For those who don't follow me on Twitter, which has taken over my blogging over the last year and half or so (and not necessarily in a good way), I'm in Shanghai for a week of holiday visitng my Dad who's in town giving a talk. Figured there was no better excuse than that and combined with a relatively inexpensive flight, I went for it.
While the internet at the hotel is okay in the room, but only hard-wired, no wi-fi (WTF?) so iPhone blogging and photo uploading is buggy so I have to sneak down to lobby where there , the Great Firewall of China is alive and well. The violence in Western China has no doubt added to the extra restrictions on the internet so I don't know if Twitter and Facebook would normally be available or not, as Techmeme reported (yes, they're an aggregator but you know what I mean) reported that these two sites in particular had been targeted recently to help quell a potential uprising in the Urumqi province.
Here's the first post in a daily review each day of the trip.
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Day 1 (first written on my iPhone and then expanded upon when I posted)
1- Films on the plane, 3 of 4 dealt with food as the major component of the plot.
The first was about a German chef who befriends a married woman. This
movie shows what happens when you're a true artistic genius,
independent of your medium (paint, drawing, sculpture, food, etc.) so dedicated to your passion, that to temporarily escape the isolation mandated by that type of life, the discovery of muse that you adore almost as much can both elevate your happiness while also destroying you.
the 2nd and 3rd movies aren't worth mentiong but have you ever heard of a Tea Off? The was the basic plot of the 3rd movie.
Imagine two guys fighting over a women and rather than fighting each other or doing something even more ridiculous like playing a game of chicken a la American Graffiti, imagine if they decided to have a tea off, who could brew the fiercer tea would get the girl. That was the plot of one of the movies, pretty intense actually, even with the subtitles.
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2- Flight attendants had temperature gun that they pointed at the foreheads of a few of us, with the red, assaign-like red dot an everything.
3- synchronized exercise video on the plane as we were about 45min out of Shanghai. Complete with the flight atendants demonstrating the poses and excercises as the flight attendant in the video was doing it.
4- Haz-mat like teams in white labratory clean suits boarded the plane when landed in Shanghai checking every passengers temperature with the forehead laser scope gun. Took a few photos.
5- when the Swine Flu paperwork asks if you experienced any kind of sickness or health illness, don't be honest about even having a headache because they will flag you and take your temperature.
6-the Maglev train is warming up to 300kph and on the curves it probably reached a 30-45 degree angle.
7- Nobody queues like the British, which "Watching the English" thoroughly explains scientifically, so the Chinese lines at the subway were nonexistent and pushy. Also noticed as I walked in to the subway that people were crouched on their hams, which is something I noticed distinctly in India.
maglev_speed
Originally uploaded by cherbert.
8- timed the subway perfectly, guessing that it was probably five or six stops and it turned out to be less than five minute walk to hotel. Problem is that it's 80F and humid, not a good combo when carrying a duffel bag with a shoulder strap, which made my right shoulder completely sweat through my shirt. Decided I'd keep that duffel bag slung on shoulder when I checked in so that I didn't look too completely uncomposed.