Ni Hao to all of my friends or Hello! I found a Starbucks! For those of you who know me well, I LOVE Starbucks and this one is just as good as the one back home.
Today I traveled to our office in Shanghai and met with my counterpart Sunny as well as one of the other Finance Leaders Kenneth. It was a productive day in the office (I think because I was able to cross a lot off of my to-do list) as well as a wonderful start to my time here.
For lunch Sunny and Kenneth took me for Dim Sum. The food was wonderful. I think it helps that I am open to trying new food and I was ready today. We had shrimp dumplings, pork dumplings, as well as Lo mai gai (rice filled with chicken, Chinese mushrooms, Chinese sausage, scallions and shrimp.) Additionally we had some type of custard for desert. I loved the green tea. Not a ton of food just enough to fill you up without feeling too full.
This evening my colleague Sunny took me on a tour of the city. Some more interesting learnings include the differences in the districts of Shanghai, they are all very unique. I am staying in the PuDong district and today I visited the PuShi district. I have to say PuShi is beautiful. The architecture is older so the buildings have much more character. The PuDong side is beautiful as well in it’s own way as the architecture is much more modern.
So I had the joy of riding in a taxi this evening and held on for dear life! Then as we were site seeing the rain started up as did the wind and I will be lucky if I don’t get pneumonia. But the city in the evening is amazing which made it all worth it. We also went to Yu Garden and saw some amazing architecture as well as gardens (pics are on the site as well). We had a horrible dinner at a Gino’s bistro. The place Sunny had planned on taking me to was closed due to construction. For many of us that don’t know (I can admit I was one of them), Shanghai is hosting the Expo this year and it begins on May 1, 2010. The government has poured money into the city widening streets, beautifying buildings, etc. So many places are in the process of remodeling or reconstruction to get ready for the Expo. Therefore several of the restaurants she had planned to take me to in PuShi were closed. Therefore we at the worst Italian food I’ve ever had but then we headed out for a boat ride on the river and got to see Shanghai at night and it made it all worth it.
Other key learnings from Shanghai – In most parts of the city tipping your waiter, waitress and/or service person is not customary unlike in the States. Women in Shanghai are very fashionable more so than in the US. Riding bikes and/or mopeds are very popular watch out for the mopeds they will run you down if you’re in their way (I almost got hit twice). I know there is more but I am so tired I can’t remember.
Tomorrow is another full day including shopping!!! Yippee!
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