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Random Chinese thoughts, or Cheech's temp blog


Cheech

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Installing voice over IP phones for our international sites, and upgrading/refreshing their network infrastructure. When we're done it will be possible to call our sites here from the US using a 5 digit extension for free, or to call someplace in the US from China and only be charged for a local or long distance call, since it will come out of the phone lines in Columbus instead of China.

thanks congrats sounds like a fun time

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You ever seen a fat chinaman? From china I mean, not the americanized ones who have been to McDonalds.

Yes. There was an enormous 20-something girl at the restaurant off Nanjing Road last night. I had to do a double take, right after I walked past 3 American hipsters. Craziness.

jbot, I'm nowhere near the Great Wall. From what I can gather, the government will screw you up something good if you mess with it and get caught.

So, due to the continued Customs shenanigans with our gear that has brought everything to a halt, we've declared this a tourist day. Last night we were dropped off on Nanjing Road, which was renovated about 1999. This place is almost exactly like Times Square; ridiculous lights, wall-to-wall shopping, and American restaurants. The only American restaurant that bares ANY similarity to back home is McDonalds. There are only 3 chicken dishes on KFC's menu, and the Pizza Hut's are the most opulent places I've ever seen for a Pizza Hut. :) We went to one our first day here, you can order shrimp, steak, and lobster. Not on pizza mind you, but dishes by themselves.

I think we'll be heading to the Bund this morning, probably hit most of the touristy places today then head back to the copy shop tonight for some more shopping.

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Wow, so many developments...

The short version is I'm staying at least until Dec. 21st. I have an absolute assload of pictures to upload from downtown Shanghai, tons of night shots of the shopping streets, and a few shots today of the Oriental Pearl tower, both up and down. Unfortunately, my gallery at binaryshower.com is blocked by the Chinese firewall, and the internet at the hotel isn't free so I'll have to wait until I'm back at the plant to upload them.

Walking around the Pudong side of Shanghai (the Huangpu river bisects the city, Punxi (I think) on the left, Pudong on the right) going to the Shanghai Museum on Thursday, we ran into 4 girls who immediately started speaking to us in fairly decent English. They started talking about all kinds of stuff, asking us where we were from, trying to practice their English, on and on. After all that was over, they asked us if we wanted to follow them to a tea house for the "International Tea Ceremony held every 3 years to celebrate the harvest". We politely declined, but apparently tourists get sucked into going and get smacked with a 700-800 RMB (USD$102-117) bill for a few cups of tea. We got about 200m down the road when we were approached again by 2 girls, same conversation, almost the same exact story.

If you are looking for a similar shopping experience, go to Chinatown in NYC. You get assaulted EVERYWHERE by people who's only English words are Rolex, Omega, pen, laser (green lasers are big here), and the mother of them all, iPhone. Being Westerners, we're obviously easy to spot (and one of the guys I'm with is about 6'4", he's even easier to spot). Looking at the watches you can see pretty blatant spelling mistakes, the better knockoffs are in the copy shops.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Here are the rest of the pics that made it. I took a ton from the top of the Shanghai World Financial Center at night on the only clear goddamn day I could find only to lose my camera in transit.

Enjoy!

http://www.binaryshower.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=3

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Cheech, will you do me a favor when you come back? Completely optional and the last thing you have to think about...

Will you bring me home a new lucky kitty thing? I know these are big in Japan but I think they are really popular in China too, I want a buddy for this guy. I know I can buy them online but I love it when people bring them (rather than buying from some random person).... and I'll be happy to buy it off you.

n39112443_33903943_7994.jpg

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Cheech, will you do me a favor when you come back? Completely optional and the last thing you have to think about...

Will you bring me home a new lucky kitty thing? I know these are big in Japan but I think they are really popular in China too, I want a buddy for this guy. I know I can buy them online but I love it when people bring them (rather than buying from some random person).... and I'll be happy to buy it off you.

n39112443_33903943_7994.jpg

I saw something similar to that all over the place in the Yu Market. Sorry man!

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