Going to China - Part Two; March 3, 2010

8:08 am The Seoul airport is very beautiful. Lots of glass and hardwood floors in the whole international departure area. The sun is up but I can’t tell if it is foggy or smoggy – either way the air looks awful. Maybe I am wrong but it looks like a lot of Koreans love ice-cream for breakfast. There are way more American looking people on this flight than were on the LAX to Seoul leg. Found a shower area in the lounge. If I had remembered to put an extra pair of underwear in my carry-on I would have taken advantage of that discovery. Mental note for next time – always have underwear in your carry-on.

8:29 am Seated in 45C, another aisle seat. Paul at LAX is my new favorite airline person. De dropped me off at Salt Lake International 21 ½ hours ago. For some reason I am not tired at all. At this point it must be adrenaline. I wore a sweat suit and a baseball cap to be comfortable but I feel a little underdressed on this leg. This is business crowd for sure. These seats have a USB plug near the entertainment center. I wonder what you would plug into that?

8:51 am The cabin door is closed and incredibly the middle seat is unoccupied again. The flight is totally full. This is an astounding stroke of good fortune.

9:11 am It starts to get annoying when you are on a flight from Seoul to Shanghai and they give these incredibly long announcements in Korean, and then Chinese, and then English. For the past 24 minutes I have been trying to see the end of an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond and I cant get the final 5 minutes due to all the stupid announcements. Almost to Shanghai – the captain just announced we would be on the ground in 30 minutes.

9:29 am Touched down in Shanghai!

9:50 Very curious sign in the area for foreign entrance to China – Be Quiet, No cell phones, No photographs. The second two I guess makes sense, but no talking? That seems weird. Are loquacious people naturally dangerous? Then I am by my very nature very dangerous to China.

10:14 am Went to the ATM to get some cash for my cab ride to the city. The first ATM I went to did not allow me to withdraw money. A momentary panic set in. What if my little credit union in Utah can’t process a cash allowance half-way across the world? This could be bad, very bad. I try another brand of ATM and it works just fine. My heart stops racing and I stick to the plan.

10:17 am I walk out to the cab stand and hail a cab. I am in cab number 191022. The driver matches the picture and the meter is working. Both are good things to check to make sure you don’t get scammed. The driver doesn’t seem to understand the address I have printed out for my hotel but we are driving. I guess we will see where I end up. It is a cold rainy day so I really don’t see much of Shanghai while driving in but I can tell one thing very clearly, this is a huge city.

11:00 am I am at the Citadines hotel in Shanghai. They were expecting me. They know I am travelling with Jon and Andy. They give me my room assignment and tell me that Jon and Andy are out. Already I can tell that service in Asia is much better than the US. They know my name and want to do everything they can to make me comfortable. I just learned that nobody gets tipped in China. No tips for cabs, bellmen, waiters, etc. That concept surprises me since service here is incredible and they don’t do it for the tip. Why do they do such a phenomenal job just because? And we thought they were the socialists. Interesting.

11:54 am The phone in the room rings. I am just getting out of the shower. It is Andy telling me to go downstairs, get in a cab, and have the driver take me to the Westin. I feel suddenly like I am in a spy movie for some reason. I don’t know yet if I am James Bond or Chief Inspector Clouseau.

2:11 am Just finished a great lunch with Andy’s friends from Utah who live here in Shanghai. It was very interesting to talk to a family who lives here in China. They have 4 young sons and have spent the past few years living in places like China and France. It sounds like a very interesting lifestyle. I wonder how the nine of us would do living in such a foreign place. Their kids will have some experiences that are priceless when they look back at their childhood.

6:14 pm We are in what is supposed to be a Pizza Hut. The food was a B and the prices were very good. Wandering around this part of Shanghai is just like wandering around New York City. My perceptions of China were totally wrong. This is a very modern, very cosmopolitan place. I don’t know what I expected but I was way off. Interesting observation – I have been here for a whole day and don’t recall seeing a single policeman or policewoman. That is curious.

10:07 pm After a very long day I am falling asleep while typing this sentence……..