Say hello to Shanghai!

We are stuck here behind the Great Firewall of China!! No facebook, no blogspot, and no valid internet links to any negative/questionable information about the People's Republic of China. But Brittany's mother has taken on the task of updating our blog (via emailed content)...THANKS!! We can also still read your comments, so keep them coming! Our shutterfly account is still accessible, so look at our photos: honeyserviceyear.shutterfly.com (password "travel").

DECEMBER 25, 2009

Now we are in Shanghai. The flight was smooth.  Thanks again JAL!

Since arriving in Shanghai, we were immediately excited by the building going on here. Our first impression of China is building, building everywhere. Highlights so far include arriving in Shangahi’s brand new Pudong International Airport, being passed by a MagLev train (literally in the blink of an eye), and sensing the incredible energy swelling around Shanghai Expo 2010. Shanghai will host its Shanghai World Expo 2010 beginning next Summer. We won’t be around then (we don’t think); but if our discoveries here during the next week  help motivate you to make the trip, do come! You won’t regret it.

Shanghai is a cosmopolitan and cultural capital of China. It has build eleven metro subway lines the last twenty years transporting close to four million people every day. The city is already adding another 4 major trunk lines to reach its outer rings.  We felt as is our plane ride had suddenly summoned the world of the 22nd century down to earth. Like Tokyo, it is modern and politically charged with real substantive opportunities and intellectual vigor. Today’s headlines, however, spoke to its growing pains and included a subway accident yesterday stranding thousands of unhappy commuters. This news coupled with our earthquake in Japan made very suddenly real our plans to visit areas recently affected by disasters. We are partly here to discuss the value of organizing communities over building core competencies of cultural resilience between government and citizens seems prescient. Mostly we learn. Following a major disaster a year ago in Schezchuan Province, China’s government responded rapidly and forcefully. Japan and the United States, in contrast, took weeks before effectively (perhaps?) assisting a recovery. China moved more swiftly.

In Japan we heard that long oppressed Chinese immigrants in Kobe and underground “Yakuza” gangs assisted community recovery efforts long before government’s slow wheels got moving. The news of total lack of coordination or advanced disaster response planning on a new subway line in Shanghai reinforces our belief that simplified solutions and community informing and engagement necessary to mitigate these types of urban ‘growing pains’ and may be used for lessening human suffering.

Upon our arrival on the 23rd, we took in the night airs walking through parks, visiting the financial district (now the financial hub of Asia), For food we stopped at a dough shop, (read: dumpling), passed ‘hot pot’ houses, split a fried rice with clear broth soup, and visited a fresh fish market. China gives new meaning to fresh fish and market places combining a zoo-type atmosphere with fresh sales. Rows of chickens lined the back of the market with vendors slamming them onto scales amid much squawking. Of interest also were pools filled with live fish, tubs of frogs, turtles, shrimp, and eels. Apparently the vendors will kill them onsite for you.

Our second night, we headed out to the New District area far from the downtown. These structures are enormous, built on campuses of shared green space, a la Robert Moses. Like their American counterparts, building quality and material seems to be mediocre (the one where we are staying only opened last Summer and shows signs of decline). But, here, we are close to the people.

Our hosts Nan and Benson in the New District of Shanghai have been amazing. We found them through ‘couch surfing,’ an internet tool for connecting travelers with local hosts. Our first night they took us to a fabulous restaurant with two of Benson’s coworkers from a university here (Chris and Hal - all from Australia). We feasted on Lamb shanks and other titillating delights from the Northwestern border regions of China. Our choices were tame - the menu offered such local specialties as  Camel hoof and lamb kidneys. Supper was stupendous…but the company even better.

Benson is teaching mechanical engineering. He has also had such interesting jobs as F-22 Maintenance Squad leader (“loading bombs and keeping ‘em flying”); and worn a kilt across China to promote the finest spirits in the Chivas Regal family of Scotch, giving talks on Scotch tasting in Chinese. Nan got an MBA in Kuala Lumpur, (where she longs to return), and was raised in Beijing. She is as kind as kind gets. Both of them have shared so much information and tips with us on China in general and Shanghai in particular. Staying in their home has been a real window into the ways the new Chinese middle class is choosing to live.

Wishing all of you Happy Holidays and all the love, joy, and excitement that comes with a new year.