Shanghai

So I survived the 14.5 hour plane ride and have arrived in Shanghai! It is absolutely amazing...it's so much bigger than I thought it would be, and probably bigger than any city I've ever been to before. There are about 14 million people who live in the city (about 18 million who work) and the skyscrapers and buildings seem to go on forever.

For our first full day, we visited the Bund, an area by the Yellow River that's European in its architecture. Shanghai was settled by several different countries back in the day - France, Japan, Britain - and so many of the areas of the city reflect these influences. From The Bund, we took a water taxi over the east side of the river, where we went up in the Pearl Tower, one of the largest towers in Asia. From here, we saw some great views of Shanghai. We then made our way to the Yu Gardens and Bazaar, which had tons of shopping and made for some great people watching. There was a gold fortune tree in the middle of the Bazaar which held lots and lots of red ribbons. Each ribbon had a different fortune and, being the typical tourist, I bought a fortune and threw it up in the tree. It was a career fortune, in keeping with the spirit of what brought me on the trip.

We had lunch there and tried some neat, new foods - sauteed bamboo shoots, pickeled edamame, and crabmeat dumplings, which may or may not have contained crab ovaries and internal digestive organs. Who said ignorance isn't bliss?

We had our first company visit to Shui-On, a real estate developer in Shanghai. They are doing some interesting things in restoring the city and revitalizing it. Of course, it may be contraversial that they have to displace current residents in order to do it. I think, though, that our concept of land rights is totally different than the Chinese. Selling an apartment doesn't mean that you're actually selling the property - you are merely selling the right to live there. And since the government owns the property, you can be displaced at any time, for any reason. Something that's a little foreign, and unjust, to us Americans.

I've had a great time so far. Hopefully, we'll have some more fun adventures during the next few days we're here!