Today was my last full day in Shanghai. It’s been a really nice visit. At the same time it’s been incredibly hard to be this far away from family and home….harder than I actually imagined.  It has been a good time to think. At night it’s only Sam and me in this hotel room. It’s also hard knowing that I won’t be home until almost a week from now. I’ll be OK though.. I’m sure of it.

   Shanghai has been a total hoot. This place is unlike anywhere else in the world. There are  between 11 and 15 million folks .. depending on how you count..  all heading in a million directions at once. The city is full of contrasts: in some sections it’s sparkling and new .. in others it’s gritty and falling apart. But no matter where you go, you can feel the dynamism and optimism. Everyone seems to have an upbeat view of the place and of the future.. and it’s no act. You would never know that this shining, flashing vibrant place is part of the grim and totalitarian China we were taught about as kids.   When I see the growth here, the amount of money being generated and spent.. and how hard everyone here works.. I have no doubt that this will be a center .. if not the center… of world commerce and technology within the next 25 years.   (I think I need to learn Chinese.. But then again, that won’t be necessary because everyone here in high tech speaks flawless English. )

 Not only have I loved the city, but I’ve loved the people I’ve met here and the people I’m traveling with. I’ve found the IBM folks here to be  incredibly competent and hard working. On top of that they’ve been so warm and friendly. Every day here someone has asked me about my button with Sam’s picture. When I tell them the story of Sam they all want to know more about him and about how we’re doing.  My buddies from the IBM Academy have also been great to travel with as always. They’ve been so supportive of me over the last four months.  I feel privileged to hang to  with all of them.. Here are some pictures of the friends I’ve been working with over this past week.

  Our big work activity today was to go an visit one of our customers.. A large commercial bank. We drove to their beautiful new building on the outskirts of town. The meeting was  very formal. The company was justifiably proud of the systems they had built. The VP of their computer division gave us an overview of the company. At a dramatic point in his presentation  he pushed a button and a wall of the conference room slid back revealing a a huge room full of people staring at screens and a giant wall sized screen behind them with status of all their systems. .. It looked right out of James Bond. I reached for my camera and was almost wrestled to the ground (just kidding) ‘No pictures allowed!’

 We got back to the IBM building in time for going away party with a beautiful cake that topped off another day of wonderful food.

 

After work we all took the elevator up to the 88^th floor of the Jin Mao building at 88 floors.. the view was simply breathtaking   We got up there at just the right time to watch the day turn to night.  The view was unforgetable.

 

We walked back to the hotel, freshened up and a group of us headed back across the river by subway. We spent about 45 minutes walking up the famous Nanjing shopping plaza.. What a riot of people, lights, sounds and smells.

And Sam…..

 

After that, we had a very nice dinner on the 40^th floor of the  Marriot where I’d eaten 2 years ago with my friend Glenn We spent time talking about IBM and how good it had been to all of us I related all the caring  things the company and my management have  done for us since Sam died.  I will always be grateful for that.  We wondered back to the subway and then to the hotel    I have to get to sleep now. I have a conference call at 2:30 AM.. then tomorrow I leave for Sydney where I’ll see the rest of my good friends. Should be good,

Goodbye Shanghai
I miss all of you at home.. I love you all… Tze tian Sam.

-jc

ps. All my love to My folks, Dianes folks, and my seester and brothers family.. A special  hello to John Samuel Liddicoat age 3 days