24 Days in China

Just when I thought my adventure was over, the fun started all over again. My flight in Shanghai was delayed for 2.5 hours, causing me to miss my connecting flight in Chicago. For those of you who are reading this blog, you should know by now of my “good luck” flying with American Airlines. It seems that in order to get anywhere with this airline, it takes days. I will be very excited to finally arrive home in Denver sometime this month.

What did I learn from this? American Airlines will no longer be my selection for any future travels.

Today is a very special day. I am returning home. I miss my home and family. Here is a short wrapping up of my 24 days in China.

• If you are planning to be somewhere for more than a week, try to learn the local language. I found that language barriers were problematic for me every day.  A basic knowledge of Chinese would have helped me to more easily get around the city and order food.
• Always carry with you a roll of toilet paper. Local toilets are in short supply of this item.
• Cash is king! Try not to use credit card for purchases. In fact, some retail locations and hotels are still learning how to use credit card machines. You might find two or three charges for the same purchase.
• Ask for directions or any piece of information five or more times. It might sound overdone to you, but you will quickly learn that three out of four will be different.
• Be patient. Nobody is in a hurry here. You might wait for something for an hour that back home would only take five minutes.
• Chinese people don’t understand privacy, a waiting line, or Western etiquette. Some stranger on the street can pick his nose into your map or into the conversation between other people. When you are waiting for something, you won’t be able to find a line. In this case, the fastest will win.
• Chinese people think that whatever is natural is normal and open for public discussion. For example, it is okay for children to relieve themselves (#1 or #2) on the floor of the museum, subway car, or any other public place. I cannot tell you if they really outgrow that habit. During my trip I saw people of different ages using public places for different personal needs. Therefore, most of the places in China smell like unclean restrooms.
• Tier one cities will charge a heavy tax on everything sold or services provided there. Make sure before purchasing anything to check if this service tax is included and if not, what will be the final price. The Chinese government taxes tier one cities more heavily and distributes this money between tier two and three cities.
• When at the market bargaining for a good deal, know that the displayed product is not the best quality in the market. You should look at the desired item and ask the merchant for a better quality. You will find some resistance and a lot of talk about high quality products that are on display. Don’t believe it! This process will have to repeat itself three times. In the end, the merchant will bring you a very high quality product or take you to the secret room with high end items. Now, when you have the desired product in your hands, part two of the negotiations will begin—negotiating a price. Take 20-30% off of the original price that has been offered to you and stick with it. You may even try to walk away and look uninterested in the item after bargaining for a while. If you stay with your price, you will reach a selling point. Do not try to tell one merchant that the guy down the aisle offered the same thing to you for much lower price.  They are all connected through business or family connections. From the time when you start at the beginning of the aisle walking and bargaining to the time you reach the end, the last merchant will know exactly what you were looking for and what your highest and lowest bids were.
• Traveling alone through China is very safe and fairly easy to navigate. Always ask directions from locals under 30 years old. This is a new generation and most of them speak some level of English.

Today I joined an organized tour by China Tour Select to Zhouzhuang Water Village. Zhouzhuang Water Village is about a 1.5 hour drive from Shanghai. With an interesting history and still active among fishermen and craftsmen, this village is now open to tourists. As in any small town in China, opening its doors to the tourists changed the population’s everyday lives forever. Farmers and fishermen have forgone their old ways of living, and are now selling souvenirs to the tourists.

My day started with an unfortunate event. I didn’t properly seal my camera bag in my backpack, which resulted in a large water spill.  I quickly learned that my photo camera is not water proof. It will take me a week to completely dry out the camera. You can put any electronic device that has had a little water damage in a plastic bag with a small amount of dry rice. Dry rice will absorb any moisture from the device and the plastic bag will create a vacuum effect. Voila! A week later you have your electronics back.

Sadly our group didn’t stay long enough in any of the places that we visited. The longest we stayed in any one place was one hour. This is another reason why I prefer to travel on my own; you have more control of your time and the places that you want to visit. Still, once in a while it is nice to take a one-day trip and meet people from different parts of the world.

The Zhouzhuang Water Village had its own charm with canals, high arch bridges, and fishing boats. It has inspired a lot of artists and musicians. One famous painting by a local artist, Chen Yifei, is called “Hometown in Memory”. The painting has traveled around the world and was peacefully returned to the village by the American art collector, Armand Hammer.

Since there are not many historical sites for tourists to see in Shanghai, I decided to take a long walk along Shiji Dadao Avenue from the Science & Technology Museum subway station to the TV tower. It is sad, but Shanghai completely removed all historical parts of the city in order to build new projects. I noticed that the design of most of the sites and architecture is decent; what was lacking, however, is quality craftsmanship and knowledge of building and site maintenance. As a result, even after only one year of occupancy, buildings are usually falling apart. Some start to lose their finish and some have lost whole exterior walls. Nevertheless, construction continues and in unprecedented haste.

During my walk I observed only new architecture. There was a great urban idea that I thought was interesting. Along the large Shiji Dadao Avenue were strip gardens. Each section is enclosed with walls, and the garden runs the length of the walkway. Each section had a different theme and was distinguishable from the others. It was apparent that people loved and used these gardens. It provided shade and seating areas which are much needed in this busy city. During today’s walk or other walks during my trip I didn’t see any playgrounds for children. I am wondering about that now.

The total walk was approximately three miles to the TV tower. Since I didn’t bring the tripod with me today, I was in a hurry to get to the top before the sun started going down. The view is spectacular. This TV tower is called the “Oriental Pearl” by the locals, and it is easy to see why.

Today was the day of my long planned trip to the EXPO 2010 in Shanghai. This was the main reason why I ended my trip in this city. I have been hearing about this and seeing impressive imagery about the EXPO for the past six months, and today was the day for me to see all this with my own eyes. I planned to spend all day there.

The EXPO is located on 3.28 km² of the south bank of the Huangpu River. Overall, I found the EXPO impressive, although the organizational parts of the exhibits needed improvement. This is what I mean: There is only limited navigational signage in English leading to the EXPO site. You will see a lot of signs in Chinese, but not in English. Once inside, there are plenty of navigation signs in English. Security checks are comparable to the airport standards, and it took up to an hour to get inside. Once you are inside, prepare to walk a lot. For a small fee, some shuttles and taxis are available inside the EXPO. Rental bicycles and bicycle lanes could improve the experience of the visitors. Additionally, I thought that organized taxi stands at each gate like they have at the train stations would have also improved the transportation problems. Be prepared to pay high prices, comparable to the airport, for food and drinks. Drinks are not allowed in the EXPO site. I found that the site was kept clean and had a sufficient number of restrooms. I must admit that walking there for 12 hours almost killed me. A Chinese foot massage was prescribed to me by the end of the day.

As in any other exhibit, you will find good and mediocre pavilions at the EXPO. My focus of this visit was architecture, particularly exteriors, and urban planning. I decided to skip visiting pavilions inside due to the enormous waiting times, which varied from one to four hours for each pavilion. At the time of my visit the EXPO had only been opened for little more than a month, but you could already see wear and tear on the exterior of the buildings, paving, and landscape. However, you have to take into consideration while looking at the architecture, that all these buildings are temporary structures. Nevertheless, they have to look good for the duration of the EXPO.

I had a few favorite pavilions; in no particular order they included Spain, China, Saudi Arabia, England, Africa, and, of course, Russia. I thought these pavilions presented a good design and creative representation of their country’s culture. These pavilions are very inspiring. If you haven’t been there yet, I recommend that you visit the EXPO 2010. There is much to learn for architects, urban designers, and landscape architects.

Today was an unusual day. It rained all day. I have been very lucky to have good sunny weather until now. Despite the rain, I had a meeting this morning. Since I don’t speak a word of Chinese, I fully rely on the hotel concierge to give correct directions to the taxi driver and a hotel card to get me back to my hotel. Hotel cards are very useful. The first thing you should do when checking in to your hotel is ask for a hotel card. This card will prevent you from getting lost. It looks like double business card on thick paper. It has an address of the hotel in Chinese and English. It also has the names of popular tourist locations in both languages. I wouldn’t be able to get around without it in China.

Today, as so many times before, something got lost in translation and the taxi driver dropped me off in the front of the emergency room of the hospital. I didn’t quite figure out right away where I was. Everything looked typical—lots of people and chaos; it actually looked like a market. It was not until I entered the hospital that I spotted a large sign in English stating “Emergency Room.” The street in front of the emergency room was packed with people. It would have taken an ambulance driver several minutes to fight through the crowd in order to get close to the hospital. Maybe the driver thought that I could use some help this morning! In fact I could have used some help, but in finding the right building.

Finally I was able to locate the office building. Since my meeting was with a planning firm that has offices in Asia I was interested in observing everything. At first glance, everything looked the same as in a U.S. firm, but the closer I looked, the more differences I discovered. The receptionist had a small desk in the entry, nothing fancy like in American firms. In fact, this was the same desk as other employees had in the office. Beside her on the wall were punch cards for every employee in the company. I thought that this was quite odd, since in the U.S. professional people don’t use punch cards. Professional people in the U.S. are mostly on salary, and usually work longer hours, but may take a half a day or extra hour for a lunch here and there. Therefore, time is usually equalized, and we focus more on work than on punching out time cards. I learned later in my trip that Chinese companies are very eager to deduct missed time from your paycheck if you are a minute or two late and very rarely pay you more if you work overtime.

As I learned in business school, you get what you measure. Therefore, Chinese employees make sure that they arrive exactly on time and leave exactly at the end of each working day. Employers measure the time spent on the job and not the performance. The owner of the same company has been complaining to me that his employees don’t show initiative and don’t want to do more than what is asked of them. And now you wonder why!

I did very little sightseeing today, as I had two meetings scheduled. One was with designer Eva Wang to record a podcast episode, and the other was with my new Russian friend Maria.

The interview with Eva will be released at Urban Design Podcast on July 28, 2010. After spending a few hours at Eva Wang’s studio, I discovered personally that she has a great personality and is a talented designer. No wonder she has such a successful business! She opened her studio six years ago in Shanghai.

I met Maria in cyberspace via some great wine from my friends. I had been looking for somebody local in China to answer my questions before my trip. We communicated through Skype for several months prior to my arrival in China. Finally we decide to meet during my stay in Shanghai. Originally from Belarus, she has worked for an international shipping company in Shanghai for the past several years. We had dinner together in a German restaurant. With no language barriers, because we both speak Russian fluently, we were able to have a great time. I made a new friend today.

Shanghai is nice – a lot different than Beijing. The city is built to human scale and has a lot of European architecture. It is much nicer when the size of the blocks are of a reasonable length and navigable. Those of you who have tried to walk in Beijing will appreciate Shanghai.

Since I arrived late into the town by train I decided to limit my explorations to the area near my hotel. The Huangpu River is only 15 minutes from the hotel. I didn’t know what to expect when I started to walk toward the river. On the way I saw a lot of good local restaurants and different cuisines. I tried a small local restaurant. The food was outstanding and dirt-cheap. I had a large dinner for 40 RMB (5.8 USD). I was stopped by the beautiful view when I reached the bank of the river. It was such a contrast to everything that I saw here until today, that I forgot for a moment that I am in China. It might as well be Frankfurt or some other European city.

I am sad already that I won’t be here long enough to see much of Shanghai.

Even though I decided to stay at the hotel before my train’s arrival, I still had a lot of adventures. Seems like it doesn’t matter where you are when you travel you end up experiencing interesting things.

My first interesting experience for the day was at the restaurant. Since I decided to have an easy day and not see any more of the city, my choice for dinner was a restaurant at the hotel where I stayed. I stayed at the Sofitel Hotel in Xian. Until now I had been eating at the local restaurants and some meals even from the street vendors. The Sofitel Hotel has a choice of several restaurants. I picked Azure. I noticed from my first week here if you are traveling alone, which I was, and would like to be seated at a nice restaurant, you will find that impossible. For some reason Chinese restaurants think that it is unworthy to serve one person. They will politely tell you that there are no tables available. Upon checking out the dining room you will find it empty or with plenty of available seats. Even if you are lucky enough to be seated, you should expect poor and slow service. That is what happened to me.

My experience of the meal was that it is much safer to eat local food at the local vendors than at the westernized restaurants. The Chinese don’t know how to properly and safely prepare western cuisine. You are better off eating local food, although McDonalds is always safe food in China.

My second extraordinary experience for that day was at the train station. By the time of my arrival at the train station I decided to confirm my arrival time in Shanghai. To my surprise I learned that my ticket is to Beijing. That made my adrenaline level go very high, since I already had a business meeting scheduled for the next morning. The travel agency called China Highlights bought me the wrong train ticket. I should have checked this ticket more carefully a day earlier at my hotel reservation desk. Unfortunately for me it was too late get on the plane too. Here I am in Xian without a hotel, train, or airplane ticket and a business meeting in Shanghai in 12 hours. The next train to Shanghai leaves in 40 minutes. And did I mention that I don’t speak a word of Chinese? I must have looked extremely desperate because one of the train station workers took charge of my situation. She found another passenger who could speak English and tried to get me on the train.  On her first attempt she said that there are no seats available on the overnight train to Shanghai. In my head I was trying to figure out what were my options. Before I was able to figure out anything, my luck changed as the train station lady was able to find me a spot on the train. Although this was not the luxury seat that I had from Beijing to Xian, I was still excited to be on the train.

Lesson learned:

• Check and check again every document that involves your travel plans in another country.
• Always have plan B in place.

Today, I visited a highlight of my trip to Xian – the Terracotta Warriors. It was an hour-long journey from Xian to the museum. I joined another day tour to visit this museum. A small minivan without air conditioning took us to a small village where a local farmer discovered some artifacts in the 1970’s. This farmer became a part of the museum. He sits in the gift shop and signs the book that he wrote about his discovery. As everything in China could be a knockoff, I was wondering what kind of tricks may have been employed by that farmer in the gift shop. (Editor’s note: I tried editing this last sentence as best as I could, but if the meaning I gave it is wrong, then please change it.  Also, I’m wondering what you mean by “everything in China could be a knockoff”.  Do you mean that a lot of authentic-looking things in China usually turn out to be knockoffs, created just for tourists?)

The museum was crowded, humid, and hot. I also thought that there were not enough museum personnel for the number of visitors. Nevertheless, I enjoyed seeing the original Terracotta Warriors. There were three pavilions with excavations. The first pavilion is the largest and the most excavated. You can see that archeologists are still working there. For some reason, no one was allowed to take pictures of the archeologists’ progress. The second pavilion is smaller than first one and less excavated. All of the statues in that pavilion were painted with paint from organic matter, so exposure to light and oxygen during the excavation quickly faded the paint. Therefore, most of the warriors remained unopened.  The third pavilion is the smallest one. (Anything special about the third pavilion?)

I thought that there were lost opportunities for the museum to generate more revenue. There were way too many gift shops, only a few information displays, and one mediocre movie about the exhibit itself. (Do you mean that more information about the artifacts would have made them seem more significant, and thus more important to visit?  Otherwise, the museum is like any other store.)

Lesson learned:

• A good guide with extensive knowledge is very valuable during visits to historical sites.