Some relief from the humidity today

Last night after the rain stopped it started to feel a little cooler and less humid, this morning the temperature is a very pleasant 72F 22C, with hardly any noticeable humidity. A very welcome relief.

amyfamily1

Meeting Amy's family at the very famous Tang Dynasty Restaurant in Shanghai (Pudong), her brother Wang Jing Wei is Dean of the Shanghai Secondary Poly Technology university and her sister in law Xu Jin Qiu is a research fellow at the same university and their son Wang Bai Shi is still at high school. Amy's brother & sister in law both specialize in environmental research.

Amy on Nanjing Lu

Amy taken on Nanjing Rd

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Enjoying a traditional hot pot meal at the Little Sheep (Xiao Fei Yang) hot pot restaurant, with Amy, Rob, Irene and some friends from the HP office in Shanghai.

Nanjing Lu

Nanjing Lu is a famous shopping area in Shanghai, it stretches for approximately 5.5 km in the heart of the city.

Day 11 or 12 perhaps

Unfortunately I had have had some major PC issues for the last few days and have only now resolved them. So I'm going to try to catch up in one post the most recent chunk of this vacation. The weather has remained hot and steamy and you'll notice a sort of poached look to my complexion in the photos :-) For the most part the temperature has hovered somewhere around 98F with about 70-80 % humidity. It’s certainly not unusual to have change my shirt 2-3 times a day. Transport here is a breeze, I have a transport card, which contains an RFI chip and allows me to use, taxis, the metro and buses all without any need for cash. At many of the metro stations and other locations, its really easy to top up the card. Taxis are plentiful except for those times that the heavens open and it rains for maybe an hour or two, then it can take a while to find one.

The sheer scale of the city is such that getting around is most effectively done in either a taxi, (convenient) or metro, cheaper but you have to cope with hundreds of bodies compacted into a subway carriage with poor ventilation. Watching the drivers in Shanghai can be amusing and at times a little scary... most drivers alternate between the gas pedal & the horn. Pedestrians are moving targets, even on the pedestrian crossings. The car, scooter and pedal bike have the right of way, no matter what. That even includes the walkways, which also double as smaller roads for the scooters and bikes. There are obviously 3 colors on the traffic lights, but it appears the only colors that the drivers recognize are green & amber, and they appear to have the same meaning, sort of like the start of a drag race at Firebird, but with one huge difference, there can be cars coming from as many a four or five different directions, plus pedestrians!

The variety of different Chinese restaurants is staggering, everyone represents a different province in China and each province has its own distinct culinary style. Add to that the equally large volume of Western style restaurants that are also available and it would take many months of eating at a different place each night to even make a dent in what's available. There is no tipping at restaurants, even if you try to leave a tip there's very little guarantee it'll go to the intended recipient.

Been having real problems getting this blogsite to except my photos directly, so going to use Flikr.com to post the additional pictures... see above.

Day two...

Today was the first real opportunity to go sight seeing, and we certainly packed a lot into today. The first stop was a quick ferry ride across the Haung Pu river from Pudong to Puxi (pronounced Pusi), Pudong was a village of farmers as recently as 10 years ago and now boasts one of the largest number of high rise buildings outside of New York. More on Pudong in a future post.


Once in Puxi, we were able to see some of the few remaining original buidings of Old Shanghai. These particular shops & accommodation above date to the late 1900's. There's very little of this older Shanghai remaining as most of the city is in a constant state of construction.


A short walk from the section of old buildings is the famous Yu Yuan Gardens, a collection of traditional buildings, a very famous Buddha, intertwined with lakes and rivers full of extremely well feed goldfish. There is also a bridge you connects the gardens to the main exterior buildings, you'll notice its not a straight bridge, in fact its a zig zag design which is supposed to confuse evil spirits, thus making it impossible for them to cross the bridge into the gardens.

Arrived in Shanghai

Well you know what they say about the best laid plans ... I had purchased an early flight from Boise to San Francisco in part to avoid the epected long lines in security and to give me a more relaxed intinerary.... but wouldn't you know it, there was major cloud cover in San Fran, so instead of the 10 AM flight, we were pushed back until finally we left at around 12:55 Boise time, with an expected arrival at San Fran of approximately 12 20 PM. By the time I did get to San Fran all hopes of a relaxing transition from one flight to the other had completely vanished, and when I was confronted with the mess that is international check in, San Fran I looked like all hopes of catching my connection were squashed. After some hairy moments I did make the connection, just, and settled in for the 12 hour flight to Shanghai. I arrived in Shanghai at 6:00 PM last night (August 26th) and was immediately overwhelmed by the heat & humidity.

Coming from a temperature of 98 in the US when I left and having lived in some moderately humid places in the past, I thought I'd be prepared for the heat & humidity here... boy was I wrong, it hit me like last night like the blanket of heat you'll experience entering a swedish sauna full of overly macho guys trying to out last each other... and the mercury in the thermometer is about to explode. By the time we reached my hosts apartment I'd lost at least two pounds in weight, but boy was my complexion clean and clear !!

A shower and a clean shirt later, I was taken to Pinyip(I think this was the name) Tea Garden for a traditional meal of famous teas and very interesting snacks, and we were lucky enough to catch a group of traditional muscicians playing Ehru, flute and a third instrument who's name escapes me.

Today at work I was busy informing, and in most cases reminding my customers that I'll be out of the office for the next 2 1/2 weeks on vacation. Strangely enough once I had reminded them, they virtually all had a project or need for something urgently that just had to be quoted before I left. Perhaps I should go on vacation more often :-)

So with only 2 days left until I leave, I'm feverishly putting the last of my clothes and personal items together. When I last checked the temperature in Shanghai had started to drop a little and was looking more comfortable for my arrival on Saturday afternoon.

In Memorium - I Lost My Best Friend Today

While preparing for my trip to Shanghai over the last couple of months, I discovered that my best friend, a 12 year old yellow lab by the name of "Rugby", had become very sick. More recently an X-Ray revealed a white mass on his right lung and depsite several different courses of medication it became more and more apparent that he was losing his battle. Over the last couple of weeks he hadnt eaten anything, had been vomiting blood and mostly recently had lost his ability to stand, so today with a very heavy heart it was decided that the best thing for him was have him put to sleep. As my best friend for the past 12 years we had shared so many great times together that I'll never forget the love that he gave so freely & unconditionally.

The Enigma That Is Shanghai - Part 1

Those of you who who know me are aware, I'm very much interested in the entertainment industry, and especially the movie industry. I love movies, especially Science Fiction & Action Adventure movies, so it came as something of a suprise recently to find that two very new movies, Mission Impossible III & Ultra Violet were both filmed in Shanghai purely for it's spectacular ultra modern skyline.

Less than two weeks to go

With less than two weeks to go I am busy doing those last minute things that you do before a long trip. Several concerns have been resolved, and maybe of interest tp future travellers to China.

Having arrived, how easy was it going to be to get cash in the local curreny "RMB/Yuan: Well apparently the banking system although somewhat antiquated by Western standards, will work very nicely with my Wells Fargo atm card. Just look for one of two important logos on the back fo the card, Cirrus & Plus networks allow withrawl from your US & European based checking/savings accounts in China. So there's no need for me to take large quantities of local currency or even vast amounts of travellers checks.

Preparations for the trip

Having done a considerable amount of research in preparation for my trip I'm starting to gather all the essentials I'll need. It appears that at this time of year I can expect some rather extreme temperatures combined with high levels of humidity, oh boy !

Just checked the local temperature and it was 88F - 31C with 80% humidity. Apparently the locals refer to this time of year as Shanghai sauna season... how appropriate. Along with the heat also come the mosquito's, so I'll be packing a combination SPF 30 & Deet based bug repellent.

The countdown has begun.

Well the days are ticking away as I get closer to my departure date and the start of my Shanghai adventure. I'll be flying on United airlines and will arrive at Pudong Airport in Shanghai on August 26th @ 6:15PM after what I'm guessing will be a pretty tedious flight. Being something of a gadget geek I'll be fully prepared I hope to combat the bordem with my MP3 player, laptop and digital camera, and praying for an acceptable in flight movie... boy how things have changed. I remember as a youngster taking my first flight from England to Europe to spend some time living in Paris, in those days we were really lucky to experience a less than clear pitcure on a very low tech movie projection system. Today, its quite possible that the aircraft will be kitted out with all the latest in aviaition technology, including individual video & audio. Well no matter what the flight has in store for me I'll be prepared.