Coming to China!

As I exited customs I suddenly was greeted by a tsunami of mass humanity standing in rows waiting for people to exit. Some of them were just there to pick up people, but many were taxi touts hunting for the perfect jet lag weary prey to feast on. They tried hard to bait me into taking their offer by yelling such things as “sir, where you stay”, “sir you stay at Ramada, come with me” or “sir, taxi” or “good afternoon sir come with me sir, I get you good taxi/hotel”! Luckily I was a bit more as we say in Hawai’i “akamai” meaning wise, witty, etc. to fall for this little game! Mainly because I’d been the victim of these schemes myself, especially in India where half your energy is spent fending off these scammers!!

Eventually the tide of mass humanity receded into a few little ripples here and there giving me time to plan my next move, finding the Maglev Train and getting to my hotel. The Maglev Train is an engineering marvel built in 2004 that whisks people from the Pudong Shanghai Airport to the Pudong district near the center in a whopping six minutes and reaches speeds of 400+ kmh or 248 mph. With traffic jams constantly swamping Shanghai, this is one’s best option when needing to get from the airport, unless you enjoy wasting money by sitting in a traffic jam. I bought my ticket, got on board and within seconds we were off and before I knew it I was in the city. At such breakneck speeds you’d think you’d feel something or may feel out of control. Nothing could have been further from the truth!! It feels as if you’re gliding on air……..which you basically are since the train is magnetically levitated a few feet from the tracks! I guess America has a loooooong ways to catch up when it comes to rapid transit!!

Once I got off the train my plan was to go to take the metro (right next door to the Maglev train station) to my hotel. Unfortunately the metro did not accept credit cards (except for Union Pay, a Chinese credit card company), so I’d have to find an ATM. After looking for a good five minutes I couldn’t find a single ATM machine. Therefore it meant giving up and taking a taxi. I eventually found a driver who would take me to an ATM down the road and then my hotel. He asked me where I was from guessing Germany. I said USA to which he blurted out “OBAMA”! I said “yes, Obama” and he smiled with thumbs up saying “Obama good”. Although we go around the world burning bridges and pissing people off most still are pretty friendly when I say I’m from the states.

Getting to the hotel was generally without problems except for in the end when the price he asked was higher than what he quoted me. I argued some but he kept saying “but sir we had to hurry, hurry” making noises like they were going fast. I couldn’t understand how that had anything to do with it and usually would make a fuss, but after 12+ hours flying plus time in both airports, I just paid the money and walked away.

My hotel was simply awesome for the price I paid! A view of the financial district buildings and of the newly built Shanghai Financial Center which hold the title of second tallest building in the world. I arrived dead tired throwing down my luggage and laying down on the couch. I figured I’d take a quick cat nap and get up and explore a bit. One hour went by and my alarm rang and rang. I just ignored it. Another hour went by and I ignored it. Finally I think my alarm got to the point where it was tired of trying to get my attention and gave up. I eventually awakened about five some hours later at about 11 pm. Unfortunately my long slumber pretty much eliminated any dinner options forcing me to instead settle for a bagel and peanut butter I picked up in one of the airline lounges when I left Vancouver.

After my gourmet dinner of bagel and pb I sat down to surf the internet. Luckily I planned ahead and bought a VPN (virtual private network) feature that would enable my computer to jump the “Great Digital Wall of China” and connect to a computer outside China allowing me to visit such sights as Facebook, blogger and google. When I turned off this feature due to slow speeds I opened another browser and up popped an ad in Chinese featuring skimpily clad Chinese women. When I went to close it, it popped me into a Chinese game sight. Maybe it was the Chinese networks way of taking revenge on my computer for jumping the “Great Digital Wall of China”.

I eventually was able to get a little bit of sleep overnight after sleeping away the entire evening. To my disappointment though I have awakened this morning to heavy rain and very low clouds. Oh well, I’ll just have to make do with the cards I’ve been dealt.