area is. This is basically farmland that has been turned into land for sale to chemical companies. So this is a plot of land that has yet to be sold. You can kind of see that on both sides there are factories that have been built around it. I like this photo because it is fairly representative of the situation here in Taixing.


This third picture is down the road from my company (so it is at a 90 degree angle from the last photo) In the photo you may be able to see two shacks up the road on the right side. The first one is the barbershop which apparently gives more than a haircut. The second one is a bar which was set up to accommodate the German workers at the factory next to mine. I have been drinking there and I met a German lady who insisted on arguing about everything even when I wasn't arguing back. The guy that I was drinking with and I decided to check out the barbershop and see if they really offered "more than a cut". the lady was scared shitless which made sense as we had consumed about 9 litres of beer each and were speaking quite loudly in English. She refused to open the door,but as we started to walk away she gave in and opened the door ready for business.............................................

This picture is of the last direction I have yet to show (90 degrees from the first and second pictures and 180 from the third). As far as I know there is nothing down this road. I believe that it continues for a way and then eventually drops off into the abyss. I have no proof but I have never seen anyone return from that direction so it makes the most sense to me.

So there you have it. The area in which I work. Where the air is thick and the rain is sour. It is funny though because despite the pollution (or perhaps because of it) the people here do look much younger than they really are. Go figure.

The earthquake

I meant to write about the earthquake earlier but then I was sidetracked by the new Chinese visa laws which nearly threatened to send me back to Canada to get the next step of my Visa. Luckily, Munny found a company in Hong Kong that could do it for me there. It was called CTS and it was located right in the airport which made it very convenient. It only took one working day.

Now that I am settled in again in Taixing I was looking through some of my photos and I found these two photos taken at my factory. The first one is of the Chinese national flag at half mast which has happened very rarely in China. As in only twice in the last four decades. This is to honour the people that died in the earthquake.



The second photo is of all of the office workers in my plant joining into a national moment of silence for the victims of the earthquake. It was very impressive to see how quickly the Chinese government jumped into action to help the victims. It was also very impressive how much the Chinese people gave to help the victims. everywhere you went for the weeks following the earthquake there were volunteers collecting for the victims, and people were giving. I read some crazy things on the net about how the Chinese government doesn't really care about its people but I have to say that they much more impressive than other governments have been in helping their people when a natural disaster struck.



On a side note it is pretty crazy how low the building standards are here. If an earthquake was to hit my little city of Taixing, I know that my brand new building would crumble like a cookie. In fact, one mean game of hop scotch may do it. But when I bring this up with the locals they say, "Yes, it would crumble like a cookie but we are not near a fault line!"

I just wanted to give you a taste of what the river next to my house looked like on an average day. It makes you want to stay inside, eh! Now I'm not saying that China is polluted but when you can't see the top of a five story building from the smog it may be time to address the issue.The picture on the right is of the river right beside my house. The building that you can barely see is on the edge of the city. I am not sure what the building is for but there is nothing really beyond it (not that you could see it even if there was)

This picture is of my apartment complex. There are about 120 buildings and I am in Number 13. They are only 5 stories high, but you can not really see the tops of the buildings clearly due to the pollution. The row of metal structures on the top of the building is solar powered water heaters. China obviously recognizes that there is an issue and these solar powered heaters are a positive move but the only problem is that when there is not enough sun you can't have a shower. You may be surprised by how often there is not enough sun!

Clogged urinal

So I broke the toilet but how the hell do you clog a urinal? Well I did it! And here is the proof. I just couldn't get it to flush and after my last toilet episode I decided to walk away and not mention it to anyone. It was still like this three days later.

The Mayor

After being in the City of Taixing for 24 hours I found myself getting ready to meet the mayor and his entourage. The company that I am working for has a fairly large construction project under way and the mayor wanted to come and check it out. I was put out front as the big white show pony that I am. We were all in suits waiting for him to show up in the Taixing heat. (Taixing heat is a little different then regular heat due to the pollution) Note: Taixing is one of the most polluted cities in the world. Eventually the cars show up and the mayor comes out. Right away I am introduced and I give my Ni Hao to him which blows his mind. He asks me if I can speak Chinese and I say a little bit. Then he breaks into his local dialect and starts speaking a mile a minute and ends his speech with a Hao ba? To which I answer Hao. He then walks on to be greeted by my Laoban and to take the tour. His Right Hand Man sidles up to me and tries to get the conversation flowing but I really could not understand his accent. It was harsh and he spoke quickly. I had to smile and nod and eventually he walked away from me. From that point on I was simply there as a quiet member of the group walking up and down shaking hands with the engineer and his workers. After the tour we all went to the restaurant. It was one of the nicest restaurants in the city and we had the back room. It was a very dramatic back room with a self serve bar and a bathroom attached. It had card tables and sofas and a huge hand carved table in the middle of the room set with elaborate place settings. There was a lot of art on the walls and many of the classic trifold Chinese shades around the room to block off the different sections. It was pretty cool.

To make a long story short..........When it came time to eat the mayor wanted me next to him. i of course obliged and he then asked me if I wanted red wine or north wine? I told him either was fine. He seemed to not believe me and asked me if I was sure I could handle the north wine. I said of course. Everyone went ooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhh at the table and I was served a little jug of clear alcohol. The alcohol tasted like sweet vodka which was actually quite nice but the funny thing was that they served it in a jug that was about the size of both of my thumbs and the shot glass that they used to drink it with was so small that my baby finger couldn't fit it. The style of drinking in this area of China is to always cheers with someone when you drink. As it turned out, I became a target to try and get drunk. The mayor's right hand man decided to do three cheers with me in a row and everyone thought this was great. Then he wanted to drink the rest of our jugs together. I said okay and everyone said oooooooooooohhhhhhhh be careful you will get too drunk. i said no its okay I will be fine. The total amount of alcohol that I drank during this show down was about 3 ounces of alcohol. I honestly felt nothing from it but the mayor's RHM had the reddest face I have ever seen and he needed to sit down. There were others that tried to get me drunk, but of course I have some experience with holding my liquor and this group certainly was not up to the challenge of bringing me down. By the end of the meal I was pretty much sober and every other guy at the table was red faced and slurring their words. I shook the mayor's hand at the end and told him that I really hoped we could do it again. He told me that he looked forward to our next meeting. I told his RHM that the next time he wants to drink with me he needs to bring a bagel.

It was a little surreal to be at the table with no one speaking English and the food being hard core. I ate turtle cartilage, which was not as good as it sounds and some other things that were equally not as good as the sounded. But overall it was a great time and invaluable insight into the way deals are done here.

That is all for now........

I broke the toilet (don't read if you are not interested in hearing about my poo issues)

So I arrive in Taixing after a 4 hour drive from Shanghai and I meet everyone very briefly. With my bags still in the car, I am taken to my office (which kicks ass but I will tell you about it in another post) I sit down and try to settle in for a few minutes when one of my new co workers offers me a cup of coffee which I accept and enjoy, despite the fact that it was instant. After about 5 minutes of settling in I relaxed enough that I needed to deal with all of the Chinese food that I had been eating thus far on my trip and went to the bathroom which had no toilet paper. I asked one of the office workers where I could find some and he went on a 10 minute search for some toilet paper. When he gave it to me I went into the ladies bathroom and he freaked out. He said, "No no no you cannot go, it for lady!" I said, "It is for ladies and foreigners because it has the only western style toilet in the building." (Western style toilets are the sit down ones). He asked one of the female office workers if it was okay and she said okay. I assured her that I would be careful with the toilet. I went in and needed to rush to get my pants down as this was going to be my first movement since I arrived in China. I sat down and the entire place echoed with the crack of the toilet seat. I had to go to the bathroom so badly that I couldn't really do anything but settle in. I could feel the pieces of the toilet digging into my bum but I really couldn't do anything in fact, when I was done I needed to pick the small pieces of plastic out of my bum.
Now I needed to make a call; either I could close the lid and walk away and pretend that it wasn't me (which wouldn't have worked as I was the only person who had ever used the toilet) . Or i could own up to it and deal with it like a man. I decided that honesty was the way to go. I tracked down the General manager and told him that I had a problem in the bathroom. He followed me and asked, "You don't know how to use?" I said, "No, I know how to use but I destroyed the toilet." I showed him and it took him a minute to figure out what had happened. Then he started to laugh which attracted people to the bathroom. They of course asked what happened and Mr. Bang told them. Pretty soon everyone was there and we were all having a laugh. Everyone expect me who was nodding and saying, "Yes, yes I totally broke the toilet." It was pretty embarrassing as you may be able to imagine. I eventually went back to my office and tried to stop sweating for the next 15 minutes.
Then I had to rush off for a meeting with everyone in the entire office building which lasted 3 hours and I was required to make a speech regarding my goals and hopes for the company...........................

Time Difference & Chinese Meetings (A Crash Course)

It is 5:30 am and i have been up since about 4 am. I did get up at around 1 and talked to Mun on Skype which was good. Skype is the best invention since peanut butter. It is incredible how I am able to see munny and talk to her for free! Mom just got hooked up as well which has been great to keep her informed. It really is like having them in the room.

Just so you know.........these postings are showing up in Toronto time so this one will be around 5:45 pm on Saturday but I am actually posting them 12 hours ahead in Shanghai time.

Yesterday I was to be ready at 11:00 am for my first meeting with all of the managers of the Shanghai plant. I was ready at 10:30 and I laid down to read until the phone rang. It didn't ring until about 12:30 and I had fallen completely asleep. I tried to wake up on the 20 minute drive to the meeting but was still pretty groggy when I got there.
The meeting was in a hotel room on the 27th floor of a big hotel and when I got in the elevator the bellboy pressed the button and sent me off by myself. I got off the elevator and realized that there were about 50 rooms on the floor. Luckily, the door to my meeting was wide open so that when I walked by Mr. Kan saw me and waved me in. The room was smoked filled and there wasn't a window or a fan on. There were 7 managers in the room with Mr. Kan and I was quickly introduced and the meeting returned to its previous state of having each of the mangers discuss the current situation in their departments while everyone else slept or played with their cell phones. I sat there trying to grasp the situation for about and hour then out of nowhere Mr. Kan explains who I am in Chinese and asks me what I have to say. I forgot every single Chinese word that I had ever learned. I was like, " Um dui bu qi, uh wo bu zi dao ................" I also started to sweat profusely. It was brutal. I asked Mr. Kan what i should talk abouit and he said that maybe I could introduce myself. So I did my basic intro of my name and my experience in Taiwan and how I was now studying My IMBA in Toronto. Then one of the managers asked me where I studied Chinese and I was able to have a conversation with him and I stopped sweating and finished speaking. It was tough. then we broke for lunch and I ate with Mr. Kan and we discussed the meeting style and it turned out that I had some relevant experience to contribute to the second part of the meeting so during the second half of the meeting Mr. kan called on me to contribute to the conversation. I was very careful to not say too much as I really didn't understand the situation fully and I didn't want to piss anyone off.

This may have been the most stresssful day of my life and I new it was going to be when I woke up. My Chinese is going to need to improve very quickly. Hopefully today will be less stressful.

That's all for now............................................

Early mornings

Luckily I remembered how every time I flew back to Taiwan from Toronto, I would undoubtedly wake up at 3 am and not be able to get back to sleep for the first week or so. I have packed enough books to keep me busy and I am in the process of plowing through Salem's Lot by Stephen King. This book has been on my shelf for the past 15 years and I felt that it was time to deal with it. It is not a bad book and things are just starting to heat up now. I am currently waiting in my hotel room for the breakfast service to open up downstairs. It is a very standard Chinese breakfast with sweet bread and egg mixed with the little silver fish. In truth it feels a bit like home after being around it in Taiwan for so long. I do miss my coffee pot a little but I saw that there is a Starbucks not too far away. At home i only drank a Starbucks coffee once because is seemed like the least appetizing option available, then I get to Asia and Starbucks is my best friend. Anyway, I will survive on tea until I can track down a coffee pot and some decent beans.

I ripped on air Canada in my last post and the domestic flight from Toronto to Vancouver was brutal but the flight from Van to Shanghai was great. I had a nice comfortable seat with lots of leg room! Each seat had a standard wide screen TV with movies on demand. I have never been so comfortable on a plane in economy before. i couldn't really sleep so I watched about six movies back to back. When we landed I walked out and checked out every sign being held up for my name. It was not there. I said to myself, " Here I go, let's make this happen." I found out that gate 10 was in the other terminal and that I had to take the free bus. When I finally found the bus, loaded my gear and got to terminal 1, I started to unload and with tow of my bags still on the bus the driver took off. I yelled so loud and punched the bus. I nearly knocked the thing over! I grabbed my bags and headed in to gate 10. i then had to do the walk of shame back towards the gate to check out all of the signs there being held up by anxious people waiting for the person they have been sent there to pick up so that they can get on with their day. I unfortunately was not able to help any of them out. My guy was not there! Okay get out the numbers I was given, call the first number, out of order. Shit. Call the second, its ringing, my new boss picks up. The driver realized the mistake and went over to the other terminal. I waited for about 30 minutes and then there was Uncle Wen ready to take me to my hotel. The hotel is nice enough but I was too tired to really care. I hadn't slept in 24 hours and I smelt of airplane. I took a quick shower and waited for Mr. Tan to show up. he was very nice and brought me fruit. I slept all night from 7:40 pm to about 1:30 am then from 2:30 am till about 9 am then from 10 am till about 4 pm.

I had my first meeting for work at 5 pm yeaterday and it went well. We went over the job description which is a monster. I could be here for the next 3 years and still not complete it all, but I am glad that it will be a challenging summer. Speaking of challenging.........nobody speaks English. This is going to be great in the long run, but my Chinese is going to need to improve a lot very quickly. I am going to have a meeting today with all of the managers at the plants that I will be working at and then I have the next day and a half to myself. I plan on finding a shop that sells Chinese books with simplified Chinese in them.

That is all for now..........................................

Half way there

I am sitting in the Vancouver Airport waiting for my connection to Shanghai having my last Timmy Hoes for a while. My first flight was not very impressive. Air Canada has really let itself go since I last took it. The service was terrible and the seats were built for a 5 year old. The man next to me had a problem with low blood sugar and he had been traveling for 23 hours; when he pushed the button it took them about 20 minutes to come by and ask who pushed the button and when he asked for a coke the lady said they were coming around soon in a very annoyed voice and didn't show up for another 30 minutes. Oh Cathay.................why don't you fly to Shanghai? Hopefully I will get bumped to business, but I have no reason to believe that I will: Just the typical traveling wishful thinking that i do every flight I take and then when I don't get bumped I swear that from now on I will pay for business class no matter what it costs.

Getting Ready to Leave.............

I leave for China tomorrow and I am very excited about it if not a little sad to leave Munny here in Toronto. Mun just made me an incredible dinner and we are relaxing together which is a great way to spend out last night together for a while (Thank god for Skype). I will be keeping everyone up to date with my blog posts while I am in China. This is my first attempt at being a blogger so it may take me a while to get into the groove of it.