Day 4-8
This trip has been an exceptionally busy one but nonetheless I apologize for not getting more emails out. Following the weekend I spent 5 days running around between Shanghai and Wuxi visiting customers and our own manufacturing facility. In 5 days I delivered 6 training seminars to 5 separate customers, most of which lasted 2-3 hours each. I don’t think I ever got back to the hotel before 9:00 PM. Each day also included a minimum of 5 hours driving about in Larry’s Toyota through Shanghai traffic which can accurately be described as awful.
I know I have written about the drivers in Shanghai in the past, but to recap, they scare the crap out of me. On city streets, stop lights are regularly ignored by cars, trucks and even busses. When traffic is heavy, lane markers on the highways become meaningless; it’s like watching a slow-motion stampede. Cars turning right at busy intersections rarely stop to yield, and cyclists, who are still many in Shanghai take what seem like life and death chances amid all of this. Oddly though, despite being cut-off and nearly rammed multiple times during each journey, no one seems to get angry. No yelling or waving of whatever appendage the Chinese use to express their feelings about their fellow drivers. I was at a loss to understand why the Shanghaiese drive the way they do. Over lunch one day in Wuxi, I asked Stewart, a native German who has lived in China for many years his opinion on this. Stewart smiled in recognition of my puzzlement, and in one sentence explained everything. Stewart said simply “All you need to know is in China, it is always your job to avoid hitting the car in front of you, no matter what he does”. This simple rule is apparently how liability is determined if an accident occurs. Never mind that you had the right of way by going straight through an intersection with a green light in front of you, the mere fact that the car who turned right on a red immediately in front of you had his front bumper a foot in front of yours when your cars collided means you were at fault. Now I understand, and riding around for the next three days confirmed what Stewart said was absolutely correct. This explains it completely! Wow! I had no idea the answer could be so simple. To be honest, I feel kind of stupid now.
Shanghai is big and very busy. The streets and sidewalks are crowded late into the evening. Thursday night I got back to the hotel late and was hungry so I took off walking to find some food. I passed a place near the hotel called “Super Chicken”, a very small place with no seating just a counter behind which your food is cooked while you watch – mostly chicken as you might guess. I am a firm believer that a fancy restaurant with a line is not worth the wait, but a dive place with a line will never disappoint you so I decided this was the place! There was a line to order, and after figuring out I was waiting at the wrong end of the line (duh!) I finally got my chance to order after 10 minutes or so. Not speaking enough Chinese to do something even as simple as ordering did not turn out to be a handicap as most young Chinese speak a little English, and pointing and grunting works well too. I got my order, some chicken chunks cooked in a light batter with a lot of seasoning and a beverage of unknown content – some kind of fruit juice I suppose. It was worth the wait, really, really good chicken! Street food is always the best.
Friday afternoon I flew to Shenzhen where I am spending the weekend. Shenzhen is on the southern coast of China and is very nice this time of year with highs in the 70’s most days. I am meeting up with Matthew, a customer, and his wife for lunch Saturday.
Day 9 preview. I give Andrew Zimmern a run for his money…
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