Shanghai to Shrewsbury

Well, the last day is finally here - and the work we came here to do is finished. So we went out on the town to celebrate with our colleagues.

Started at a shopping district near Yuan Gardens:











And then we went to dinner:





And walked around The Bund:



And I iz one tired puppy. Night, all!

Shanghai Surprise

Yesterday's travels to Shanghai and today's workday have pooped me out. This won't have a lot of content, mostly pictures because I'm ready for bed. But I do want to at least get this much done. And I'm sorry for not responding to emails, I hope to do more of that tomorrow!

Took some pictures from our 38th floor breakfast area in the hotel, the lobby itself:





How 'bout these crazy chairs?



We were lucky enough to get a driver to transport us to the office on the outskirts of Shanghai. It was a wild ride, even by my standards. Pedestrians crossed between cars, bicycles darted in and out of traffic. The van we were riding in switched lanes uncountable numbers of times, sometimes blowing its horn, sometimes crossing the double yellow line to pass cars when another car was coming toward us. I finally found a city with worse drivers than Boston! Some pictures from out the car window:







After work, we went out for Chinese food. Ha! See what I did there?? I crack myself up. (Yeah, I'm tired. So what of it?)

Anyway...multiple dishes are placed on the lazy Susan and you simply serve yourself from the group dishes:



It was delicious. Except for some raw meat that I steered clear of.

One of our colleagues made us go out to the lobby of the restaurant to see the "100 day" birthday party being thrown by a family of a 100-day old daughter. Seems they invited 300 of their nearest and dearest to mark the occasion. Note the poster-sized pictures of the child! If she gets this for being 100 days old, what in hell will her wedding be like?



Not too much of excitement planned for the next few days. Counting the hours till the long plane ride back home!!

If It's Sunday, It Must be Shanghai

Made the short hop over from Osaka to Shanghai today, which included so many modes of transportation, it's hard to keep it all straight.

Took a taxi (transportation type 1) to the Kyoto train station, where we were pretty much like your average run-of-the-mill contestants on "Amazing Race." We had to use our wiles to figure out where to buy a ticket and find the train. The tricky part was that there were two train stations in Kyoto, and two airports in Osaka, with both express trains and locals to choose from. After asking several people, we were able to figure it out and it all went smoothly once on board.

Some pictures of the countryside of southwestern Japan:



And an interesting building in Osaka:



The railcar (type 2) was nearly empty so we were able to spread out a little bit. The 75 minute ride dropped us right at the airport and we went through to our gate easily, following a short shuttle bus ride (type 3). Business class on the All Nippon Air flight was also not filled up, making the plane ride (type 4) a piece o'cake. We noticed that going through customs in Shanghai was a lot more aggressive than in Tokyo. People pushed ahead and jostled one another to get advantage, making me miss the gentle Japanese a bit.

We were greeted by a bellhop (literally dressed in his monkey suit) at baggage claim, who quickly moved us to an awaiting car (type 5) for the drive to downtown Shanghai. And, if China is considered communist still, you wouldn't be able to tell it by the looks of the suite I have. We're not exactly sure how we qualified for this situation, but we're enjoying it.

The check-in was a trip in and of itself. They whisked us to the 38th floor, which is known as the "Executive Lounge." There, we were shown to some comfortable chairs, given a beer, while they did the check in thing. Another set of bellhops stood waiting and guarding our suitcases all the while. Then they took us to our rooms:







The suite also has two bathrooms, a flat screen TV in the bedroom and a regular one in the living room. I even have my own fax machine if anyone needs to contact me.

Right now I'm really tired and work starts early tomorrow, so I'll leave you for now. Pleasant dreams, people!

And for HorshamScouse...I'm working on that World Financial Center thing. I'll let you know how that one goes as the week progresses.