Shanghai IV
Instead of going out last night I ate one of the bananas I had brought with me on my trip, and went to bed about 8 pm. Slept till around 6 am this morning, when my alarm actually woke me. This is a good sign: up till now, I'd been waking in the wee hours of the morning and not sleeping well.
Sweated my ass off in the gym downstairs. Didn't have the ganas to do my 3 x 15' erg work, so did 1 x 15' and then 30' on the bike. I left puddles of sweat (which I cleaned up).
Had a panel of folks in the real estate industry speak this morning. Learned many things. One is that, in Shanghai's construction boom, there was a lot of pressure to get things done fast. So things may not have been done well. I think the aesthetic of the city is cool: many of the new buildings look make the city look like what and early 20th Century comic book artist would have drawn for an early 21st century city. Cool colors, lines, designs. No giant mirrored boxes like the WTC or Sears tower.
A classmate asked me, "Do you think SF would allow a building like these to be built?". A great question, because it points out the stylistic contrast between the 20th C architecture in US cities (that came of economic age in the 20th C) and Shanghai. London looks 19th C. NYC looks 20th C. Shanghai will look 21st C. There are those who criticize it for trying to look hyper space age cool. I, being a sci-fi dork, like it. Shanghai, you look cool.
Housekeeping just came to turn down my bed. Let me tell you how cool it is. A little low, king size, and it has no top sheet. One giant white duvet for the comforter. So the comforter is in a sheet envelope. This is awesome. I want such an arrangement for my bed back home. Do you hear me, Bed, Bath & Beyond?
Went to an Armstrong (floors, ceiling tiles) plant today. GM is a 2002 grad of my program. Among the many points he raised which I thought were interesting was one on business strategy: One must think of business strategy differently when one’s competitor is not out to make money. Odd thought for us Western capitalists, but Chinese concerns are often run to assure job security or to create jobs. So they don't think "is this profitable" they think "will this help me make payroll". And the government has been known to bail out economically failing companies that employ many. So making jobs paramount is fine, because if you reach a critical employment mass, you get bail out protection from the government (Airlines in America).
His other point was about the Chinese notion of guanxi, or "relationships and good feeling", which is the currency of business partnership here. Sadly (in my opinion) cultivation of guanxi tends to require a lot of drinking. There's this liquor here baijao that is the favorite. It sounds like it's everything that’s evil about tequila with everything that’s evil about moonshine combined into a single drink. Classmates have tried it and have claimed that it instantly lowers your IQ by 40 points, and shuts off a random sample of half your brain cells.
I fear it. I'll taste it for sure.
Exotic things I’ve eaten on this trip:
Jellyfish (ho-hum)
Snails (yummy sauce)
Shrimp with the shell on (not quite soft shell crab, best with shell off)
Raw beef (Korean marinade – it was goooood)
Green Tea Ice cream (OMFG it’s good)
Raw clam (reminiscent of labia minora)
Some friends ordered in an "authentic Chinese restaurant" to which they were taken by an authentic Chinese classmate a dish called "mountain rock chicken". They thought this would be better than plain chicken, perhaps free range. But the "mountain rock chicken" is not in the avian biological class. Not a bird, but an amphibian. It was frog.
Tonight I'll go out.
Sweated my ass off in the gym downstairs. Didn't have the ganas to do my 3 x 15' erg work, so did 1 x 15' and then 30' on the bike. I left puddles of sweat (which I cleaned up).
Had a panel of folks in the real estate industry speak this morning. Learned many things. One is that, in Shanghai's construction boom, there was a lot of pressure to get things done fast. So things may not have been done well. I think the aesthetic of the city is cool: many of the new buildings look make the city look like what and early 20th Century comic book artist would have drawn for an early 21st century city. Cool colors, lines, designs. No giant mirrored boxes like the WTC or Sears tower.
A classmate asked me, "Do you think SF would allow a building like these to be built?". A great question, because it points out the stylistic contrast between the 20th C architecture in US cities (that came of economic age in the 20th C) and Shanghai. London looks 19th C. NYC looks 20th C. Shanghai will look 21st C. There are those who criticize it for trying to look hyper space age cool. I, being a sci-fi dork, like it. Shanghai, you look cool.
Housekeeping just came to turn down my bed. Let me tell you how cool it is. A little low, king size, and it has no top sheet. One giant white duvet for the comforter. So the comforter is in a sheet envelope. This is awesome. I want such an arrangement for my bed back home. Do you hear me, Bed, Bath & Beyond?
Went to an Armstrong (floors, ceiling tiles) plant today. GM is a 2002 grad of my program. Among the many points he raised which I thought were interesting was one on business strategy: One must think of business strategy differently when one’s competitor is not out to make money. Odd thought for us Western capitalists, but Chinese concerns are often run to assure job security or to create jobs. So they don't think "is this profitable" they think "will this help me make payroll". And the government has been known to bail out economically failing companies that employ many. So making jobs paramount is fine, because if you reach a critical employment mass, you get bail out protection from the government (Airlines in America).
His other point was about the Chinese notion of guanxi, or "relationships and good feeling", which is the currency of business partnership here. Sadly (in my opinion) cultivation of guanxi tends to require a lot of drinking. There's this liquor here baijao that is the favorite. It sounds like it's everything that’s evil about tequila with everything that’s evil about moonshine combined into a single drink. Classmates have tried it and have claimed that it instantly lowers your IQ by 40 points, and shuts off a random sample of half your brain cells.
I fear it. I'll taste it for sure.
Exotic things I’ve eaten on this trip:
Jellyfish (ho-hum)
Snails (yummy sauce)
Shrimp with the shell on (not quite soft shell crab, best with shell off)
Raw beef (Korean marinade – it was goooood)
Green Tea Ice cream (OMFG it’s good)
Raw clam (reminiscent of labia minora)
Some friends ordered in an "authentic Chinese restaurant" to which they were taken by an authentic Chinese classmate a dish called "mountain rock chicken". They thought this would be better than plain chicken, perhaps free range. But the "mountain rock chicken" is not in the avian biological class. Not a bird, but an amphibian. It was frog.
Tonight I'll go out.
posted by Kenneth at 7:52 PM
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