Monthly Archives: January 2012

Sunday night – hot pot

Leave a comment

Aside form getting on a plane to Beijing at 8 .. I had virtually no plans for the day.. What a gift.. !.. i made the best of it.. I got up too early.. still feeling a bit of jetlag.. and went out for a run. Again it was a raining.. .. again I didn’t mind. I headed back to Century Park . This time I paid the entrance fee and was able to run the interior trails. It was so beautiful.. I saw only 3 other people the entire time I was there.. I suspect it was because of the rain.. but even so, it was strange having this huge green space… forest and ponds , gardens and art all to myself … especially in one of he densest population centers in the world. .. but II really did have the place to myself.. It was beautifully manicured land.. tree lined walks, fine bridges..

 

I could have stayed there all day.. but.. breakfast was only served until 1-L30.. so I ran back to the hotel and ate… Today I did not try the 1000 year old eggs// but they were there waiting for me…

 

I went back to my room and did a few hours of work.. then packed. Just before 1, my friend Jia came and picked me up from the hotel and we grabbed a taxi down to the international  center.. I wanted to look for electronics.. There were 2 huge buildings full of people selling everything from iPhone knockoffs to spy equipment.. It was fun looking.. but once again.. I didn’t buy much..

 

As we walked around the place Jia and I brainstormed about work. I have a sense that she and her group will be very helpful to me in my new job.. After a couple of hours of shopping without buying.. we decided to grab something to eat..

Jia knew a ‘hot pot ‘ restaurant nearby.. It was really an experience.. It’s one of those places where you cook your own food in soup that’s biking in a heated container embedded in your table. The place was hidden on the 6th floor of an older office building.. you’d never know it was there.. The place took up the whole floor.. and .. was packed.. I learned it was open 24 hours a day !

We had fish. tofu and spinach in two kinds of soup.. one was mild vegetable stock.. and the other was spicy tomato. The spicing was pretty interesting. It was full of sezchuan peppercorns.. they taste a little like juniper berries.. but they made your entire mouth numb when you ate one by accident.. not numb like… ‘oh they’re so hot’/.. but numb like Novocaine .. Still I like food you can feel so that was pretty cool.. It was messy stuff.. so before you were served they made you put on an apron.. Good thing..because by the end of the mean, the table was covered with glop.

Te highpoint of the meal was the homemade noodles.. This guy came by with a small strip of rolled out dough.. he then started puling it , tossing it and looping it in the air to stretch it out.. ..sort of like a cross of someone tossing a pizza. .. and some cool marshal arts dance…. then he too the strip of dough which was now several meters long.. folded it, tore it masterfully into strips and dropped it in the boiling soup.. Bravo .. what a show ! Check out the name of some of the dishes in the slideshow here… tripe, blood curd, gizzards and squid beard ?!?!?!

 

After eating.. Jia and I walked to the subway line..She headed one way.. and I headed the other.. 3 stops then changed for the very cool maglev train to the airport… It floats on a magnetic field… and at 300 km/hour (180 miles per hour) .. it made what would have been an hour long drive to the airport into 10 minutes.. so cool !

 

It was so fast.. that I got to the airport in plenty of time.. I’d just checked in for my flight when someone called out my name.. A man I’d never met.. but knew who I was called me over.. His name was Vincent.. and he recognized me because of my weird hair.. (many folks do).. .. He’s an amazing inventor who works in Hong Kong. He proceeded to explain and then demo a really clever idea for increasing video resolution.. He was so excited about his idea.. I loved talking with him..


… okay.. 3 hours later now.. just flew to Beijing ..it’s 23 degrees F.. brrrrr !.. I took a 40 min cab ride to the hotel. .. .. I’m staying at the shangri-la.. my favorite hotel here.. I think this is my 4th time here .. it’s beautiful and gracious.. and so are the folks who work here.. ..

Being in this hotel does bring up a very sad memory. I was staying here once with a group of work freinds when one of them, my freind Clark, learned that his mother had passed away.. At that point I’d never seen someone have to take in such hard news… I’ll never forget that…

ahh.. the world is full of memories.. ..

ok.. time for sleep.. more tomorrow..

nite all, nite sam
-me

Saturday night – Shanghai on my own !

1 Comment

 

I’ve had a long, fun and sometimes strange day here in Shanghai.. It’s pretty unusual for me to spend a weekend day away from home.. but.. have biz in Beijing next week.. so I had to stay I looked forward to one of those rare days with little on the agenda.. .. I woke too early after only 4 hours of sleep (jetlag) .. I tried going back to sleep.. but no dice.. so I went for a nice run again.. It was raining.. but somehow the city looks good in rain. .. on the way back I found a nice place for a samstone as I crossed a small river near the hotel

I met my freind Mark for breakfast around 9.. and proceeded to try every weird thing I could find that didn’t ‘t look  or smell like meat .. And there’s nothing weirder or less meatlike than 1000 year old eggs.. they’re raw eggs that are buried in the ground until they have the consistency of … of… hmmmm.. of rotten eggs that are buried in the ground too long. THey’re gelatenous and smell vaguely volcanic.. Yum…

 

Mark and I were having a good talk when a guy came over to our table.. I had one of those cognitive overload moments when I realized it was my friend Craig.. .. here… in shanghai.. Craig is a friend from Boston who started the group Father’s Forever that I belong to. . Fathers forever is a group of Boston -area dads who all  have had a child  who has died. . Once Craig hosted us all at his place in New Hampshire. You can read  the amazing story of the ‘exploding wineglass’  from that night . Even though I don’t see the guys in the group often.. we all keep in touch and support one another. It was so very cool seeing Craig here. .e less of a coincidence than I originally thoguht..a s he was here to attend the same event as I was.. still.. a cool coincidence. Mark Craig and I hung out and talked until they rolled up the buffet.. it was really nice. hanging out with them both..

Craig went off to a meeting.. and Mark and I went out shopping . We taxied to a huge underground market that had many things including carvings of me 🙂 /

Daisey’s KItch-EN… (irony intended here)

After achieving our  shopping mission.. Mark headed back to the hotel.. and I dove down into the subway.. I love exploring a city on my own.. I wasn’t so much exploring today.. actually.. I was going two specific places.. First stop was the Shanghai electronics markets on the corner of Fujang and Beijing streets just north of the nanking street shopping district.. i never come here without visiting it.. It was pouring.. but i didn’t mind.. I remembered the way wihtout needing a map.. I did pay a whole dollar for an umbrella.. // well worth the buck I payed for it.. kept me dry all day.

 

THe shops were just as I remembered them.. full of dusty shelves crammed with chips transistors, capacitors. relays and LEDS .. I wasn’t actually looking for anything in particular.. I always like to see what’s new in lighting.. .. last years LED rainbow strips are now appearing everywhere in the city.. but not much new this year.. I  spent a happy hour or so looking through this crap.. wondering if any real geeks ever came and bought anything.. then I realized what a geek I was for even hanging around wondering that..

I was just entering the second electronics mall when a terrible thing happened. my iPhone stopped working.. no lights, just a dark screen. I couldn’t believe it.. all of a sudden .. I felt really , really alone.. Not because I couldn’t call anyone.. but because I couldn’t share the pictures with folks..   I had to think about that for awhile.. why did an experience become anyl ess cool and fun if you couldn’t share it.. I shook it off an resolved to enjoy the rest of my day.. after a little more browsing (and no purchasing .. alas).. I walked back to the Metro and headed to YuYu gardens..  ..  camera-less but undaunted.. I actually tried buying a cheap toy kids digital camera for a few bucks.. but alas.. it didn’t even work.. so we’ll have to make due with my er.. artistic… impressions of the Old City .. . There was a festival going on.. and the old city was adorned with dragons for the coming new year.. .. I  put a samstone on a walkway over a pond in the main square. near one of the dragons

I looked around a few of teh old buldings.. most were tourist stores.. but soem were temples.. very cool

 

then I found what I was looking for .. my favorite cafeteria. the Old Town Snack Optional Palace, . I’ve eaten here at the last four times I’ve been here.. It’s awesome.. you walk through a line pointing at things you want to eat and loading them on your tray .. there are no words.. certainly no English words exchanged.. .. you get what you get.. I almost accidentally ate sparrow heads here last time…. This time I opted for a 10 inch long cooked squid.. not because I was really after squid.. but because it was clearly recognizable.. .. why not ? I also choose some green stuff.. because it looked nice next to my squid..  Not bad for 4 bucks.. Again.. sorry no camera.. but here goes..

actually. three are pictures from this same place from a couple of trips ago in 2007 .. look midway through this post and you’ll see a slideshow.. you’ll get the feel of the place..

 

Full and happy.. but camera- less.. (actually.. I thought my cheap toy camera was at least gettign soem pictures.. but nope .. ) I walked back to the subway and headed for ‘home’.. home meant a mile and a half walk through the rain.. but it was lovely.  I wlaked theough the huge centruy park and I think I only saw 6 other people..   .. Everyone else knew to stay out of the rain. I guess..

 

I got back to the hotel wet but happy.. except abotu my broken iPhone.. But.. after a bit of snooping on the internet.. I found out how to revive it (push power and select both for 30 seconds at the same time..).. my phoen was workign again.. but teh damn toy camrea proved to be not working.. oh well..

 

I had just enough time to shower and dress for tonights big gala for the client we’re visitng. it’s ther 10th anniversary and they pulled out all the stops. It was grea.t.t ehy invited all their employees.. and even the familiys of the folks here in china.. I beleive there were about 800 folks.. They served a great meal including jelly fish, sea cucumper and clear disserty stuff.. and awhole bunc of other things that I was too buay talkign to photograph.

 

They’d arranged great entertainment including kung-fu dAnceRs. a magic act , dragon top tossers, an amazing hulahoopist, ballet dancer.. and recitals by my new freind Howards 8 and 12 year old daughters (they were really, really good !) .. the highlight for me was a duet sung by our hostess.. a local TV personality and our host company’s CEO ..

they also gave out a ton of awards and door prizes. The event had a wonderful feel to it. YOu could tell the company had great spirit.. I know they work very hard.. but it was so good to see them play hard as well..  I was honored ot have been invited..

Now it’s late and I just gotta sleep.. so more in the morning.. I’m missing home..and enjoying yself.. I guess thats how it’s supposed ot be..

nite all, nite sam
-me

Friday night – Sincere Resturant

Leave a comment

Great and productive day here in this wonderful city.. I can’t exactly figure out why.. but tis is one of my favorite cities in the world.. ( my current fav list is.. 1. Jonesville VT, 2 Burlington Vermont, 3 Stockholm, 4. Shanghai.. 5. Boston, 6 Austin , 7. San Fransisco, 8. Haifa 9. Moscow ) I think it’s the brand spanking newness mixed with the old that’s still here.. or the weird food. whatever it is, I love it.

 

This whole section of Pudong was farm land as early as the mid 90’s.. now it’s one of the bigger cities I’ve visited.. I was trying to remember this AM how many times I’ve been here .. I think this is my 5th time… Here’s my hotel.. complete with man-on-pig in front.

 

I went for a nice city run today down to Century Park.. it’s been cool , overcast and misting all the time I’ve been here..   passed lots cool public art..

This place reminds me a little of my hometown Houston in that there are lots of little clusters of high rises outside of the city center.. This one is just down the road from the hotel. sitting in the middle of a bunch of lower buildings.. The architecture is amazing and varied.. and sometimes clashing.

beware of blue ghosts ? I think this is a water saving campaign.. (in front of a waterfall  and pond..I noted )

anywhere you go . there’s a Mc’d’s

then back to the hotel for breakfast… mmmmmm dragonfruit., spicy tofu and fungus… you don’t get that in the states very often for breakfast !

I tried everything on the buffet.. uh.. well.. not everything !

I had a great set of meetings with some client friends.. then late afternoon grabbed a cab down to IBM HQ in the Jin Mao tower. the 5th tallest building  in the world.. THere I met with my freinds Jia and  Gary.. the 678th  and  503rd tallest execs in IBM …

I couldn’t resist getting a picture of Jia with a poster with her picture on it I found onone of the walls.

Around 6:30 Jia and started walking to meet my freinds Mark, Rich and Bill for dinner.. it was about a mile.. which gave me time to see a little more of this part of Pudong..   Here’s an interesting building.. some here don’t like it because it looks too much like a sword.. I think it’s pretty cool looking !

here’s a pretty typical nightscape.. no matter which direction you face.. .. and keep in mind.. we’re about 5 miles from actual downtown here. .. Note the Oriental Pearl tower .. a famous landmark.. near the right..

As we approached the building where the restaurant was.. my brain went into LED overload.. every building had some sort of rainbow LED thing going on.. it was insane. The most amazing thing I saw was a huge harp constructed of LED ribbon.. it changed and shifted to the music..

I was proud not to be the gaudiest thing on the street by far !!!

The restaurant Bill had chosen was really great.. it specialized in seafood..  The name was a bit strange .. but welcoming..

 

We started with fungus.

then came .. weeds with potato chip wings  (no joke they called this weed)

and tofu wrapped in tofu skins stuffed with tofu.. (really nice !)

and whole fish snacks

and really delicious crawdads. .. the signature dish of Sincere Restaurant

And whole fish..

 

here’s host Bill and Jia.

 

THen we all grabbed a cab back to the hotel…. I then had a work call and a on of email.. now I’m struggling against jetlag to stay awake..

ok.. I give up the struggle.. I’m going to sleep !   More from here tomorrow.

nite all, nite sam

-me

Thrusday night (I think) – Shanghai

1 Comment

On the ground at last..it was about a 15 hour flight.. but it passed quickly and peacefully . The funny thing is that the little interactive ‘how far till landing’ screen got stuck.. It kept telling me that we had 7 hours to go.. then they told me we were landing in 20 minutes. A nice surprise !. An even ‘better’ surprise was that this particular Delta flight didn’t have 110V AC plugs in econmy.. that meant that I couldn’t work the whole way.. instead I read, meditated, slept.. and watched a couple of movies.. ‘Midnight in Paris’ by Woody Allen (cute ) , 8 TED talks, a documentary on Kurt Cobain and .. I must confess.. Juno..which I have watched 5 times . This is one of my favorite movies for reasons I can’t quite explain. I watched it carefully to figure out why I like it so much.. and I think it’s because it’s the best portrayal of a parents unconditional love of their kid.. .. I also like all of the off-tune singing.

I came out of my movie coma long enough to look outside and see the polar ice cap…. a view that is amazingly exciting in the most boring way imaginable. i watched for about 30 minutes without as much as an identifiable feature.. how cool/uncool is that ?

We landed about 7.. but i took me more than an hour to get to the hotel. This hotel is in Pudong part of Shanghai … bit too far away fro the river to walk at night.. I’ve opted to stay hear.. catch up on the work I missed during travel.. and get some much needed sleep.
for that reason.. I don’t have much in the way of cool pictures to share.. .. Here’s the view from my room.. note the fancy multi color LED’s everywhere.. just like my headband.

Ahhh. one more thing.. I tested out the bed as I always do in a nice hotel

ok.. that’s it for today.. more tomorrow..
晚安 all, 晚安 sam

-me