November 5 – OK the last entry here before leaving for home tomorrow. Today I went with our local office manager to see the old Shanghai area. This area consists of three parts, the true old Shanghai town where the original narrow streets and tiny structures exist, still inhabited by the locals in what look to be almost primitive conditions. I’m not sure what “original” means in this case, but I don’t think it is particularly long maybe only one or two hundred years. The second is a more modern portion where an unbelievable number of tourist shops have been installed. The third is a famous garden attraction known as the YuYuan Gardens, which at one time was owned by a very rich individual. Although everything was very interesting, the fact is that I am tired and anxious to get back home so I couldn’t enjoy it as much as I would have liked.

Last evening I managed to have a beer at the “Dike Country Music Bar”, which I had photographed some time ago but had not had the chance to check out. It consists of two parts, one of which is a gambling (mahjong?) establishment. I had checked it out during the afternoon when only the mahjong room was open. I returned in the evening to the music bar, but it was almost dead, nothing going on. It was being managed by a young lady who spoke almost perfect English. Well it seemed almost perfect until I asked her what the name of the bar signified and she responded that it was the Dick Country Music Bar. It was a little interesting trying to translate for her the various meanings, both hers and mine.

November 4 – The journey is nearing an end now, only two more days until I fly back to the USA. The last few days have been quite routine and almost boring. All day at the factory, watching the work and composing e mails on my computer, some to the personnel here because the written word is less risky in translation and some to the home office trying to let them know what is going on. Lunch at the factory (still yuk) and dinner alone in one of the two or three local rice shops that I have found near the hotel. Then maybe a beer or two, maybe some reading or some shopping, and then off to sleep.

One interesting thing about the shops and businesses here is that you often find a group of similar or related shops all together in one block. I have seen blocks that seem to have nothing but motorcycle repair shops and parts stores, others that have nothing but building products, others that have nothing but plumbing supplies, etc. Well the other night I stumbled upon one such block that seemed to have mostly, well, let’s just say, adult tension relief services, maybe “HJ” services as Al Ginsberg might have advertised in his magazine lo these many years ago. I tried to get some good photos of these shops, the young ladies are quite pretty in their outfits, some of which are truly uniforms, believe it or not. But they were reluctant to allow me to take any close up photos, so I had to settle for some more distant attempts. And yes I did wander in to one such place to learn more details about the services they offer, but since this is a family oriented blog such a report will not be forthcoming here.

By the way I think I finally found the correct spelling for this city, it is Nanqiao.

Typical moto repair shop at end of the day.
(for a larger view just click on photo)

November 1 – On Monday I went shopping to look for more jade and to see how the bracelet I had bought Sunday at the tourist trap compares to those at the local jewelry stores, which I had scoped out last week. I had the help of two locals, the factory manager and an engineer. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately for my wife, I liked the store bracelets much better and so with their help we bargained for another one, this time getting one priced at 5200 RMB for 2080 RMB. One of the other ladies in the family will have to settle for the first one.

We had dinner that evening in another steamboat place, this one further across town. Exotic things included shredded cow innards (awful with a capital A) and bamboo, a little tasteless and a lot stringy. I don’t understand why pandas fuss about it, but the rest of the meal was great.

As dinner was nearing an end there was a table of young folks nearby, about 8 guys and only 2 girls, who had obviously drank too much beer, so we turned to watch the action unfold. Unbeknownst to me they had probably been keeping an eye on our table, which of course had the only westerner in sight. All of a sudden one of the young ladies smiled at me and came over to our table and offered a toast, at which point I had to chug my beer. Soon after two or three others came over and did likewise. So I bought their table (my hosts wouldn’t actually let me buy) a six pack, which they accepted with glee. On the way out of the restaurant the manager commented to my friends that I was very unusual, that most westerners don’t like the food and don’t want to mingle.

Yesterday and today have been a little quiet at the factory, they seem to have a lull in their schedule. So the factory manager drove me back to the hotel this afternoon at about 2 pm, the only time this has occurred during my stay here.

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October 29 – Yesterday I worked at the factory until about 2 pm, then I returned to the hotel and went for a long walk. I walked by the barber shop where I had my hair cut earlier in the week and some of the staff immediately recognized me so I stopped for a photo or two. I also walked by the little porno shop and I managed to wake up the proprietor and get his photo. He was none too happy (maybe to be woken up?) and so I told him I would delete the photo, but of course I didn’t tell him that I would do so after spreading it onto the internet.

I had dinner with the local office manager and his long time associate, who once worked for our home office in the states. To get to his area we had to drive all the way to East Shanghai, about an hour or more one way. His wife and two daughters, both born in the USA, were also there, fresh from their Halloweiesen outing at the local compound. It was a very nice neighborhood, very reminiscent of any US suburban locale; complete with strip malls and low level townhouse style housing.

Today was again spent with the local office manager, this time in a town called Zhou Zhuang, a very famous tourist attraction here. It is a coastal town originally built in 1086. The town is known as the “water town” because it was built in an area with so much water that you almost needed a boat to get from place to place. Many of the older structures and homes have been preserved and serve as a cultural bridge to the past, with emphasis on the Ming and Qing dynasties. There is entertainment, artifacts, and handicraft demonstrations that recreate the atmosphere of the olden days. It is probably a little too commercial for me. There are trinkets and souvenir shops in abundance and the vendors are quite aggressive in hawking their wares. With some help from my manager friend in arguing the price in Chinese I managed to buy a bracelet for my wife that listed at 1370 RMB, but sold for 350 RMB.

October 26 – Well I had to change hotels today, from the Hotel Sentosa to the Yuehua Hotel. The access to the internet had been spotty at best since my arrival, but yesterday and today it had been non existent.

When queried, the hotel flunky (er, manager) said that it “was not a hotel problem”, it was the fault of the internet provider. Because another westerner had told me the access in his room was ok, I asked if I could try another room. The manager said that others in the hotel were having such problems and so he didn’t seem interested in obliging me. So I told him to prepare my invoice, at which point, believe it or not, he still didn’t realize that it was indeed the hotel’s problem. Alas, a “world class hotel” (it really is excellent in all other aspects) without a clue.

Later the manager’s boss, a pleasant sounding young lady, got my phone number from my local office and called me at work, begging me to come back to their hotel. I guess they finally realized that with another 10 days or so, at $90 a pop, their internet problem really was their problem after all. After several rebuffs she even offered one free night’s stay if I would return. But being the stubborn old fart that I am, I finally had to hang up as politely as one can do so.

Even though I didn’t need one, I got a haircut just to meet and interact with the locals. It took two people, one for cutting and one for washing (before and after) and the total time took about 20 minutes, a job my wife would normally do for me in two or three minutes, given my lack of a requirement for such activity. The bill came to about $4.50 US. Later I also got a foot treatment (at least I do in fact have feet) which lasted about one hour, believe it or not, for the same price. This place is crawling with these two types of shops over here, I don’t understand why the need.

In this city the majority of people seem to live in these four or five story townhouse type buildings, maybe twenty or so units in length. It must be that almost everyone in the building is allowed to have his own little business shop on the ground level, they are typically 12-15 ft wide and maybe 30 ft deep. Perhaps they were intended for storage or as a garage, but have been turned into shops, I don’t know. Other typical businesses include mini variety stores, cigarette shops, rice shops, etc. I have even seen one that looks to be a porno shop, only 7 feet wide x 10 ft deep or so, just enough for the owner to fit his futon, his TV, and his walls full of wares.

October 25 – The days are starting to blend together, it is hard to tell one from another. On Sunday I had a real problem not feeling well, still feeling the after affects of something I ate on Friday and perhaps my colon problem is acting up again, I’m not really sure. And to make matters worse, the weather until Monday had been overcast, humid, and smoggy, so much so that it was difficult to breathe. But on Monday a cold front came thru and it actually got chilly enough to require a windbreaker in the evening. The weather has since then been almost perfect, the best since my arrival.

On Monday evening I had dinner with Mr. Zhang, my engineer friend from the local office. We returned to the site of my earlier steamboat disaster and I am happy to say that all turned out much better. We had the type of broth pot which is divided into two parts, one for zsechuan style and the other for more normal style. We ate only from the spicier side and I enjoyed almost everything he had selected from the menu. When the “shrimp” arrived they turned out to be live crawfish, much smaller than anything I had ever seen in a restaurant before. Reportedly from the Yangtsee River (but maybe from local fish farms?) they were busily trying to crawl out of their container when they arrived at the table, but into the hot pot they went and although really too much trouble to de shell and eat, I enjoyed them nonetheless.

I am getting much more comfortable with my surroundings and the neighborhood, I now know where to find the nearest supermarket or pub or rice shop or variety store, none of which seem to be run by Pakistanis, by the way. I think I might try a hair cut tonight, just to meet more locals. It is really fun to see them interact with a westerner. Several times I have been approached in the street, usually by a parent with a small child, who want only to say “hello”, this particular word being the first thing out of their mouth.

On Sunday I found an enormous park not too far from my hotel, it seemed to be a botanical garden or something similar, although there appeared to be some commercial development associated with it. But the weather was humid and smoggy, so much so that I couldn’t really enjoy it. Perhaps I will return now that the weather has improved.

October 20 - Another day at the factory. For dinner I returned alone to one of the small local restaurants that I had enjoyed some days ago. The meal wasn’t quite as good and I started noticing some after affects rather soon this evening.

October 21 – Another day at the factory, but being Saturday I stayed only until 2 o clock or so. One problem with working Saturdays here is that we are already one day ahead of the home office, so if anything comes up we then get two days ahead in order to get correspondence back.

The dinner last evening continued to wreck havoc with my innards all day and so my bum was feeling chafed from so much activity. I spent the afternoon looking for preparation H or a reasonable facsimile. With the language barrier it was interesting trying to get my point across as to what I was searching for. I finally managed to find something, after embarrassing myself in front of two young lady clerks in the pharmacy of a neighborhood supermarket, making some awkward hand signals in the process.

In the evening I finally managed to find the courage to try one of the KTV (karaoke) bars that are so popular over here. The young hostesses were only too happy to see a foreigner come in and they managed to get me to drink more beer in one sitting than I have done in many years. Needless to say it was a big mistake, mainly because my system had not recovered from the trauma of the previous day. Tomorrow is probably going to be a long day.