I woke today pretty rested after last nights intense feelings. Sometimes you just have to go to that well of sadness and jump in.  It was still raining this morning, so we bussed over to the IBM headquarters in the Jin Mao Tower   (Jin Mao means Gold Luxuriance Building“)  .. It’s the worlds 3^rd tallest building.. and is already close to being eclipsed by a soon-to-be taller brother just next store.(. I wonder how that feels ? )

   Today  we had a day of meetings with local technical leaders. It feels so funny to be introduced as ‘visiting dignitary’s’, It makes me feel pretty old . We met with many folks here today.  I’m so impressed with the technical skills, communication ability and attitude of all of these folks  At one point Takaeo-san from Japan ,  Philippe from Zurich with about 12 young technical leaders in a round table discussion. I do these roundtables all over the world.. and I can honestly say that I’ve never done one with a more optimistic and .positive group of folks. We talked about all sorts of things.. careers, work/life balance, life goals and philosophy. These folks capture the mood of this country.. optimistic, confident.. but at the same time humble. I have so much respect for what this country is doing to build its future..  Here’s a Ni-hao (hello) to all of you from one of the groups of folks here.

Our meetings ended a bit early today so I grabbed my friend Hua Pin  and headed back on the subway to the electronics sales part of town. I was still jonesing for some of those fancy color changing LED lights that I’d tried unsuccessfully to bargain for on  Tuesday. The advantages of shopping with someone who knew the language….. and the local bargaining customs.. was immediately obvious. He helped me score some super magnets at half the price I was able to negotiate the other day.. We then started on that bargaining for the lights I coveted.. after several runs at it.. 4 trips back and forth between venders in two buildings.. Hua Pin was able to get the lights of my dreams at about 20 % off the price . not bad for something this cool. Here’s some shots of the shopping experience:

We made the last deal just as the stalls were closing.. so we ran back to the subway to get back in time to meet up with the others. We’d arranged to take a boat ride on the river tonight and we didn’t want to miss it. We all got in another buss and shuttled over to the boat docks on the other side of the river. The scene around the boats was chaotic. Multiple boat lines had loudspeakers going trying to attract customers. Tons of street vendors triedto sell eus verything from watches (“Lollex !”) to toys.. it was mayhem. We finally got on the boat which was huge. The one hour cruise was simply magnificent !. We cruised up and down the river watching the city lights on both sides. Words cannot describe the amazing display of lights and architecture. I can only imagine the amount of electricity that goes into providing this show. I’ll never forget it. Here are some pictures

… and a few movie clips of what we saw..   It starts with a shot of a blind street musician playing a home made Koto-like thing, has some shots of the river including some big TV ‘s floating around on boats and some TV sreen-like things on the side of some very big buildings. It  ends with a  clip of  me tossing a SamStone into the Huang Pu river.

 

After the cruise, a couple of us wandered out to  Shanghai style restaurant in a mall near the hotel. Hua Pin and his wife ordered for us.. The food was wonderful. All the food here has been wonderful.. Here are a few more food shots..

 

With all the excitement here.. the most important thing that happened to me today was  when my cell phone rang just as dinner was arriving .. It was my sister, Mary , and brother in law ,John . They’d called to tell me that they have named their new son John Samuel Liddicoat..  I am having trouble putting into words how much this means to me.

What a wonderful way to remember Sam…  Oh.. Sam…Sam.. Sam…

-jc