So during near the end of the trip I took some notes of things that struck my attention. I’ve finally gotten around to going over them (very lightly) and added a couple at the end. I wish I had gone over the list earlier, I’d bet I had have more things to add, but here it is.
- Shanghai is denser than anything you see in Manhattan, the first ring of burbs around Hangzhou comes close, and brand new luxury burbs just a little less.
- They don’t ever just make a residential tower out here….they make several at a time.
- Suburb seems to mean four units stacked on each other instead of a seven story apartment complexes.
- Hangzhou suburbs, while dense, are definitely trying their best to be utterly boring like those in the good old USA.
- But damn there’s a lot of cars and they drive like utter madmen!
- Walking (and driving) around Shanghai and Hangzhou is an almost contact sport.
- Food is fresher out here…bound to be when they’ve got live chickens and ducks in your supermarkets
- But their supermarets don’t have don’t have aloe vera lotion tissue papers. That makes it close to a barbarian society to me.
- Other than that you can basically buy anything you want out here…and most things will be a little cheaper than the states but not nearly as much as you’d think since all the stuff in the states had to get shipped across the pacific ocean.
- The US really needs to get its act together and start making $1 and $2 coins.
- I wonder how obviously american I am to these folks.
- Not knowing what the hell anyone is saying is both not nearly as bad and much worse than it may seem when you think about it.
- I really dislike a lot of the fashion choices made by the women out here.
- That said, Chinese TV is full of ads for skin lotions…which is a step up from being full of ads for beer and cars.
- Guys don’t like to cut their hair too short and very few people have facial hair.
- Chinese bed (woven strings) really is a great system. Not sure why others don’t emulate it. But I can still sleep on anything (pulled out sofa bed with a big cross bar running down the length of it.
- People are very energy conscious…they all unplug their small devices. Hell they even turn off the water heaters at night.
- A lot of people play cards out here. I think it must be more convenient than Mahjong or something.
- Weddings involve a lot of firecrackers.
- There are a lot of people standing around. And its awfully wierd to be saluted when driving out the complex.
- I’d love to hear how great US capitalism is compared to Chinese capitalism with a retirement age around 55 and reasonable health costs.
- That said, the air here is WAY worse than anything I’ve seen in the states
- I think grandma is taking this as a time to brainwash my girlfriend into making babies.
- It was quite an amusing lunch with Grandma and Jo-Ma watching them pressure her to make baby.
- Food sure is fresher and better.
- If in Hangzhou, definitely make a point to visit the Ling Yi Temple out here. It costs 45 RMB to get into the park…skip the extra 30 RMB to get into that temple proper and go visit the other two temples that come for free with the park entry.
- There are Chinese people selling things everywhere in this country, even at the top of a hill accessible only by trails.
- Chinese people are willing to buy things anywhere they are sold, even if they are silly little tchoskies on the top of a hill accessible only by trails.
- Custmomer service is an utterly non-existant concept around here…so its quite shocking the one time we received great customer service (buying prepacked ramen!)
- Yikes, at 58 RMB it seems that Starbucks will have been one of our most expensive “meals” out here…for a mango smoothie and a hot choc!
- There’s a cable stayed bridge in Shanghai on the way to the airport that is almost as awesome to drive across as the Golden Gate.
- The high speed rail on a viaduct elevated above the agricultural landscape is a wonder to behold, it must be as impressive as the Eisenhower interstate system was to visitors from war torn Europe. Three hours by bus, fortyfive minutes by train.