Trip to Hangzhou and West Lake

Last weekend, Jon needed to go to Hangzhou for work. Saturday, we took the slower (and very loud and annoying) T train there. Mr. Fan is also very interested in photography, so he took us to West Lake twice, as the famous lotus flowers are in bloom.

Cost of food in Shanghai

My friend Lura still gives presentations on the SDARL class visit to China. She said she gets asked a lot how much food is here. I put together a list for her, and it was quite the eye-opener!! We spend SO much more money on food here.

If we ate more local, it would be much better. Rice and vegetables are cheap. (Though the rice is bulk and you can watch hundreds of people dig their fingers though it - remember hand washing isn't so common here - and the vegetables are probably grown either in "night soil" or with massive amounts of chemicals.) However, we like things like bread, milk, and meat.

There are 25 things on my list. 13 of those are more than twice as expensive as they are at home. Only five things are less expensive here.

One of the things we spend the most on is milk. In the US, we'd pick up a gallon of Hy-vee brand milk. After the milk contamination scare here, we began buying imported milk. Now, we have to buy 4 boxes to get a gallon. At home a gallon is $2.87; here the same amount is $11.47. That is a 300 % increase. Yes, 300%.

I guess the answer is "stop drinking milk." However, we really like milk and it's where we get our calcium from.

Click on the images for some more comparisons.

Bad baby milk

I am sure everyone has heard about the chemical-laced milk that gave hundreds of babies kidney stones. I am just dumbfounded on how this can happen. Some person is poisoning babies just so they can make some extra money with this watered-down milk.

In China, you have to believe everything is fake, even medicine. In Macau, I bought cold medicine that turned out to have photocopied safety information. It is so strange to not be able to trust products here. One of Jon's salespeople said he can actually feel the difference when he takes vitamins we brought back from the US instead of vitamins he buys here. (Obviously not every product is fake, but there is enough of a problem that most people are careful about it.)

Why doesn't this happen at home? I'm really glad it doesn't, but why should it happen here? Are people more ruthless and don't care about who they might hurt to make an extra buck? Are there so many more regulations in the USA that it doesn't happen because it is so much more difficult?

Signs of a non-laborer

In China, it is desirable to show that you don't have to do physical labor for a living. For example, pale skin is very important - some girls have even said that it's the most important thing when determining how beautiful a girl is.

Another one of these signs is long nails. Many times taxi drivers will have a very long nail on their pinky finger. Jon S. sat next to a guy on a train with very long nails, and when he fell asleep Jon took a photo! I have no idea how people can keep nails this long - mine break off as soon as they are getting a little length.

Bikes!

About a month ago Jon and I bought bikes. They are the one-speed, basket in front with a rack on the back typical Chinese bikes. It's great to see our neighborhood from the bike lane!

The store we got them from - it seems that electric bikes are way more popular now.

This type of bike is really popular too. It has tiny wheels and folds so you can take it on the subway or store it in your apartment. I've never seen a foreigner on one though.

It seems a bigger bike would be more comfortable and go further for your amount of pedaling.

"Head back-turn rate"

In China, it is not considered rude to stare, and since us foreigners look so different, we get stared at a lot. (More than we are used to, anyway.)

When we were in Beijing for a meeting, we had a group of Dakkies at a construction site. The workers were breaking for lunch or something, and I got a video clip of all of the workers doing double-takes as they walked past our group.

My co-worker told me that the term for this is "hui tou lv" meaning head back-turn rate. If a girl has a high hui tou lv, she gets a lot of second glances!

Minna's Wedding

A couple weeks ago Jon and I were able to attend Minna's wedding. Minna works at Daktronics in HR and also tutors me in Chinese occasionally. There didn't seem to be an actual ceremony like we usually see, but just a large celebration, speeches from the family and the biggest meal I have ever seen! The dishes were piled on top of each other and kept coming long after everyone was stuffed.

Minna and her husband. She started out in a white, Western wedding dress, then changed to a gold dress, then finally changed into a red traditional Chinese dress. (Red is lucky in China, while white is the color for funerals.)

The guests all signed this, which was then cut up and names drawn for prizes.

Shelley and Sue (both work at Dak)

Yolanda, Gina and Chris (all from Dak)


Keyframe with the couple

Cody (Dak salesperson) and his family with the couple

A new dish for me - soft shelled turtle.

Ryan and Jon drinking baijiu (white wine, but really strong alcohol)

Minna toasting at the table. The couple toasts every table.

Tianning Temple in Changzhou

Before Minna's wedding, Mr. Huang took Ning, Jon and I to see a temple in Changzhou.








This is now thought to be the tallest pagoda in the world.

The character for "happiness"

Gods

These are four gods that were in a Buddhist temple we visited in Changzhou. Due to the lack of information in English around, I don't have any other information to share. I do think the gods in the temples always look quite scary though.

EARTHQUAKE!!

I'm sure you've heard about the earthquake that hit China this afternoon. It was a 7.8 on the Richter scale and located around Chengdu. They confirmed about 7,000 dead and rising. Go to www.CNN.com for the latest news.

Aftershocks were felt all over the country. Jon was in Beijing and it recieved some of the worst aftershocks. Fortunately, they weren't that bad and no one has been reported killed by them. He felt the shaking and everyone in the Dak office ran down all of the steps and out of the building.

After I recieved a call from him, I got a call from my boss's wife, Sai. She was on Nanjing Lu and felt it there too. At Dak Shanghai, we didn't feel anything, but they felt it in Hongqiao too.

I just wanted to let everyone know that we are OK-la!!

links

Remember my post with the photo of the chickens on a motorcyle (here is the link to it)? This article has many photos and explains how they carry chickens in different ways around the world. It's quite interesting!

Here's an article from the New York Times about some of the things that China is cracking down on before the Olympics. One thing that has the potential to be a problem for us is our visas. China isn't giving many to Americans and French right now, and our's will expire in July. I hope because we are already residents there won't be too much of a problem.

Made in....

Today Jon and I went to Metro (like Sam's Club) to buy some patio chairs. Everyone assumes everything is made in China, especially in China. Nope!! Some things are made other places.

Fireworks on Chinese New Year

The fireworks on Chinese New Year were the craziest thing we've ever seen!! We watched the WHOLE city explode for about 30 minutes. Imagine 20 million people all setting off fireworks at the same time... After about 20 minutes the smoke blocked our view of all but the closest ones. Check it out!!



Our apartment people set off a lot too. They were really close to the balcony!

Street Meat

This guy was on the street one day and I said I wished I had my camera out quick enough. A few days later, my boss Dan got the photo. He said: Right on the main road. You pick out your chicken or pigeon, and he butchers it right there. Mmm Mmm Good.

Donating

My friends Abbey and Chris have just adopted two boys from Ethiopia who are 4.5 and 6. This and the Christmas seasoning have led me to looking a lot at charities in China lately.

There are quite a few that help orphanages. It's sad - they say 95% of the kids in orphanages are girls. (Traditionally, girls are less valuable than boys.) Two of them I like are Love Without Boundaries and Half the Sky.


I ordered a Christmas present online through Amazon.com, and Amazon will give 4% of the total price to Love Without Boundaries. If you ever order on Amazon, please go to the LWB website first and click on the Amazon link to order. A few extra seconds of your time means a donation for them!

If you sell on eBay, you can sign up to give from 10 to 100% of the proceeds to Half the Sky. Click here to learn how to do this through MissionFish.

(The photos are of Molly (adopted from China) and Micah and Macy (adopted from Korea.) Molly's mom works at Daktronics and Micah and Macy's parents are my cousins. I took their portraits last year.)

Holly visiting

My friend Holly has been visiting us for the last few days. She used to work at Dak (and was my boss in IT.) Now she lives in Beijing and teaches English. She came to visit and we toured the town. Here we are at the Bund.





This is Nanjing Lu - the "Times Square" of Shanghai.

Around Yuyuan Gardens

Traditional red lanterns on the "street of small commodities."

Street food - grilled chicken and squid.

Making bouzi... (steamed dumpling.) Very famous and tasty!

Looking out from Yuyuan Garden

There is one spot in Yuyuan Garden that you can climb up on some rocks and stand over the wall, looking down to the street below. I took a few photos and noticed a guy was watching everything, including me, below. I looked at him, smiled and waved a few times, then finally smiled and pointed to my camera. He gave me the thumbs up sign, so I snapped a photo of him.



I am not sure why I like to take photos of laundry so much. Probably because back home, everyone has dryers and you'd never see someone's underwear outside of their house. It is so cold to leave clothes outside now!

Jing'an Temple

Jing'an Temple is just a subway stop away from our house. Jon and I have never been inside the temple, but I thought it would be a good time to go and take Holly! It wasn't anything too special, but I do like some of the photos I took.




An ad for crazy expensive jewelery is just above the temple. Ironic, don't you think?

Jing'an Temple

Incense sticks burning

Throwing money into the.... thingy.....

Mid-throw!

Merry Christmas!

Jon cooked a delicous meal consisting of rack of lamb, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, and cranberry sauce. I made an apple pie for dessert. Yummy. (We started looking for a turkey to roast a little too late. The only one we found was too big to fit in our oven!)

Our mini-tree.

Mom, Dad and Jared opened their presents in front of the web cam while chatting on Skype. It is our tradition to open gifts before Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve. It was that time for them, but Christmas Day for me.

My dad. He was just elected to the national Farm Credit Services of America board. His term starts January 1st and will last 3 years. Congratulations Dad!!

500th post

Wow... this is my 500th post. Half-way to 1,000! If you keep following my journey, I am sure you will see 1,ooo posts someday.

I don't have anything groundshaking to say. I'm still blogging about my life in China. If you weren't interested, you probably wouldn't be reading still. I hope that you are learning about people and places outside of your comfort zone. And, if you'd like to visit, I'd be happy to act as your host someday.

The below photos show just what Shanghai is like now. I took these on the way to a furniture store near our house. A few months ago, this was all old Shanghai - old homes. Now, it's a field of rubble, with squatters still there and within a week or two, huge skyscrapers will be rising from the ashes.

Fireworks

On the 23rd, we hear fireworks going off for about an hour. We finally decided maybe we should see what was going on. It was when Paris Hilton was here for a fashion show, so we decided it was probably that. It definitely was the largest firework display either Jon or I had every seen!

Steaks

Home-grown beef is one of the things we really miss here. Jon bought four steaks the other day, at over $10 per steak. Ouch.

I made him bring back baking supplies that are either impossible to find or super-expensive here, such as chocolate chips, pecans and lemon flavoring, when he went back to SD recently. I also had been craving salt-and-vinegar chips so he brought back those. I'm so lucky to have someone smuggle things home for me. :-)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving night was spent at The Spot, a bar on Tongren Lu. Dan, Sai, David (Dak sales from Hong Kong) and I waited for Jon, who was just getting back from Beijing. We didn't have turkey, but did have some good dips and other appetizers. The menu is huge (literally!) but no turkey.

Castle Oktober

Some older photos, from October 27th.

Dan, Judd (senior project manager from Dak US) and Jon at Castle Oktober. It's a beautifully-restored old building, now a restaurant with a great garden. It was built by a Chinese general in the 30's, taken by the government and was the Taxation Bureau office until recently.

Dan and Jon dress freakishly similar. In the office, they somehow manage to wear the same color striped dress shirts and cuff links nearly every day. Even on the weekend, they both show up in Tommy Bahama t-shirts. I'm sure they'd say "great minds think alike."

Actually, they said, "There's not many places in China with clothes big enough for us!"

Aggressive Beggars

The last time I blogged on begging, I got flamed by some Anonymous person. If you are going to personally attack me, at least have enough guts to leave your name. Obviously, this person didn't know me, or they would have known where I give money or donate time. Yes, I do mostly blog about positive or things that I think are interesting to others. I don't blog about the evenings I eat a sandwich for supper and spend the night working. I blog about the times I go somewhere and try something new. Hence, it may seem that my life here is all fun and games, when in reality I just try to show the interesting things.

Anyway, one night we were at Malone's, sitting outside. We had front row seats to what was pretty much a circus. I used the ISO 3200 setting on my point-and-shoot, hence the grainy shots. We watched a large group of beggars hassle everyone who walked by. They tried to use the kids to gain sympathy. Once as we walked by, a woman asked for money and on cue the kid starts fake coughing. A man was hovering nearby, clearly the "ringleader" of the group. If there was any trouble (such as some Chinese people demanding they leave) he disappeared.

These kids saw me taking a photo so their mom sent them over. I took this photo and then gave them some money.

This guy was just wasted and could hardly walk. The kids attacked his legs, sat on his feet and clung to him. That seems to be crossing the line.

The kids also were constantly running across the street. Never did an adult stop them or tell them to look before crossing. Traffic is crazy here and the rule is that cars have the right-of-way. I am afraid they were thinking, "One less mouth to feed..." Does China have a Child Services department? (I thought I heard that they have laws about taking care of your parents, but none about taking care of your children. But I have absolutely no facts back that up.)

This lady (right) was at least trying to sell something to make some money. Then a "working girl" came and was trying to sell something else. We saw the negotiation, then they left together. Ewww.

The whole evening bothered me quite a bit. I went home to try to find some more information about homelessness and ways to help in Shanghai. What I mostly found was information on how it is a choice for most of them.

A highlight of one story, based on the work of a high-school girl:

'Huang said that 63 of the people she interviewed were "occupational beggars" who were not wandering alone in the streets because of a lack of money or accommodation. Staff at a government homeless shelter told Huang that about 80 percent of the street people in Shanghai were occupational beggars.

"Considering their income, I can only conclude that some beggars are occupational. They view begging as a job. The reason for them to live such a humble lifestyle is the 'high pay, less labor' mentality." '

Shanghai published a guide on how to spot beggars that are trying to deceive you.

Old story about Shanghai police asking for a beggar task force.

I would like to help those less fortunate. But when it is a choice and they hassle me, I choose not to give to them. I choose to give to those obviously unable to work, who are at least trying to do something for a bit of money (such as playing and singing in the subway.) The able-bodied ones that are dressed warmly and chase after me won't get a fen from me.

Oh - if anyone knows where I can donate some previously-used clothes, please let me know.

Chinesepod

I have been trying to take a lesson or two every week from one of the girls here at Dak, but work overrides it a lot of the time. There is a site called Chinesepod that has daily lessons at various levels, so I decided that I would try to do one or two lessons everyday. I also paid for an account so I can get transcripts of each lesson and have the lesson emailed to me daily. (The MP3s are free to anyone.) I think that should speed up my learning!! I am disappointed with my lack of progress after almost 6 months of being here. Today's lesson was politely declining another cup of tea. There are about 450 lessons for "Newbies" and hundreds more for other levels. The Newbie lessons are about 4 sentences each day, which I should be able to handle easily. Just sync the lesson to my new iPod and listen while going to and from work each day.

Three Gorges controversy

The New York Times had a big article on the human and environmental impact of the Three Gorges Dam project, plus other dams. Chinese Dam Projects Criticized for Their Human Costs

There is still one question I have - how many workers have died during this project? You certainly hear about it when there is no loss of life, but I think construction in China doesn't have the best safety record.

Click on the link below to see my previous posts about the Three Gorges.

More traffic

I should really find something else to do time lapses of. Traffic is pretty much the same all of the time. Unfortunately due to all of the pollution I don't see any cool clouds. Maybe I'll try to do 24 hours this weekend, on Sunday, when the pollution usually is at the lowest level of the week.

Mosaics

I had a lot of free time this weekend (read: I was bored and lonely with my husband being on the other side of the world) so I spent a lot of time messing around on my laptop. Check out the mosaics I made - all from China photos!

They are pretty big so many take a while to load if you click on them to see the large photo.

Funny signs

I'm not so sure these can be called Chinglish - maybe they are just funny to me. A fellow Toastmaster told me last night that he reads my blog and these are his favorite part.

All of the taxis have the rules printed on the plastic surrounding the driver. Number 2 is: Schizophrenic or drunkard without guardian is prohibited to take the taxi. Schizophrenic can be replaced by mental patients or psychos. Oh, the lawsuits for discrimination we'd have in the US!


When I first saw this ATM, I didn't think I could use it. It says "Cash Recycling Machine" so I thought it was something you could put in your tattered old bills in, and receive nice new crisp ones back. Sometimes people won't take bills if they are in bad shape. To me, the word recycling is usually only used when referring to destroying one thing but making something new out of the remains.

Nope. It's just a regular ATM. Stick your card in, get money.

Suzhou

A couple weeks ago Yvonne, Perk, Ryan and I went to Suzhou to meet with a potential Keyframe client. Suzhou is about an hour away by train from Shanghai. After the meeting, we went to lunch and had a Shanghai special - hairy crab. They say people come from all over the world to eat hairy crab, and the season just started.

It's really a pain to get all of the meat out.

First, you rip all of the legs off, and the stomach shell off.

Next, the back shell and the sides. Then you suck out the yellow stuff and take out things like the lungs. After getting all of the meat from the body, you crack all of the legs open and suck out that meat too. It's really a long, messy process.

As we were going to the bus station, we walked down the main shopping street and by the temple. Yvonne explained that someone had died and they were burning things to send to them in the afterlife. They believe that if you burn it, it will cross over (or something like that.) In the above photo they are burning money (not real money, which makes me wonder why they can use fake money in the afterlife?) Yvonne said they will burn furniture, clothes, food, etc.

Yvonne trying to throw coins for good luck.


These signs on the temple are totally Chinglish. I thought maybe they were verses with a deep meaning - but Yvonne translated and they aren't. The risk of fire is more dangerous than an actual fire, prevent fire instead of having to put it out, etc.

Yuyuan Garden

Perk wanted to go into the gardens during his visit so I joined him. We've taken many guests to the outer part, with all of the old buildings, but never have been inside the gardens. It was the kind of place I'd like to have as a yard; tons of nooks and crannies that would be great places to relax with a book.





Then we walked to the Bund, and up Nanjing Lu to People's Square. Naning Lu is pretty much all neon - lots of opportunities for LED displays!

the Blue Frog and crazy taxi drivers

Lonnie and Ed (from the customer service department at Daktronics corporate) were here for about a week. Friday night we were going to eat near our apartment. They got in a cab and called us to instruct the taxi driver how to get there. Jon's phone locked up and he couldn't answer, so the taxi driver kicked them out of his cab because they didn't know where they were going. They walked to the Blue Frog and asked us to meet there. (The Blue Frog is an expat bar and grill. )


This shouldn't have been a problem. Perk, an animator from LEDtronics, was visiting too. Perk, Jon and I grabbed a cab and told him to go to Da Ning Lu. After telling him the first several turns, he exited the elevated road. Suddenly we were going to Pudong (the way to the airport, WAY out of Shanghai.) Perk speaks Chinese so he was telling him where to go, along with us. However the guy didn't have a clue. He kept speeding the wrong way.

He took us to Da Ming Lu, and next saw Da Lin Lu, but just kept going. We called Grace, one of the sales people, and told him exactly how to get there. He kept going in the same direction on the same street, the same wrong way. We started looking for another cab - we didn't want to get out without another cab to get us out of that strange part of town. I was starting to get very creeped out with a very bad feeling about this guy.

Luckily, we were at a stoplight when I saw one on the other side of the street. I said get out now! and we all jumped out (yes, without paying) and jumped into the other cab as quick as we could.

We told the other cab driver to drive away quick and we'd give him a big tip. Perk explained the situation and told him where we started and where we were trying to go. The new driver thought the other driver was insane for taking us where we were. Then, the first driver started following us. He was pulling up next to us on the wrong side of the lane, shouting at us, honking, etc. Jon was just furious and told the new driver that if they other guy followed us all the way there, he'd take care of it.

Our new driver had to backtrack for a very long way before getting on the right track to Da Ning Lu. Ed and Lonnie had been waiting for us for over an hour, when we should have been there in about 15 to 20 minutes.

Beijing Photography

These are a couple of my favorite photos from the Beijing trip.

We were too late to go to the Forbidden City, but I got a great photo of one of the towers. Daktronics has a project there and one of the guys will give us a private tour. He has worked there for many years and even gave Jon a book of his own photography of the city he had published!

This was the passage from the Forbidden City to Tianamen Square. Thousands of people were packed into it as the Forbidden City was closing.

Tiananmen Square

Tianamen Square is absolutely huge! We were there when all of the party members were coming in for the national Communist Party Meeting so things were a little crazy! A lot of things were blocked off and security was everywhere.

Mao's Mausoleum.

This is what is pretty gross about China. People (especially kids) will pee or poop anyway. Not in a bush, or grass, or on a tree. Anywhere in front of anyone. This mom helped her kid pee in Tiananmen Square! I saw another kid squatting in front of Mao's Mausoleum! MAO'S TOMB! Nothing is sacred!

There was a virtual geocache at this monument that we logged too! We had to take a photo of us with the GPS to prove we were there.

Ming Tombs - Beijing

After the Great Wall, we visited the Ming Tombs. There are tombs for 13 emperors from the Ming Dynasty. Only 2 are open to the public. We went to Dingling, which is an underground mausoleum.

Then we went to the Sacred Way, which has animals on both sides of the wide paved path. It was nice and there was a virtual geocache there!

The Great Wall of China

Jon was in Beijing last week for work, so I came up on the weekend. Saturday morning we went to see the Great Wall. It is all rebuilt where we went. It was cold and rainy and of course I didn't bring my sweatshirt. Conveniently, there were about 100 different people ready to sell a "I climbed the Great Wall" sweatshirt to me.


We saw hundreds of people going to the right on the wall, so we went to the right. And we discovered why there weren't so many people going that way - it was super steep!! We climbed a part of it with steps that were more like a ladder.

Beijing Opera

We saw the Beijing Opera on Saturday night. It was very interesting. It has a very different type of singing, and amazing costumes. It had subtitles on LCD screens so we could tell what was going on.

Three Gorges Photos

I finally got all of my Three Gorges photos uploaded. They are all here. http://www.emilyminor.com/ThreeGorges/index.html I'm going to post some of my favorites occasionally though.

This is going through the dam. It is the largest dam in the world now, and we read that the amount of water that it is holding back will actually change how the world rotates on it's axis. Crazy. It has a system of 5 locks. A bunch of ships sail in, they shut the rear gates, water floods in incredibly fast, they open the front gates and the process is repeated. It was weird sitting at the front of the boat knowing how many tons of pressure was pushing on that gate!

One of the gorges.
This is in Yichang. We spent a night there before getting on the boat. They had a bungee jump over the water! We decided that there's no way we'd trust a bungee jump in China - especially since we are not slender Asians!

This happens to me all of the time, and I finally got a photo of it. I look up and people are taking photos of me with their camera phone. Yes, I am really white. But there are enough foreigners in Shanghai that I would think I am not so much of a novelty. I've seen people trip over things cause they were staring - if they pass me, some people will turn around again several times to look. Jon gets it too. A big guy with bright blond hair attracts a lot of attention. Also, staring is not considered rude here. We've found out that if you make eye contact and stare back, they will not look at you again!

The people with my photo on their phones.... I just wonder what they do with it. I mean, would you really put it in an album and say "and this is a white person I saw on my vacation"? Or do they show it to their friends? Look at it for a laugh? Tell their friends they know me?

I do take photos of Chinese people too, but I think they are doing something interesting, like sleeping sitting up on the street or ridng a bike piled high with furniture or something.

Random stuff

Everything is a bit of an adventure when you are living in a country with cultural so different than your own. At the store I saw Wasabi flavored chips and also "Red Wine Chicken." I couldn't resist. Jon will like the wasabi ones. I tried the Red Wine Chicken. I can't taste any wine. They do taste like chicken, grilled or barbequed chicken. Interesting. I wish they had Salt and Vinegar though! Other flavors include ketchup, cucumber, tomato, prawn, and potato (aren't they supposed to taste like potatoes?)

This is pretty near our office. Nibe. Just do it.

Korean Pop Stars

A couple weeks ago we saw a huge commotion outside - hundreds of girls standing around a building across from us.

A famous Koren Pop group was in Shanghai and they were performing there. This is the group coming in. I still have no idea who they were, but the girls in the office were swooning over them.

The Pearl TV Tower

The first part of the week, Dr. Al Kurtenbach (the founder of Daktronics) was here visiting. It was his first time in China. It was very interesting to be able to learn from the person who started the company! Judy, Ning and I took him to the Pearl TV Tower on Sunday. It was pretty cool and there was a museum of old Shanghai in the bottom, which was interesting.



This is the tallest building in Shanghai now. It's the Shanghai World Financial Center, and should be finished in 2008.

Yee-haw - Shanghai, South Dakota

It's a bit strange to see a stuffed steer here. It's quite realistic. This is outside of a Japanese restaurant near the office. Abram, Sofia, Yvonne and I had sushi there for lunch once.

On the day before October holiday, Sofia wore these cowboy boots to the office. I pictured my dad wearing his cowboy boots with shorts..... first of all, farmers and cowboys never ever wear shorts. And they live in their boots. Of course, like any city, here they are just a fashion statement.

The Three Gorges

Jon and I went on a Three Gorges cruise during the October Holiday. I'm still working on uploading the photos. It was pretty good. A cruise isn't really our style - we felt like we were herded like cattle most of the time. We got woken up at 6:30 each morning and got a call saying we had to come to dinner when we were 10 minutes late on But, it is really the only way to see the Gorges.

It's pretty interesting. The water in the Yangtze River has risen a lot due to the construction of the Three Gorges Dam (the largest in the world) and will rise a lot more when it is finished in 2009.

Boats on the Yangtze

I took a lot of photos of all of the boats on the river. Some were tiny and some were huge. We're pretty removed from water traffic in South Dakota so I was pretty fascinated by the types of boats.

Sunrise over Shanghai

Since returning from the US, I've been pretty jetlagged. I went to bed early last night, but woke up at 5 AM this morning. It was a good opportunity to see the sunrise and take some photos though.




Boots enjoyed the sunrise too!

Begging

This is something you see way too often. Beggars wait around restaurants or shops (especially where Westerners are) and then start pulling on you when you leave. These people were really persistent. They stood in the middle of our group, tugged on our bags, and kept telling Ning that he didn't give them enough! Usually we ignore them and make a quick getaway, but the cabs were scarce tonight. The little boy just kept yelling, "Hello! Hello! Hello!"

It's so sad that the parents teach the kids to extract money from people. It's like telling the kids they'll never be able to do anything but beg. Parents parade their kids, especially if they are disfigured or disabled, through the subway and make the kids ask for money. I've read that there are government agencies that will help find a job for them. I've also read stories of parents hurting their kids so people will give them more money. I don't know how much of that is true though. Either way, it's a social problem that all big cities have.

Shopping!

I am always talking about going to the fabric market and having stuff made, so I thought I'd post a photo of one of the shirts I got. I'm standing by some traditional Chinese scrolls that we bought. They have the four seasons painted in watercolor on them.

Jon's shirts are long-sleeved, button-down with white collars and cuffs. No buttons on the cuffs - nope, he only wears cuff links now. He is like a woman and shoes.... "Oh look honey, cuff links! I just want to take a quite look. Oh, I don't have these ones yet...." LOL.... he told me I could buy as many cheap shoes here as I want, so I will let him buy as many cuff links as he wants too. They are $1 or $2 so I think we can handle it.

Tourist stuff

Pat is a Vortec (hoist division of Daktronics) that was here for about 2 weeks. Sunday we went to the fabric market, the pearl market, Yuyuan Garden and the Bund together. Pat so kindly took a few photos for the SDSU article for us.

This was taken from a restaurant looking at the more popular side of the Bund. Usually photos include the Pearl TV Tower, which is on the side I was taking the photo on.

We saw two ships collide while we were eating! They started blowing their horns at each other and it looked like they were going to pass each other closely but be OK. One barge caught on the other and was totally spun around. We noticed that none of the boats have headlights - maybe that is part of the problem.

Kelly and Gadling.com

I had written a couple weeks ago about my last failed trip to Australia and meeting a cool fellow blogger named Kelly. Well, she just posted her final story about her travels in China, which just happened to be our crazy airline adventures. Be sure to check out www.gadling.com and her version of the story! Her other 19 posts about China are also very interesting.

West Lake

I think these are the three best photos I took from the boat. See the post below for a bit more about the trip on Saturday.

West Lake boat trip

Saturday, Mr. Huang (left) took Maggie (middle), Minna, Nancy Bohlen (visiting from the US) and I to Hangzhou. It is considered the most beautiful city in China. West Lake is the most popular tourist destination. It is quite nice, with the lake and the mountains. We took a small boat around the lake.

Nancy and I.


Taken from the van - a worker in the field.

The only brooms you can get in China are made of branches. That is all you see anywhere!

Temple in Hangzhou

The second stop in Hangzhou was a Buddist temple. Before going in, there were a bunch of caves with Buddas carved into the walls.

Cool lighting on the steps in a cave.

Buddas outside carved in the rock.

Maggie tries to light incense - the fire was really hot and blowing around. Minna and Maggie lit incense at all five temples, prayed to each Budda, and did some other ritual things.

Inside one of the temples, monks were gathered and were singing and chanting. I really wish that I had a photo, but there is no way I'd be so disrespectful as to take photos during a religious ceremony.

Chinglish in Hangzhou

I've wondered about this for a while. Do you have to enter a lottery to get on welfare? You get welfare if you win this lottery?

Actually, it is a regular lottery, like the scratch games at home. The "welfare" part means that the profits go to various programs, such as health care or school for people who can't afford it.

Be very careful! Slip!

new photo

Harriet Swedlund, the former international program head at SDSU, asked if she could write a story about Jon and I for a Global Studies brochure. We needed a recent photo so we tried this. We don't really think it says "China" though.

Maybe we will become the poster children of SDSU's "You Can Go Anywhere From Here" campaign. :-)

Saturday Shopping

Aileen, Maggie, Louise LV and I went shopping. Aileen is looking for a qipao to get married in, someday. She lives in the states now and works at corporate, but is learning project management here for 5 months. I thought these things looked interesting, so Aileen bought some and showed me how to eat them.

The outside has a peel and is a fleshy. When you apply pressure opposite directions, it tears open. The inside is like a white mandarian orange. It is very sweet.

Lane's trip - July 15th

Lane Munson was at Dak Shanghai for about a week. On this day we took him to Yuyuan Gardens, which has lots of traditional architecture and tons of little shops selling mostly to tourists. We had some jiaozi for lunch. They have beer girls that walk around with a cart of beer too. The girl is always covered head to toe in that beer's brand.

Unfortunately, about 3 days before he left, he got food poisoning. Really bad. After an IV and multiple shots and pills of antibiotics at the Worldlink clinic, he was doing a bit better. He is pretty sure it was from some chicken. I've noticed they don't cook chicken here like we do at home. If you are eating a leg, there is almost always red meat by the bone. (I've stopped eating chicken if it is still on the bone.) Poor Lane. What a way to end his trip.

Jon and Dan could probably live on jiaozi. They are steamed dumplings and there are many different kinds. It's the food that had the big story about how someone was making them from chemicals and cardboard in Beijing. The government jailed him for false reporting.

Dan thought we should attempt a Chairman Mao pose. I think we just look silly. But - Dan is the chairman, if you had forgotten. Scroll down to July 13th for that post!

Chinese guys playing a game, probably Mahjong. Very common. (photo credit belongs to Lane)

MSN articles on China

MSN has had tons of articles on China lately. http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/TheChinaSyndrome.aspx?GT1=10328 Economic growth, growing pains, Walmart, and tons of other topics. Check out the link if you are interested in learning a bit more.

Catch-up blogs

I think the Chinese censors are slipping, because I got onto Blogger tonight! So I caught up with my posts. This means that you need to read back all of the way until July 9th so you don't miss anything. Sorry, but it makes more sense to put everything on the day that it happened.

The past couple of weekends we have been going to the Fabric Market and having clothes made. It's great! Having clothes custom made to your body makes everything look good on you! and it's so cheap. I'll post some photos sometime. Any visitors, please note that we should go there right away to order some things. Suits run about $70 USD. Crazy, huh?

My friends from the NOC sent me a care package! It was amazing. It was a bunch of things I said I missed. For instance, I miss the smell of warm clothes when they come out of the dryer, so they sent me Bounce dryer sheets! Febreez, hand sanitizer (today I actually found a bottle here. It was $4 for the tiny purse size), a big packaged of Reece's peanut butter cups, a scrapbook (made in China so it's been around the world), a flag decoration, etc. And the invitation to Jessie and Seth's wedding - sorry we can't make it guys!!

Today we went to the Portman grocery store, which is where you can find international foods. The prices are outrageous!! For a jar of Fat-Free Mayo, it is $10. No kidding. They even have frozen foods like Weight Watchers meals or pizza - for about twice the price. Campbell's soup is $2.50 per can. We paid $4 for a small bottle of vanilla so Jon could make a cheesecake. We'll use it for other baking so it's OK though. We looked for Graham Crackers for the crust, but none were to be found.

Storms in Shanghai

We've had some storms that have scared the crap out of me (just the lightning, actually.) It cracks so loud sometimes - we're sure it hits things all of the time. Yvonne and I were going downstairs at work when a huge bolt hit. It sounded like it was on the building next to us and I swear I saw a yellow flash come in the window. We both actually screamed because it scared us so much!! I normally don't mind storms at all, but for some reason it is really different in a big city.

Sometime maybe I'll get some cool lightning photos. It rolls in so quickly and then the skies just open and buckets of rain pour down. Every time it happens, I think of how thankful our parents would be if they got rain like that right now. I wish I could send it to you!

The 2nd failed trip to Australia...

I don't think I wrote about the first failed trip. About 2 weeks ago, a Dak sales guy wanted us to come to Sydney to take photos so we could create a proposal for a potentially HUGE client. Abram and I jumped on a plane the next day. And then we sat on the plane for 3 hours. We did finally take off, only to be turned around 45 minutes into the flight. We couldn't get on any other flights so that was the end of the trip there.

So, it was planned that I would go this Wednesday. My flight was supposed to leave at 6:00 PM. Then... after hearing it was delayed for a few hours (no takeoff time given) a notice was put it. It was a fill-in-the-blank notice, which was pretty funny. The main part was that flight CA 177 will be delayed due to mechanical issues. We sat at the airport for hours. Time went pretty quickly because I met a girl from NY, Kelly, who had been visiting friends in Shanghai and was next visiting friends in Australia. It was pretty cool - she told me about how she had went to school for Journalism and now wrote for blogs... (sound familiar?) and the things we had in common just went on and on.

Then, the airline said we had to go to a hotel. I would have rather stayed in my own bed, but you had to stay at the hotel so they could wake us up and bus us to the airport when the plane was fixed. We were taken to a Super Motel 168. No joke. It is a rip-off of Super 8 and Motel 6!!! We had to share rooms so Kelly and I were roommies for a night.

One of the funny things about China is all of the incorrect English translations. I've started taking photos. There is a book called Chinglish that has been published - maybe I'll do a Chinglish II. The following are from the hotel flyers.

Breakfast, Bar Coffee & Tea and Snake. For when you are just a little hungry.... (we haven't had snake yet. I'm sure we'll come across it sometime though.)

Thanks for all of the warnings. The 5th from the bottom is by far the best.

Follow no strangers to the fun places. What fun places would those be? And if the person isn't a stranger, can I go to the fun places? :-)

For more great laughs, go to http://www.engrish.com/. Some of the best are in the adult section. Look for the toddler with a pacifier and a shirt with the f-word. Seriously.

We put on something to sleep in (I was lucky because I did just carry-on so I had everything) and turned around to discover we both had pink pants and a black tank top. Too weird.

We were woken up at 6:30 AM and hustled onto a bus, taken to the airport, and then we waited some more!! At this point we discovered yet another coincidence - she was in seat 23K and I was in 24K. Crazy.

At about 10 AM they started loading the plane, but a bunch of people were furious because they were only giving 500 RMB ($65) for our inconvenience. Then they were claiming that the plane wasn't safe because they hadn't test-flown it yet. At this point I gave up. I'd totally missed my meeting and would have had about a day there and it just wasn't worth it, especially if the plane really was unsafe. I took the payout and left. Kelly later told me that the plane didn't leave until 1 PM.

I don't think I'll be trying to go again anytime soon. At least not if I don't have 2 or 3 days down there before any meetings!

Stuff on Bikes

You see everything being carried on bikes. People with motorized bikes or scooters will help out by putting a foot on the cart and letting the scooter do the work.

Chinese people are very concerned about the sun. Note the big hat, the white sleeves, and gloves. Most of the women have these sleeves to keep the sun off. It seems to be due to vanity (everyone wants whiter skin) and not health. All of the body and face wash claim to be "whitening."
Many of the bikes have a passenger. This girl was sending text messages from her phone while the guy did all of the work.

A motorized bike - I think I heard that they get 35 km per charge (but that is carrying a slim person.)

Pajamas are fashionable now.

Driving to work

A few buildings that we pass every day on the drive to the office. In the bottom photo, you can see an open space in the middle of the building. It's to let the chi (energy or life force) flow through. No buildings are built without a feng shui master coming in and telling them what is good.

Beijing Duck

A group of about 12 Dak people and family members went to a restaurant that specializes in Beijing Duck. It is so good! We ordered about 100 dishes as usual and were stuffed before the duck arrived. It was a nice place and even with drinks, it only cost about $10 per person. We actually got a certificate with the number of our duck on it.

Scorpion was on the menu so we all wanted to try it! It actually doesn't taste like much - just crisp and crunchy.

Chairman Dan

Abram created a banner to put on the back of a display. In his words:

It’s not propaganda, its art. Behold our herald leader! Chinese translation: Da Ke zui hao (Daktronics is the best).

Dan is the greatest leader of Dak Shanghai. And since Dan leads Daktronics in China, he has looked to the Great Chinese Leader, Mao, for guidance. In return, it appears that Mao has somehow blessed Dan with a similar appearance. ;)

Dan is the GM here. Abram used the above photo from the Dak "stalker pages" to create his art, along with images he found online.

Jin Bei

The Jin Bei is the company van. It's a knockoff of a Toyota. It has a Toyota engine, so apparently that enables the company to use the logo on the van. :-) It's a luxury Jin Bei though, so is pretty nice. The AC works great, which is a neccessity since we load it up well beyond capacity when we have visitors from the US and people in for sales meetings. We can fit 12 people plus Mr. Huang, the driver. (Probably more if it was skinny Asian people instead of fat white guys!)

This morning we saw a knockoff Jin Bei, called a Yun Bei!! It's pretty sad that there's a knockoff of a Chinese knockoff.

There are nail places everywhere here, and they are so talented. I had these flowers hand-painted on my nails. And the best part is that it's very cheap.

Toastmasters Area Governor Training

Our Region's District Governors and Assistant Governors. I'm in Area 23, and am the Assistant Governor of Training and Education. Interesting fact: there is no Area 24 (or any other number with 4 in it such as 4, 14, 34, etc) because 4 is very unlucky. It is pronounced like death (si) only with a different tone. Most buildings don't have any 4th floors either.

Lucy Liu, the AG, and I.

1000 Arabian Nights

A bunch of us Dakkies went to an Arabian restaurant and ordered TONS of food. Before this came out, we were all stuffed already. It was a huge amount of various meats skewered.

People's Square Toastmasters Club

Last night I emailed a couple fellow Toastmasters from the Daktronics corporate club. They thought hearing my new club was interesting, so I'm going to share it with everyone.

Two weeks ago I gave my first speech from an advanced manual and was inducted into my new club at the same meeting. :-) Last week was their "Toastie" awards, which is a big members-only banquet and every dressed up like movie stars and pretended it was the Grammy's, acceptance speeches and all. It was pretty fun!! The photos below are from that night.

This week, Wendy Wang, the new President, asked me if I'd be the club Treasurer, as the girl who was elected was unable to do it. I told her I would, but I was a bit concerned about paying bills that were all in Chinese! Pretty much all that I need to do is pay the room rental fee and collect the entrance fee money from the greeters each meeting. I also wondered if maybe there should be an election. Wendy basically told me that they still were used to appointed officals so it was no problem, and that elections were usually just to appear democratic! Only in China.
Tonight, Lucy Liu, the out-going club President and new Area Governor, asked me to be the Area VP of Education. (The Area is a larger region and fairly important.) Training is Sunday morning at 8:30 to noon. (once again, only in a Communist country!)

So, TM has been very interesting so far! Everyone thinks I am just so advanced, which is a bit embarassing. But it will make me work harder to live up to those expectations! My first few times in front of the new group, I was very nervous about speaking too quickly or using words they didn't understand. I think I was too focused on that, so didn't really appear confident while speaking. I think I am pretty much over that now. They have good English skills, so I just try to speak clearly (which everyone should do anyway.)

One misconception that people had was that USA clubs don't need a grammarian, since English is our first language. Here, one role is Gender Confusion/Ah Counter. The "gender confusion" role really threw me at first. It is counting how many times people use HE instead of SHE or HIM instead of HER. It's a common mistake to make when speaking in English as a second language.

We originally met at an old YMCA, with cracked walls, a window air conditioner and a green chalkboard. The new venue is a bit nicer, with better air conditioning and we have been upgraded to a white board! It would be so great to have a projector. It's a bit different from Dak, where we had a new meeting room built for us, meals catered in, perfect climate control, and a computer and projector permantently installed. :-) All of the members are very enthusiastic though. When giving a speech or evaluation, all eyes in the room are on you. They nod in agreement or answer back out loud. If the speaker asks a question, he or she always gets many answers shouted out.

Any visitors are welcome to come on a Tuesday night to the People's Square TMC! http://shanghai585.freetoasthost.info

Most of the club members. Many people come as guests for a long time before joining. Two of my co-workers have come to meetings, and they are concerned that their English skills are not up to par. I think that they'd be fine though! No one bashes anyone if they use a word incorrectly or anything. The grammarian will list off phrases used incorrectly but not say the person's name who made the mistake.

Top row: Delphy, Mary, Michelle, Wendy, Cleo, Sissi, Rita, me, Amy and Cher. Bottom: Lucy, Amy (up), Xiao Xiao, Helen and Jenny. Wow, that's pretty good that I remembered everyone!

Emma, me, Jenny, Wendy, Mary, Eric (the former Area Governor) Amy, Rita, Helen, Cleo and Amy.

Here is a link to the club's blog. http://tmc585.blog.sohu.com Just scroll down to see more photos.

Sunday

Sunday was a clear day. Pollution is less on the weekend due to less commuters! The pool at the apartment is surrounded by an outside pool (non-swimming!!) with fountations in it. The fountains don't run very often, so I had to take a photo when they actually were. Streams of water also shoot up behind these bubblers.

Supper

Shelly, Axel (new Dak guy living in Hong Kong) Mina, Cooper, Mike H, Sheena, the Dak driver Mr. Huang, and me at supper. Beijing duck is the best!

Mr. Huang drives us to work every day, takes people to the airport and picks them up, runs parts around or errands, and drives visitors around to the sites. He puts in a lot of hours! He didn't speak any English when he started, and is doing very well. Dak has a teacher come in every week and teach to all of the workers, and has another class for business English for everyone in the office. This morning Mr. Huang said, "Would you like to go to the Baileman?" and we all were amazed that he said it perfectly. I think he is a very dilligent student.

Shopping with Mike and Mike

Mike Hyde and Mike Cooper (Jon's boss before Dan) came to Shanghai last week. They have a Vortec project at an American high school in Pudong. Thursday the girls took them shopping and out for supper at a Cantonese restaurant. We went to Yuyuan Gardens, which is old but totally redone. Pretty touristy but OK. Mina taught them to bargin well - one lady told Cooper he must have lived here a long time.

Mina (my Chinese teacher too!) me, Mike H, Shelly, Cooper and Sheena.

Street scenes. I just had the point-and-shoot, so had to set it on a garbage bin to get these shots. I used my business card holder to prop the camera up at an angle.

Hair Washing

Life here happens on the streets - cooking, eating, games, etc. Also personal grooming. This girl was washing her hair. Judy said that you used to see it all of the time. The guy was just staring at me as I was taking photos. That's not unusual - we are taught in the USA that it's not polite to stare, but it's not taboo here. White people, especially big blond people or girls, get stared at a lot!

Night shots

Here are a couple of shots I took using a long exposure and my new tripod.

Shopping scenes

These are a couple of dragons that Jon would like to buy to take home. They said they were 18,000 yuan though! That's before bargaining though. The photo is from his camera phone. both of our phones have 2 megapixel cameras on them.

This is Xu Jai Hui, the electronics market. (It sounds like "Shoe Ja Hway.") This is just part of the bottom floor. It's in a building that is in the shape of a soccer ball, and is just massive. You can buy anything electronic here. I bought a tripod, headphones, and Jon and Dan bought their new phones here. Later they realized the phones were smuggled in - they were told to come back for the reciept the next day, then they refused to give them a reciept.

Saturday Outing

After our bedroom furniture was delivered, we went to the Fabric Market. It's four floors of hundreds of small shops that custom tailor anything you'd like. Here Jon got 3 shirts, for 125 yuan each. He also had a summer suit made and I had a traditional Chinese-style shirt made. We also got a duvet cover. We pick them up next Saturday.

Next we went to People's Square to check out the new LED display that a competitor put in. It is really horrible. The color is very bad, the modules all need to be calibrated, and their control system can't control the whole thing. BUT - it's cheap. Jon is texting Dan about the display here. The building in the background has terrible feng shui, and we heard that it's had many deaths and suicides!

Soon we got caught in a downpour! This is right after it. We went to Haagen-Dais to enjoy some ice cream while we waited for it to let up. People's Square is the Times Square of Shanghai. Many things are still neon so there's a huge market for LED displays.

Travel Blogs

I found an interesting article about "The Lost Girls" - three girls who took a year off from work to travel around the world. They have a very popular blog. http://www.budgettravelonline.com/bt-dyn/content//article/2007/02/28/AR2007022801647.html Check out # 7 in the article. In Myanmar, they discovered Blogspot was blocked (just like in China!) They went around to the shadowy alleys, asking for a hook-up! And found it. I haven't seen their site yet but hopefully will check it out Monday. http://lostgirlsworld.blogspot.com. Some of their photos are amazing - I'm sure their blog is too.

http://current.newsweek.com/budgettravel/2007/06/are_you_the_ugly_american.html Today driving home from work, Dan was talking about going to dinner at a nice German restaurant last week and have a group of Americans who were extremely drunk, causing a huge scene. It not only Americans that make mistakes traveling to other countries (though perhaps we exhibit these behaviors more than others) but the list is a good thing to review from time to time. I just try to look at everything as though it is just different. For example: We think Western toilets are great and squat toilets are disgusting. In China, Western toilets aren't seen as clean - I believe it's because you touch the seat. (not 100% sure though.) Is there some way to really tell which side is correct? Nope - it's just a difference so you just deal with it.

Jon has been in Beijing all week. Today he kept having to push his flight off later and later, but he is making it home! Tomorrow our master bedroom furniture will be delivered, so we will finally get a king-sized, soft bed! yay! :-) China is still a cash-based society, so we need to have the furniture balance in cash when it is delivered. It is about 13,000 RMB. The largest bill is 100 RMB, and you can only withdraw 2,000 RMB from an ATM. It is like having to pay for something in $20s. Since the rainy season just started, the stain on the office furniture isn't drying as quickly as usual so we have to wait until next week to get that delivered. Or at least that is what the company told Judy!

Sunday Shopping

Sunday we went to the Antique market. It's most fakes and we have no idea what really would be old, so we just assume everything is fake. Lots of old-looking trinkets. We bought an old camera and a door knocker.

Across from the Antique Market was a Pet Market. Animals of every kind. They have big plastic aquariums - Jon will probably get one. They seemed very cheap! But nice and well-built. Notice the guy in his pajamas on the right. That's pretty common to see. Everyone sits around, smokes and plays games in the markets.

Pet crickets - they are more like huge locusts. Dan said they are sold to fight. They don't fight til the death; one just backs down. He said after it backs down it's fighting days are over because its spirit is broken.

We also found some more waxberries! The last one we had were too old and very bad tasting. I examined these closely and tried one before buying them though. Good thing we have our hepatitis shots.....

So I be a Hooter's girl (actual lyrics)

Monday and Tuesday all of the sales people were in Shanghai for sales training. Everyone went to Hooters for some wings and beer. The Hooter's girls dance here - they stood up on stools and did the YMCA, they did the chicken dance (with some of the guys at the table, only they sang "I don't wanna be a chicken, I don't wanna be a duck, so I be a Hooters girl"), and they danced to "Keep Your Hands To Yourself " by the Georgia Satellites (the Chinese girls were very impressed that Dan sang and played air guitar to the whole song.) The slogan is: Hooters makes you happy.

Since they do the embarrassing birthday thing, everyone said it was Larry's birthday...

Aileen, Louise, Judy, Lin Lin, Kelly and Grace having a good time singing to Larry.

Peering down below

These were taken from our balcony today using my 300mm lens. These are the bits of old Shanghai between the new skyscrapers. Soon there won't be any old stuff left, at the rate construction is going now.

The houses straight below us - I actually put my camera over the balcony and leaned over to take this!

Balcony Views

We overlook a girls' school - the only one in Shangahi and probably in China. (according to Gina, an engineer here who attended this school.) They do excercises every morning.

Closer view of the most interesting buildings we overlook.

Shanghai Scenes

There may be more bikes and mopeds than cars, but I'm not sure.

Everything gets carried on bikes! These chickens were probably the most unusual thing we've seen so far. They were alive, but not moving at all due to the blood rushing to their little brains!

Laundry is always hanging everywhere. The washers are so small! The dryer is the same machine. It seems no air gets blown in the dryer - everything just heats up, then requires ironing. Hanging is a better option.

We're here!

I'm surprised I can get onto this site! Everything is in Chinese, but I am familiar enough with the menus that I think I can get by. The other night I tried to show Sally and Lisa my blog and it wouldn't load, so I'm not sure if this is a fluke or not.

Jon, Boots and I arrived in Shanghai Thursday afternoon. The rules on importing pets have changed, so we had to leave Boots with customs at the airport. We had to pay 2000 yuan ($250) to have her quarentined for 7 days. The girls there were really nice - we hope that she's OK. They showed us photos of the brand-new facility and the food she'd be given. It didn't have wheat guten (the recalled stuff) so it should be OK. We feel guility just leaving her but there really wasn't anything we could do.

Friday we spent a few hours shopping at IKEA for dishes, pots, pans, garbage cans, and the numerous items you need for a home. Hanna and Henrik, you'll be happy to know that IKEA is the same here as everywhere else, including the fact that it has a Swedish food store. The thing that would probably shock the Swedes is that smoking is allowed in the cafe though.

Yesterday our table and chairs were delivered. It's really nice and in the Chinese restaurant style, meaning it is round and has a lazy susan on top. The food is put there and people spin it until they get what they want. Every dish is typically shared.

We ordered our office and master bedroom furniture yesterday. It's not going to be here until the 23rd though. That's a bit disappointing. Those rooms are pretty bare.

We're settling in quite well. We just wish Boots was here too! We've spent a lot of time cleaning and putting things away. It's amazing to look out the windows and constantly have a birds-eye view of the city.

About 5 hours away....

We just finished re-packing our four suitcases, two carry-ons and two laptop bags. It actually all fit, although everything may not be under the weight limit. Curns is taking us to the airport at about 4 AM for our 6 AM flight (traveling internationally with pets takes longer to check in.)

We've spent about six days packing frantically. Friday we closed on the house, and went to Brookings to go out one last time. Saturday was John and Megan's wedding, Sunday was a "play Wii and recover" day, Monday my family had a party for us at Elaine's, today we went to work and said good-bye to everyone, and tonight we ate with Brad and Niki and made a few more stops saying goodbyes. Boots is freaking out. Her little world has turned upside down the last few days, and it's probably going to be even worse for her when she's trapped in her kennel on the plane. (In the cabin with us)

Check back in a few days - hopefully I will have a new post. My friend Ted is working on getting this blog hosted on my domain, as Blogger is blocked in China.

To be continued........

China moving forward....

A guy named Cody has made an offer on our house, we countered, so he countered and we counter offered - and he accepted it. So... pending inspection we have a buyer for our house! We'd close May 25th. Exciting.

This article struck me as a bit funny. Definitely not because of the word "dark" brown translated into, but because you see mistranslations everywhere in China! The woman is suing the translation company. It seems a bit strange to me that her label is the only one with that word... we'll see what happens. The guy who sold the couch never even heard the word, which says alot about the lack of the usage it.

Matt is amazing. If you have a few hours to spare check out his site. I am seriously considering doing a video too....

Blogging Blocked in China

Jon mentioned he hasn't been able to get on my blog during his trip this time. It turns out that the Chinese government blocks blogger.com and blogspot.com, plus numerous other sites. More information is here. I am not sure how to get around this.... I'll have to look into other hosting options.

http://greatfirewallofchina.org is a good place to test sites. I can see my emilyminor.com page works, but emilyminor.blogspot.com doesn't. Maybe I can use my site to host blogger or something.

More about Shanghai living...

Here are some photos of our apartment! Jon has slept there 2 nights now and we also have the landline phone number. I will email it to anyone who asks.

It is Jon's birthday now there - not quite yet here. They didn't have Daylight Savings Time yet, so we are now only 13 hours apart instead of 14.

The guest bedroom overlooks the pool and faces the other building in our complex.

The dining/living room, entrance is on the left and you can see the kitchen door is open.

The next 3 photos are the view from the balcony, looking to the right side, then middle, then to the left.

Moving forward....

We are finally really moving forward with China! Jon is going to get his offer letter (and sign it) tomorrow morning. At 11:30 a guy is coming to appraise the house. Jon arrives in Shanghai on Saturday and will buy a bed and maybe a few basics for our apartment. He'll get the keys to the apartment Sunday at 10:00 AM. He has to go to Beijing then, but when he comes back to Shanghai he'll be staying in OUR apartment. How crazy is that---- we have an address in Shanghai! (although I have no idea what that address is.....)

Speaking of mail, we will have a PO box in Brookings, and twice a week Dak will ship all of our mail to us. So, you can easily mail us stuff paying only the US rate. I'm looking forward to still being able to get my photography magazines and National Geographic. I'm sure you can get it there, but it may be a big search to find in English.

SO - now is the time to let us know if you are interested in any of our stuff. Cars, furniture, beds, chairs, bookshelves, desks, bikes, lawn mower, etc etc etc. Craft stuff, magazines, books, aquariums, plants? We have so much stuff. And we like all of our stuff..... but not necessarily enough to store it for 2-3 years. Uh. We still have a few boxes we haven't unpacked from the trailer! I hate moving all of my books. But I LOVE books!!! I can't get rid of any of them it seems. Too bad we are so tied down with all of our "stuff."

Link from my brother

My brother Jared sent me this link today - he said it was very appropriate if we are moving to China. It's pretty funny. Make sure your speakers aren't muted.

More photos from China...

I downloaded more photos from my CF card and found a few from our last days in China that I like.

This is the pearl market entrance.

Jon got to go to Tiananmen Square while he was in Beijing. It was actually for business though - they may be interested in some displays.

Sunday - Traveling back home

This morning we slept in and then packed up all of our stuff. Trying to fit your dirty clothes back into the suitcase, along with the stuff you picked up, is never fun. :-(

The photo is the view from our hotel. It's pretty average - lots of cranes in the background, a lot that's just been leveled for new construction, and a haze hanging over everything. Dan said that it is clear only when it is really windy.

We went over to Dan and Sai's apartment so Jon could leave his big suitcase and borrow a smaller one to take to Beijing. Chris Westerman had gotten in the night before and joined us for lunch, along with Ning, Lisa and Sally. We went to California 101 again and it was delicious again. I only ate sushi and dessert. Sai got the manager to make a platter of hairy crabs for us, which is a Shanghai special. They are only available during one season. Click here for how to eat a hairy crab.

At about 2:30, Jon and I got in separate cabs. He headed to the smaller airport to go to Beijing, and I went to Pudong for my flight home. I left at 5 pm in Shanghai and got to Chicago about 6 PM CST. Chicago was getting a touch of snow, so of course O'Hara was a nightmare. Flights canceled left and right, tons of delays, etc. Fortunately my flight wasn't canceled, so I did manage to make it home at midnight. I saw some people totally freak out at the airline people cause their plane left without them.

The jet lag has been brutal, especially since I got in so late. When I tried to go to bed at 1 AM, my body thought it was 3 PM so I couldn't fall asleep. The lack of sleep and 14 hour time change about killed me the next day. I actually fell asleep standing over my computer. I had to go to work as Dave was out so there would be not enough people to do schedules if I'd stayed home.

Saturday - Eric Clapton

Tonight Jon and I are going to an Eric Clapton concert here. We just got our tickets today and were able to get seats on the floor still. They were the highest price range and were the only ones left. 1800 RMB for one ticket.

Tomorrow I leave for home at 5:00 PM (local time.) I will go backwards in time, so will get home the same night at 9:30 PM CST, even though the journey will take about 20 hours.

Friday - Buying Pearls

Jon went to the office again and spent all day in meetings. They were so busy that he didn’t even get lunch. Larry scrounged up a cup of noodles for him.

I caught up with email and blogging, and then Sai took me to the knock-off market. It was tons of little stores in an underground station that sold (fake) name brand purses, belts, shirts, ties, cuff links, jeans, suitcases, scarves, wallets, shoes, watches, pirated DVDs and anything Chinese-looking. You have to bargain to get things. The first store we walked into, the girl said her best price on a purse was 780 yuan ($98.) You have to offer something really low, then keep saying it’s still too high when they counter offer. This goes on and on until you reach an agreement. Usually, you will have to walk away and let them call you back a few times. It was kind of weird at first, but then I really got into trying to see how low I could get stuff for. It’s such a big act – they act like they are losing so much money by giving it to you at that price, but you know it is totally an act. It is a big drama. It was really fun to get something for a super-low price that you didn’t really think they’d go for. I got the purse for 100 yuan instead ($13.)

We stopped at another subway station that was connected to a new mall. We have a 12 mm board inside and a big 23 mm outside. They don’t look great though – a couple problems with how the buildings designed the access to them. It was raining so we didn’t stay outside looking at it very long.

I went back to the hotel and Sai went home in the afternoon. After work, Ritchie and Gislain picked us up and we headed to the pearl market. The whole second floor of this building is pearls. All shapes, sizes and colors. Once again, you have to barter. Sai goes to one place where she knows the owner and gets good deals.

I wasn’t planning on buying anything, as Jon bought me a pearl necklace in Australia. The guys got a couple things for their girlfriends (after consulting our expert options). I thought maybe I should get a ring to match my necklace and some earrings too. The earrings have about 15 pearls each on them, but they are smaller and some are far from round. The ring has one nice big, round pearl on it. Both of them together were…. 25 yuan. That is $3.25. I couldn’t believe it.

I tried on a couple of different necklaces that were nothing like the one I already had. I didn’t really like any of them. Gislain handed me one that was three strands of pearls around the neck and many strands hanging down in a triangle, with aquamarine beads between each pearl. It was really beautiful and easily has over 100 pearls in it. I bartered it down to 80 yuan. $10. I would be very interested in knowing what it would go for in the States.

The four of us met Dan and Jon back at the hotel and walked to the Always Café. They have a nice selection of food and of drinks. The best part of the meal was dessert – I ordered a banana split that had three scoops of ice cream, whipped cream and a chocolate wafer.

The Always Cafe

Ritchie and a beer girl. We've seen these girls in various bars - they dress up in short skirts and tall boots and promote their brand of beer. Most of the American guys are quite a bit larger than the Chinese girls....

Ritchie thought it was funny that Jon was still working.

Jon and I - check out the new pearls!

(photos courtesy of Ritchie Hart - thanks!)

Thursday

This morning the China sales team had a meeting. Angel and Zhou Lin Lin, two saleswomen based in Beijing, were here for it. Jon was at the office all day.

I had to have a computer guy here at the hotel come up and help get the internet working. You’d think a former EIS person could do it, but he had to reset the username and password for the room. I got most of my Dak email and was able to update my blog.

Sai and I went to a Japanese restaurant for lunch and had sushi. She had to get her repaired IPod and showed me a huge electronics store. Best Buy was nearby but we didn’t go there.

It was Zhou Lin Lin’s birthday and Dan promised to take her out for supper, so we all went to a Chinese place. They like really hot food so ordered quite a bit of that. It was pretty funny watching them eat the chili peppers and get all red. I did try some spicy stuff but didn’t really like it. They ordered plenty of non-spicy dishes for me though.

The restaurant looked out over about 12 LED boards made by Samsung (I think.) The Dak people grumbled the whole meal about how bad they looked and how hard it was to compete in China because price is so important. Millions of dollars in projects are going up right now and we don’t have the sales force to even find out about all of the projects. Hopefully that will change soon.

Dan also had promised Zhou Lin Lin a spa night. We went to the Spa de Regent again, but this time all of the girls had facials and just Jon had a massage.

Wednesday - Hangzhou

This morning Dan, Jon and I boarded the train to Hangzhou. The south railway station is extremely modern – very clean, spacious, and beautiful. It cost 44 RMB for a ticket for a two-hour train ride. Of course everything but the numbers are in Chinese, but we managed to figure out that we were on car 1, seats 54, 55 and 56. We thought that car one should be at the front of the train, as we passed 6, 5, 4, 3, and 2. At car 2, we were told that car 1 was between 8 and 9 though. Lesson learned – just show someone your ticket right away.

The train was not as modern as the station. It had two levels and every seat was full. There was this curtain by me that had mildew or dust or something that I was allergic to in it. I didn’t want to breathe. You see people wearing surgical masks around occasionally. I was told it was to help filter the pollution, or to prevent them from spreading their cold. I wished I had one then. In the US you would get hundreds of stares, but here it is fairly common.

In Hangzhou, we took a taxi into town. Grace sold her first large video board there, and it was being fired up. Once in the taxi, Dan called Grace and had her tell the driver (in Chinese) where to go. This also is very common, among Chinese as well as foreigners. All businesses have a map to their location on their business card or any other printed material.

We met Pete Johnson, Stephanie, Grace, Gary Gregg (US tech), Larry (Chinese project manager), and William (Chinese tech) there. The sign was almost totally up – two blocks of modules were out, but William replaced a power supply and fixed some wires and it was totally up and running. We only have one standard animation for China – it is the Chinese flag rippling. It looks good but we just need to have more variety.

The display is on a building still under construction. It will be an entertainment complex, with discos and KTV (karaoke). It is owned by a very important man, Mr. Lu (I think). He actually saw our displays in Macau and sought Daktronics out because he was impressed with them. We are also proposing a ProAd display for the other side, so a couple hours were spent discussing this proposal, pricing, etc. Mr. Lu met us at the hotel in the afternoon. We sat in booths looking directly at the display and discussed the possibilities for it, along with content creation. He did not speak any English so Grace translated everything. There are actually two other owners, who came later, but he is the decision maker.
Mr. Lu owns several restaurants throughout the city. He took us to one near the hotel. It had a waterfall flowing down two stories of smooth rock, with a glass staircase going upstairs. We were shown to a private room. There were a couple of special dishes that would cost hundreds of dollars back home. One was abalone, and the other was some type of mollusk that have to be alive until the chef cut it up, minutes before it was served. Another interesting dish was whole smelt fried. It was hard to get the meat without getting bones using chopsticks. Many of the dishes with fish have the entire fish including head and tail.

We also drank several bottles of sweet, warm wine. It was used for toasting with the miniature wine glasses. I learned there is a certain way you must toast with important people. The non-important person must always keep their glass under the important person’s glass as they toast. So, when Mr. Lu toasted Dan, they clinked their glasses together, Dan’s under Mr. Lu’s. Mr. Lu then made his lower, then Dan did, etc. Basically, the important person is lowering the glass trying to say they are not important, but the other person insists that they are.

The only time Mr. Lu wasn’t the highest glass was when he got up from his seat and toasted Gary Gregg. He said Gary was very important and he must be very smart (referring to him helping put the display up.) Mr. Lu’s driver then took us to the train station.

The 8:30 train was sold out, and the next one was at 10:00. A group of people with red shirts said, oh, the busses are this way. They led us to a group of mini-vans! We said no way and started to leave. They started bargaining with us, and we said we’d pay 400 yuan for a ride to Shanghai if they had a big van. They showed us, but wouldn’t give us the price we wanted.

So we went back to the ticket counter and discovered only hard seats were left on the late train. These people kept trying to bargain with us and get us to take their transportation. We said we’d only take a real bus.

Somehow they managed to find a real bus. We agreed to the ride for 60 yuan each and left at 9:10. It was a charter bus that probably took a group of tourists from Shanghai to Hangzhou, and the driver was going to make a few bucks on his way back to Shanghai. Dan said the vans they were trying to give rides in were probably company vans and they were basically stealing from their employers.

Photos from dinner Tuesday

Emily, Maggie and Sai

Jon eats the duck head - not only fish are served with the heads here.

Judy, Dan and Ning

Tuesday

Jon and Dan went on a business call together. The hired driver got them lost so they were delayed in getting there. They sent the car back for Sai, Maggie (the HR/Office assistant here) and I to go look at furniture for our apartment. Yes, we have decided to move here. Maggie translated prices and such all day for us. She is so cute – she giggles frequently and covers her mouth while doing it. That is quite common among the Chinese women. She and Sai LOVE to shop. It was a lot of fun. We had lunch at Papa John’s. It is the most popular pizza place here. KFC is the most popular fast food, followed by McDonald’s.

Furniture here ranges from cheap to outrageous, just like anywhere else. I didn’t find anything that was really soft – most of it was modern and hard cushions to sit on. We did find a couple Slumberlands and a Serta dealer, so we will be able to get a soft mattress. I saw a couple of western recliners and couches, and they were about what you’d pay in the US. Everything else was about half of that.

Sai bought a huge hand-made vase. It was priced at 830 RMB and she got it for 400 RMB ($50). You have to bargain and walk away a few times and usually they will follow and barter more. Even meals are negotiable – Grace (Dak Shanghai saleswomen) won’t let up if she thinks she is not getting a fair price. When we buy furniture, we will pick it out first and then let Ning or another Chinese person go bargain for it later. The assumption is that all foreigners are rich and we will definitely get ripped off.

I got my nails done again – they glued on acrylic nails, painted them pink and then painted three tiny flowers on each nail, with glitter for a center. It was 50 RMB ($6.50).

The three of us met Dan, Jon, Ning, Judy and two guys from Dak Canada (Ritchie and Gislain) at Lu Lu Restaurant. It was another huge meal! I don’t believe I explained how the meals are served. In the middle of the table is a huge round piece of glass on a turntable. The dishes are set, one by one as they are ready, on the glass and people turn it slowly throughout the meal so that every is able to sample every dish. With the ten of us, probably 20 to 25 dishes were served. One course is always soup, although it is hard to count courses since the food just keeps coming and is not taken away until the dish is empty.

Dan bought a bottle of Maltese, which is traditional liquor that is quite strong. It is poured into a decanter, which is used to fill what look like tiny wine glasses. You drink them like shots. Our group managed to finish off the whole bottle, although I didn’t try it.

After that we went to the Blue Frog for a couple drinks. It was a very modern bar, although it was very smoky. 80% of the men in China smoke, and China consumes one-third of the cigarettes produced world-wide. People smoke everywhere. In one of Jon’s sales meetings, the guy chain-smoked in a conference room. The lobby of every building has people smoking… really, anywhere it is permissible, it seems. The Dak office is non-smoking though.