My recent trip to China

I never gave a full report. But I am A BLOGGING MACHINE tonight so here you go:

My first night in Shanghai I went to the Yu Yuan Garden area:

At Yu Yuan I stocked up on souvenirs for the kids and passed on multiple offers to buy DVDs or watches. "Hi Hallo! DVD? Watch?" (I learned how to say "that's enough" in Chinese during this trip.) There are a few restaurants in Yu Yuan that are famous for their dumplings. I went to one that had a photo of Queen Elizabeth and Ronald Reagan eating there and took my chances on a variety plate of dumplings. Most were pretty good! After a few days in China, however, I resorted to this:

China: the one country where a Big Mac actually sounds appealing.

I stayed at a hotel called the Hongqiao State Guest Hotel. With a name like that, you'd think the hotel's motto would be something like: "Our hotel is slightly better than what you would have found in East Germany." Actually, the hotel was incredibly nice. It's laid out in several different buildings with gardens between each. For a long time it was only open to government officials, but now people like me and the Renault F1 team stay there. Check out the lobby of my building, which had an Art Deco painting of Shanghai that I wish I could replicate:


I did lots of wandering/exploring on this trip, since last time I was in Shanghai we didn't have time for any touristy things. The weather was beautiful, in the low seventies with blue (blue!) skies. Here's a photo of Nanjing Lu, which is kind of like Shanghai's Champs Elysee:

Shanghai is a fun city to walk around. One of my friends there asked me what is different about Shanghai compared to cities in the US, and I told him that in Shanghai you see everything in the city: old people, school kids, people selling things, people eating, people sleeping, businessmen, tourists, people doing laundry, people cooking, etc. etc. You see action. Like women doing organized aerobics on the sidewalk at 10PM:



I rode the subway in Shanghai for the first time on this trip, which was fun. You start to get to know a city when you ride the subway. I had a free afternoon where I tried to get lost and then find my way back to the hotel, and the subway was perfect. At many of the stops there are underground malls selling all sorts of interesting things.

They have these statues all over Shanghai, just like the ones we have in Carmel, Indiana. They're a disease I tell you! At least the ones in Shanghai aren't painted.

Here's a photo of Dong Tai Lu, which is a street in Shanghai that's a permanent flea market (mostly for tourists):

Here's a video I took at Shanghai's Bird and Insect market, where you can buy crickets for cricket fighting or other little creatures to keep as pets:

There were thousands and thousands of crickets for sale. I had hoped to see an actual cricket fight, but did not. I did, however, see a tray of moving cocoons:

You can't tell in the photo, but these are wiggling.

I caught up with many friends in Shanghai. Here's a photo of my friend Fu and me enjoying a foot massage on my last night in Shanghai. We did not eat any of the cherry tomatoes, although we did flip through a few of the Chinese soap operas on the TV:

Is it weird that I know more people living in Shanghai these days than in NYC?

On this trip, I went golfing at a course outside of Shanghai, which was a lot of fun. Up until five years ago, it was supposedly illegal for government officials in China to golf, because golf was seen as a symbol of western decadence. My friends told me that nothing was better for the growth of golf in China than that law because everyone wanted to know what the fuss was about.

On Sunday I went to church in Shanghai, where everyone was excited about the government recently granting the Shanghai branch permission to get their own building to meet in. That's a big deal.

Shanghai is an amazing place. It's hard to comprehend the scale and the energy until you're there. People are so optimistic about the future. At the same time, visiting China makes me grateful for the freedom we have in the USA. The wife of one of my colleagues asked me how many kids Ginger and I have. When I told her four, she said in English, "That's wonderful." They are thinking about having a second child, but the fines the government imposes are enormous and unaffordable for them at this point in their lives.

Overall, this was a fun and productive trip. The business meetings went well, and it was great to see so many friends. Here's one more photo of the view from the top of the Hyatt, where we went to celebrate after the launch of our partners' new venture fund.

It took over an hour to drive back to my hotel that night because of all the construction on the highways.