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.