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i couldn't resist....

No smorking for me, but I'm keeping plenty busy. For pics, check out my blog: http://nostatic.com/weblog/

I'll also post some here.

Tyson, why do you think I went through all the gyrations to get my car to TRE before you headed north? I am honored to have the last socal evil touch, so to speak. The wheels should get to you Thursday or Friday. Tires were a problem...back ordered, so I ended up mixing and matching brands. Yoko AO48 235/45/17 in the front, Toyo RA-1 255/40/17 in the rear. The Toyo fronts are national backorder until the end of the month, Yoko rears until next week sometime. I wanted to have the proper wheels and tires for the final evil tweaks.

Smuggle a hottie? Hmm...we are in a target-rich environment. I don't think my g/f will assist in that endeavor however. Having a native speaker makes this trip a hell of a lot easier though...this am she was in the back alley shop buying cheap local sim cards for her phone.

Don't worry Rick, we're hitting lots of different places, on and off the beaten path. Probably won't get much into the country, but this city is massive...plenty of local "culture" to soak up.

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Wow! I thought this was NY for a moment.

So you're getting a new suspension, while my car is beside yours, getting just a paltry starter motor and ground wire. And here I am, in Studio City, typing this. Oh well, at least I won't have jet lag to deal with. :D

David, didn't you car already get all the new suspension? I'm just trying to catch up :p

Todd - yes. All I need now is to get back to the track. Sadly I won't get back to the track tomorrow , and it looks like you won't either, unless you're on a plane right now. :D

Sadly, I think that is a place for their version of a bus pass

Good times, good times!SmileWavy

Todd:

I sure envy you your trip! Damn I wish I was over there.

Something else:

One thought I had, after visiting China for work a couple years ago, was that there was no longer any need for international poverty/medical/charity efforts directed towards the poor in China, since the country has sufficient resources to supply those people with health care and so on. If the government chooses to direct the spending to hundreds of high-rise towers, semiconductor fabs, the Beiing Olympics, a space program, building the world's second largest stash of US Treasury bonds, and so on, then that's its choice. But other countries should direct their charity dollars to regions where resources are truly lacking.

I discussed this with my mother. Since she founded and runs a charitable organization that builds rural health clinics in China, you may imagine that she disagreed. When I suggested that her Western corporate donors use her charity as a way of paying the price of admission to do business in China, well you may further imagine how the conversation deteriorated.

As you see more of the country, I'd be interested in your impression. I was visiting tech businesses (semi fabs, circuit board factories, electronic manufacturing, etc) so possibly I got a skewed view of things.

John, China has unimagineable poverty and I don't think that will ever change. Poverty in the US is a state of mind. In China it's quite real. You see legless children, dragging themselves on their stumps, pushing a coffee can with their nose, where making it through each day is a huge triumph. I saw this in every place I visited there and I didn't even make it out to the really poor parts of the country. Their government has their hands full just trying to stay in power, which they do mostly by trying to keep ahead of people's frustrations. Remember that the vast majority of China's HUGE population lives in the poor countryside. They have over 900,000,000 peasants who live in 700,000 villages. The numbers are just awesome. There's no way that many people will ever all get their slice of the pie, even if most of them know about the better life city dwellers have.

damn, that may need to be my next trip.

my chinese is pathetic, not to mention the wrong dialect, so i will need to bring along a friend. keep up the pictures, todd. do they still serve dog meat over there?

Dog meat? Yes, they do.

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poor rover...

thanks for the pics guys. great thread. i'm travelling vicariously now.

last night's dinner at 1221, a place around the corner from the hotel, and popular with ex-pats. The sichuan beef was the real deal...

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<i>spicy sichuan beef with sesame bread</i>

<img src="http://nostatic.com/shanghai/bun.jpg">
<i>the sesame bread that goes with the above</i>

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<i>yuan yang shrimp</i>

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<i>spicy garlicky string beans</i>

I have those beans about once a week at our favorite Sichuan place here. Just came from a new restaurant opened by the chef of the other favorite place. My insides are on fire now. Todd, you have to try hot pot!

Get some pictures of Engrish if you see any!

Do the indigenous folk there think it strange that you take photos of your food before you eat it?

Cameras are an interesting attention getter. I was warned by the g/f not to snap too many photos in the airport. And when I went up to the executive lounge on the 48th floor (where I'm typing this now), I asked if I could take photos. I got a somewhat worried look, and a hesitant "ok." They thought I was nuts while I shot my "art" shots. As for taking pictures of the food in the restaurant, no more strange looks than I get doing the same thing in LA.

John, I think you should listen to your mother. Yes, the govt here is spending a lot of money on new buildings that currently sit empty (but often have been bought by well-to-do people in other provinces speculating on property values...sound familiar?) and they are gearing up for the olymipics, but this is an amazing place. Yes, poverty is bad, but even in the country the smaller towns are building up and getting more infrastructure.

To be honest, it isn't that much different from the US...just behind the time curve a bit. Our govt and businesses spend tons of money on shiny buildings and other things while people go wanting. There is a serious healthcare crisis in China. In the US too. The more different we are, the more the same we are.

But I defer to the g/f on a lot of this, as she's lived and worked here on and off her entire life, along with other places in the world. There is a saying that goes something like, "visit China for a week and think you know it, visit for a year and you realize you don't know it at all."

My mind is still boggled by the fact that I'm surrounded by 14-20M people in this city (depending how you count). I was working up a proposal for evacuation simulations for SoCal last week. I take a look around this place and just think "nfw."

And you're in Shanghai this week? Is there something we should know? ;)