Kyle Nicholson

So I headed off to Beijing for the weekend and I liked Beijing much better than Shanghai. There was actually some history and culture in the city and was not totally westernized like Shanghai. It was though pretty darn cold, and windy. Had to hit the fake market to buy an extra jacket. I negotiated with the vendor in spanish, it was more fun, and my mandarin is awful.

On the way I decided to take the world’s fastest train to the airport. It is maglev, but i was disappointed when it only went 301km per hour instead of the 430 km/h that is advertised. They wouldn’t give me a refund.

So we have Mr. Mao here hanging out. I got a sweet chairman Mao watch with him shaking his hand. It was the most anti-mao thing to do.

Looking out from Tiananmen square.

All kids have their parents buy them flags kites and other cool stuff.

My new ride, and of course the guy ripped me off by $5.

The next few are from the Harvest Temple, which I liked much more than some of the other places.

Fishing in the Moat outside the Forbidden city

Probably a cardboard cut out of the greatest table tennis player everrrrr.

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Took a trip over to Old Shanghai and the YuYuan Gardens, where the buildings use the traditional architecture. I suspect though that most of them are less than 50 years old.

The nicest sounding toilet ever?

Shingle Work on the buildings.

Street with shops

They start learning to arc weld young here.

Another view towards Pudong

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You want watch, dvd, T-Shirt? Sure. So I got my first fake watch. There are different quality fakes. The first rolex I picked up broke in my hand. Today I decided to find a higher quality fake. I paid $10, probably about $8 too much and expect it to die sometime in the next two days. We will keep track of this. Oh and of course I got a fake DVD for .50 cents. The quality is less than what you can download on the internet but it is still convenient.

China Kids are way cooler. Take the teenagers on the street that play with fireworks. Now sure I played with bottle rockets and fire crackers. But these kids play with 4 and 5 inch mortars that are used at professional shows in the middle of one of the main streets. Some they shoot in the air others they throw over a wall into an empty lot. Some they accidentally drop after lighting and everybody goes running. They do it for hours, and not a cop or anybody cares. Well maybe the fake dvd guy because his stockpile of fake dvd’s almost went up in flames, but besides that nobody cares. I stood safely 50 ft away behind a car. Only had to duck two or three times. They are probably going to burn down one of the skyscrapers nearby one day, but who cares. Free entertainment.

I am doing an expiriment this week with tailors. Getting a suit and 3 shirts made from one of the best tailors not on savile row. WW Chan. Italion cut three button very dark charcoal almost black. Plus I have another moderatly priced guy making a shirt, and than the guy at the fabric market for cheap. I’ll probably get a cashmere jacket made at the cheap place too.

The subway is nice and clean….

Playing cards in the park…

School….

World’s 2nd tallest building…

Driving range in the middle of downtown…

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Thursday began the first classes here at CEIBS. The first couple of weeks I am taking a Cross-Cultural Management, and an International Business Strategy. Both classes are pretty interesting and the good-news they seem they will require very little time outside of class.

The Cross-Cultural class is taught by the “English Dude” not to be confused with the “OLD English dude” who teaches the International Business Strategy course. The CC is very interatctive and involves a ton of role play. Definitly helps you to pay attention when it isn’t just lecture. The student body in these clasess is actually dominated by North America but many of them have ethnic orgins from around the world. The class is made up of 3 Canadians, 6 Chinese, 2 Germans, Icelandish, Indian, 4 Italians, Mexican, Japanese, 2 Polish, Singapore, 3 spain, 8 Americans. About 1/2 are exchange students at the school and most have lived and worked around the world at some point.

I did try the local cantene food, and some of the stuff isn’t too bad, rice, meats and bread like stuff, and for $1 it works. The other local places I have eaten is the MegaBite underneath the Hypermarket. They have 100’s of plates layed out for you to look at so I can point and they cook it. The duck isn’t bad, except they cut the duck acorss the bones, and you have to spit 50 bones out while you eat. The food there is about $2.50 but the serving size is not american serving size.

Speaking of food, the potato chip flavors are very intersting. Ketchup, Pork, Beef, Calamari. I tried the lime and they were good, but when I went back to buy more I accidently bought Cucumber. Uhhh Not good.

Saturday I decided to go visit the fake market in the Subway Station. You can buy any name brand Prada, Gucci, North face. You haggle the say you crazy, you say they crazy. Intersting stuff, didn’t buy anything, but will probably get some ties and sunglasses before I leave. I looked into buying a fake rolex, but the watch broke in my hand in about 15 seconds. Apparently there are good fakes and bad, I have not found the good fake watches yet.

Next stop was the Fabric Market. Three floors of cloth and tailors some better than others. I am having a shirt made for $13 and if it turns out well I’ll get some more. My next visit I hope to get a chashmere jacket made but I want to check out one of the other market’s first.

From there it was a walk downtown and a few pictures at night…

GoodYear Blimp sooming around at night..

Nanjing Rd, at night…

Stop at the subway dairy queen for a drink before heading home..

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Headed downtown today. A quick taxi ride from the subway station and I found my self on Nanjing Road. The first thing you notice as you get downtown closer to the river is how polluted the air is. It seemed to be significantly worst on the Puxi side.

A clear sunny day I think looking into Pudong…

This has to be one of the busiest rivers in the world ships every 150ft or so.

Totally Sweet houseboat….

The *fearless* leader himself

I wanted to get from the Puxi to the Pudong side of the river and there was a tourist tunnel listed on the map. My fear was though that some how the thing was going to leak river water on me, and I was going to instantly melt.

To my surprise it was the coolest thing of the day. You board this little train car and go through the most tripped out tunnel I have seen. The time lapse photography rocks..

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