My Trip to China – Observations Included

[M.D. Holloway]

I just got back for spending 10 days in China – Shanghai and Nanjing. All-in-all I would say that anyone who can go should. It is an incredible place. Some things that I noticed:

1) The drivers are prolly the best in the world. Why do I say that? Well at first I thought they were gonna kill me. They drive like they are all on fire. There are bikes and mopeds all over. They speed around beeping horns and flashing lights. Only on certain roads do they care about the speed limits and that only when there are cameras that would take their photo if they speed. Every car I saw was 2 to 3 years old suggesting that they have not been driving for very long. I was right; they are relatively new at the whole driving scene. Being novices you would think there would be all sorts of accidents – there weren’t. The cars didn’t even have any dings in them. Also, I didn’t see anyone get hit. Although I was told that 3000 people a year die in auto related injuries in Shanghai – I guess for a city of 35 million that’s pretty good?

2) They like Americans – or better yet, they like Americans because we spend money.

3) Buying anything on the streets or shops is all about the deal. They will look to highball you then you have to lowball and at some point they will give you the product for what you are willing to pay for it. I had a blast with this but I could see where some folks might feel very uncomfortable with this form of buying. I felt like I was at a yard sale but instead of buying a used scroll saw for $25 I was dealing on silk shirts and Rolexes.

4) The food is the best I have ever had. I didn't try any sidewalk vendors or any thing that was too funky (like bugs are guts) but every dish I had was great. I miss the food already. I have also become a huge fan of tea.

5) The factories are spotless and very very profitable. How do I know? Because we get zero price objections on our products. The places I visited were mostly large oil refineries as well as Ford/Mazda and VW plants.

6) All the people I saw were in great shape. I never saw fat women while I was there. They all had great little bodies and many had very pretty faces which were surprising for me because I am not a fan of Chinese women until now but after spending some time there I would have to say that I saw more beautiful women in China than I have seen anyplace else per capitia.

7) There are no birds. Weird. I wondered if they eat them all.

My hotel and veiw - 5 star all the way (came out to about $90US/night).

[stomachmonkey]

What's with the haze in those shots?

At first I thought the pollution was terrible but same with the front desk shot, unless it's that bad inside as well?

Welcome back.

[K. Roman]

Good stuff. I bet the food is awesome.
The girl on the right is gorgeous!

Is it the pics or does it seem to have lots of smog out there?

[M.D. Holloway]

The pic doesn't do this girl justice - she was beautiful.




The Chinese love this place...




They also have there street vendors to offer local fair...








Here is the typcal way to get around.




Here are some pics of the food you can buy in the local grocery store Tesco:

[Uber-fanatic]

man...you gotta get a better camera

[M.D. Holloway]

It was hazy but the reason why the pics suck is because I took them with my phone cam (Treo). I forgot my digital camera!

Here is a pic of dessert which was a fruit plate. They love fruit. The craving was done on watermellon rhine - by hand!



Me being goofy eating lunch:



Here is a pic of me and Dr. Ding - I spent all 10 days with this guy. He is an world expert in wear particle analysis. I learned more in 10 days with him than grad students learn in 7 years! Great guy - showed me where to get the bargins as well as what to eat to get the true sense of Chinese food.

[M.D. Holloway]

[M.D. Holloway]

Highend apartments




Local streetsweepers use handmade brooms:




Local Devlivery man




Re-cycler cycler:


These turtles were alive - selling them in Tesco prolly for soup?

[M.D. Holloway]

Now here is sump'n you don't see everyday Chauncy!

Compare the highend toilet in my hotel:




to the typical toilet you will find (this was at a BASF plant) - note the nice turd:

[look 171]

He didn't take you to these foot messsage places. No, nothing dirty or sexual. Our local guide took us to this place in Shanghai and got our feet rubbed for an hour. It hure like hell the first 10 minutes but then I was in heaven. We walked more in one day then I ever have in one month back home. It was like $ 10 us dollars. I gave this young man 20 bucks and he almost walked us back to out hotel he was so happy.

[M.D. Holloway]

I did get one of those as well as a traditional Chinese massage. I could have asked for a girl to have sex with but I didn't. I think I might have if I was single though - just to say I did. I would have been cheaper than a dinner out and it would have been a 'fir shur' thing.

They do beat on you till you don;lt think you can take it any longer then it begins to feel amazing. I will say, they when she got to my gluts and inner legs - yup, it moved. It moved alot! Of course it may have had everything to do with the fact that she was stunning, was a perfect size 2 and smelt like lavender on a spring morning.

[The Gaijin]

It looks like a great trip. They are very beautiful women up north. In the south too!

[Andras Nagy]

That hole in the floor is called a Turkish toilet. They are abosolutely prevalent in China, in the Mid East, in Egypt, and of course, in Turkey. The more modern hotels don't use them, in deference to their International clientele.

The turd should not be there; there is a pull chair that flushes water. You can see the water pipe behind, leading under the tiles, and to an outlet behind the turd.

But you do have to squat, not sitting on a higher chair, which, by the way, is how your body is designed. By squatting, you've lowered you bowels and colon to their lowest point, thus allowing a much better evacuation. Frannk Lloyd Wright, the famous American architect, also understood this, as all of his toilets are lower than average. The down side of the Turkish toilet is that you have to place your feet exactly on the foot rests, which in this case are along side the opening; usually there are actual foot-shaped rests onto which you stand before you squat. The serrations are so that you don't slip.

By the way, there is a great book on the design of toilets and sinks, written by the Cornell University School of Atrchitecture, lead author called Kira, in which they describe all this in "excrutiating detail".

Isn't Internation travel broadening?

[vash]

i still cant figure how you dont drop a turd into your pulled down pants.. for the most part, i think a squat toilet is cleaner. you dont actually touch a thing.

i almost hugged the "traditional" toilets i saw in thailand. thank goodness they were plenty. BUT you still had to take a bucket of water out of a huge clay pot to flush. i am planning i trip to northern thailand. i better work out the logistics of the squat box.

[red-beard]

They have the same toilets in Romania. But I've only seen them in the workers areas.

[imcarthur]

Originally Posted by LubeMaster77

All-in-all I would say that anyone who can go should. It is an incredible place.

Agreed. It looks & sounds like you had a great trip.

Originally Posted by LubeMaster77

There are no birds. Weird. I wondered if they eat them all.

Hmmm. I don't remember any either. Hmmm.

Ian

[nostatic]

Shanghai rocks. And yes, tons of beautiful women everywhere. And the food...

[YTNUKLR]

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

What's with the haze in those shots?

Ah...the sweet sound of machines hummin'......

[Joeaksa]

Nice thread. Just found out that I am heading to China in a month...

[BGCarrera32]

Originally Posted by vash

i still cant figure how you dont drop a turd into your pulled down pants.. for the most part, i think a squat toilet is cleaner. you dont actually touch a thing.

Yeah I think I'd need some sort of a trapeeze bar or something to hang on like an ape so when I was dropping one off I wouldn't fall over backwards and land in it..