Fishing

I have not been fishing here yet and would probably would not eat anything that I caught, but for some it is a way to get food on the table. My bike ride to work brings me next to this river and along the way I have a seen an interesting fishing method. I plan to ask my Mandarin teacher how to ask if they have caught anything to see what they say.



Notice the man to the right. He is pulling up the catch of the day or in this case an empty net. He would pull up the net about every ten minutes or so. The best part is, no bait is needed. I am not sure what the sign says but I would guess it says 'No fishing allowed' or 'Do not swim or fish. Polluted water.'

Delayed & Cancelled

These are the last two words a traveler wants to hear when you are checking in but ones I encountered during my last trip. In mid March I was able to take my first trip home to spend at home and to do some work in Austin (not to mention visit the local Mexican food restaurants). The trip home was great. Rachel was off for a couple of days for Easter, so I planned my off days during the same time. The weather was perfect and overall was a much needed taste of home.

So, where does delayed and cancelled come in? Well, on my trip back to Shanghai my wife and I headed for the Austin airport at 2:45 A.M. so I could check in at 4:00 and leave at 6:00 A.M. The process starts at the self check-in terminals which is where my problems started. Right away the machine tells me that I need to wait for an attendant to help me. When one finally arrives they take my passport and head towards a computer terminal and after a minute I was informed that my flight from Chicago to Shanghai was cancelled. OK, I thought, flights are cancelled all the time and I'll just get rerouted. Sure enough after a couple more minutes I was presented with a couple of options. The same flight for the next day was already full so I could wait for two days and take that flight or I can switch airlines in L.A. and take China Eastern to Shanghai. It would put me in Shanghai a few hours later and I would lose my frequent flier miles but I would still get there during the weekend.

The flight to L.A. was a few hours later so they issued Rachel a no-seat boarding pass. It was just a pass so she could go through the security check point. We ate breakfast together and then she was off to a friends to get some sleep. My flight to L.A. was on time and all I had to do was check-in to find my new gate number. The gate was 120 and my ticket said the flight would leave 12:30 P.M. It was only 10:45 and I had some time so I ate lunch at the airport. After arriving at the designated terminal I found the flight time had changed to 1:30. No problem, it's just one more hour before a 14 hour flight. As 1:30 started to approach I expected they would start boarding but soon after there was another announcement. "There has been a delay of the flight for a special reason", was the announcement. "Please go to Gate 110." So everyone heads towards gate 110 where we see the sign say that the flight has been delayed until 3:00. Gate 110 was just a holding area. I guess they weren't sure when the plane would be ready and they needed the other gate for flights that were still coming and going.

During the wait a few people had found out that the flight was delayed because one of the engines had a problem and they were waiting for a part to come in. We soon got another update that the flight was now delayed until 4:00 P.M. and then again to 5:00 P.M. About 5:30 P.M. the final word for the day came in and they said the flight was cancelled for the day. Please go out to the check-in area for new instructions. After standing in that line for almost another hour I found myself with a voucher to the local Hilton hotel where I would staying for the night. The new flight had been rescheduled for the next day at 3:00 P.M.

Well I get to spend another day in the U.S. but I was pretty much stuck at the hotel. For a hotel stay it was pretty nice. The meals were paid for and they offered buffets for dinner, breakfast and lunch. I didn't have to worry about transportation since the hotel used a shuttle service.

After a restful day in L.A. and a large western style breakfast I was ready to get back to Shanghai. I stood in line again to get my new boarding pass and while waiting I heard the dreaded words again 'the flight has been delayed until 4:00 P.M.' Here we go again, I thought. Luckily I packed enough clothes in my carry on luggage to last me for a couple of days if the flight was cancelled again. I recognized several people in line who didn't plan so well. This time I decided to pull out the laptop and do some work to pass the time. 4:00 P.M. soon approached and yes you guess it, the flight was delayed again until 5:00 P.M.

I was completely expecting the flight to be cancelled again when around 4:45 they said they would start boarding. It didn't leave at 5:00 but we were on our way to another terminal this time by buses and we were up in the air around 5:45 P.M., finally!

If you are counting it was 2 cancellations and 6 delays. I finally made it Shanghai, Sunday evening around 11:00 P.M. and back to the apartment around 12:30 in the morning.

To put a cherry on top of the whole experience I discovered that I left my charger for my razor at home. Back to Carrefour tomorrow.

Transportation

Transportation is one of the things that I think most people take for granted. I know, I sure did when I was home. It is very convenient to get into your car and just go to the places you need to. Here in China, I have had to resort to other forms of transportation. Keep in mind that a trip to the store usually means a trip back home first to drop off the goods before venturing out to the next destination. It seems like I spend a lot of time just traveling to and from home to get things done. But with so many trips I have had the chance to experience each form of transportation and have some conclusions for each.




Taxi: Small 1-6 passenger sedan. Fast and lightly armored.

Pros: Readily available when it is not rush hour or when it is not raining. Fast, if traffic is light and will get you closest to your destination.

Cons: The most expensive form of transportation. A trip to work about 10km will cost around $4.00.




Bus: Multi-passenger carrier, heavily armored.

Pros: Very cheap - about $0.30 a ride. Fairly reliable. You can expect the bus to be at the stop around every 10-15 minutes. Less often on the weekend though.

Cons: Very crowded during rush hour and when it rains. Limited range. Must switch buses if you want to go somewhere further away. All the signs are in Chinese characters so if you can't read it you have no idea where it goes. I have taken a bus from work which was headed in the right direction just because I couldn't get a taxi. Luckily one of the stops was at a nearby subway station.



Subway: Fast and efficient. No need for heavy armor.

Pros: Fast and inexpensive. Can expect another train within 5-7 minutes. Reaches many parts of the city. Not subject to traffic jams so time is of minimal concern.

Cons: Will get you close to your destination but you may have to rely on a secondary form of transportation to get there. Usually very crowded.



Bike: 1-2 passenger with no armor.

Pros: Very maneuverable and fast. Most roads in Shanghai have very large bike lanes so it is easy to avoid traffic jams. If I use the bus, subway and shuttle to go to work it takes about an hour to get there. But I ride I can usually get there in 25-30 minutes. Very cheap to maintain and use.

Cons: No defense against wild taxi drivers or buses. Easily stolen if not locked to something permanent. No protection from the weather. Bring rain gear and another change of clothes.



A picture of my bike. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . These kids found a fast way down the stairs.

文可吉 – Wen Ke Ji (My Chinese Name)

With more and more companies establishing businesses in China it is very common for Chinese poeple to take an English name. Most receive a name in school but some choose to change it when they enter the workplace. Last week my collegues started putting together a list of Chinese names for me. Names here are based on Chinese characters and so, have special meaning. In China your family name always comes first so the first part of my Chinese name sort of matches my last name (the first letter, anyway). Here is the meaning for each part and the pronunciation.

文 means gentle; (pronounced - wun, sounds like one)
可 means nice; (pronounced - kuh, similar to wun but with a k and drop the n)
吉 means lucky; promising success; opportune; favorable (pronounced - jee)

wun kuh jee - The real pinyin is wen ke ji

Apartment Tour

Well this post doesn't have a lot to do with China, in a cultural sense, but I thought some of you might like to see where I am living now. I have also been sick with a bad cold the last few days and didn't go out much, so this is all I could think of to post this week. The apartment is about 126 sq m. (~1350 sq ft.) It has 2 bedrooms and 2 baths and came mostly furnished. I still had to buy a few pots and pans and had to wait for some stuff that we shipped from the U.S.


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View of the front door. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .View from the front door.
Yes, I do take off my shoes everytime I come in now. It's amazing how much cleaner the floors are when you do.


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The living room. The dining area is to the left and the hallway to the right.


Killer Ants on Animal Planet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The dining area

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From the hallway the first door on the right is the kitchen. To the left is the office.


Second door on the left is the bathroom.


Second door on the right is the second bedroom. On the balcony you can see the washer and dryer arangement. It has the capacity for about 3 pairs of jeans at a time so washing clothes is almost an every other day necessity.



The last room is the master bedroom. In the right photo you can see the dining area again. To the right is some more closet space and another door to the master bath.

Happy New Year! Chinese sytle

Chinese New Year or Spring Festival is the most important and celebrated Chinese holiday. As I mentioned before Spring Festival is the time of year for people to go home to visit family, reflect on the previous year and celebrate the New Year. And boy do they celebrate! The Chinese definitely know how to put on a fireworks show and they make sure you know who invented the things. Starting early last week you could hear the distinct sound of firecrakers around town. To me, it seemed normal. People buying fireworks before the actual holiday and they just can't wait, so they set off a few of the little ones just to get by. As Wed night approached, the sounds of firecrackers, quickly changed to fireworks. At first, the show seemed kind of sparse, just a few here and there.

I had to go to work the next day so I decided to go to bed around 11:00. Well that never happened. As the clock drew closer to midnight, the more the fireworks were being launched into the sky. The noise would echo and bounce off the buildings. I thought this must be what it would like in a war zone. Some of these are exploding right next to my window! It has been a week since that night and they are still going off. I wonder if I can buy stock in a fireworks company before the Olympics. What a show that is going to be.

These pictures really can't grasp how fast and how loud the fireworks were exploding all around, but I hope you get the idea.


Every apartment complex and business has some kind of fireworks show. This was the view from my apartment. Notice the bits of flashes in the distance also.




. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . This one is from the Nissan dealer across the street. Notice how small the people are in the lot below.

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These were set off right next to my window about 30 meters away (100ft for you westerners).

Snow is fun for some - a real pain for travelers

We had about a week of snow in Shanghai and for the most part it has been a lot of fun, especially at work. But for those traveling for the Chinese New Year (Spring Festival is another name for it) the snow has caused all sorts of problems. Most people in China go home for Spring Festival and the most widely used method of transportation is by train. But with all of snow the government here has been overwhelmed and under prepared for such weather. Sure they have plenty of people to handle the work but not enough resources like snow plows, salt, vehicles that can drive in snow, etc. A lot of people are trying to find other ways to get home like taking the bus but most of the major roads between cities are at a crawl because of the congestion. Approximately 170 million people go home for Spring Festival. The U.S. has about 270 million people in it. So imagine more than half the U.S. population trying to travel a week before Christmas.



Around the apartment complex


On top of the roof at work. Our Director challenged the teams to make the best snowman during lunch hour.



Here is our snowman. Modeled after the Olympic bear.


The winner! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Drinking a cold one.

Bowling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Death to Intel.