Smart Noshery Make You Slobber

Is the name of a restaurant I passed as I was heading to a restaurant recommended to me by one of the concierge at the hotel. I wasn't planning on slobbering, so I passed this one up.

I was actually on the lookout for steamed dumplings. I got kind of a late start today and I missed the street vendors selling the dumplings. That's probably not a bad thing. There was one restaurant within walking distance of the hotel that sold them, according to the concierge.

Here's a photo of them. They were absolutely delicious. Those white things that look like miniature filled kitchen garbage bags are chewy dough and inside there is a piece of chicken (I think) in a little bit of chicken soup. The entire breakfast of these 8 boazi and the sprite cost 8 RMB. That's a little over a dollar, folks. I would have these for breakfast often, if it was possible. Boy was I getting the stares from the locals! I was off the beaten tourist path and I don't know if they had ever seen a non-Chinese person in that restaurant before. I don't get stares on the main streets, but in places like this, they come - subtly, but you can tell they are turning around to have a look at the meguaren.

From here, I took a taxi to the fabric market, where you can get custom tailored clothes are pretty cheap prices. I'm having a dress shirt custom made for a grand total of 120 RMB, including delivery to my hotel tomorrow. I tried talking the guy down from there, but I'm not real good at that. I also bought some food for some beggars - roasted sweet potatoes from a street vendor. When I was getting out of the taxi, there was an ancient looking man and woman right at my window asking for money. I'll be glad to give them something to eat. Once it was clear 'Meguaren buying food', another 2 beggars instantly appeared. Roasted sweet potato for 4 set me back 10 RMB, about $1.30.

I then took a taxi to the Shanghai Museum which is in People's Square. The museum was very good - I took lots of photos of ancient artifacts, which I won't post here - but it was surprising to me that they allowed photos in almost all parts of the museum. China is an amazing place with an even more amazing history, just in their art alone.

I then took a taxi to an older part of town called Qi Bao. Here, I was not accosted by people trying to sell me watches or purses or wallets or DVDs. I think I got more of a sense of the real city life of China at this place. I didn't see one other non-Chinese person at this place for the whole 2 or 3 hours that I was there. Here's a scene looking down one of the waterways in Qi Bao. I have several other shots from this place, but this one turned out pretty nice. Notice the haze. That is ever-present in Shanghai. It's pollution. LA has nothing on Shanghai for pollution and smog. There are many people that I've seen on my taxi rides to/from work that spend their time cleaning railings and fences along the roads. I think they are wiping down grime from the air, believe it or not. Here's another shot looking down one of the shopping streets in Qi Bao. It was a very happening place, as you can see. Again, I wasn't bugged one single time at this place which was very refreshing. You can see the guy in the white shirt thought it was a little odd that I was holding my camera above my head to get the shot down the street.

Now, in this place, kind of behind it in the smaller alleys, I took some movies of all different kinds of food being prepared. One thing I didn't see being prepared in person was this special pork being sold. Can you imagine where these things have been before they ended up in this tray for sale as food?

Lastly, one of my friends from work suggested that I rent a car and drive out to the countryside to see something other than Shanghai. Well, there are many reasons why I won't be doing that, but road signs like this one are the main reason! I actually experienced the 'left turn from the middle lanes' once in a taxi and nearly freaked out at what the guy was doing. Somehow this makes sense. I don't understand it, but I couldn't explain it better than to just take a photo of the sign. (I was taking a taxi ride at the time!) . One more day here and then the grueling ride home. I can't wait to see everyone.

A little bit of country.

Sorry I haven't posted for a couple days. It's actually quite a bit of work to keep this thing up, but I hope you have enjoyed the multi-day travelogue with me.

I didn't post anything Thursday PM - I actually ate some dinner at PapaJohn's (it's a little bit upscale compared to the US - but they were playing country music over the speakers in the restaurant) and then back to the hotel to work on my presentation for Friday. I was up pretty late putting it together. I had to change it fairly significantly from the planned presentation I was going to make. I think it went well. Several people asked questions during the presentation, which I am supposed to take as a good sign. It doesn't happen often, so I'm told.

Friday PM, I took a taxi with another GM guy that has allowed me to hang out with him to the Puxi (p00-she) side of the city to a really cool little restaurant called 'Arch'. The owner is obviously a design and archtitecture fan as there were architecture magazines laying around from all over the world. Also the interior was very modern. I will tell you all about the meeting and discussion topics when I get back. I got back to the hotel near 11:30 PM. So again, no posting.

Today, I found a Starbucks and had a decaf and a chocolate muffin, as well as some drinkable yogurt from a local 7-11 type place for breakfast. Then I headed over to the Jin Mao tower to go up on the observation deck. It's on the 88th floor. They have an express elevator all the way up to that floor and I think it takes like 45 seconds to make the journey. It's pretty amazing. Here's a couple photos from the top. One thing you can see is the haze from the pollution. I could actually see farther than what is shown on these photos, but the camera just didn't seem to reach as far. It's a pretty amazing view of the millions of people around. I then headed over to the friend's apartment (I actually had to run because I didn't expect to have to wait to go down from the tower - but it was a good 10 minute wait). Once I got to street level, I ran to the nearest subway station. Now I've not had any trouble with the subway system in Shanghai. It's easily the most modern subway system I've ever used (not that I've used a whole bunch - but this one runs very efficiently and on schedule). Well, today, two trains that were posted to arrive at the station didn't. I came to find out later that there was some electrical system issues. I'm glad they didn't happen while I was on the train because that probably would have freaked me out just a bit. Our family got very temporarily trapped on a subway in Chicago this summer, and that was no fun - even when you can speak the language.

Once I got to the friend's apartment, we had some pizza - and then we headed to the south side of the city. I can tell you more about what we did down there when I get back. Here are some photos of the trip from the bus. I think I started to see more of the typical China on this bus ride and adventure.

I think the one photo was of a brick factory. There was no visible smoke coming out of the stack, but there were tons of bricks stacked around this place. It's interesting, it reminded me of the outskirts of Toluca, Mexico, where Rachel and I were in August - and we saw brick makers there as well. The experience of this afternoon and evening were probably life changing for me. Again, I'll tell you about it when I return home.

Thanks again for your thoughts and prayers for me while I'm on this trip. Coming home in just a few days!

I'm not sure what I'll do tomorrow. Maybe I will try to get a watch after all.......

jolly pong and compound potato

Yes, someone pointed out that many of my posts are about food. Well, food has been a challenge, to say the least. I get home from work after it's dark. It's not easy to take pictures of people without being rude, in the dark - cause you have to get up kind of close for the flash to work.

I find food to be one of the most fascinating things about different cultures. Here's what I had for a little snack tonight before I head out for dinner with another GM employee who is here for about the same time as me. Jolly Pong brand stuff that was almost identical to Sugar Smacks (or whatever the politically correct way to say 'puffed wheat with liquid sugar sprayed over it). I simply had to buy this one. Why, well one of my college housemates called me 'Mr. Pong' from the day that I met him - I think because of my Lake-heritage somewhat Chinese eyes. So, this snack food was for me. By the way, it was delicious and hit the spot on the walk home from the subway station last night.

The things in the pringles can are "THE NEW TASTE OF COMPOUND POTATO". Hey, when I read that, I had to try it. Who can resist "COMPOUND POTATO"? I also had to get the apple flavored soda - since it seems that the only place in the world you can't get your hands on some apple soda is the good old USA - unless you hit the Mexican stores like we do now and then.

The guy I'm going to dinner with tonight has been to Shanghai many times, so he knows his way around and which restaurants are good. Supposedly the place we are going to tonight has an English menu.

Signing off.

Oh, by the way, I added a photo of a window sign that turned me off to the dumplings at Yu Yuan Garden to Sunday's post. If you didn't read it it states, in English:

"Dumpling stuffed with the ovaries and intestinal glands of a crad" Yes, Crad is supposed to mean Crab. However it's spelled, I'm not up for eating the ovaries and intestinal glands of anything.

Last night walking to the Jin Mao tower area, I followed a guy with a shirt that read:

"Kentucky Straick Bourbon Whisket" on a perfectly good looking T-shirt. Someone had spent the time to make a silk-screen with those misspellings on it.

Update: Back from dinner - at a pretty fancy place called "Shanghai Uncle". Here's another photo for you - one of the dishes we had tonight featured a tasty fish-head staring up at us. It actually tasted pretty good - the fish in the soup, not the fish-head; that we didn't touch.

In search of.....

I got a good night's sleep and had breakfast again at work. I've been eating baozi for breakfast, a dumpling with kind of salisbury steak and gravy baked on the inside. Actually pretty tasty. I also had what was kind of like a gordita bread baked with chives inside, and then a fried egg somehow attached. Also pretty good. At lunch (again at the cafeteria), I had some dumpling soup with some kind of vegetable inside the dumplings - kind of like spinach but not as bitter. I also had a 'Tea Egg', a boiled egg that is boiled in tea instead of plain water. Sounds kind of disgusting, but it was pretty good as well.

After work tonight, I changed my clothes and put on some deoderant. In fact, it was the very end of my deoderant. So, I had a mission. I also needed some new shoestrings and I'm pretty sure that if you walk through Meijer tomorrow, and look at the shoestrings, you'll see that they are probably made in China. So I thought there would be no problem finding some for sale. I asked the concierge if he knew where I could buy some and he said he had no idea except on the street. They just don't command a big enough price to bother with at a store.

So, I was on my way again to the Super Brand Mall. This time I decided to walk the whole way instead of taking a subway. I would pass the Jin Mao tower (one of the tallest buildings in the world) and right next to it the even taller Trade Center building that is under construction. I got a couple of the coolest photos I've taken so far. This one is from the Northwest - the JinMao tower is in the foreground, and the new trade center building is in the background. I'm loving the night scenery mode of this new camera and the little tripod that I bought a couple days ago. Again, double click on the photo to expand it.

If you turn around and face the other direction on the street from this location, you get this view and wonder if perhaps AT&T Cellular has been laying out the city plan!

I rode the subway back to my hotel. Something I need help with is that when I tried to use my corporate credit card tonight, they asked for my PIN. Well, I don't know the PIN for my corporate credit card since I've never needed it before. I didn't need it Friday night for dinner. It's pretty hard to call the credit card company from the hotel room. I tried and failed.

I also took a photo of my room so you can see where I'm typing these dispatches from. In the corner there on the nightstand in the corner without the light, you can see some of my snack food supply to supplement dinner adventures.

It's getting late and I need to get to bed.

Hit the wall

I hit the wall today. The wall of complacency, that is. I worked somewhat later than usual, getting back to the hotel after an adventurous taxi ride at about 6:30 PM or so. I just didn't have the energy to go out in search of something decent to eat and then end up at a crummy rendition of an american fast food chain. So I ate at the hotel. I read the New York Times while eating dinner and then got back to my room at about 9:15 or so.

Looked at my e-mails from work. Tried to connect with an engineer at GM North America with no luck, and getting very tired.

Didn't take a single photo today.

Going to bed now.

Meeting an old friend.

A friend of our family, Gary Wu, moved to Shanghai 3 years ago on an assignment with GM. I met Gary while working on a project together with him about 6 years ago. When Gary was living by himself in Troy, he invited our family over for dinner and cooked us an authentic Chinese meal that could have fed an army.

Emma was the only one in our family that tried every single thing that he made and Gary still remembers that to this day.

I got a chance to go out to lunch with him today - he was going to a church service for persons holding Chinese passports with another employee that has moved to Shanghai. The picked me up at noon at the hotel.

So, I didn't want to waste the morning waiting for them so I went for a walk down Zhangyang road to the river and took a ferry across. It was only half a yuan. From there, I walked to YuYuan Garden, a place in the city that they have placed some old pagoda style architecture. I took many pictures. I've included one here. I was told that this is where they have good dumplings, but I was pretty sure I didn't want this one.... Again, click the image to see a bigger version.

Right on the the noon hour, Gary and King picked me up and he asked me where I wanted to go. I told him I wanted to go to a good chinese restaurant because I have no way of knowing if the restaurants I've seen are good or bad or in between. We went to a restaurant at the top of the Super Brand Mall, called South Beauty.

We had several good things to eat - deep fried thinly sliced steak prepared at the table - the oil was kept hot with large stones submerged in the oil, then chili peppers and onions and spices and beef were added to it.

We also had some barbequed ribs, with a flavor I haven't tasted before but it was delicious. Desert was some kind of thing made with sticky rice in lotus leaves - again pretty good. Oh, there was a second part of desert which was sticky rice (basically like a doughy ball made from rice flour) in a rice wine (but not really fermented for some reason) which was also quite good. The sticky rice has a really strange texture.

Then King stayed at the mall to shop for some roller blades and Gary and I left so that he could take me to church. On the way there he asked if I wanted to instead come to his house to see his family as this would probably be the only day that we could do that while I was here. I went ahead to his house and saw his wife Serena, and his daughters Elena and Lindsey. Elena is a chatty 4 year old who speaks both English and Mandarin. She taught me how to count to 10 in Mandarin She's quite a cute little girl.

I then left their house at about 4:30 pm and got back to the hotel at 5. I decided to take a subway to the Huihui road section of Shanghai, look for some dinner, and then eventually make my way back to the hotel.

I really tried to eat at a chinese restaurant, but nothing looked good to eat. I did buy a woman some chicken (I think - I couldn't tell) who was begging for something to eat in the Nanjing Road section of town. That's the section that looks lit up like Las Vegas. I was sitting down taking some pictures of that section of town when she approached me and made a hand sign that she was hungry. I motioned for her to follow me to a store across the street that sold all kinds of really strange looking (and smelling) food. She followed me there then I motioned with my hand for her to pick out what she wanted. She took a little bit of time then selected a package of what I think was chicken pieces. It cost about $4.50 or so. She thanked me then I made myself scarce in the crowd. She was the first beggar that I had seen that didn't seem to have some physical malady of some kind.

I then took the subway back to the Pudong side and stopped at SuperBrand Mall because I had heard they had a supermarket in the basement. They also had a couple fast food joints that I could fall back on if I had to.

I bought some juices and cracker/cookie type things at the supermarket then headed upstairs, again, in search of even authentic chinese fast food.

Burger King it was. It was awful - the burger that is. I got what I thought was a bacon bbq burger. Well the bbq sauce tasted odd, and I think they forgot to fry the bacon because it was raw! I pulled that off the burger and tried eating the burger. I got about half-way through it and stopped. Blech.

Time to get back to the hotel where I did some work and then typed this up. Got to get to sleep.

Hey, this is kinda small!

If you've been reading the blog, you know that I bought a new hoodie sweatshirt last night. Size Large.

Well, today I put it on, after I had taken off the tags, and it's tight. I figure it's perhaps just the way it's supposed to fit.

It's not too tight to wear, but let's just say that it's somewhat form fitting. I'm probably not going to do much more shopping (explanation below) while I'm here in China, and I don't feel like going back to the Super Brand Mall anyways.

Today I spent the entire day shopping. I went looking for a cheap guitar that I could play here in the hotel. On one road, Jinling Road, there are probably 20 music stores. No cheap guitars that were actually worth anything.

I also shopped on Nanjing Rd. which is one of the main pedestrian zones. I got tired of people asking if they could speak English with me and go get some coffee and be friends. There's always some angle to it. I got some good photos which I may or may not upload. My last post took me way too much time to add the pictures. I did contribute to the various blind musicians that were busking for money. Most of them were playing what's called an 'erhu'.

I also went to an area where they supposedly have good knock-off clothing and luggage and what-not. I actually bought a watch there after much negotiating and insisting that I didn't want one with the dealer. He started the deal at 800 RMB, which is about 107$. I told him 250 RMB. He made it sound like I was going to take food out of his baby's mouth. At the time, the second hand wasn't moving. I did like the design (it was a knock-off TAG Heuer) with day of the week and date function - very sleek - which is unlike most of the knock-offs that they have which are honking huge Rolex and Breitling and other brands I haven't heard of.

So I pointed out that the second hand had stopped and I wanted out of the back room (you are locked in basically - there is an electronic lock on the door that only seems to be openable by the person in the main shop.

He replaces the battery and throws in an extra battery, and I start knocking on the door to let me out. He shouts to the person on the outside to ignore my knock. They ignore. I knock some more. At that point he brings the deal down to 380, and I'm knocking harder. Then he pulls me aside (there are other people in the back room at the time and tells me 'deal for special friend, 320 RMB, I countered that with 280, and he counters with 300 RMB and I pull out the money.

Well, I get about 100 steps away from the place and started to set the time to the right time (5:00 at that point) and I notice that when I put the minute hand at 12, the hour hand is 1/2-way between 4 and 5! He said there was a 1-year warranty and I figured it was time to see how good that warranty was. I marched right back to the store.

His associate calls him out of the back room - I tell him I want my 300 RMB back. He says he'll get me another one one that works. I tell him I don't trust that I'll get a better one. He takes the watch and tries adjusting it - he thinks he's going to show me how it can be fixed and then I see him try to set it to an hour and he gets just a slight look of frustration on his face. I point at my hand and say '300, now' and reluctantly pulls the cash out of his pocket and peels off 300 and places it into my hand.

I'm done with the shopping I'm afraid. That experience has soured me to it. What a waste of time. At least I won't be visiting these types of places again on this trip. I did get a cool little tripod for the camera for 10$ so my nighttime photos won't be as blurry. That was a decent deal. They go for a little more than that (at least the type I bought) on eBay, and it smoothed over the bad deal on the watch a little bit.

I met with some other GM people for dinner at a decent Italian restaurant. Most of them are ISP (on a few year assignments at GM in China) folks. It was nice to be able to speak English without slowing down or repeating myself for a few hours. Got back to the hotel at 11:00 pm.

Going to bed.