Who is that strange American?

So the weather has really started to change here in Shanghai and of course, I have been trying to learn Chinese. The word for "hot" is "rur" and although this word looks like it is easy to say, it requires that you must move your tongue to the back of your upper teeth, move your upper lip upward and do some voicebox action to get to the right pronunciation. Needless to say, I was having some real difficulty coordinating all of these into one intelligible word for "hot" in Mandarin. Most of the time it would come out roor or rwoor. The folks in the office found this amusing and during breaks would draw pictures of the mandible and maxilla (jawbones) to show me the correct position of tongue and upper lip to create the correct sound. It has proven to be the most difficult word that I have ever attempted to learn. So Saturday, I decided to go out on a walking journey and I actually walked 16 kilometers around Shanghai. I was so preoccupied with the word for "hot" first because it was, and second, there really has never been a word that I was unable to say without just a little work. So I am walking on the streets of Shanghai and there are people passing me as I am practicing how to say "rur" I keep trying to pronounce the word "rur" as I walk. There were times when I was saying "rur" "rur" "rur" "rur""rur""rur". Never quite getting it right at any time. In reality, I am not sure just exactly what I was saying. For all intents and purposes, it could a been a swear word or something else. I guess I did not realize how loud my practice was as people were staring at me.......probably thinking that I am some sort of lunatic from May-Guo which is the Chinese word for "America" And they just kept staring at me......

I have now since mastered the word according to my friends here in Shanghai. So when I get back and see you all soon, you will just have to have me say on a very warm Michigan day......Jintian tenschi hen rur........

All for now,....take care all.

Thankfully there is a lot of tea to go with this traffic jam!

Hello everyone!!!! You may remember that in my last entry, I referenced how busy the Huang Pu river is here in Shanghai. As you can see by this picture, there is a lot of traffic heading inland. If traffic were coming toward us in this photo, then traffic would be going out to the sea. You can tell by the volume of traffic going one way, what it would/could be like going both ways!!!! I have seen it going both ways and it gets real excitin' . And the traffic never stops, it runs 24/7 and might slow down just a bit for holidays but jams back up as the ship operators try to catch up on their work. Another interesting fact is that not all the boats/ships run lights at night. You can imagine what that must be like!!!! You will notice, the ferry (with people) trying to cross. This gets a little dicey every now and then and periodically you will here the loud blow of a ship's horn, giving a warning to get the heck outta the way!!!! Trust me, I have seen some near misses since I have been here!!! Shipping is the main low cost transportation in China and will remain so until China builds an expected 58,000 miles of highway in the next 5 years or so. Just a small fact, is that 58,000 miles is the equivalent of what the US has built in the Interstate Higway System since the 1950's. When China takes on a project, they mean it!!!

I woulda never believed it, if I hadn't seen it!!!!!

So I told you all about the view out of the window at Aurora and some of the amazing things that you see on the Haung Pu river. All the boats, freighters, tugs and ships. Well, now there is a new "ship" that you can see looking out the window. The pilot for this ship is an absolute daredevil. Baron Von Richthofen has nothing on this guy!!!! He flies all over Shanghai and then up and down the river, sometimes as low as 50 feet above the water!!!!!! He will turn this thing on a dime and I have to say that I never saw anything like this in America. As you can see in this photo, he is below our window, which is the 23rd floor or about 230 feet. Only in Shanghai, I do believe could you experience such a thing. Just as an FYI, the picture was taken after hours and while we were waiting to have a conference call. So absolutely no work was interrupted by the actions of the photographer, in case any of your were wondering!!!!! All for now everyone.....have a great day and take care.

Now this has to be a very big irony......

First of all, I don't want everyone to get excited about the picture that will be part of this blog entry. I purchased this item for only one reason. That is to show that capitalism is indeed alive in China. I bought this book from a small shop and was deeply involved in negotiating the final price. The vendor started out at 150 RMB which is just less than 20 dollars US. I offered 20RMB which is about $2.50 US. And the fun began.
She held strong at 150, I held strong at 20.
She told me that this was a "historical book" I said 20.
She said that this book was a big big part of China's history and wanted 150. I held fast at 20.
She said that I was being unreasonable....I said 20.
She than said 135 and I maintained my level at 20. She hemmed and hawed and said 125.
I told her...." I don't need this book, I am going to walk away." Then I said "20".
She looked off in the distance and said something in Chinese.....and than said 100.
I said "20"
She looked at me again and maybe said something like,,"I can't make money like this..."or maybe what she said was worse....it was hard to tell.
She came back with 65. I said "20"
She said "You Megwaren(American) are tough negotiator" She said "40" I said "30"
She looked at me...and we had a deal.

If that is not capitalism, than I don't know what is.....and take a look at the little book that I bought.....Now is this not ironic????

Take care all......

Old Guy from Museum

So you think you are old, do ya????

This last week, during the World Labor Day holiday, I had the opportunity to go to the Shanghai Museum with my Sister-in-Law Deb, friend Al from the States and Kurt. We went to three sections, the bronze, the pottery and the jade sections. I know that many of us think that a few hundred years is old and in our country, that is true. In Europe, we think that 600-700 years is old. At this museum, there were items that have been dated back to around the 51st. century BC. Yup, you got that right. 5100 years before zero!!!! This one little statue is kind of a youngster (around the 34th century BC) his description is "Divine Figure". So if you think you are old, you're not!!!! Also I found these clay pots very interesting as they have an amazing appearance similar to that of the Navaho or Hopi Indian tribe art. There is some thought that some Native Americans are of Asian descent. These were done around 2600 BC. How could the similarities in art be coincidental? Now that is food for thought. My next blog will show an interesting irony, that I uncovered during one of my adventures here in China........more later folks!!!! Take care I enjoy reading your comments and how far along is Will Ferrell's movie?