Trip to China

December 1st through the 7th, 2008

I visited The shanghai area for work this week and had the chance to spend the night in Shanghai, Suzhou, Yangzhou and Nanjing. This is my first time to China and I learned alot that I want to share with those who might read this blog.

First, here is a map of where I visited. Shanghai is a large city with nearly 16 million citizens. I flew into Shanghai (Pudong Airport) and noticed that the city disapeared under the blanket of yellow smog. Since arriving I have not seen the sun or any spot of blue sky. Asking my friends here they also confirmed that they never see blue skies in China. How sad? the air is very polluted and dificult to breath. It also stings the eyes. People know that Beijing is the most polluted city (air quality) on the planet. The rest of China is not much better. After a couple days of cold and a week to get used to the smog, I started to get used to the air.

Another thing I learned was that the Chinese drive very interesting vehicles. If it rolls, they will try to take it down the freeway. I have seen bikes, which I expected, but I also saw these vehicles as well.

Which wheel is most important? Definitely the one in front.

This is a true MPV (multi purpose vehicle). The front is in fact a rotor tiller and can be seperated so they can till their ground. When not preparing the fields, they can use it as a tractor or even a car.

Here is the motorized wheel barrow, or a dumptruck with the bed on the front.

Here is the most popular vehicle in China, the three wheeled bike. I should have took a picture of a fully loaded bike as they are the work horse of delivery vehicles here.

Besides driving, people here are very brave. Our Chinese friend said that this is why China has such a great military, because people are not afraid to die here. It is amazing how many times people will be running in front of cars while on the road. Either they are darting in front of traffic or they are riding their bikes the wrong direction along the freeway. I am glad that I was not driving while here are I believe I would have hit at least one pedestrian. I am not trained to drive while constantly honking the horn.
While on the road you see that their is a lot of Volkwagons. They were the first foreign car company to start building cars in China and hold the number one market share position. the number two spot? GM with the Buick brand. Way to go GM! Seeing the market potential in China was a great foresight. China will one day buy many more cars than the US.

The thing I was most afraid of was the food. Chinese have a different idea of cuisine. They can eat about anything. The traditional chinese meal is served in small dishes that are shared by everyone at the table. The nicer restaurants we ate at had a large lazy susan style rotating table to aid in the sharing of food. Everyone at the table will dig in to the many dishes with their chopsticks and try a bit of everything. All the plates are very small so you cant load up on the food all at once. When we would eat dinner with four people, we would have about 8 to 10 different dishes so there was alot of food to try. Here is a couple of pictures of unusual food that we had this week (I didn't try all of this of course. I am a chicken when it comes to scary food). I am disappointed to say that Fortune cookies are not really a chinese tradition. they actually come from China Town in San Francisco. The Chinese finish each meal off with fruit such as watermellon or cantelope.

This is me eating Sweat and Sour Pork (very similar to what we get back home)

I never really know what everything is called, but this fish was staring me down and I have a rule that I dont eat anything that looks back.

This isn't sausage (yet). This is fried intestine with some sauce. I wish I can say it was delicious, but I wasn't brave enough to try it.

It is amazing how many edible parts are on a duck. This is a picture of cooked duck feet. We also ordered duck tongue one lunch, but I didn't have my camera with me. I did try the duck stomach and found it to be very chewy. I wont try it again though.

Everywhere else in the world you find McDonalds on every corner. Not in China. here there is KFC's everywhere. I saw at least ten KFC's to every McDonalds. No, I didn't eat here.

This is a street in Yangzhou. It was lit up just like Las Vegas with flashing lights and bright buildings. I was overwhelmed with the lights until I got to Shanghai at night.

Even the boats on the Huangpu Rver are lit up as brite as possible.

The final thing I was amazed at was the toilets. I am the kind of guy that likes to think things through while using the toilets. I am guessing this commode is designed to speed things up a bit. This is taken at a customers office building. Thank goodness my hotel had a traditional western throne.