A couple of weeks ago I went on a business trip to Beijing - to take advantage of the opportunity I brought Jen, and we extended our stay for several days after my meetings so we could see the city and all it has to offer. We left Shanghai out of Hongqiao Airport, which is about a 20 minute cab ride from our hotel...a much closer drive than Pudong Airport, which was where we arrived when we first entered China (about an hour away). It certainly didn't have the more modern feel of Pudong but Hongqiao was reasonably clean and easy [View Full Entry]

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Firstly I should apologize for not having updated this blog in a couple of weeks. As we all know when things get very busy in one part of your life (especially work), you start sacrificing time you would have otherwise spent engaging in personal activities - whether it's spending time with loved ones, exercise or....writing in blogs. The last four weeks were primarily spent working - both in "implementing" at the office and "planning" after work and on weekends. Being on a six month assignment, unsurprisingly, means your job is very project focused so you have a very clearly on what [View Full Entry]

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I've successfully completed week 1 in my new job, and weekend 3 in Shanghai. I even learned two new things, just on the walk to work! Lesson 1: if you choose to wear a wool business suit in Shanghai during the summer, make sure you bring a towel. Alternatively phrased, don't wear a wool business suit in Shanghai during the summer. The temperature might feel fine when you first walk out the door but the humidity really wears you down and you get very sweaty, very quickly. Lesson 2: Umbrellas are a mandatory accessory, regardless of the weather. On Monday of [View Full Entry]

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Shanghai is a city that has quite a bit of history with Westerners. It was a major trading port, and in the early 1900s there was a sizeable population of them, including Brits, Americans, Germans, French and White Russians who fled the Bolsheviks during the Russian revolution. As you've seen in a few of my entries over the last week, you can really see evidence of the days of pre-Communist Shanghai with all the colonial, and even some deco, architecture around the city. One area where there was a large concentration of Westerners was the "French Concession", which is better known [View Full Entry]

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Saturday we went to the Jade Buddha Temple, which was built in the early 1900s according to the architectural style of the Song dynasty. It's a fully-functioning temple, complete with resident Buddhist monks who conduct services and otherwise go about their business with the tourists watching. We went at a good time - in the morning - when there weren't so many tourists and we were given the full attention of the staff. For those wondering, by "staff" I'm referring to the people who check your tickets when you enter, and avail themselves to tourists who have any questions. Before we [View Full Entry]

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Today was a bit more of a laid back day now that we're starting to get pretty comfortable with our surroundings. We needed to pick up some groceries at that store I told you about a few days ago so we decided to have a look at some of the stores on Nanjing Road West before we bought our food and went home. As we all know one of the big underlying stories of the Olympics is China's hope to show the world that it is a major global player in every way imaginable. If their medal performance is any valuable [View Full Entry]

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Despite the heat of Thursday we decided to venture a bit outside our immediate neighbourhood and check out the Yuyuan Gardens. The gardens were built about 500 years ago by an aristocrat from Sichuan Province. It was an amazing collection of traditional Chinese architecture, art, water-eroded rock sculptures (which seem to be very popular decorative pieces here) and peaceful pools of koi (who I swear go into a feeding frenzy as soon as they see a human approaching the water). It was an interesting contrast with the modernity of today's Shanghai, and you're constantly reminded of when and wh [View Full Entry]

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Now that we're starting to get used to the sweltering heat of Shanghai we went for our longest walk yet. Nanjing Road East is a pedestrian street that is one of the busiest of its kind in the world - it has thousands of shops, millions of people, and a whole lot of street hawkers shouting "Hey mister, hey lady, wanna buy a watch?". The road goes for a couple of kilometers and ends at the Bund, which is a large pedestrian walkway bordering the Huangpu River. So the walk down Nanjing was a bit of a gauntlet for us. We [View Full Entry]

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Tuesday was a day of getting to know our neighbourhood. Before leaving though we checked out the gym in our building....and decided we definitely need to join a local external gym. Check out the photos. So firstly we walked down to the People’s Square - also known as Renmin Square - which is just a couple of blocks south of our hotel. By now we’re starting to be able to walk slightly longer distances in the heat - keeping in mind that at any given time with the humidity the temperature is in the mid-40s. So we filled our water bottles [View Full Entry]

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Monday was a good day. Didn't start out that way but it definitely ended with stories to tell. First off, this was the morning where we were supposed to have our "medical exam". Everyone coming to China has to undergo one, as they are extremely cautious about anybody entering the country with an infectious disease. Back when we filled out our visa application forms at the Chinese consulate in Toronto I remember having to fill out a questionnaire that asked whether I had or ever have had HIV, tuberculosis, STDs, mental illness (?), and so on. I don't think we have [View Full Entry]

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