Three Days Left

Well, there's only three days left in China, and I knew it would go by quickly, but we're about ready to head home. The primary reason for being here is work, and that's really all we've had time for the past few days. It's really cool to be able to walk to work each morning, and the streets of Shanghai are hustling and bustling at all times. Walking to and from work always coincides with a running of the street vendor gauntlet. Watches, bags, DVDs, jewelry, etc. Eric and I seem to have "Please ask me" written on our foreheads everywhere we go. It's become a bit of a sport for us to see how quickly we can dismiss them. Sometimes they walk with us for almost a block.

Friday is here though, and now we go into the extra days fortuned upon us by a lack of business class seats from Shanghai to America this weekend. We've been invited by our good friend Lee Jian for golf tomorrow at the Oriental Paris Golf Country Club, just outside the city. He's acquired some clubs from friends that we can use, and after, he's honored us by inviting us to his home for dinner. I am really looking forward to it.

These pictures show some of the good freinds we've met here in China. They've shown us only the best hospitality. The first one is taken on top of the Wuhan Brewery. From left to right, Lee Jian, who has essentially been our shepherd on this trip, Eric Michaelis, Candor Wang, Zhao "Gump" Gang, Qiao Shengjie, and Jie "Jarod" Li, who was the kind soul who took his day off to show us all around Wuhan last Sunday.

The second photo, taken in front of the brewery, is Zhi Gang's staff, left to right: Zhi Gang, myself, Ding "Kate" Nian, Eric, Zeng Hong, my good man Gump, and Jarod Li. You'll notice that some of the people have taken names that are easy to pronounce for English speakers. That is by their choice, and many young people coming out of school have done that. It really is nice because it helps a blundering fool like me to remember names easier.

On Sunday we will likely do some last minute shopping, because we really haven't done any of that yet, and then we'll be homeward bound.

BTW, here is a link to the exact location in Shanghai that we are currently lodged, in the Jin Jiang Hotel. The strip of green in the very middle of the image is the courtyard in front of the hotel. It's interesting to pan out from there to see that I am clearly on the other side of planet Earth.

This last picture is a view from the office they let us use for the past week in Shanghai. You can actually see the Ritz Carleton off in the distance, behind the Exposition Hall. If you look at the first picture I posted, my view from the room in the Ritz, maybe you can figure out where I took this picture from. The Jin Jiang is well out of frame on the right.