CSMT Day 5, Shanghai

Confucius Temple, Luggage Shopping, Business and Negotiations

A full day in Shanghai. Our Shanghai guide, Katrina, met us in the hotel lobby early in the morning and off we went.

We had to make a minor modification to our plans, however. Lily, whom I had met on my way to China, had phoned and arraigned for me to meet the members of the company she was working as agent for this afternoon. A quick discussion resolved the timing with the tour - I'd go to the meeting while they went to the top of the same building (The Jin Mao building, which is apparently the tallest in Shanghai) for some sightseeing during it. If I was there too long, they'd just finish up the day without me. Perfect.

So, sightseeing in the morning, business in the afternoon - a good day in the big city :)

Our first stop was the Confucius Temple. Now, I'm a big fan of Confucius (most of the time) and even took an entire course in Confucianism during university, so this was very interesting to me. Apparently, "temple" is a bit of a misnomer, since Confucianism isn't really a religion - more of a philosophy. It's closer to a school.

Unfortunately, it was bombed during WWII, then the remainder destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, so it's more like a recreation of the original, rather than the original itself. But it's very beautiful. Almost all of the furnishings and artifacts were donated by locals during the rebuilding, which is very heartening.

The courtyard garden is gorgeous.

One of the more interesting views is that right across the street from the temple is a modern high school. Old and new schools teaching together - I like it.

After the temple, we went shopping in the Xiangyang Road Market. I thought that Nanjing Road was pretty good, but this place was incredible! It had a great "Chinese" look to it, and tons of stores. I was able to get some nice gifts for family and friends at some good prices.

After that, we had another tea ceremony, which was very nice, but by now I was starting to get all tea-ceremonied out. On the plus side, I can now do a tea ceremony perfectly. This one featured 2 interesting teas called "Romeo" and "Juliet". They consist of a ball of tea, that, when dropped into hot water, expand and unfold into a miniature bouquet -just beautiful.

After this, I loaned my camera to David and went to my appointment with the Shanghai Tiens Jinquan Investment Consulting Ltd. (http://www.tiens.com.cn/) who are apparently far larger than I originally thought they were. After discussions, it became clear that we both had very useful skills to bring to the table, so after some discussion, we signed an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding).

This is not common in North America, but almost every deal I've put together in Asia has started with one. An MOU is simply a non-binding written expression of interest in working together. This is usually (hopefully) followed by negotiations and discussions that solidify the expectations of each party. Once this has been sorted out, the next step is a Letter of Intent, which is basically the non-binding, high level, bare bones of a contract.

Once the Letter of Intent is agreed to in principle by the Directors of all parties, the lawyers get to work and draft a Contract, which then usually goes through several revisions (my personal record was 23, with Samsung) before it's all finally done.

This is a fairly normal practice and procedure in China, Korea and Japan, at least in my personal experience. It's actually quite nice, since putting something, even non-binding, in writing is a good way to show that you are serious about proceeding, and not just saying you are interested to be polite or to save face.

Since this all took far longer than I expected, I missed the rest of the tour that day.

When I got back to the hotel, I found that Dave and Dale were also doing some business meetings, and Brooke was getting hungry. The two of us decided to go grab something to eat, and then went on the "Great Suitcase Hunt" (which will be a minor but continuing theme for a good portion of the rest of the blog about the tour).

Brooke, shopping machine that she is, decided she needed another suitcase to hold all the stuff she had bought. I'd feel smug and superior about this except I had deliberately arrived with an almost empty huge suitcase myself, which was now bursting at the seams and weighed enough to make the ticket agents want to bill me for another ticket. Any big city can get a little seedy at night, so I went along with her.

Nanjing Road is a very different animal at night. The normal shops close down and the street vendors and beggars move in. One of the first things I noticed was someone zipping down the road wearing some strap-on wheels on their shoes. My kids had specifically asked for these, and I'd been looking in vain up until this point, so I decided I wanted them. Big mistake.

The vendor (a kid, really) started off at 600RMB per skate. Nonsense, of course. We went back and forth for a bit, and finally, I decided that I was willing to pay around 50RMB each. After much haggling (with Brooke wisely insisting that I should hold out for less) I agreed to 175RMB for 3 pairs (58RMB each or about $7 each).

You know you have just made a bad deal when the vendor grabs your money, runs towards his friends, jumps in the air, kicks his heels and yells "Wahooo!"

No lie. He did that. Lesson learned: Never want something so much you are not willing to walk away from it, unless you are willing to pay the sellers price, rather than yours.

To rub salt in the wound, we were then hounded by more wheel vendors, each one offering the wheels at progressively lower prices. For reasons I can only describe as pure evil, one finally offered to sell 3 pairs of wheels for 15RMB (less than $1 each). I watched, ego shattered, as Brooke bought a pair "just because they were too cheap to pass up". I briefly considered beating her to death with a wheelie, but then settled for a session of self pity.

But we still didn't have the luggage. So we continued down the street until we were mobbed by a bunch of old ladies thrusting cute kids with roses at us. I made a mistake and gave one little tyke a couple RMB for a rose, and was rewarded by being hounded by the rest of them in an incredibly offensive and belligerent manner. I felt really sorry for those kids. We retreated.

On the way back, the kid who had sold me my overpriced wheelies tried to sell us some more. Brooke asked him if he had any luggage. To my astonishment, he said yes! Off his friends went to procure it, while we continued walking back. Near the end of the road, just before we were to turn towards the hotel, we saw that the group of them had disappeared down an alley. An alley which I noticed was not only dark, but adjacent to a luggage store.

A few minutes later, they came out with a few pieces of very nice luggage. By this time, I was very concerned we were buying stolen goods ("You need luggage?" *smash* "Here’s some. How much you pay?").

Further, Brooke, who I must admit is a much better bargainer than I, only wanted to pay 300RMB, not the 500RMB they wanted. They then offered to show us more luggage, though we would have to follow them down the dark alley. No way on that one.

By this time Brooke had also decided it was all too shady, and she wasn't about to support shoplifting, so we left without luggage, hoping maybe we could find some in Nanjing, which we were scheduled to go to by train tomorrow morning.

Ian

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CSMT Day 4, Fly to Shanghai

Fly in, Nanjing Road Shopping, Acrobats, Night Lights

This morning we flew from Beijing to Shanghai. This is my first time in Shanghai, so I'm really looking forward to it.

The first thing I noticed was that it was noisy again. This was almost a relief after the almost eerie silence in Beijing. Come to think of it, that might have been a temporary effect just for the People's Conference. I'll have to check on my next trip.

Shanghai is VERY different from Beijing. Closer to "New York with Chinese Characteristics", I think. There is a palpable energy and vibe you get from being here - every one of the tour members could feel it. This is a place where both opportunities and business happen! It's also a lot warmer and greener than Beijing right now.

On the way into town, the high speed train passed us at around 230KM/h - which according to our new guide, Katrina (who met us at the airport) is apparently is not it's top speed, but is the fastest it gets in the short run between the city and the airport. To give you an idea, it took us 40 minutes to get from the airport to the city, and the train does it in 8. Nice. It went by too fast for me to get a photo.

Another interesting thing I saw on the way to the hotel was an ad for eBay on the back and side of a bus. Cool. I have a special place in my heart for eBay, as one of the founders, Jeff Skoll, is a fellow canuck.

Our hotel is not bad - pretty nice, actually. The best part is that it's walking distance from the second best shopping place in town, Nanjing Road (I thought it was pretty darn good, until I went to the Xiangyang Road Market the next day). Nanjing road is closed to traffic, and is basically a pedestrian road lined with some great shops.

Since it was clear that we all had totally different shopping agendas, we split up and agreed to meet in front of a McDonalds that happened to be in front of us when we made the decision.

Some of the shops are really interesting. One of them was a dedicated chopstick shop. That's right - they only sold chopsticks! If you need a $400 pair of chopsticks, this is the place to get it from. I wandered around for a while, and was approached by people on the street often enough that I started keeping count: 7 times by attractive young ladies who wanted to be my "friend", 4 times by "art students" who wanted to give me a "free tour", and 3 times by hawkers with menus in hand trying to entice me into going to the restaurant they worked for. I kept my hands on my wallet and walked by, but it was interesting nonetheless.

I finished up early and found myself standing in front of the McDonalds alone. After fending off several street hawkers, I decided I'd be safer inside. A long time ago, I put myself through university working as a manager at McDonalds. This has had several impressions on my life - 1) it really did help my management and people skills, 2) I really don't like french fries anymore, and avoid most other fast food unless I'm out with my kids, and 3) I'm fascinated by differences in the menus between countries and areas. Since McD's is very standardized, regional differences are well researched and reflect local tastes.

I noticed 2 things right away. First, it was dirt cheap. $1 for a cheeseburger combo!. Second, they offered taro root pie, instead of the usual berry flavored one. That was too much to pass up. I bought a combo and a pie, while taking the opportunity to change one of my 100RMB notes into smaller change for some shopping later on. The pie was unusual, but very good.

Shortly afterward, everyone else showed up and we went out to a show. This one was really well done, and for $10 extra we scored front row center tickets, so I got some great shots. There were all sorts of acrobatics and juggling. One thing I noticed was that the performers were quite young (though obviously enthusiastic) and occasionally dropped plates and so forth. Rather than ruining it, this made it more interesting for me, as it made the skill necessary more obvious. But it was a big concern when they brought out the motorcycles.

Now I had seen this in Las Vegas. It's basically a cage about 15 feet in diameter, and you drive a motorcycle into it. You can then drive around at high speeds, including upside down. What makes it even more dangerous is that they will sometimes put more than one motorcycle in the cage at the same time! In Las Vegas, I saw the record, 4. It was one of the most dangerous things I've ever seen, but quite thrilling.

So the first guy goes in, and spins around, including riding with no hands upside down. Very cool. Then they bring out the second guy. Now it gets more interesting. At this point, I whispered to the person next to me (I think it was Brooke) that I'd seen this in Vegas but they had actually had 4 at a time. She whispered back there was no way they'd do that many here, and I agreed. It's just too hard, and these performers are young. Heck they kept dropping plates! Can you imagine making a mistake in a 15 foot cage at 60 MPH with 3 other cycles?

After many death defying stunts, out came motorcycle number 3. Now this was exciting! Especially when they started going in opposite directions. That 3rd cycle really made things cramped in that cage.

Then out came number 4.

Unbelievable. You had to be there. Very cool.

After the show, we walked back to the hotel, as it was a very nice night, and the lights of the city are quite beautiful.

Ian

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CSMT Day 3, Beijing

Great Wall, Jade Factory, Traditional Village, Dinner Show

This is Day 3 of the tour, and a Monday - the first day we could actually meet anyone. We have a meeting for supper later, but for now we have another mission - to scale the Great Wall of China.

The Chinese have a saying that you are not a real man unless you've climbed the Great Wall, so it's a popular tourist attraction for them. The vast majority of the visitors today are Chinese. It's chilly out (5C, or about 40F) but we are all excited. It's been 10 years since I've last been to the Wall, and Brooke and Dale have never seen it. I'm also on a mission - the last time I was here, I got my photo taken on a camel, complete with warrior garb and a sword. The picture was later lost. I'm hoping to retake it, if they still have the camels.

Simon, our guide, stays with the van at the bottom and we agree to meet him there when we get back down, and off we go. There have been several changes since I was last here. For one, it doesn't smell like a toilet anymore, for another, the steps are even and much easier to climb. There are also handrails. It's a much more pleasant trip. We were at the Badaling point (the wall is very long, so there are many places to visit it along it, some better than others).

But it's a LOT of stairs. I knew I was out of shape (and if I didn't, the Chinese would have made sure I knew it - at every single tea ceremony we went to, the server at some point mentioned that tea was good for weight control and then looked pointedly at me) so I was huffing and puffing early on. This wall is very good exercise.

About halfway up, I saw the camel ride I remembered from before and took the group on a quick detour for some pictures. I was able to retake the pic I had lost.

Then we finished the climb to the first top, where there is, of all things, a roller coaster! It's actually intended as a nice easy ride back down. Since I was horribly out of shape, I whimped out at this point, but Dale and Brooke continued up to the second (taller) hill, agreeing to meet us at the bottom.

If I was hoping to give my heart some rest by taking the ride, it didn't work. It's creaky and you can smell the burning of the rubber on the brakes all the way down the hill. It's quite an experience. I'm sure my kids would love it.

At the bottom, we waited (aka shopped) a few minutes until Dale and Brooke came down, then we walked towards the van. On the way, there was an exhibit of some bears (known as "blind bears") that were kind of cute. Brooke found a tray of apple slices and started throwing them to one of them (which was fine - you are supposed to) but didn't realize you had to pay for them - the vendor chased her down - too funny.

The next stop was the jade factory, one of my favorites. Jade is wonderful stuff, and the factory is breathtaking. I strongly recommend a visit. As usual, I got so engrossed in shopping that the others had to track me down and nearly drag me out.

After the jade factory, we had a quick lunch and headed back to Beijing. Once there, we stopped by the side of the road to take a few pics of the Olympic stadium they are building. It will resemble a birds nest when complete. Our next scheduled stop was a silk factory, but since we had already seen on on our day off, we changed the plans and decided to go check out the traditional village, instead.

This is Beijings equivalent of a "pioneer village" in western Canada or the US, and is intended to show off traditional and historic lifestyles. Each exhibit features homes and artifacts that were carefully taken apart from their local area and rebuilt here in this village. Also, the people stationed at each exhibit belonged to the area where the exhibition was from. One girl we talked to had only been in Beijing for 2 days, and it was the first big city she'd ever seen. I noticed that she'd already gone shopping, as all her clothes were warm and brand new (she had come from a group far to the south and was not used to the cold).

There are 56 ethnic groups in China. The majority Han make up about 95% of the population, leaving the remaining 5% divided up between the remaining 55 ethnic groups. This is a concern to the government, so if you are a member of one of the ethnic groups, you can have 2 children instead of the usual one, and several other benefits. Some of the ethnic groups have as little as 20,000 members in them. When I came back home, I asked and it turns out that my wife's family is from one of groups. Small world.

It's hard to tell the difference between the ethnic groups visually - it's more to do with language and culture. The closest analogy I can think of is the differences between the Native American Indian tribes - each with it's own history, language, dress and culture, but generally considered one people.

The village was fascinating. We arrived just in time for a show featuring dancers and singers, followed by a demonstration of some traditional Chinese games. One of them is a type of yo-yo that we saw several times throughout our trip. You can do some amazing tricks with it. Another was a metal hoop and stick, similar to what children in the west in the 1800's would play with, another was, for lack of a better word, tandem skis. You'd have to see the picture. Finally, there were some stilts that were deceptively difficult to use (at least, that's my story - Dale seemed to pick them up pretty easily).

The village was really interesting, and it was very cool to see all of these different places all in one spot. 2 highlights were a home and temple from a Muslim minority, and a cottage that I swear would not look out of place in the English countryside, if not for the red door and the lions out front.

There was also a giant totem pole obviously intended for some sort of fertility rite, and I'm sure is an interesting attraction for the village.

After this, we went for dinner and me up with Stephen Noton (a fellow speaker, and from Adverted), Michael the Mun Wai (of GME Tech), and the guest of honor, Xu ZuZhe, the Secretary General of the Beijing Information Industry Association and the author of the book "Leaping over the Information" (Chinese).

Turns out Mr. Xu also created his own Chinese character input method for his computer, but I was unable to get many details, since the technical jargon rapidly outstripped the vocabulary of our poor interpreters. I got the basic gist though. After dinner, he presented me and David with copies of his book (and signed them for us), then we went for tea.

In this case, it was more of a tea and a show. There were some great acts (and some that would only make sense to a native speaker) but the 2 that stood out for me was first, a couple of impressionists that did some amazing birdcalls and sound effects (including a train) and second, a demonstration of the famous Sichuan Opera style, where actors change masks so quickly that you can't tell how they are doing it even if you know what to look for and are looking closely. It's really amazing and should be a definite item on any China tour "things to see list".

After this, we went back to the hotel, where our guide Simon had arranged for a very relaxing and professional massage for anyone on the tour who wanted one. Mine including a foot soak in tea of all things, which was surprisingly relaxing. An excellent end to a busy day. Tomorrow, we go to Shanghai.

Ian

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