Times Square

Times Square is located on the Pudong side of Shanghai. It is an area full of malls filled with shops and restaurants. It is about a 20 minute walk from our apartment. I say walk because it is too short for most cab drivers to drive there and that leaves only our feet as transportation options. Trust me, I would not recommend biking here. As you can see from my pictures they made the area feel more like home for us by adding Christmas decorations. They don’t say happy holidays here so if you are not Christian you are out of luck. Truth to be told, the vast majority of China does not celebrate Christmas either. The decorations are just for us foreigners so we feel more at home and spend more money at their shops.

One of our local hangouts at Time Square is the Shanghai Bay. We originally called it the skateboard, because from a distance the roof looks like a very large skateboard. It is an indoor outdoor mall meaning that there are planned sections where there is no roof and other parts where a wall was removed. The roof is also elevated from the walls so there are some gaps between the two. The area was recently built and is lit up at night as well. It is home to several restaurants and shops.

The Bund

No, this isn’t a blog about what you put a hot dog or burger in. This is a popular area in Shanghai for locals and tourists. Basically it is a great picture place, though they do have restaurants, bars, boat rides, and bunch of other things to do. There are 2 Bunds which are separated by the Huangpu river. One is on the Puxi (downtown) side and the other is on the Pudong side. Both are always full of people, enjoying the view and selling foods and souvenirs. The Chinese really enjoy brightly lit buildings at night.

SWFC

The Shanghai World Financial Center is the tallest building in Shanghai at 1,614.2 ft (492.0m) high. As a reference point for those of you how live in Minnesota or went to our wedding, The IDS Center is only 792 feet (241.4 m) high. For those of you whose math skills have deteriorated like mine, that means that the SWFC is over twice the height of the IDS Center. We have officially given it the nickname as the bottle opener as that is we both thought of went we try to explain it to people. Anne and I decided to visit this building on 11/18. We briefly thought about taking the stairs to the top, but unfortunately that wasn’t an option. Ok, that though never crossed either of our minds but, I wanted you to think we were active (or psychotic) for a second. The center has 3 observation areas. The highest one is on the 100th floor and is 1,555 ft (474m) high. To add to the scariness, the floor has sections of glass where you can see down to the street. We had the pleasure of watching one Chinese women stomp on the glass a couple of times to see if it would break. I guess she didn’t realize that she was STANDING on the glass and would have fallen long enough to write a small essay on why it was a dumb idea to stomp on the glass floor that you're standing on. We were also lucky enough to make our visit when Coca Cola was shooting a commercial using 3 very overdressed people.

Look up in the sky. Is it a bird? A plane? Nope, it’s smog. Believe it or not we went to the SWFC on one of the clearest days we have had in Shanghai. There was not a cloud in the blue sky and if you looked up from the observation area the sky looked as clear blue as it does in Minnesota. Unfortunately the smog never clears below building level which happens to be about 2,000 ft and below. As a result we could only see about 2-5 miles before the smog blocked our views.

Gobble Gobble

Happy Thanksgiving!
Thanksgiving is not celebrated here so I woke up to a day of work, meetings, presentations and a work-related dinner event. I felt a little homesick today because I miss being with family, friends and eating turkey until I go into a food-induced coma. Bill was over at the other side of town today teaching English. We connected around 9:30pm and watched TV while eating desserts from Bakerzin. YUMMY.

Although we weren't able to celebrate Thanksgiving, we're looking forward to coming home for the holidays. To slowly adjust ourselves to December in Minnesota, we try to keep the thermostat low and incorporated some more cheese in our meals. Hopefully, this will do the trick.

While reading Mark's blog today, I realized that I've completely overlooked the purpose of Thanksgiving. Every year, I think of Thanksgiving as: a few days off work, stuffing my face, baking something yummy, taking a nap while everyone else watches football and shopping for the rest of the week. Reflecting back on the past year, I am thankful for a lot of things, both big (family, friends, good health and happiness) and small (fountain beverages, tacos, dryers, full size ovens and inside voices). When we're taken out of our element and comfort zone, all the little things that I take for granted gets noticed and missed.

As for the time being, Bill and I will probably hit up the City Diner, where I can order quesadillas, mash potatoes and eggs benedict - it's amazing and the food is awesome.

Hong Kong Day 3

Once again Anne had to work and left me on my own. Having decided on previous trips that it is much more fun to take a half day tour than to watch TV in the hotel room all day, I set up a tour of the city.

Before the tour actually began we stopped at the Golden Bauhinia Square. The Golden Bauhinia was a gift to Hong Kong from Mainland China. It was here that the tour buses come to divvy out people for the various tours throughout the Island.

The first stop of the tour was the Man Mo Temple. It was built in 1847 and is dedicated to the gods of literature (Man) and martial arts (Mo). The temple is almost hazy due to the large amount of incense that is burned there. The coil looking things are large coils of incense.

The next stop on the tour was once again Victoria’s Peak. It was nice feeling like a local for a couple of minutes and showing people around. I also took some of the time others were using to sight see to enjoy lunch. I added another notch into my fork with a stop to McDonalds. The local food item was fish sandwiches with wasabi and clam chowder. I can honestly say it was the best view I have ever had at McDonalds.

We then went to Aberdeen fishing village. Aberdeen is a bay on the south end of Hong Kong Island. It is a typhoon shelter where many people live and work on their boats. It is also home to the Jumbo Kingdom. The Jumbo Kingdom is basically a huge floating tourist trap with a couple restaurants. It was at this point that we enjoyed a sampan boat ride of the area. It was a very interest ride and it was very similar to an ocean parking lot.

We were then taken to a jewelry factory. This was our mandatory stop were you are informed what good jewelry is and how it is made. You then have to stand around for at least ½ hour to make sure you had plenty of time to buy something.

After our fun at the jewelry factory we drove by Repulse Bay. This is the most visited beach on the southern part of Hong Kong. It is also the home of Jackie Chan. Unfortunately, his home was on too big of a slope for me to see it but, I was able to get a picture of his house address.

The last stop on the tour was the Stanley Market. This is a street market where you can buy a variety of clothes, toys, and Chinese items. Not being much of a shopper I made my way through the maze of shops to the beach. It was very pretty and much more relaxing than the chaos of the street market.

Hong Kong Day 2

Our first stop of the day was at the Ngong Ping 360. This is a 25 minute cable car ride that starts on the north end of Lantau Island which is to the west of Hong Kong. The cable car takes you over a large portion of the Lantau Island and drops you off at the Ngong Ping Village. This village was likely created solely for tourists. It is one street that extends two blocks filled with restaurants and souvenir shops. We proceeded to the Tian Tan Buddha. This is the largest bronze seated Buddha in the world. It is on top of a hill, which is quite a hike up a long set of stairs. Like all things Chinese it was huge and it was tough to imagine someone hauling the materials up the steep hill to create something so large and detailed. After taking a few pictures and several minutes to catch our breath we went back to Ngong Ping Village to grab some lunch.

After lunch we took the Cable Cars back and preceded to the Hong Kong Macau shuttles (fast boats that take you from Hong Kong to Macau). For those of you who may not be familiar with Macau it is know as the Vegas of Asian. It was after arriving at the Hong Kong Shuttle Station that I found out that you need your passport to enter Macau (as it is a different country). We headed back to the hotel and I felt like an idiot because we missed our 4pm Cirque Du Soleil show at the Venetian (which is exactly the same as the one in Vegas) in Macau. Our tickets were not refundable or transferable. We picked up our passports and headed back to the shuttles to check out Macau anyway. It is a really strange feeling traveling in a boat that is large enough to remind you of an airplane since it has similar seating. The ride was very rough; we must have been driving through waves over 10 feet high at high speeds. After arriving in Macau we decided to see if we could still get into the ZAIA show. It took a little fast talking but we were able to see the show with similar seats without buying new tickets and getting a 10% discount on our current tickets. The show was amazing, absolutely amazing. After the show we headed back to Hong Kong.

Hong Kong Day 1

On 11/08 we went to Hong Kong. After a quick 2 ½ hour flight from Shanghai we made our way to the hotel to begin yet another adventure. Our first stop was to Ocean Park. It is an amusement park/zoo on the southern end of Hong Kong Island. The northern portion is currently undergoing construction to compete with Hong Kong’s Disney Land. The park has a panda exhibit originally featuring 4 panda bears. Unfortunately all of the pandas were just lying around when we were there. A cable car connects the north side of the park to the south side. The south side has a number of amusement rides and a jelly fish spectacular. We went on the world’s second largest outdoor escalator and enjoyed a ride on the mine train roller coaster.

The next stop was to Victoria’s peak. It is the highest section of Hong Kong and affords visitors with some of the best views of the Island. The Peak (as the locals call it) has a 3 story mall and the 7 story Peak Tower which is home to the peak tram. The peak tram is a San Francisco style cable car that ascends from the bottom of the mountain up to the peak. It is a very steep 8 minute trip. The Peak Tower also houses a wax museum and an EA video game floor. As I am sure you may have guessed I spent a bit of time playing video games for free. After Anne grew bored of my video gaming we enjoyed a nice dinner in the mall and then went to the top of the Peak Tower to see some great night views of the city. We then took the peak tram back down to the city.

Taipei Day 4

Anne had to work today so I was on my own. This left me with 2 options. Stay in a small hotel room and watch one of the 3 English channels all day or set out on an adventure to explore Taipei and its surrounding areas. It was a tough choice but after hours of thought and some pro and con comparisons I decided on the latter. I set up a half day tour from the hotel actually beginning my day before Anne did.

The first stop on the tour (after a delicious complimentary breakfast buffet) was Hollywood… er Keelung (pronounced Jee Long). It was kind of weird seeing a white sign on a mountain like the Hollywood sign for a city just north of Taipei. Here is an interesting weather effect for those of you meteorologists out there. A number of the roads out of Taipei take you through tunnels drilled into the mountains. It is sunny when you enter the tunnels and raining when you leave it. This is a common occurrence and is typical more often than not (or so I am told). After arriving in Keelung, we went to see their large Buddha. She (though in most other places it would be a he) is located on top of a mountain and is tall enough for you to ascend up on a couple very narrow and steep flights of stairs. There is also a large bell you can ring. This bell likely has some significance, but I was too busy taking pictures to listen to what the tour guide was saying. Unlike the Xian Bell Tower this bell was free to ring. I am sure there was also some relevance to the large golden dogs on both sides of the Buddha, but I wasn’t paying attention to that part either.

The next stop was to a small ocean village. It is said to rain most of the day almost every day all year round. This seasonally depressive town is the home of the Yehliu Geopark. Basically it is a large rock beach that has been shaped by time, wind, and water to resemble a variety of everyday items. Their most famous rock is the Queen’s head. It is a little weird walking through the park. It almost feels like you are walking on a foreign planet as the rocks are like nothing I have ever seen before.

The last stop on the tour was, as always, to a highly recommended (by the tour guide) souvenir shop. They profess to have one of a kind items at a low cost. What this really means is that you are a silly tourist who is too lazy to go to a local market and find everything they have there at less than a quarter of the price of what you will find at the tour stop.

After the tour ended I took a short walk to a near by restaurant. As a self professed connoisseur of McDonalds around the world I had to add one more to the ever growing list. Do you frequent Mickey D’s? Think you know the McDonalds menu pretty well? Are you sure… I don’t think you recall seeing a taro cake on the menu do you. I know I didn’t. On my way back from McDonalds I took a couple pictures of a temple on the side of the road. This was the second on I saw in Taipei and I just couldn’t pass it up again.




After work Anne and I went to dinner with some more of her family and later we went to a place in Taipei call Lover’s Lane. It is a small area which would be good place to take a date.

Taipei Day 3

Today we went to the National Palace Museum. The museum itself looked very cool unlike the museums in the states that tend to look like concrete boxes from the outside. The museum has similar ancient cultural items on display as you will find in the Shanghai museum, though I would recommend this one over Shanghai’s. Unfortunately for you, no pictures were allowed. If you were looking for educational or historical pictures please look at our Shanghai Museum entry. Anne (who apparently has already seen everything that I think is cool on previous trips) informed me that the museum has been remodeled since she saw it last.

Right next to the National Palace Museum is a small park that really makes you forget that you are in a city of several million. The best part about the park is that is has a small water fountain that was just too hard to pass up. Anne and I could think of no better way of remembering the experience other than trying to make idiots of ourselves with the scenery. If you are one of our avid reads (thanks!) you will know this is one of our favorite pass time.

The next stop on our agenda is the second tallest building on the planet (the 3rd if you don’t count the spire). It is the Taipei 101. True to its name it has 101 floors and is 509.2 meters tall (that’s roughly 1,527 feet). It was built to withstand typhoons and earthquakes with the help of a 2 story damper that looks like a big gold ball. It is located on the 88th floor along with a large carved coral gallery. The Damper was the inspiration for the Taipei 101’s mascots, the Damper Babies. This building is basically a mall with a food court on the first 5 floors and office buildings on the rest. It also houses the world fastest elevator which has a top ascending speed of 16.83 m (55.22 ft) per second or 37.7 miles per hour. This unfortunate quick change in pressure causes your ears to pop almost every couple seconds on the short ride up. The observatory on the 89th floor offers a great view of Taipei and the surrounding area.

The last stop of the day was the Hua Xi Night Market; better know to the locals as snake alley. It was somewhat similar to the previous night’s market with one major exception. That exception is where the alley got its name. In one alley of the night market you can have the pleasure of drinking snake’s blood and eating its still-beating heat. It sounded a little too much like a scene out of the 2nd Indiana Jones movie – The Temple of Doom. Thankfully Short Round was there to rescue us and Dr. Jones from anything our stomachs might regret. We did walk buy the street shop and listen for a short time to the snake handler who was missing the better part of the fingers on his hands (we are guessing this is the result of working with cobras you whole life). For those of you wondering what snake blood tastes like I am sorry to report that we did not try any of his goods.

I do work

Hello, hello blog readers!

It's been sometime since I've contributed to the blog. This could be a myriad of reasons: Bill is doing such a good job, I'm having too much fun with all the adventures, or I'm working. Honestly, it's probably a combination of all three. Many of you have been asking - what is work like, what is the office like, do you like it? Let me entertain you....

What is the office like?

The main Shanghai office is in the ZhangJiang Tech Zone. There's an additional four locations in Shanghai as well. ZhangJiang is in Pudong and an approximate 35 minute cab ride from the apt. This is mainly due to traffic. The office is housed on the 8th and 9th floor. Other floors house ebay, freescale, and a few companies that are not in English on the directory.

What is work like?

Ahh - this question could probably take up multiple blogs, but a high-level summary is: there's more similarities than differences. I like coming to work b/c it's my connection to home - a lot of practices here are adopted from Corporate so it gives me a sense of familiarity. Also, people are a lot more similar than different. Typical HR challenges experienced in the US are also experienced here as well. Differences? There's not a baby-boomer affect here. General differences? People all go to lunch together, usually a hot meal. There are three shuttles that take our employees home (or close to home). Even with the shuttle, the commute is often 1.5+ hours, each way.

Do I like it?

Yes! There are a few things that drive me nuts (loud cell phone ring tones and the lack of "inside voices" in the workplace) but I think it's a fun, growing and dynamic environment. I think in every situation, there are always things that are "great" and things that are "not so fun". Overall, with my project here, I think the great, exciting and challenging aspects outweigh the "not so fun" aspects. :)

Taipei Days 1 & 2

Whoops, it looks like half a month has gone by without a blog entry. What can I say other than this weekend was the first one in almost a month that we have been back in Shanghai. Where have we been? Well, if you haven’t already guessed by the title of this entry we went to Taipei. For those of you whose geography is as good as mine (which isn’t very good) it is a small island just south of mainland China. We went there on 10/31/2008 through 11/05/2008. We didn’t see much other than airports and airplanes on 10/31/2008 though. Our trip started with a 2 ½ hour flight to Hong Kong with a 3 hour lay over. Due to cancellations of a couple flights to Hong Kong we were only in the Hong Kong airport for about 1 ½ hours. Then we took a 2 ½ hour flight to Taipei. Long story short we left our apartment for the airport in Shanghai at 2pm and arrived in Taipei at 11:45pm. Direct flights to Taipei from Shanghai don’t exist as of yet, but it is speculated that it would take 1 ½ hours.

Day 2 in Taipei was a little more eventful. It started with checking into the hotel and going to bed. In the morning we went to pay respects to Anne’s grandparents and then to see some of Anne’s family (there are a couple that live in Taipei). We ate at a mom and pop restaurant literally 10 feet from their home. Their signature dish was basically a pigs feet roast (kind of like a deep fried pot roast). It was amazing. After lunch we took the subway to The National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. As it turns out Franklin Graham (the famous Evangelist Billy Graham’s son) was holding a large event at the Memorial Hall. The National Theater and National Concert Hall which are on both ends of the Memorial Hall were both under renovation. Our next stop was the Shilin Night Market. I am sorry to disappoint you, but we didn’t eat any deep fried bugs there. Here is a list of what we did eat though:
1 Taro bubble milk tea shake
1 Taro bubble milk tea
6 Fish balls
1 Duck blood on a stick
3 Meat buns
2 Taro calls in a blanket (like pigs in a blanket)
1 Frog eggs drink
1 skewer of quail eggs on a stick
1 Deep fried corn cob
2 Plates of stinky tofu
1 Plate of tempura
2 Oyster omelets
1 Squid soup