Catching Up Big Time.......

It's 6:30 AM, and I can't sleep, might as well try to bring the blog somewhat up to date.

After several months of being blocked here in China, Blogger is finally available again and a great deal of water has flowed under the bridge since my last post so it's time to catch up a little and try and get back on track once more.

At the time of my last post June 11th, Pirates 3 "At Worlds End" was doing the rounds in the movie theaters both in the west and here in China. The weather was becoming much warmer with temps in the 90's and the humidity was increasing dramatically 85/90%. Now here we are in late October with November just over the horizon and I have to say the weather is beautiful right now. Sunny days, cool temps around the high 60's to low 70's, and little or no humidity.

So what have I (we) been up to?

The first and probably biggest thing to happen is we moved to another apartment. Our previous landlady just didn't cut it. During the 6 months we lived in her 26th floor apartment there was an endless series of problems that ranged from broken AC's to a faulty washing machine and water heater, not to mention the other smaller issues which had been apparent from day one and which she promised numerous times to fix, but to no avail. So we took some time, looked around and after visiting numerous apartments in the local area that I would have boarded my dog in, we finally found an apartment owned by the editor of a local paper, who had completely redecorated his apartment western style. It's extremely clean, all mod cons and it's even cheaper than our previous accommodation, and the best part, we found on it the 3rd floor of the same building that we are already living in, so moving was a breeze.

Another thing of note from my perspective was that I completed several more TV Commercials here in Shanghai. In particular was one for the Chinese up market brand of mens and womens shoes, KangNai. You can view the commercials on this link... I had to shave off the beard for this one, so look for the Chef at the end of the video. Below is a photo taken at a place on the outskirts of Shanghai called "Thames Town", it's a rather plastic recreation of England in the form of an upscale housing development for the wealthier Chinese.



My agent LandyLee for this particular commercial. Oh, and that's not all me. The director decided he wanted a fatter French Chef, so they padded me out with the nylon stuffing you get inside a winter coat, just the perfect thing to be wearing on a day when the temperature hovered around 95 and the humidity around 90%. Below you can see an example of "Thames Town" and fake England, or in this case fake Tudor.



Another project I just finished is another stage play, "Angels Fall" by Lanford Wilson. I got to play the rather demanding part of "Father Doherty" the catholic priest in the play. This was another production by the East West theater company and included cast members from England, America, China, Australia, and a Canadian director, Jonathon Geenen.

I have been following with great interest the final stages of construction on the World Financial Building here in Pudong, Shanghai. The building is a 15 minute walk from our apartment, so each time a new milestone is reached I try to take a photo for my own pleasure and the members of a flickr photo group called KPF-Kohn Pedersen Fox, who are the architects responsible for the design of the WFC. Recently the construction crew reached their latest goal which was the 101st floor. Here's a photo of the building on that day. Completion of the whole building including it's shops, offices, restaurants and hotel is due in early 2008. Behind the WFC is the Jin Mao building currently the tallest building in Asia, once the WFC is complete it will at least for a short time be the tallest building in the world.

Time For A Little Contemplation

As I lay in bed last night I started to realize just how different my life has become in the short time I have been here in China. Less than six months ago my life although busy seemed to be going nowhere. Sure I owned my our business, a theater company, but we just weren't progressing in the direction I wanted. My day job was a farce, most of the day was spent with my coworkers discussing it's potential impending doom and collapse, and finally and by no means least important, I was single and for the most part lonely.

Well fast forward 5 months and boy how things have changed.

First and most importantly, I'm now married to a beautiful Chinese woman named Wang Li Lujian (Amy) and have already been fully accepted as part of her family.














Amy eating Pizza with chopsticks, hummmm

I'm working again on another theater show, A.R Gurney's "The Dinning Room" and responsible for the lighting. The show will be another production by the East West Theater Company based in Shanghai China.

The script (documentary about the paranormal) I am involved with has just got investment to make our 15 minute pilot/trailer so I'll be responsible for casting that.

And finally late on Saturday night I got an email from the casting agent in Shanghai I work with to tell me they want me to do a 3 day TV Commercial shoot next week for a Pizza Hut promo based on Pirates of the Caribbean, at world's end. I'm a huge fan of all the Pirate's movies, probably the child in me still, and I have fond memories of my friend Ed Watson back in Boise, the two of us created some even though I say it myself, great costumes after the first movie was released. Ed does an excellent impression of Capt Jack. Any we took ourselves and our costumes a Halloween costume party one night in Boise, and had a great time. Ed if you read this buddy, I miss you and guys. Ed and his wife Tricia run a business called Rare Images in Boise, Ed paints wonderful murals.

So I guess the point I am making here is that thing's can change so dramatically almost in an instant, so treasure what you have while you have it or if you don't have what you want, seek it, it's out there somewhere.

Time For A Little Catching Up

Well as you can see it has been over a month since my last post and so it's time for a little catching up. In this post I'll cover the following topics...

Visas & Pickpockets
The East West Theater companies production of "Our Town"
The Pajama Phenomenon
Xitang Watertown

Much has happened since our wedding trip to Mongolia. After we arrived back in Pudong the plan was to go to the authorities and request a 1 year "Family Stay Together" Visa as my Tourist Visa was about to expire. We went along with David "Wang Jingwei" Amy's brother to the office in Pudong and were in the process of completing the paperwork when it came to our attention that Amy has never in her 4 years in Shanghai applied for her residency. This we were informed prohibited me for obtaining a family stay together visa until Amy had completed this additional process. In the short term I was given a 30 day extension to the existing tourist visa.

Amy and I left the building secure in the knowledge that once she had her residency taken care of I'd get the 1 year FST visa easily, however our delight was short lived. The following day was the begining of the week long May labor holiday so we knew there was nothing Amy could do until later that week as the office she would need to apply at was closed. On May 1st Amy, one of her previous students Wang Lu and I decided to venture out among the huge crowds (Shanghai's population increased by 2.8 million during the May holiday) and do some tourist stuff.






Wang Lu left and Amy on the right.

That decision was to haunt us for a while as during the walk through the horrendous crowds seen in this video someone stole Amy's I.D, her bank card and 600RMB. While the bank card and the money are an irritation, and can be resolved with a couple of phone calls to the bank, the I.D can only be replaced by the police in her hometown (Hukou) in Inner Mongolia, and would take at least 2-3 weeks. As I'm sure you can all figure out, as I only have a 30 day extension to my tourist visa and Amy's replacement I.D taking 2-3 weeks plus the time it will take her to complete the residency process, approx another 3 weeks I was going to be in the same situation all over again in 30 days time. I knew that I could not get another 30 extenstion as the maximum they will allow without exiting the country is 90 days so what was my next option. I frantically searched around various blogsites and forums, talked to many local expats and finally found a visa agent who could convert my L tourist visa to a 6 month F business visa. So with only 1 day to spare the process was completed and I received my passport back complete with a 6 month buinsess visa the day before my current visa expired ... three cheers for the visa agent, Hip Hip Hooray !

East West Theatre Company......

Those of you reading this post who are close friends know that I love theatre, and have been involved since the age of 13 in England, however during my 15 years in the U.S.A, with the exception of my Murder Mystery Theatre company my live had been rather bereft of any theatre, so it was with great joy that I was able to get back into theatre almost immediately after arriving in Shanghai. A local group of both expat and Chinese actors who call themselves the East West Theatre Company were putting on a production of "Our Town" and needed someone to run the lighting for the show. Well the production was a great success, and showcased some real talent to the almost capacity audiences. Some Our Town rehearsal shots....

The Pajama Phenomenon......

During my time here I have noticed something that's very foriegn to Western eyes, but which is a common occurence here in Shanghai, and although it is known to exist in other parts of China, in Shanghai it's far more prominent. I'll refer to it as the "Pajama phenomenon". At any time of the day of night, in public streets, the grocery store, on bikes, in taxis, at tourist attractions and even on occasion in a restaurant you can find the Shanghaiese going about their daily tasks in their pajamas.

Here is a sample photo and a link to a photo set I am building on flickr.....











This photo is taken on Duolun Road, a street famed for the number of famous literary persons who have lived there over the years. It is a popular place for Western and Chinese tourists alike.

Xitang Watertown......

Another place popular with the tourists is Xitang watertown about 1 hours drive outside of the Shanghai city center. On a recent visit I took a little video of a Chinese man Cormorant fishing, you can view the video here. I also took some photos of the town which is about 800 years old.

Here is a link to a Watertown photo set I am compiling.

Wirlwind trip to Inner Mongolia

Ok...I'll do a little more catching up here as the blog site has been blocked for about a week or so and is finally accessible again today.

Well Amy and I just got back from a hectic 3 day trip to her hometown (Hukou) of Chifeng [chUr-fung] in Inner Mongolia, where we were married at the offices of the Chinese government in a civil ceremony.

The journey to Chifeng was certainly an interesting one, a flight from Shanghai to Beijing followed by a 10 hour overnight train ride to Chifeng and a 1 hour bus ride to Amy's parents home. The flight to Beijing was uneventful although it was something of a mad dash to make the flight, but once on board the China Eastern Airlines plane I was very impressed with the level of service, the planes cleanliness and the quality of the meal served on a 1:45 minute flight.....I think the U.S/ European airlines should learn something from this more fledgling airline industry.

After the flight arrived at Beijing airport we took a bus to the city, approximately 45 minutes and then the metro to the railway station where we would take our train to Chifeng. Now the train journey was a whole other experience. Our train ticket was for what is known as a sleeper cabin, however the cabin was far from anything private and we shared our space with about 50 Chinese folks who were also making the trip to Chifeng. As you can see in the photo below Amy is sitting on her bed, well actually its more like a plank of wood with a white cover on it and a quilt and pillow, that there are other folks sitting by the window. This cabin probably had about 60 or 80 beds. They are 3 levels high, and consist of groups of 6 beds. With about 20-30 carriages this train probably carried somewhere in the region 2000. There are even carriages without any beds, just seats for the more adventurous or those suffering from insomnia.

The whole process would normally take 3 days, however as Amy's school director would only allow her to take 1 day of leave we had to cram the whole process into a single day. In order to accomplish this we had to enlist the aid of a Chinese government "minder", a Mongolian gentleman who's name escapes me, but who was invaluable. He and his colleague walked us through the whole process, took us by taxi to various locations for photos, notarization etc, and finally issued us our little red marriage books.

Here are the photos taken at the civil ceremony, unfortunately we didn't get anything electronic, so these are photos taken of the glossy prints with my digital camera, not as good as the originals.

After the process was all completed, Amy, our Mongolian minder, his colleague and I went to a local restaurant for a meal. Everything on the menu came from the grasslands of Mongolia and our minder and his friend went to great pains to tell us that the fish came from a lake on the grasslands fed by pure uncontaminated mountain water, as did the mushrooms and the beef. Certainly the air there was fresher and more invigorating than that of Shanghai or Beijing.



This meal was one of many over the next couple of days...I think the term "chi bao le" was referred to earlier in this blog, well now it takes on a whole new level as we eat our way through various meals as we meet and greet Amy's family and friends. After completing the marriage Amy & I took the 1 hour bus ride to her parents home where her Mother had prepared my favorite dumplings.

Later we took some time to walk around Chifeng and do some sightseeing. Below is a compilation of shots taken during the walk and includes Amy's high school and a market.

The next night we took the sleeper train back to Beijing, however this time we upgraded to a private cabin that only contained 4 beds and a door with a lock should we need it. We shared the cabin with two rather stuffy and non communicative Chinese businessmen. On reflection, I think I really prefered the more open cabin where at least we were able to glimse into the lives of the regular Chinese people. As with the airlines, again I have to compliment the trains for their efficieny and professional staff. The photo below is taken as we say goodbye to some of Amy's class mates from her high school in Chifeng. The man is blue also one of Amy's classmates, works for the railroad, he booked and gave us the tickets as a gift, which is a lot of money for most Chinese. The gentleman next to him is Amy's daughter's Uncle and also a local lawyer, and finally the lady with the white scarf is now an English teacher at the local high school.



We arrived back in Beijing at 6:00AM the next morning and headed directly to Tiananmen Square & the Forbidden City. At the Forbidden City there's a race taking place to complete a restoration of many if not all the 800 plus buildings of the Forbidden City. Below are a couple of shots that show that completed process. If you can visualize the second photo without the airconditoining unit, you are probably viewing that building as it would have appeared maybe 600-800 years ago during the Ming Dynasty.

A trip to the vegetable market

A couple of interesting things to report in the last few days...

First, as Amy's brother (David) Wang Jing Wei a professor at Shanghai Second Polytechnic University has been on a business trip to Germany, Finland and Sweden for the last week, so we have been keeping an eye on his son Wang Bai Shi while he's been away, and Amy has been providing meals for him on the weekend. Saturday we visited a vegetable market close to David's home in preparation for the meal that Amy would cook. This was quite an interesting place, with many vegetable , fish and meat vendors preparing their wares fresh at the location, both inside and outside. Here are a few photos to give you an idea of how the place looked.



As you can see,there's a huge variety of vegetables, meat and fish available here, and of course bargaining is of course not only expected, but I got the feeling that if you didn't attempt to bargain the prices were automatically inflated !



The second thing that has happened recently is my involvement in a theatre production of Thorton Wilder's "Our Town" to be performed by the East West Theatre Company. I'll be posting pictures and more information on the production, rehearsals etc in the coming weeks. I attended a rehearsal on Sunday and last night spent some time at the theatre working on the lighting setup. The performance space is somewhat interesting as it is a converted warehouse in Shanghai.

Catching Up A Little - Accessible Again

So as I'm able to get to the blog today I had better post something before the powers that be in China block the site once more. I'll try to catch up a little here for the past 2 weeks or so.

Yesterday was my birthday, so Amy and I headed out for a meal. The plan was to try out a place we had found a few nights earlier that touted Hong Kong style dishes. In my naivety in respect of Hong Kong dishes we went there full of the expectation of something that resembles the more commonly available Cantonese food found in most of the western Chinese restaurants. Were we in for a shock, after perusing the menu for sometime, I came to the disappointing conclusion that there were no dishes that really filled my Cantonese void....so off we went in search of something else. Further down the road was a restaurant with dishes from the North East of China so it was agreed we would give it a try. One of the biggest attractions for me was its dumplings, and vegetables. It turned out to be an excellent choice, as we had a great meal and both left the place "chi bao le", full with food.




Also since the last post, Amy & I have moved into the apartment, which went surprisingly easily considering the difficulties we encountered when renting the place, although we have had some problems with things like AC's not working. Now that was an entertaining evening watching this young Chinese guy, suspend himself by a rope from our living room window, 26 floors up while he worked on the AC unit bolted to the outside wall of the apartment, "rather him than me". Now we are more settled here, Amy and & have begun to explore the local area, there's plenty to do, including some great places to shop, my favorite "The PC Mall", 5 floors of PC vendors such as Lenovo and HP, plus mom and pop type operations where you can find anything PC related and bargaining is expected. This is where I bought all the components for my new computer, which included and AMD X2 3800 CPU, 1GB DDR 667MHz, 350GB SATA HD, MSI Motherboard, case, DVD, nVidia PCIe Video and Samsung 19" W 931BW (2000.1 contrast) for approximately $600, you can't beat that !!! The picture below is of the shopping area know as Times Square, which is about 100 yards from our apartment. I also added some video taken the night I took this photo to my youtube site, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fNZvXTb5iM

It seems today I'm able to access the blog again

So as I'm able to get to the blog today I had better post something before the powers that be in China block the site once more. I'll try to catch up a little here for the past 2 weeks or so.



Yesterday was my birthday, so Amy and I headed out for a meal. The plan was to try out a place we had found a few nights earlier that touted Hong Kong style dishes. In my naivety in respect of Hong Kong dishes we went there full of the expectation of something that resembles the more commonly available Cantonese food found in most of the western Chinese restaurants. Were we in for a shock, after perusing the menu for sometime, I came to the disappointing conclusion that there were no dishes that really filled my Cantonese void....so off we went in search of something else. Further down the road was a restaurant with dishes from the North East of China so it was agreed we would give it a try. One of the biggest attractions for me were it's dumplings, and vegetables. It turned out to the an excellent choice, as we had a great meal and both left the place "chi bao le", full with food.

Another event that has taken place since my last post is Amy & I moved into the apartment, which was surprisingly simple given the challenges we faced during the process of renting the place. Now that we have most of the glitches ironed out, such as an AC that didn't work, and that was an entertaining evening, watching a Chinese guy suspend himself by a piece of rope from our living room window 26 floors up "rather him than me", while worked on the AC unit bolted to the outside of the building. Three hours later he was able to haul the unit into the apartment and take it away for some additional work and return it to us two days later. We knew the area around the apartment pretty well prior to moving in as Rob lives about 1/2 mile away so Amy & I had visited many of the department stores last year, but now we actually live here it gives us the opportunity to explore the area in more detail. The are lots of great places to eat, mind you that's not uncommon in China, nowhere we have been so far has been short of restaurants.

People told me there would be days like this!

OK....so when I was researching China and Shanghai prior to making the move here, I read lots of posts on various ExPat forums, and one thing that most everyone had to say was, there will be days when you think to yourself, what am I doing in China? Well today was one of those days! I used to ask myself that very question every day at the job I left before coming to Shanghai, but that's a whole other story. Today there were two plans...first to go to the UK Consulate to file the required paperwork needed for my upcoming marriage to the lovely Amy in her hometown Hukou of Chifeng. If only the rest of the day had been as simply accomplished. A short metro ride to the consulate, 15 minutes of paperwork, a 1350 RMB fee and we were all done. Then came part two of the day. Amy and I have started looking for an apartment, so we had contacted several agents with our requirements and budget. The initial response was, although I don't speak good Chinese yet, I could read it all over their faces, "your out of your mind". One thing we specifically wanted was to be close to the metro as it makes access to everything so much easier and also cuts about 30 minutes off Amy's daily travel time to work. This we were told carries a premium when related to apartment rental fees. Sort of makes sense, but I also knew from the Expat forums that there were bargains to be had, you just had to find them. So we had previously looked at a few places that were either way too expensive or just downright unpleasant, when one of the agents called asking us to view a place just up the road from Rob's apartment that is provided by HP.
The location sounded really good, as it was directly across from a major banking, hotel and shopping area, and about 5 minutes walk from the Century Ave metro station, with access to lines, 2 & 4. When we arrived at the apartment, which I knew immediately we had to have, it was perfect in every way, including the price...all the other apts we had looked at that were half decent were in the 4000-5500 RMB price range, this one was 3400 RMB. It had everything that we would need and was located on the very prestigious (so I'm told by the locals) 25 floor, with outstanding views of Pudong. Unknown to us as we viewed the apartment, the three people who we believed to be the current residents, were in fact three additional potential renters. Those wonderful agents had in their wisdom decided to have us all view the apartment at the same time, and it became apparent pretty quickly that all parties involved wanted the apartment and that's when the real fun began. Even though it was just one agency, there were two agents on site from the company, one to represent us and the other initially to represent the other interested parties. Now it maybe that I was the only Laowai so they assumed that I had $$$ spilling from my pockets, so that price suddenly increased, then rapidly decreased again as I gave our agent my best impression of a Kung Fu (Wu Shu as it is known locally) death stare. To cut a long story short, and it really would be as we spent the next 4 hours in negotiation with this agency during which again the price rose, dropped, additional fees suddenly were added, removed, reapplied, reduced.... and then we all arrived back where we started, we got into a taxi and rode to the exclusive gated community where the landlady lived. Another moment of confusion, dismay, concern as the current tenants then told the landlady that they were not sure which date they would leave, a little heated argument on the phone and suddenly the deal was done, a date of March 18th was agreed, contracts signed, money exchanged hands, and Amy & I were the proud parents of a 1 year lease on a superbly appointed apartment (pictures to follow) in Pudong. After the contracts were all signed, our agent although now somewhat brow beaten took great pains to tell Amy many times that he was able to get us the apartment over the other interested parties only because of his great Quanxi with the landlady. It maybe true, and if so all power to him for securing the apartment, but boy what an exhausting process.
To end this post I'll add one last little anecdote...as Amy & I rode the bus from her apartment to the metro station at 5:30 AM this morning, about a 20 minute journey. The heavy rains continued and the bus windows were all obscured by condensation, suddenly at a volume level that made conversation virtually impossible, a piece of Argentinian tango music played. Well this is China!

Catching up a little and nightime on the bund

Well it's been a few days since my post and I decided to catch up a little on what's been going on. As the Chinese new year finally drew to a close and was punctuated by the Lantern Festival, fireworks continued to be a focal point of the locals lives. There are many expats here in Shanghai who make a b-line overseas during the the spring festival if only to avoid the fireworks...well for me it's still a novelty, so any chance I can get I'll get out there and watch them. Here's a little video taken from the 16th floor balcony of the apartment I'm currently living in. Amy & I took a visit to another water town the other day, Qi Bao although not as big as Zhujiajiao Water Town, is much older at around 1000 years. A quaint little town, with some interesting alleyways where a plethora of vendors selling snacks and foods from China's many provinces. One of the staples that we see everwhere is Tofu known locally as Doufu, there are numerous ways to prepare and cook the soy bean curd and I have to say I'm getting quite a liking for it especially the slightly spicy versions. Here is some video of us eating Doufu at Qi Bao. The other night Amy & visited Bing Jiang avenue and walked along the Huang Pu river where I took a couple of photos of the Bund, see photo above.

A lesson in dumpling making

Today is a very dull and damp day outside and although the ambient temperature is around 60 degrees, its just not a good day to be out there, so I thought I'd catch up a little on the last weeks activities with a new post.
The last few days have been spent doing those tourist related things... visiting Yu Yuan gardens and it's temple. Strolling along the Bund & Nanjing Lu, a walk in Century Park and finally a lesson in making the Chinese Spring Festival staple, the dumpling.
The visit to Yu Yuan gardens was extreme, consider this, 22 million people live in Shanghai and I could have sworn that most of them were visiting the gardens and temple at the same time as us. The crowds were horrendous, there were several times when I had to physically hold onto Amy's daughter Callie for fear of her being swept away by the enormous, heaving mass of people as we walked (nay fought) our way down the alleyways that surround the temple and gardens. It appears that everyone is so fixed on their own intent whatever it might be that they become oblivious to those around them, so much so that their own goals preoccupy them to the detriment of others.
Perhaps I should start this paragraph with a little geography lesson. Shanghai is divided in two parts by the Huang Pu river, everything West of the river is in Puxi (pronounced Pusy) & everything east of the river is Pudong. The bund, a promenade along the Huang Pu river is located in Puxi and provides wonderful views of Pudong and it's famous Pearl TV tower. Nanjing Lu & the Bund provided some great opportunities for photos & shopping. Nanjing Lu is a very street that runs for approximately 4 kilometers in downtown Shanghai. Comprised predominantly of clothing and jewelry stores, Nanjing Lu is a favorite with both tourists and the new monied members of Shanghai society. At night the street comes alive with neon reminiscent of Las Vegas.

As we walked Nanjing Lu Spring Festival decorations were everywhere, as were the people!
The next day, Amy & I took some time together and visited Century park & the Science and Technology museum back in Pudong. The parks itself is very pleasant, with a large central lake, numerous varieties of plants and trees and of course so many Chinese tourists One of the highlights of the century park visit was a Chinese gent selling spining tops...which when spun at speed made a very distinctive sound. Amy was enthralled by the tops and just had to have go

The color that is Spring Festival

As the celebrations for china's Spring Festival continue, one thing becomes very apparent, color is everywhere, and plays are very important part in the chinese culture. From the Hong Bao, red envelopes given as gifts to the children, to the Golden Pig of this lunar new year, color is everywhere.

Flying during spring festival has it's advantages

Well after arriving at San Francisco in ample time, I was able to relax for a couple of hours prior to the flight to Shanghai. My trip last year was much more stressful as due to some fog in Boise, resulting in a very late arrival at San Fran and a mad scramble thru security and to the departure gate.
After we boarded the 747 to Shanghai, I was even more pleasantly suprised to learn that due to the spring festival holiday the number of passengers on the flight was well below the norm and many of us were offered the option of moving up to economy plus where we had a complete row of seats to ourselves. As you can imagine the luxury of a whole seat, allowed me to stretch out and really relax on the flight over.
I had bought an additional new and rather large suitcase to bring some extra items in on the trip. I knew ahead of time, that I was going to be well over my luggage weight allowance, however I had called United's customer service prior to the trip to confirm what I should expect to pay in excess baggage charges. According the to young lady I spoke with, I should expect to pay and additional $110 in overage charges, so you can imagine my shock when the agent informed me that the overage charge would be $390. After a somewhat intense conversation with the agent in which I informed him of my prior conversation with CS, he agreed to only charge me $100 in overages, a huge relief as you can imagine.
Upon arrival at Shanghai's Pudong airport, everything was extremely smooth, that was until it came to the retieval of my baggage. The new and large suitcase, was in a word "destroyed". A large whole punctured the outer skin, and was large enough for me to insert my hand inside the case. A sick to my stomach feeling flooded over me, how much of my stuff had been removed perhaps or had fallen out during the flight. Did the damage occur on the U.S or Chinese side of the trip? Well once I was in the position to open the case and look inside, I have to say everything was there, nothing was missing or damaged, another great relief.

Moving overseas again

When I made the move to the United States in 1990, it was only going to be for a couple of years max. My initial stay was planned for 3-6 months...well 15 years later, I'm about to move to China. As you can imagine, with only a 3-6 month initial stay planned, I didn't exactly bring a lot of luggage. I think maybe one large suitcase and a laptop bag was the sum total.

Well here I am, about to make the move once more... and boy can someone accumulate a lot of stuff (could also described as JUNK) in 15 years. As well as the props, costumes etc that I had gathered for my theatre business, there's all the clothes, furniture and personal property I have.

I have decided after hours of pouring over this stuff I have decided to go the minimalism route, at least in the short term. After extensive sorting, resorting and discarding, I'm finally down to 2 large suitcases, and a roll on laptop case.

At the time of writing this post, United/China airlines has an economy ticket limit of 2 checked bags (23Kg limit per bag). If I am within these limits it will most likely be because at the moment of checking my baggage, all the planets have aligned and hell has frozen over. So with this in mind I called my friendly skies airline to enquire about the penalties I will most certainly face.

Well there appear to be a couple of options open to me, which are not so bad. If I exceed the 23Kg bag limit but do not exceed 45Kg on a single bag, I will be required to pay $100 additionally for that bag. Another option is to add a 3rd bag for a total weight limit of 32Kg for an additional $110 excess charge. Anyway, its not such a bad deal, $100 approximately to take a few more precious items with me. Oh did I say I was going the minimalism route...well even minimalists have precious possesions they can't live without ;-)

Shanghai is calling

Well with only a few weeks left until I return to Shanghai, things are becoming increasingly busy here. Selling my interest in Death by Murder, the interactive murder mystery theatre company I have run for the past 6 years and additionally I have both business and personal taxes to complete, along with the disposal of some belongings I don't plan to keep. With the temperatures in my neck of the woods in the teens, I'm actually expecting it to be warmer in Shanghai than here upon my arrival.

I have given my notice at work and it appears now that most if not all my work colleagues are aware of my imminent plans. Suprisingly some of the people you least expect can suprise you, one person who I have known for quite some time actually teared up upon hearing of my plans.

As my excitement builds, I must confess to a certain amount of aprehension. I have asked myself "what are your thinking" at least half a dozen times. It's not that I'm afraid of making the move, on the contrary I think Shanghai is a city of huge opportunuity and in my own case the home of my future wife, but there are so many major cultural changes to consider.

By the time I arrive in Shanghai, Spring Festival will be in full swing and my fiancee's parents will have arrived having travelled 22 hours from their hometown of Chifeng (赤峰) in Inner Mongolia to celebrate with us. One of the traditions associated with Spring Festival is the giving of red envelopes called "Hong Bao" containing money to the young. As there are a couple of youngsters in the family I plan to make my own custom version of the hong bao envelope to give to them.